Hey everyone I just picked up my first RX8/rotary

2004 black base
136k miles, great compression, runs great.

picked her up for $1300 from some kid..

needed a windshield, and some cosmetics, took her home, got her a windshield and she's an amazing car.
Service records show new engine was put in at 80k miles.

 

Welcome to the forum.

How do you know it has great compression, do you have numbers?

Any pics?

Read through the links in my SIG, the New and Potential owners thread is a must for all owners.

Travis

 

Yeah, the guy met me at a mazda dealership, when I get off work and at home i'll post the numbers.

It's a 6 speed as well.
I included a pic of needed body work

 

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on your first rotary! Sounds like a great start for some personalization. Good luck with all the future upgrades and keep us posted!

 

Welcome to the club. There is a ton of info here. Just use the search function for questions before asking a question that may have been asked 100 times before.

 

Yes sir, thank you guys!

 

 

Grats, I would say $1300 is good even if you had bad compression. Did you have a test done yourself or was it on a recent service record? 56k on a motor can be a lot depending on a ton of different factors. But personally for $1300 I would have bought it with a hamster under the hood if I had the cash.

 

He had given me service papers from the dealer.

I do believe i'm going to take it in to the dealer and have it compression tested again..
I had to do coils, wires, and plugs, and it still takes a total of 3 seconds to hot start, i'm getting a little concerned.


It starts 3 seconds everytime though

 

Like i said, read through the new and potential owners thread. It'll help ease your mind.

Compression test.

Make sure CAT is good.

I personally ALWAYS suggest updating to the newest starter available which is the N3R3 and can be found on Amazon for about $190ish.

Post a vid of the car starting as well if you can, lets get wild in here.

Travis

 

Have to charge my phone a little, but I think i'm just a dumbass
Went out and started it (still hot), it starts within the first crank, I just have a habbit of holding the key until it starts up all the way, but if I let it crank the one time, it starts right up that second..

I'm going to take it to the dealer regardless, but i'm just being paranoid..

I'm going to gut the cat in the morning..

i'll buy that N3R3 starter asap.


got videos
Me holding key

not holding key

 

Verify you dont have the N3R3 before you buy it.

It'll be on the tag on the body of the starter. It'll have one of these tags.
N3H1
N3H1A
N3Z1
N3R3

Edit: By the sound of that crank i dont think you do. Possibly the N3Z1, guess we'll see.

Post your compression scores with RPM whenever you can.

Travis

 

Will do, I posted the videos on my previous post, let me know what you think
I'm at my girlfriend's when I go home tomorrow I'll post them as well.


Like I said, I think she's fine... she runs so well, I believe I'm being paranoid.

 

Well found the problem, she'll have to go down for a rebuild..

One of the water jackets must be toast..
there's a tiny stream of bubbles in the tank around 4krpm

 

Pull the dip stick and check the color of the oil.

 

No coolant in oil, or vice versa

 

That is good at least.

 

What would it mean if there were coolant in the oil? there's also no white smoke or anything..

 

It means there is a serious problem with the housing if there is coolant in the oil.

 

Gotcha, thank you for the info!
It dioesn't overheat at all, so I guess that's a plus.

 

there is no coolant coming out of the rotors when cranked.

From the recommendation of a local rotary shop, I pulled the plugs out and cranked the engine over (well my girlfriend did), after getting all of the gas out.

There was no coolant coming out of the plug holes, the rotary shop said that was great news..

 

This is why I hate shops. 99% of them are occupied by idiots.

 

i don't know if jeff @ maztech is exactly an idiot.. he's our #1 mazda guy in the tampa area..

 

Well that isn't saying much, it's Tampa. Diagnosing a coolant seal leak by telling the guy to crank it and look for coolant coming out of the holes is retarded. You use a coolant system pressure tester.

 

Yeah, I have to take in to him on Monday to diagnose it with a pressure test, he told me it was just a quick thing to check but wasn't definitive at all, that he had to pressure test it, going to have it compression tested as well.