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Hi there, I bought my 8 back at the end of February 2023. I got it for 6k from a fellow in Denver, with 180k miles. Not sure if the engine is original, or rebuilt, or not. It's needed an embarrassing amount of work. Some things were undiscovered until I had owned it for a while. The circumstances in which I had purchased it weren't great, and the previous owner wasn't either, but no regrets.
I've been a lurker on this forum for almost a year since I've wanted to buy one. My first experience with it was as a child, where I had driven one in game NFS Most Wanted" from 2005. I got it from beating a boss, and it was love at first drive. The RX-7 and RX-8 interested me for a long time.
The one I own now is a 2004. I've installed a SOHN adapter, as well as premixed for the entirety of my ownership. It had all the hallmarks of a decent engine. Did fine on hot and cold starts. Idled great. Revved happily through the entire rev range. But it had many a flaw. The original owner did away with all the engine bay plastic trims, the stock airbox, the battery tray. It's pretty bare. There was no air filter on the cheap intake. I have the AEM intake because I just needed an air filter. An LS coilpack kit is installed. The radio was hooked up wrong, so there was no climate control or radio. The CEL, traction control light, coolant level light, brake light were all on. The speedometer was off by about 12 mph. The backup lights didn't work. The shift **** was stuck on the post with duct tape. One door panel was in the trunk. The outside door handles were broken off and gone. The left rear strut was bad, and then I broke the same side axle and the wheel bearing was also completely destroyed. Lamborghini door hinges are welded to the body. And the whole thing is rattle can spray painted a candy red.
I've fixed the backup lights, got new door panels and door handles. I redid the entire radio and climate control harness. Replaced the intake and mass airflow sensor. Replaced the leading and trailing sparkplugs. SOHN adapter with Lucas Oil 2 stroke oil. An all-aluminum radiator. A catback exhaust. New stock rear struts. New left rear axle and wheel bearing. New front wheel bearings as the plugs got ripped off the sensors. Brand new tires as the rear tires were bald down to the cord.
My trouble started when the coolant overflow would drip onto the powersteering connectors and the rack stopped working. I figured that out and rerouted the coolant but couldn't figure out why it kept overflowing. The temp gauge seemed fine and it would start just fine on hot starts. Then on a warm day, it overheated while sitting still in a drive through. It was running for a little over a minute while overheated, and then I shut it off and let it sit for a while. Then it started fine. But I think that short time was enough. The next couple of days, every morning before work, the first start saw some white smoke out my exhaust. I was certain one or both coolant seals were deteriorating. The last straw was when I was merging onto a highway, and when I hit near 8k rpm, it suddenly sputtered and the largest amount of white smoke plumed out behind me. I managed to procure a loaner truck from a relative, and parked my 8. It turned out the previous owner wired up some aftermarket radiator fans, and he did it very wrong, so they never kicked on. When I found that, I immediately went to a u-pull junkyard over an hour away, and bought the stock radiator fans and every other part I might have needed. I fixed as much of the wiring as I found, and the fans work now, but I still needed a rebuild.
I started my rebuild by watching and reading as much info as I could find. I first ordered coolant O-rings, pulled apart my rotary, and got to cleaning. Unfortunately, I accidentally cracked a corner seal, so I ordered all new ones and replaced them all to be safe. Then as an extra measure, I got all 6 apex seals as well. I kept all the side seals, which looked fine, and notated which rotor and where they belonged. Ended up also buying a lightweight counterbalanced flywheel and new friction disc, as the old one was worn and i had the engine out anyway. I hand polished the heavily caked rotor faces of all the carbon buildup, as well as the exhaust ports. I went through the whole rebuild, using all my new parts and double and triple checking all my organizations and installations. The compression while rotating the engine by hand wasn't great, but I wasn't concerned, since I was rotating it by hand and not with the starter. Installed the rebuilt engine after 2 months of waiting and working, and it wouldn't start. Watching and read more info. Tried some troubleshooting tips. Compression sounded fine when using the started. Checked for flooding. There was a small amount of fuel on the sparkplugs. It started on starter fluid, so I had some compression and spark. Removed the intake, turns out I hooked up the injectors very wrong. Did tons of searching, then hooked them back up correctly. Still won't start. It runs when fuel is sprayed into the intake via my dad with a spray bottle of mixed gas. It tried to start on its own three or four times. And then my starter died.
That brings me to today, where I am waiting on a new series 2 third revision starter, planning to try pullstarting it. Looking maybe for answers, definitely for advice, and hoping to make friends along the way.
Welcome.. that's quite a story. Usually if the rebuild itself is good, installation mistakes can keep it from starting - miswired injectors and miswired coils/spark plugs. Both are very easy to mix up, the primary injectors wires are beige and yellow, hard to tell apart in a grease engine bay. I would go over all of that and sensor connections and fuses. Simple things first.
When you crank, does the tachometer move or stay at 0?
As for the rebuild, I'm not sure how to tell you this, but unlike a piston engine you can't just replace the seals and call it good. The big parts wear as well and need to be in spec, otherwise you get this, or a short lived engine. Especially if they've been overheated, they're usually trash. Seals that "look fine" may not be and side seals are a bigger seal length and bigger compression loss risk thatn apex seals. It is what it is, see if you can get it to fire up, but you may want to plan your moves from here assuming that engine is unreliable.
