I was leaving light with car engaged in boost on Monday evening when - **** - I felt the power die and the check engine light started blinking and I knew - blown engine.
I had the car towed to Wayne Mazda to check and they told me front rotor - 0 compression, rear rotor - 50%. When I asked them to quote me a new engine, they told me they would have to remove turbo and replace components with original parts. Their quote was $9400 - yes $9400 and no turbo.
I called Jose at Mothers in Lodi - He is picking up my car today and told me he would rework engine with 3mm seals, reduce the compression by 1 point and retune - with a 1 year warranty for approx. $4000 within approx. 1 week.
Wish me luck.

 

$9400, that's outrageous.

Lower the compression, I thought there wasn't enough metal there to do that?

Good Luck...but what do you think was the culprit?

 

how many miles with the turbo?

good luck! It's better then $9400

 

did you ever think to run less than 10-12 psi with a greddy turbo that wasnt meant to run that much boost? Efficient turbo anyone?

 

This is a rediculous statement. Have you even looked at the compressor maps? Besides, you have no information about what the actual boost ratio or flow rate was when this took place.

Its all in the tune....

 

how is he planning on lowering the compression?

 

You have some quality hardware runing and mointoring your engine, did you have the car dyno tuned? how lean were you running under boost?

 

Sorry to hear that. That seems like a pretty good price for that rebuild. I'd also like to know what tune you were running? Was there anything unusual about that day that could have led to that disaster?

 

Interesting. I'd like to hear more details on how everything was setup as I se it was using an Interceptor.

I personally wouldn't let anyone touch my engine if they claimed they could lower the compression ratio. That's not possible on a Renesis right now.

 

Looks like you had tuned it yourself?

https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...70#post1288870

 

the suspence is killing me! must.....have....more.....info......

 

ok, so inform me why greddy decided to put a small turbo in our plug n play kit, and we decide that its a good idea to double the boost on it?

inquiring minds and all

 

I dont want to start anything, but the estimated compression maps that I have seen would suggest that 10 psi are just about perfect for this turbo on this car.

Small is a rather non-specific term.

EDIT: I should say that my turbo came from a guy that blew his motor on stockish boost (fuel system failure). I think blow_apex_seal also blew his on stock boost (poor tuning due to bad interaction with R-flash). Stock boost is not the magic answer. Proper tuning is, up to the limits of efficency.

 

I was running about 9 lbs of boost and the A/F was between 11.2-11.5 when in boost. I had the R flash which initially f-up the greddy kit. I went to KD Rotary in Pa, but with the E manage, he was limited in what he could do. I installed the interceptor about 2 months ago and made some minor tweaks with Scott's (Mazsport) help. I did lean out the fuel from where it was when I received it. I never had it tuned at a "reputable" shop before it blew.
I had my turbo since March of 05 and was running about 6-7 lbs of boost before the interceptor, but after the R flash the car ran like **** until I installed the interceptor.
After talking to many rotary rebuilders since Monday, I am not sure how the compression will be lowered as well. My was towed today to Mother's in Lodi - I had very few options because I wanted to keep the turbo on. His price of bout $4k for the rebuild and tune was reasonable and he has a good reputation from some people I have spoken to. He will also give me a 1 year warranty on the work.
I was most afraid of my wife's reaction to this whole episode since she did not want me to get the turbo in the first place. He comment was that I was 55 and time to grow up. Hell-I don't want to grow up. I want to go fast !!!!
I will keep everyone posted as to the situation as it progresses.

 

When was the R flash released? I had my last flash update done in December.

 

"Hell-I don't want to grow up. I want to go fast !!!!"

I liked that

 

August/September of 2005 I believe.

 

Perhaps running R flash with the emanage weakened something, but it didn't fail until later on...unlikely, but possible

 

^I'd say its highly likely. A cracked seal can hang around for a long, long time before finally blowing. You'd have hard starts as one indicator. But even with a cracked seal, the car can run fine after its started.

From what I've seen of the interaction of the R flash with the ignition PCM signals, its pretty likely that there were some detonations prior to installing the IntX. If so, the seal could have been cracked long ago and finally gave up the ghost.

 

it's also possible you got some shitty gas latley.. i know even NA that I can tell when a POS station has put 87 in their 93 tank, accidently or not.

 

MadDog - You may be on to something because I ran the turbo for quite a while before the interceptor was installed. When running the car stumbled badly due to the very rich condition and I may have pushed it to hard at that time. I also had hard starts for quite a while and finally was able to convince my dealership to do the upgrade (starter, battery and spark plugs) are the plugs that are part of that upgrade to hot to run with the turbo?

 

The only reason they (GReddy) didn't up the boost is that they couldn't figure out how to do the engine management. Holding it to 5psi or so only requires the addition of fuel, no ignition adjustments needed. They still did a hack job, but it was relatively safe until the R flash f*cked things up by interacting with the ignition signals.

This same turbo is run up to 20+psi on other cars. It a'int the turbo.

 

In my opinion, the stock plugs are too hot at that boost level. Go down one heat range.

 

You know we are beating our heads against the wall on this one, Tim.

Everyone has just taken it as gospel from somewhere that the turbo is too small. Perhaps because the package is compact, they assume it cant flow enough. I don't see how to deal with these comments any more effciently.
No one can or will read a flow map. They just can't be bothered with facts.

The thing about the Renesis is that none of the apex seals pass over an opening, especially during a combustion cycle. On the REW, the apex seals would go over the exhaust port right at the tail end of combustion, allowing them to exit the motor if they were tossed. On the MSP, a broken apex seal could go around for a long time until it finally degraded enough to go out the port.
The biggest risk (as has been discussed ad nauseum) is the side seal interface with the intake port, which is not met with compression.

I know that I have pinged my motor during all the experimenting phases. Such a thing would have meant nearly automatic death to an REW. I am certain that some of the less adept or mechanically sympathetic individuals on this forum have experienced even greater detonation than I have and probably never even realized it.

It may be only a matter of time before the reaper comes for all of our MSPs.

 

I think to settle this ongoing dispute someone just needs to log some intake air temps before and after the turbo. I would love to see that chart!