Does anyone have a high mileage turbo or supercharged vehicle, and what is the normal engine life for these cars. When and If an FI system comes out for the 8, I may consider it if the engine life is not affected too much. Is it the extra heat the culprit for engine life or just the driving habits of the average Joe that gets a turbo or supercharged vehicle. I love my 8 and would be happy to keep it NA, but if more power is available without sacrificing the longevity or smoothness of the engine, count me in.

 

I don't have any experience with FI cars but I know that the last RX-7 had engine reliability issues because of the excessive heat of the twin-turbo system, not the engine itself. That said, I'm planning to add some form of FI to my future RX-8 and I'll just make sure it's well designed taking good measures for the extra heat.

 

I know it is not a rotary but I had a buick Regal GS and it had 145000 miles when I traded it in. No problems. Did not eat any oil, still got 32 mpg on the highway. Still ran very strong.

 

First off, it still freaks me out when people shorthand forced induction to "FI". NO ONE in the RX-7 community uses that - must be from some other community . To us, FI is Fuel Injection!

Regardless, if you start exponentially increasing power output of an engine, the probability of an early failure rises. A well-setup turbo rotary will have a long and productive life - I've known guys with VERY modified 3rd gens going well over 100,000 miles on the ORIGINAL motor, and this is with many track events (full on 30 minute track sessions). By the same token, I've seen motors last a few WEEKS.

Rotaries don't like detonation at ALL. Couple of good pings, you can break an apex seal, and you're looking at a rebuild. Good fuel and timing tuning goes a long way to insure a good life, though.

You're probably not going to see many super wild turbo setups with the already VERY high compression ratio of the Renesis. I would moreso expect to see intercooled low-boost setups that offer a moderate increase in horsepower.

There's also a lot of unknowns at this point - how strong the new rotors are, how strong the new trannies are, how robust the new EFI system is for modifying, etc.

There are gonna be guys that throw on a turbo kit, bump up the boost without care, and go through the motor in about a week. There's gonna be others that put on a turbo kit, dial it in perfectly, and have years of trouble-free motoring.

It's all just speculation at this point, really.

Dale

 

Forced induction wont make your rotary any less smooth, however with a decent sized turbo power is going to come on a lot stronger around 2500-4000RPM, it wont be nearly as linear as it currently is. The problem with turbochargers and boost is more PSI means more heat, the hotter the air going into the engine, the more likeliness of detonation occuring. By using a decent sized turbo and running boost of around 5psi through an intercooler you should be able to increase power output with minimal effect on engine life, you will need to change the oil more often since the turbos are cooled and lubricated by the engine oil. Power outputs of possible 25% or more are easily possible. Supercharging, similar thing. You will just have to wait and see what products and kits come out, and how they affect performance. Just dont expect it to be cheap, your talking $3000-4000 for a turbo kit no including computer modifications etc.

 

The owner of Rotary Performance in Dallas already has NOS on his RX-8. But, that car will never see the Dealer again so he can afford that luxury :D

I guess we'll find out how well the renesis takes to aftermarket tuning really fast.

 

Turbos are bad because people are bad to them.
Here in AZ I cool down my 95 RX7 for a mile or 2 or 3 before shutting it off. I also almost never "drop the hammer" when the ambient temp pushes the 100 degree mark. I have worked on turbocharged airplanes for over 20 years and the key to longevity is almost always the operator!!! Learn to work what you got. And you guys better not be taking off all over town without reading the owners manual...cover to cover!! Dag nabit! I mean it. What you don't know will kill you, or worse yet really **** off your mechanic.

 

I had a 1988 Mazda 323 turbo. Only 2000 were made. I changed the oil every 2000 miles for the first 100,000 miles. After that every 3000. Castrol GTX is what I use. I drove the hell out of it when I wanted to( most of the time). I sold it at 179,000 miles. It burned no oil and ran as good as when I bought it. I always made sure I cooled it down last 10 min of running. I drove it on the 94 route from Wisconsin to Chicago.