Nice man, I always loved 3rd gens. My friends always rag on me about it now, they just don't see why I like them :lol:


https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...395eabd81c.jpg

I fuckin looooooove that car! I think he is from Quebec, I remember following some of his build like 7-8 years ago, impressive work was done on that car!

Im with 'ya on the thirdgen love, not really sure what it is about them, but I have such a soft spot for them. Havent got a hair cut in like 6 months, so I'm almost in mullet territory in which case I'd be set for my thirdgen again hahaha

This was the last time I had my Camaro completed and running, Think I was 17 when I built it to this spec, first engine I ever built, was a 6.0L LQ4 with Texas Speed CNC LS6 heads, FAST 78mm intake, TSP Magic Stick 3 Cam, LT headers and some other goodies on it. The idle was to die for!

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Managed to pick up a parts car for $750CAD! The guy I bought it off told me it has low compression, 232,000km(144k miles) on it, but I am convinced it needs plugs, coils and a bit of a cleanup. I hear a small exhaust leak, the plug bodys are rusty, and the coils look like they have never been off. I cant imagine the motor has never been touched, It has always been said to me that rotaries struggle to reach 100k miles?

The car runs perfect to 4500rpm then seems to have a slight miss, will rev up to 9k but doesnt feel like it makes any more power beyond 4500rpm. The only thing is it starts exactly the same when its cold as when its hot. Low compression is normally hard hot starts? I know nothing about rotary motors, which is the only reason I LS swapped mine, I have absolutely nothing against them.

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But then after 3000km onto my car, it hands like shit from all the front end weight, its too loud, too fast, and too amazing. So I decided to put the 13B from my parts car into mine :icon_bs:

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Going to finish repairing front end damage on mine over the weekend, get the vinyl on it and attempt the coilover install.

The front lower shock mount bolts are seized solid on mine, so thats going to be a battle. In anticipation of damage to the front lower shock mount, I bought Whiteline poly shock mount bushings, so hopefully the install all goes smooth enough.

About 2 weeks of daily driving the car, and so far, so good! Hasnt let me down, and nothing like waking my entire subdivision up at 5am when I leave for work! :boink:

Transferred some panels between my parts car and my car over the weekend, attempted to start the vinyl wrap, but it appears I have no problem handling an intensive engine swap, but if I need to apply a giant sticker... I am fucked.

Going to take it over to see a buddy today to see how much he will rape me for to apply the vinyl on it.

Installed my "for now" coilovers into the car to get it lower, managed to get the seized lower bolts out with lots of penetrating fluid and swearing. Next is the rears, but the sway bar links are making me nervous that those will be a battle. Need to adjust the height down by about a 3/4" but otherwise I am impressed by the feel of these for being cheap coilovers

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Taste the rainbow.

This thing is the ultimate sleeper right now lol

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The car is still making rounds to show all of my friends who have wanted to see it

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Tucked the parts car away at the cottage, starting to fill the garages up there with my projects lol

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so man what year tie rods did you end up buying from. I seen the website there sold on, just not sure which ones to use i'm using the mustang rack on mine as well.. Car looks awesome and definitely a sleeper

Bit of an update on the car!

Have logged 4906km onto the car as of the moment I am typing this, and have been daily driving it over 150km every day since I got it running.

So far, so good! A couple issues with relays getting wet and kicking out, but quick fix and it was back on the road, only battling Ontario's E-test right now.

This car is a real treat to drive, the torque is a ton of fun on the street, it's a little loud, but it hasnt got old yet, the ride quality is excellent, the street manners are excellent, fuel economy has been between 7.3-8.9L/100km (26-32mpg) depending on whether I was trying to hypermile it. That is measured off distance between fill and fuel added after, not electronics telling me. Have been through some torrential down pours, and insanely humid days and its been very content.

Humid days it gets a little warm sitting in stop and go toronto traffic, but nothing to be overly concerned. The Texas Diamond clutch is definitely giving me a solid left leg work out lol.

I went for a rip in a friend of mine's 05 RX8, his is setup for Time attack racing, with alot of interior removed, coilovers, wide wheels and sticky tires, and I will admit, the difference in the weight placement up front is definitely noticeable. Despite some differences in the suspension setup, there is absolutely no possible way to argue that the engine swap doesnt make a fairly substantial impact on the handling of the car. Does it ruin it? Definitely not. But with all of the arguments I've seen posted here claiming it doesnt impact it, either you havent driven a stock one, or you simply have no idea what your talking about.

