ked263

Hello my dear Rx-8-ers, hows everything going .
as the title says, My brother give me his Rx-8, with broken motor, and no transmission .
and no info on the car what so ever.
He bought the car 3 years a go from a local guy who bought it from a third guy etc.....

the main problem here, that my dear brother, drove the car with no coolent , and killed the motor, took it to a garage, could not do anything , AND lost the Transmission , long story short, I have no idea about this car. I own a Mustang and an eclipse, but never had a mazda ....

i took a quick look around , and found that it's it's SERIES I, Thanks to What SERIES RX-8 Do I Own? thread.

i tried to locate the VIN of the car, can't seem to find it , yet I found a black plate in the engine bay next the passenger side but can't find the vin .. I found this...
SE3P-121623 , but I dont think this is what I need, as for the VIN area, it's clean, with no numbers what so ever...

here is a photo for the car .



so, I would really be glad if someone could help me identify this car's year and , also where can I get a good engine , OR other options since the engine is already dead , so I am open for options .

Thank you so much .

ken-x8

The VIN is on the dashboard, driver's side, visible through the windshield. Same as any other car. It would also be on the car's registration and title. If it's not there, you'd have to figure the car is stolen.

If the VIN is in place and the title is OK, try salvage yards for a used engine and transmission. Mazmart, a forum vendor, is a Mazda-oriented salvage yard and knows RX-8s. Or try local yards to get whatever salvage value that car has.

Ken

04Green

iTrader: (1)

++ ^^

Getting a used engine and trans is the best way to start. Um, if trans is missing, power plant frame is likely missing, as well as drive shaft. Or, they are just sitting in there not attached. That means that pushing or rolling it around will make the drive shaft flail around. Not good if manual trans, shaft if carbon fiber, will break.

where are you?

Carbon8

iTrader: (4)

MS kit looks authentic, OP could part out the car for a good bit of money around here

VIN is also etched into the firewall under the AC compressor lines just an FYI.

Side note, how do you loose a transmission? In all honestly looking for an engine,trans,PPF,drive shaft etc... in order to get the car up and running you are looking realistically at 5K minimum.

Need to decide if its worth it to you, and who knows what else the car will need.

ShinkaEvo

iTrader: (3)

Unless OP knows what exactly is missing form the car, forget the junk yard...
Just tow to a local rotary shop and have them work on it, and prepare for a big bill.
Cuz' you are looking at least motor rebuild + another transmission.
Good Luck.

RotoryVirgin

After running with no coolant, I'd guess a rebuild won't do it. New engine, new transmission + labor etc etc.

Part it out, and if you want to get into a rotary, buy a different 8.

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

Hmm, some inconsistencies. OP has 4 prior posts from 2 years ago, discussing his RX-8 and a problem with it. https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-tro...0/#post4154440

Doesn't fit the "I own a Mustang and an eclipse, but never had a mazda ...."

All 3 IPs are from Quatar, so at least that's consistent. The location might give him some issues with availability of engines/transmissions, not to mention issues with a partout.

Karack

you could probably find a cast iron LS2 block at the wreckers for about $500 with wiring and transmission.

ked263

Thank you all for your post,
as for the weird logic, I can explain ....

as I said, ( I never own an RX8)
The old post was when my (BROTHER) had the first overheating problem .
which lead to the car be sitting around in the garage for long time , and after he give it up, and feel he is never going to fix it, asked me to take it (in addition of the mustang and the eclipse I also own a 1998 fiat turbo , a project racing car)

and as you guys said, it's been tooo long since my last post, that I actually forget about it .
so yea....
I am not trying to scam/span anything like that.
it's just he -my brother- asked me for help back then , I contacted you , and now he give me the car, so it's basicly mine , and I started a new topic .

Thats all.

thank you so much .

As for the VIN , I will try again to located and post photos about where I looked,
Thanks again.

as for my location . QATAR,
for more info

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qatar
and there is NO way for me to get an engine locally, there is only 5-8 rx8s in Qatar, and the mazda company never brought any of them .

keen0arene

since you are in Qatar, you may have a problem just getting simple parts. If you have significant money, there may be a Mazda dealership in the country, or one nearby. www.mazda-qatar.com

Importing parts can be extra costly, if you wish to do servicing the car yourself, and you will need a fork lift service to bring the engine to you.

