Hey folks!

Need some advice on what to do.

Some background info:

0) Wife's car. Wife driven. Wife maintained (at the dealer). We live in Houston

1) '04 Mazda RX8 with about 120k miles on it.
2) CEL light came on, P0300 came on a few weeks ago. Ordered new spark plugs.
3) I replaced sparkplugs last week and was going to order new coils
4) Wife got impatient and didnt want to wait for coils to come in... took it to do the dealer (HER dealer that is wonderful and can do no wrong) in Dallas.
5) Dealer says water pump and radiator is leaking and car has 3 bad coils. and May need new engine. Can't do compression test until pump and radiator fixed.
6) Wife says go ahead and do repairs.

Ok now this is where it gets hairy.

7) Dealer says doesnt need new engine but car still smokes after a bit, so she may need a new engine. (Yeah... thats very confusing)

8) I have no idea what is going on because wife is dealing with this as its her car. And when I start asking technical questions I get the "I dont know."

Unfortunately I wont know anything until I drive it back from Dallas this saturday. I really dont want her to spend money and get ripped off by the dealer for a new motor as the car is without warranty.

lets say worst case scenario that she may need a new motor....

what are my options.... I dont mind doing work myself. I can rebuild 350's with my eyes closed. Rotary motor are a bit foriegn to me, but I can figure it out if I get some good guidance.

Rebuild Rotary?
junkyard find?
Engine Swap? (LS based motor) - I happen to own a LS1 car and am pretty well connected in the LS community so getting the motor and associated parts wont be difficult or pricey.

Trying to mentally prepare myself for her irrational thinking and dealing with this headache, but I still love her to death. Its her car, and her problem... but we all know that means its now my problem.

 

You might try seafoam.. maybe it's carboned up?

 

Ok I'll try that when I get there.

Thank you for the suggestion