At this point, the only thing I can say is I am almost getting bored of it lol, which makes me feel sorry for renesis owners ;) JK! , I guess it just doesn't scare me any more. But it needs alot of things addressed on it before I start cranking power up.

Next week it will Finannnnnnnnnnnnnnlly go in for its vinyl wrap so its less painful to look at, but admittingly the sleeper look has been fun. I bought a kit to learn how to produce my own carbon fiber parts, so some goodies are in store for it there! One of those will be the cold air system I have planned out, very excited for that!

Anyways, enough babbling, heres a few pics of it :Peace:

Coilovers got the ride height to something I am almost happy with, its just a slut to get a jack under it now lol

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I rolled the dice with a ebay strut bar fitting across the top and won!! Its tight but doesnt rub!

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Keeping up with some of the beer posts, this sh!t is fucking fantastic! Finally found it at the LCBO by my house too! between craft beer and this car, I am the poorest 24 year old around

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Long tubes + H pipe + Dynomax race bullets in a true dual fashion have the boys in blue all wound up on the regular. (Was getting nervous he was warming up the rear seats for me when I snapped this pic)

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Figuring this is going to go really good, or really bad. Hopefully some updates next week

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Sorry this pic is sideways, had a few of these days with it during my relay issues. Such is the life of building a car that requires you to change 99% of it.

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But eventually, back in the drivers seat, life is :D::D::D::D::D::D::D::D::D:



Thanks to everyone who has been following along as I have built this car!

Everyone who knows me personally knows I have a bad problem with car ADD and rarely own a car longer then 6 months, but I honestly think I am falling in love with this car. I can feel it being something I can grow on over the next couple years and I think I may just hold onto it for a bit to keep trying new things. Next is getting more serious with chassis/suspension/brakes then maybe next year if I can get creative on how to get a nice big usable powerband without fucking the balance up even further, I will give that a go. For now, its definitely nothing to sneeze at, and I couldnt be happier with the outcome so far! I'd say im maybe 60-70% complete to where I want it to be!

Bump steer ends are from QA1, I had to ream out the end of my knuckle a bit where the tie rods meet it but nothing too drastic.

Had my rack start developing some play in it, was going to try looking through it but decided to just buy a new rack as I have no idea how many miles are on the used unit I have. That will go in tomorrow!

ya i knew they were from qa1 just needed to know what year they were off of so i could buy mine

I think these were for a 04 mustang

Started playing with the carbon fiber stuff yesterday!

Definitely looking forward to the next piece I try as I have already learned alot with errors in this one, but its still coming out alright!

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Got the base coat onto it, cloth onto it and first coat of epoxy onto the part, im letting it full harden now so I can sand it and reapply another coat of epoxy!

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Should be a pretty badass looking strut tower brace after!

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Nice build I've seen a couple pics on ls powered. I just ordered my diamond clutch as well, I got the stage 3 on the way. Which one did you get?

Thanks man!

I believe this is the stage 2, it came as a used unit with the transmission I bought. So far, so good! I was a little weirded out that there is no dowel pins to align the pressure plate but called TDP and they assured me that is OK

I will install a ACT clutch in it over next winter as I have been extremely pleased with every clutch of theirs i have used.

Great work! My engine just went and I'd love to swap mine.

Nice look man, keep the renny cover on it :)

Are you using a regular paint brush to apply epoxy over the carbon weave? I've got a few parts I've been repairing with carbon weave and epoxy resin but I find the brush is pushing the weave apart in some spots.

Maybe the brush I'm using is too aggressive. I've seen others using sponge brushes, just wondering if paint brushes were the general consensus.

Holy fuck, I managed to get this account back!

I guess I'll throw some updates on here, try to go from where I left off.

Finished my carbon strut tower brace, pretty happy with how it turned out! Been planning to replicate these things, we will see.

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Hanging out in the forest with my buddy working on his 1UZ swapped 240SX

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Was having an overfueling issue which was all related to the tune, not so easy doing plugs on these once you foul them

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After the first bit of driving, it was apparent my cooling system was not working correctly for me. I kept having it overheating on me in traffic, and i couldnt get temps to fall.

Basically figured it was the rad's filler neck was not high enough to keep air pockets from forming on the head. I bought a Spal fan to make sure I wouldnt have any fan problems in the future, and relocated my rad, switching it to a surge tank style system. That solved everything, I've yet to see anything above 209f on the track, or when its 108f out side in stop dead traffic.

