Hey RX8 Club!

This build/repair thread is long overdue. I've owned my winning blue RX8 for 10 years, daily drove it for 8. Recently moved to a house where I have access to a garage (car was street parked most of its life). All this COVID stuff has given me some extra time, so I've been working my way through the many items on my 8 that need to be addressed. This is my first build/repair project so I have lots to learn, hence the build name: Project Guinea Pig. Appreciate everyone's help along the way!

Things I'm planning:

Clean/Refinish Headlights
Install Appearance Package front lip
Oil Pan Removal (has a small leak, just picked up the pineapple racing gasket)
Oil Cooler Line Replacement (rusted out from many years of PA winters, especially drivers side)
Front Brake Caliper Replacement (rears replaced two years ago, front all rusted from PA winters)
Rust Repair (have some rust repair to do under the doors on the sills, again PA winters)
Compression Test (tested good at 55K engine miles, 3-4 years ago. Engine now has 77K miles on it, car has 142K miles on the body)

 

Looking forward to the build information and pics!

 

w00tw00t

 

Pulled the front bumper and finished getting the headlights re-finished. Happy with the results, I'll get the front lip on tomorrow or Friday.



Before:



After:

 

Got the appearance package front lip installed. Looks good, I'll give it overnight for the double sided tape to cure then get the bumper back on. Replaced the fog lights while I was at it, one of them has been out for some time. Oddly enough I also noticed with the bumper off that the car is missing the VFAD. I guess it never had it, just noticing now 10 years later. Never had to pull the bumper off myself before.






Also noticed this indent in the A/C condenser, I guess I ran over something at some point. Looks suspiciously like the size of a golf ball....

 

Chris,

Make sure to use a thin layer of Ultra Grey gasket maker on the PR gasket.

Also, if you search there is a company that makes and oil pan stud kid for our car. I have it, seems like it'll help line everything up and make it a super smooth install. It's the little things.

Good luck, can't wait to read it all.

Travis

 

Thanks for the feedback Williard. I was in contact with PR and they suggested the same. Although I think I have bigger fish to fry right now. Spent the day working on the car and found a couple of troubling items (some of which I expected, some of which I didn't). The day started well with getting the front bumper back on.



The front rotary symbol needs some love, so Ill get that cleaned up and put back on another day.



Today's major concern is the amount of rust I found on the passenger side under the door...




I have to say I didnt expect it to be this bad. Once I got the plastic strip off that runs the length of the car it was significantly worse that I thought. I need peoples feedback on whether this is a structural issue or not. It doesn't seem like it is to me. The pinch welds are strong and the rust seems to have just eaten the outer skin. I poked and pulled away all the really bad areas, everything around the hole pictured is semi-solid to solid.

The plan was to sand to bare metal, cover with some sort of rust converter, then do a cosmetic repair with fiberglass reinforced bondo and metal backing mesh. After that obviously prime and paint the entire panel up to that body line on the fender and the door, then blend as best I can. I'd like to avoid a welding job if it's just cosmetic (dont have a welder or easy access to one), but would appreciate feedback on this, as I obviously dont really know. Didnt have time to look today, but Im guessing the drivers side is going to be a similar story....

 

Still would like some opinions on the rust, but I moved on to other things today. Started with draining the oil.



Found the source of my oil pan leak:



Took a look at the oil cooler lines, this is the drivers side. Yikes...



From the engine on the drivers side. Yikes again...



Passenger side looks significantly better, so that's good I guess.



That was it for today. Planning to remove the air pump next as I'm running a midpipe and the air pump hasn't worked for years. CEL from it has been hidden for some time with an Accessport. Will need to order a block off plate for that too, which I havent done yet.

 

looks like you need to get to busy on some of that ...

 

Which part? The rust hole in the side of the car or the rusty oil lines? Whats your opinion on the rusty hole?

 

After seeing FBs rust worse due to bad rust repairs please cut the affected area out and put new metal in. It's down low, isn't a terribly complicated bend, and much of it is covered up by the stone guard. Should not be a problem if it isn't 110% perfect.

Edit to add:
I would use that as an opportunity to get started on some custom lines for the oil coolers.

 

Thanks for your feedback. I have a set of replacement oil lines in hand that I got from a forum member. As far as the body rust, I really haven't made a decision there yet. Still leaning towards a total sand down to bare metal then a fiberglass repair. That may change if things are worse than they seem. I wont really know until everything has been completely sanded down. I obviously don't expect this car to last forever, I just want to enjoy it for as long as the engine feels like playing nice.

 

Got a lot done over the last few days. Making progress. However, if anyone has a good source for nuts and bolts it would be helpful. I tried Jim Ellis and *** Mazda online, but they both dont seem to have what I need for the oil cooler lines. Im looking for the bolt to the engine outlet, the washers around the bolts, and the "C" clips that connect the lines together. Any help would be appreciated there, the above places seem to only sell the "C" clips in a pack with a nut that I dont need for $40! Got the front rotary emblem cleaned up and re-painted using some wheel paint I had laying around. Good match with the rotary seat emblems.



Also got the majority of the air pump stuff removed and relocated, as well as the battery box.



Broke one of the nipples off on the intake, was able to find a replacement though so no big deal there.



Down the rabbit hole now...



