As some of you know, I bought my current RX8 already turbo'ed with a broken apex seal. I have had the engine rebuilt and I am currently in the break in phase. Since it is currently running the eMangle and this likely being the source of the last engine's demise, I am faced with getting the car retuned on a better EMS setup. However, my recent has led me to believe that the Renesis, even on low boost with a great tune, has a lifespan of 30-40k miles with boost. This is a tad shocking for someone with prior turbo rotary experience and seems like a money pit idea (even compared to the typical turbo rotary moneypit I am accustomed to ). So now I am seriously considering just removing the turbo hardware, putting a stock manifold back on it, and calling it a day. That should reward me with a car that is decently reliable and will last signficantly longer. Is the extra power of the turbo Renesis really worth the hastle?

 

Good question .
Firstly , I think the 30-40k figure is not necessarily correct. It depends a lot on how much boost and how you drive . I would expect a stock Greddy setup running stock boost would last much longer if properly tuned .
As to whether it is "worth it " ............ that depends entirely on you .
Do you mind driving a car that looks great , handles great but lacks power ? Would you get more enjoyment out of the car if it had more ? Did you buy the car to enjoy or just to look good in ?

 

A fi'd renesis should last quite a bit longer than 30-40k with a low boost greddy setup and a good tune/flash, considering all other factory components are in good working order. Most fi'd owners fall short of this requirement in some way. Dont experiment with boost changes and it should be a very fun car to drive.

 

I bought it because it was a good idea and a boosted 8 seemed like fun. I loved my T2 swapped FB and figured a low-boost Greddy would be equally fun. Now, I am starting to think I will have to re-engineer quite a few things to make it reliable. I am just not sure I want to get into all that and I don't want something I am always worrying will break.

My 30-40k figures are in large part based on comments of people like 9kRPM who has put a lot more time/money in his setup than I ever want to

 

You could think of it this way. Don't run around all day under boost and it's a NA car. But every now and than you hit the pedal and gooooooo my rx8 is my summer dd, so I don't put as many miles on as a year round dd. I have been boosted for the last year now and I wouldn't go back, even if I have to rebuild/replace the engine every few years. Will give me something to do during the winter months when I can't drive it anyway.

 

from my experience, I have been boosting since 2008, since greddy, now I have upgraded turbo, top mount..i have been through a lot..
1) if you wanna stain in, make sure you change everything that support the mod, and read a lot..the oil, the fuel pump, injectors, and other thigns that will fail which makes the car run lean or lack of oil..things like that, you just have to keep your self updated, and you have to pay attention on little things, the habit that you will have with your car. little thing that change, can get worse..it has a lot of attentions all the times..that's with the turbo 8

2) if I have a chance to go back, I would stay stock, and make my car lighter and handle better..so I can rev it as high as I want and abuse it...but at the same time, do the good maintenance..then I would go to buy a car that can go faster easily..335i, or something that has been boosted from the factory, which is started from 300 hps and above from the factory, '

that's just my advice from my experience..but if you decide to keep it, make sure you always update yourself with everything..getting experiences from other people mistakes is the best..

good luck
steven

 

Thanks for the input Steven. My DD is a Cobalt SS/TC, which is an easy 300hp with a little up of the boost.

 

My 2c... I enjoyed my RX-8 a lot more NA. Mostly because I was not constantly worrying about pings, boost creep, meth injection failures, heat soak, etc. I could thrash on the car and have fun.

If I were to buy an RX-8 again I would do a mid-pipe, exhaust, AP tune, springs, and rims. The car would be fun to scoot around in and have no compromises with reliability.

That being said, I've had more fun with my Evo than any car I've ever owned and can't see myself ever selling it.

 

I would turbo the 8 again if I did it all over. Too much fun! Every car you make faster can break, its just how it goes. Install a good turbo setup and reduce the weight of the car and you have a beast. Sweet handling and nothing looks like it. And its cheap to fix. Breake a bmw and see how much it cost to fix it. Compare the cost of performance parts. ie, the cobb ap. more for other cars, same part though.


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I went from Turbo Renesis back to a built N.A. setup....... lasted less than a summer before I went to a REW swap .

This car is a monster at 500HP....it will keep up to a lot of cars 4x the price....

Just have to keep finding a new thing to break

 

Stop tempting me with new ways to spend my money

 

btw the way, this is the second option, before you go to turbo, make sure swapping is your first choice before getting any turbo..i would go to this route if I could go back..lol..

 

Someday I will see your car. Beginning to think it is a unicorn or some other mythical beast!

Hmm I never seem to need to find something broken. It finds me