Stripped the car apart again to relocated the rad

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While I was there, I started work on getting the car track ready. That included Hawk HP+ Pads front and rear, stainless braided lines, RBF600 brake fluid, Hankook Ventus R-S3 tires, Momo fixed back seat and some big brake ductings in the front to try to keep temps down

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Had the car out to a few shows, despite it being fugly with all its different colors, definitely creates crowds

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Buddy of mine snapped a great shot of the engine bay

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Have put about 10,000miles onto it so far, adventured up to Ottawa from toronto a shit load of times, the car runs like a top! Beautiful!

The "Seriously, another picture of it?" look

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Adventured to a few brewery's for some delicious India Pale Ale's

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Working on ducting to keep the front brakes cool. Isnt really enough, probably mostly due to the fact that I have no idea what Im doing on the track. Glazed the pads right over

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Mmmm pretty tires

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Loaded up behind my Duramax to head to the track! My loves playing nice together

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Getting an alignment before the first track adventure

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Ready to go break stuff

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And a few hanging out shots

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Jammed it full of camping gear and took it camping! Nothing like scraping my way all the way to the back 40

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Think that pretty much brings us up to date. Repaired the rad support over the weekend from where it was cut to fit the rad in its old position.

Tomorrow I am dropping panels off at my painted to have everything paint matched. Very excited to finally have it be less painful to look at!

Heres some roof top footage from my second time ever being on a track.

This is at Toronto Motorsports Park in Cayuga, Ontario

So how did your laptimes compare to other cars? Nice to see one of these running and being used man.

Hard to compare right now, as I have only ever been out on the track twice (This last friday that passed was my second time, which is the time the video is from)

I managed a best of 1:28 there on friday night, I know a rotary powered RX8 has done 1:19 around that track, and a buddy of mine who is very familiar with that track and can do 1:19-1:20 in his rotary powered RX8, drove my car and says with a little suspension setup tuning, he figures its capable of 1:17-1:19 on the shitty coils, figures 1:16 is probably the best ill get without removing a bunch of weight.

So, essentially, this is the most expensive way on earth to knock a second or two off your laptime lolololololol. Thankfully I love this car, cause a C5 Z06 would have cost less then what I spent on the engine swap alone haha, and would be faster in time attack.


I have to sort out my brake issues, Im not sure if its just my lack of experience and overusing my brakes, but I've managed to glaze my pads over on both lapping nights. Maybe the extra weight on the front end (52/48 balance now) is eating the brakes. I have a fair bit of air flowing into them to keep a lid on temps, but it doesnt seem to be enough.

What pads are you using?

The RX-8 is 52/48 from the factory, isn't it?

I have been using Hawk HP+ pads, was reccomended to me based on cost/performance in the sense that these brakes may not be enough and will require I do a big brake kit, and might end up in the garbage sooner then later haha.

Im not sure on factory weight distribution, recalculating my numbers, realizing its worse then that, im 54/46 distribution after the swap.

I doubt the weight distribution has that much to do with it. I know RX-8 owners with stock engines that run a more aggressive pad than HP+ at the track. I'd try that before plunking down for a BBK.

HP+ is not a good pad for the track.

DTC-60 will be much better but the dust is a little bit corrosive (clean it off right away and switch back to a set of street pads/rotors) and they don't have street manners or work particularly well when they are cold.

Why do you say it isnt a good track pad? I was told they would be a very good option as far as cost/performance ratio is concerned, I have literately 2 lapping nights under my belt, so I am definitely very new to the track driving.

I have done a bit more digging and I think part of my issue is incorrect bedding procedure. I dropped my other set of OEM mazda rotors off to be turned this morning, hopefully with those, and re bedding the pads properly I can eliminate my issues.

Trying to get another 5 or so lapping days in this season (3 of them are this weekend lol) and then over the winter, I will be going back to the drawing board with alot of this car to make it a more capable track machine. Maybe will sell this one and start again with another, but if I cant get what I want for it, then I'll just continue with this one.

I have picked up a full set of Brembo CTS-V Calipers, and am going to look into making up a bigger brake system for it, as I machined out brackets to mount these calipers onto my 89 Camaro and it worked flawlessly.

Turning rotors is counter productive. It can refresh the rotor surface for re-bedding, but it also removes mass from the rotors, and rotor mass is actually rather important to braking performance, as it is directly related to the heat capacity of your brakes. If you ever track your car, you shouldn't ever bother turning rotors, just get new replacements from the auto parts store.

Personally, I don't like any of the Hawk pads for track usage. The feel is all wrong to me. The lower end pads are also poor performers.