Good news is the oil cooler lines under the fans are in pretty good shape, a little surface rust but solid. This will save me some time and headache this season.



So Ill need to replace the line from the engine outlet to the drivers side cooler, then the short line from that cooler to the line above under the intake tray. Then replace the short lines on the passenger side cooler. I'll tackle the other lines under the fans and near the back of the engine over the winter when the car is down anyway. I want to at least try to enjoy the car this summer/fall. Here are the parts Im looking for currently:

 

some of those actually are the part numbers, but you need to change them to the following format

xxxx-xx-xxx

99562-1800 = Part No. 9956-21-800

about $3.60 each msrp for the banjo bolt copper gasket/seal

if you need banjo bolts I have some laying around

they don’t sell the wire clips separate from the connectors, if that’s all you need I might be able to come up with some

14-850A
Part No. N3G1-14-850A
CONNECTOR,OIL COOLER
$44.02 msrp

.

 

Thanks Team. I was able to get the banjo bolts out on the engine outlet and off of each cooler last night, then drained all the oil out of the lines. The banjo bolts all look they are in good shape, I was worried about the one that connects to the engine, but its just surface rust around the head, the threads are all clean. I actually was able to find the crush washers and ordered them last night from Atkins Rotary for $1.25 per. It does seem the only thing I need now are the wire clips, do you think I can reuse the ones that I have? They all seem to be in OK shape, but I haven't pulled them off the lines yet. I guess they could be damaged in that process, but Ive never messed with this type of clip before.

 

just be advised that Atkin’s misrepresents parts as being OE that are counterfeit, including it being in OE appearance packaging. You probably won’t have any issue, but when I suggested buying those gaskets from a non-OE source in a different thread recently the usual noobs started yacking about how OE was better etc. They probably had no idea they likely received and used non-OE parts. Atkins is a counterfeit parts source, so just FYI.

let me know how many wire clips you need and I’ll look around. They should just pop out with either a flat tip screwdriver or needle nose pliers

 

I did not know that the Atkins stuff wasnt OEM, they certainly make it seem like it is on the website. I guess if they match the specs and dont leak then it doesnt really matter. Anyway, I got the clips out this afternoon, they look like they are in OK shape.



I got the short lines removed from the passenger side no problem. The bracket is pretty rusted over there but the line fittings are in good shape. At this point, I felt like things were going pretty well.



Then I got to the rusty drivers side, which presented some challenges. I got the hose from the engine outlet to the cooler removed pretty painlessly. The other line was absolutely fused together. No amount of WD40 or brute strength got it to release, I worked on it for over an hour. It looks like I'll be replacing that entire line now, oh well.



So the only line I wont be touching this time around is the one that connect from the passenger cooler to the back of the engine by the oil filter. That line is in OK shape, and I dont want to tear down more of the engine this season. That will most likely be a winter project when the car is garaged anyhow.

 

Anybody have any experience or advice on removing the below bracket, its right where the battery box would be. I cant seem to get at it cleanly from the top or the bottom. The bent tabs are blind, so I cant get a good grip on any of it. Anyway, it's the last item I need to get off before I put everything back together, probably this weekend. Waiting on the washers to arrive from Atkins still.

 

you mean remove it off the piping assembly or remove/unbolt it from the chassis?

 

Remove it from the oil lines. I got the bolt off the chassis no problem. It seems like I have to bend some of the metal tabs, but I cant see them and its hard to get a screwdriver or pliers in there.

 

I thought the bottom part had a blind stud and the piece wrapped around with a hole on the other end that was just pressed together. It may have rusted together if you can’t pry it apart.

So you might have to look at cutting it in the middle part between the two pipes, bend the two ends out to separate it, put it on the others, and then bend it back tightly together as best you can. I think it’s thick enough to still work that way.

 

Thanks for that. I was going to mess with it for another 30 mins or so, and if I cant get it off at that point I'm going to cut it off. We will see how well it all fits back together.

 

Made some good progress again today. Gotta say, F*CK bracket "C"! I messed with that thing for way too long, but I finally got it out without cutting it.



The Atkins washers I got weren't brass like the originals, but they match otherwise. I'm going with it and we will see what happens.



Also got the engine outlet and cooler to cooler line back in. Should be able to wrap it up this weekend. What a difference from those crazy rusty lines!



Anyone have advise for when its all wrapped up? Obviously I have to add oil, but does the system need to be "primed" or something? No mention of it in the FSM that I saw. Would think you would want the oil circulating around before running the engine. Just trying to be safe. Also, just ordered a rotary compression tester, but they are on back order. That's the next step so I make sure Im not wasting my time doing this stuff. The car has been running fine however, so we will see.

 

Good job!

Ideally you want to cut both fuel and ignition, then crank it over some with the starter to get the lines filled back to the engine. Not really sure how long that is, but you generally want to limit starter cranking to maybe 15 second bursts and then give it a minute or so before the next crank in order to not overheat the starter. I would think 45 - 60 seconds of cranking would be sufficient.

The washers will likely be fine, but reinforces what we discussed previously about the supplier.

.

 

I wanted to note the washers in case others were under the same impression I was, but as you said they will likely be fine. Looks like I just need to disconnect the E-shaft sensor to cut fuel and ignition.