By the way, big smoke cloud at high rpm is either cat failure or oil forced into the intake by blowby. So check your cat and clean the entire intake tract up to the filter. Don't hesitate to ask questions here
I'm planning on going back over the injector wiring again, as I definitely could've gotten that wrong. I was also wondering if I might have a clogged injector, as there was definitely a lot of debris that I did my best to clean off. I am scared that I have no compression, but what is encouraging me is that it was running before I did the rebuild, and it runs when fuel is manually sprayed in. I tested the fuel pump with a hose I attached to the fuel line. It gave me almost half a gallon in a couple of seconds. That's the fuel I tested with that caused it to fire up for a couple of moments.
When I crank, the tach moves. I have an OBD2 reader plugged into it, and it gives me an average of 220-250-ish RPM. There's other info as well, but I'm not sure how relevant it is, or if it's useful info. Things like fuel trims for "cylinders" 1 and 2.
I would hate to have bad irons, that would make me very sad, but as you say, it is what it is. Could it be taking a while for things to mate up, or am I off base there?
I would guess that the smoke could have been caused oil blowby, as I don't believe my car has a cat. I had the midpipe off the car when I swapped another part I forgot to mention. The owner gave me a long tube header as well. I have both 02 sensors plugged in, and I appear to be receiving data from those as well. When I had the midpipe out, it didn't appear to have a core, and I was told I routinely had small flames coming from my exhaust. And when I had the intake off, I saw a fair amount of oil in it, enough to be noticeable. I thought the smoke was caused by coolant burning because it was whiter than the normal blue-ish tinged smoke I was used to having, in small amounts, and it only happened after the car sat all night, never after a hot start, and when I pushed it that last time, it sputtered a lot, but my assumption could be wrong. What reinforced my thinking was how bad the coolant seals looked when I disassembled the engine.
If I decided to try new injectors after checking the plugs, is there any benefit to going with higher flow injectors, or should I just get new stock ones? I have the tools to reflash the computer if there would be any performance gain there at all that could be extracted, but I do understand that the factory tune is fairly close to as good as this engine gets.
Thanks for the info, I'll look into my wiring again. I don't know how realistic getting a rotary compression tester is for me, as I live over an hour away from any large city, and that's a significant investment for me. I think I'll leave that as a problem for future me, maybe after I get a raise, unless I can rent one through an online service or something.
Smoke after sitting is usually coolant, you're right about that. Smoke at high rpm in ome big puff is oil in the intake, usually.
Keep stock injectors, the car can't consume more fuel without forced induction, and your computer won't know how to use different size injectors, there's no point in upgrading.
At this point any compression is a good start. I wouldn't measure it with a rotary testee until it has run for a bit. A regular one can do to eliminate obvious absence of compression.
Careful not to flood it while you're figuring out the fuel situation. Sounds like you're on the right track
Smoke after sitting is usually coolant, you're right about that. Smoke at high rpm in ome big puff is oil in the intake, usually.
Keep stock injectors, the car can't consume more fuel without forced induction, and your computer won't know how to use different size injectors, there's no point in upgrading.
At this point any compression is a good start. I wouldn't measure it with a rotary testee until it has run for a bit. A regular one can do to eliminate obvious absence of compression.
Careful not to flood it while you're figuring out the fuel situation. Sounds like you're on the right track
So amazing news for this update. My new starter arrived, I double checked all my wiring, installed the starter, and it fired up and ran immediately. After helping it for a little while, it idles on its own and I've cautiously revved it up to 3500 rpm after letting it get comfortable.
I've begun the process to just put things back together, but i have a new problem lol. My clutch pedal is on the floor. I've dinked with a couple things after doing some research, to no avail. I know it must've happened because I replaced my clutch release bearing, and had pulled out the fork to do that. I don't know if the brake booster has to build up more pressure? I've noticed a couple of drops of fluid on the bracket tube(?) but the clutch bracket itself seems fine. Should I crack the bleeder to the clutch?
Good to hear. For the clutch, simple things first, make sure it's bled. You might have to remove the trans again and go over your work, but make sure the slave cylinder moves before you start down that road.
Great news. I fixed my clutch issue. The plunger in the clutch master cylinder managed to turn sideways, perhaps because of suction, or someone pulling the clutch pedal out too far, unseating the rod. After replacement, I bled it like some kind of idiot for hours, and finally, I was able to get pedal feel and check the fork by peeking underneath the car while a helper stepped on it. My backwater lightweight flywheel and new clutch components are working flawlessly, I got the car on the ground this last Wednesday, and have put almost 200 miles on it already. For the first 150 miles or so, I haven't surpassed 5k RPM, mostly staying below 4k. After getting near 200 miles, I've decided to try to sweep it through most of the rev range. It revs perfectly fine and happy, until about 8k, where it still sputters a bit, so I think I am getting blow-by and will consider installing a catch-can, as that seems to be the go-to. I just swapped the high-performance coolant I had in it for the green anti-freeze, as we just had our first almost freezing temps last night.
In other news on the car, I got pulled over by a friend in the sheriff's office and a stater within 24 hours, and the first two days I've driven it. The first time was for my passenger side low beam being out. I need to find a schematic and maybe a picture of what the wiring harness looks like right there because the original owner decided spray painting the wires red then black, and then cutting them all and half-assing the reassembly with wire nuts was obviously the correct course of action there. So my speed sensor, horn, and low beam lights on the passenger side don't work. And the side marker lights don't exist. The second time I got pulled over on my way home from work, it was because I don't have a front license plate mount, and my windshield is really cracked. I got the reverse lights working after repairing those cut wires, but the rear license plate light was also cut off, and the aftermarket rear bumper doesn't have any of the license plate amenities. So I am looking for a lot of new body panels and parts. The battery is in the trunk and the cable routing is quite nice if I do say so myself. The interior panels line up properly now, but I do need a new shift boot and ****. But things are coming along, and I am very happy.
09-09-2023, 11:43 PM