I live a mile from a mazda dealership and my costs are most likely less than yours, and mine are very prohibitive.

the dealership doesnt seem to sell the rx8.... maybe they can direct you to another shop. I'm sure at worst there's one in Bahrain or UAE.

ken-x8

With only a handful of other 8s in Qatar, and no parts network, fixing that car is not likely to make economic sense. Hobby project is something else. An engine swap might be more fun than trying to restore it as a rotory. Or you might be a savior to one of the other RX-8 owners who needs parts. Are you in touch with any of them? They might be able to give you an idea of how they handle parts and maintenance.

In my first reply I was thinking of how it works in the US, where the VIN has to be visible and there's formal paperwork with each car. There might be some stickers inside the door jambs indicating build date. Knowing the model year might not be enough to tell you what you have. There were a few engine/transmission combinations for Series 1.

Ken

Karack

granted looking back now i take back the comment about the V8 block at a wrecker, you could probably find a 3 cylinder yugo sitting in someone yard waiting to transplant its heart into something else.

but keeping it rotary in your location... forget it unless you have a thick wallet.

ked263

Thanks all,
as for other Rx8 owners in qatar, I met one of them he will try to help me figure it out.
as for engine swap , it's not a big deal finding an engine , in fact A friend offered me his 2jz engine I also found Ls1 for good price.

but the local rules here prevent me from putting any engine with (higher) cylinders than the stock one ...

and they allowed me to put any 4 cylinders engine ... I tried to tell them it's a rotary engine, but they never understand the concept.
as for yugo .... I don't think it's possible to find it

nycgps

iTrader: (1)

Ur car is a jdm model, i can find some info about it when im home

Karack

that sucks that you'd be limited to a 4 banger.

honestly though the car seems primed for an engine swap due to your location and the condition of the car's engine bay, most of the time i kid when saying that(well i was about the yugo swap) but in this case i wasn't about putting in another type of engine.

with an RX8 you always have to worry about the possibility of engine replacement, in your situation it sounds more reasonable to get away from that. you could always work with a FE/RWD 4 cylinder and turbocharge it.

ken-x8

I think there are threads on this site of successful engine swaps. And unsuccessful ones...what ever happened to the guy who was trying to put a Volvo engine into his? It's worth browsing here to see what's been tried. Or maybe folks here who have followed swap threads can point out specific ones?

Ken

ked263

PLEASE !!!, that would be great, I am desperate man

believe me I know you were kidding about the yugo , but I went with the flow LOL
as for other engines, I am still looking , but cant seems to find any good ones to be fit,

I think its time for me to take another look around the forum . Thanks guys

JamesD31

Sooooo... about parting out the MS kit?

Karack

most of the failures come when it is time to wire in everything to work with the rest of the car.

the RX8 is very integral to the engine since the ECU controls most everything on the cluster/warning lights and many aspects of how the car drives as a whole. hacking the ECU to still function is not necessarily an easy task, it is also why most every engine management system for the car is a piggyback off the stock ECU(or i should say the ECU is now a piggyback off the standalone ECU, with some exceptions like the e-manage).

ked263

well, small update, a friend of mine find me an sr20, twin turbo engine, in UAE, about 400-500 miles away from me . not a big deal.

anyway, the engine come with the tranny and ecu and all the power lines etc...

and good price as well.

I have done some reading about this, I found alot who already done this swap...

but I wanted to know if any one HERE got this thing to work that I can ask him/her. for directions.

JamesD31

If they have a working car, ask them. There are some builds here, look in the respective sections. Though, many in the US don't do swaps because of the huge cost factor of the swap.

Karack

check the frankenstein section, i'm sure it has been done.

but be sure you can actually do the swap legally in your area first. the last thing you want to do is start wasting time and effort on a car you can never drive due to red tape.

ked263

my friend , I went around the block of frankenstein , but could not find any(full setup) look like they all stopped in the middle ?

today i found an engine with good milage, and good condition , said the seller.
but it's A MANUAL 6PORT engine

I took my engine out , find out it's a 4 PORT and sure you know it's AUTOMATIC

(regarding only the engine ): can i use that engine to get it fit to my auto tranny with no problem ?

as IF I want to switch my car to MT, how bad should that be ?
Thanks

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-spe...4/#post2563386 For many of the basics, obviously the clutch parts section probably won't apply.

You will need the ECU for the 6-port, but since the ECU is tied into everything else in the car, you will need he rest of the modules as well. One of them is the immobilizer, and changing that will mean re-coding keys at a minimum.