Mazda RX-8 rotary engine

[hydrostreamvulture1]

Guyz after being at rickracers shop a couple of days ago then going to MMI and talking about the different types of engines on the market i couldnt help but realize this rotary engine. This thing is probley the coolest engine design out this thing is 1.3 liters (80 cubic inches!)and makes 248 base horsepower THAT SPEAKS FOR ITSELF!!!!!!! I couldnt help but notice how much these engines love to rev also they rev to 9 grand before it "allows" you to shift it!! Trust me guys im not import fan but this new "renesis" turbo rotary 1.3 liter engine is the ****! I was jus curious to ur guys reactions about this motor damn makes me looks bad when my 5 liter engine is almost 4 times as big and makes 80 less horsepower ouch Mazda and the rotary must be doing something right;)

[Hunter]

They're rev nuts. Just keep turning in on themselves. I had an RX-7 with upgraded ignition, recut ports, and a massive exhaust system. I pulled most of the intake and put a K&N filter on it. Peaky but pulled the midrange like a fighter aircraft in afterburner swing. Every once in a while I'd overboost it and it'd burp fuel into the crank. I'd just change the oil and go back at it. It was real unhappy with bad gas and wouldn't tolerate dirty injectors.

[Boaterbum]

Wow, 80ci and 240plus hp???? sure as hell beats that Harly Joke with the same displacment and somewhere in the 60 hp range!!!!!!!!! Then again, what do ya expect from a 5 speed lawnmower engine!!!!!!!!!! hahahahaha
Impressive lil' cars, you have one yet???? Have to get some pics of it.... I was always curious about them, but, never really understood the design, or how they work.......

[Fast Shafts]

There is a company on Long Island that makes a marine version of this engine. I'll attempt to find literature tonight and post their web site. I remember the engines were fairly expensive.

[Rickracer]

...got it in a trade. I traded a starter and a distributor to a Pontiac 400 for it. It ran like any little Jap 4 cylinder, but kept burning off the alternator belt. I finally go tired of replacing the belt and pulled the lower pulley off and bead blasted the rust off of it, and voila, no more problems. While I was at it, I decided to do a little tune-up. 2 of the 4 plugs were fuel fouled. Hmmmmm. The new ones did too. Double Hmmmm. I found out the points were wired incorrectly, and those two plugs hadn't been firing for many moons. Fixed the wiring, installed 2 new sets of points, and found about double the horsepower. Just for the fun of it , I drove it to the track one night to help a friend, and decided to run it, old dry rot checked B78 13 tires and all. It went a 15.60, jumping sideways in every gear, and wheel hopping too. Couple weeks later, with some wider softer street tires and a set of homebuilt traction bars, it went somewhere in the 14s. That thing was a blast to drive, and it would bury the 8K tach like it was nothing.

[speedyfast]

hey guys, I just got a black 88' (s4) n/a vert at the beginning of the summer. I think its a beautiful car and there's hardly any milleage on it for its year. The n/a 13B just isnt enough engine for the car, in the future ( when $$$ rolls in) I plan on either a T2 engine swap or more preferablly a 20B 3-Rotor swap from the J-spec Cosmos (big$$$ though), in my research ive also seen alot of american v8 engine swaps (much cheaper power) but appears to be quite the sacrelige(sp?) in the rotary community.
Anybody have some good experience with the rx's car to give me some opinions???

[1BadAction]

Originally posted by speedyfast
hey guys, I just got a black 88' (s4) n/a vert at the beginning of the summer. I think its a beautiful car and there's hardly any milleage on it for its year. The n/a 13B just isnt enough engine for the car, in the future ( when $$$ rolls in) I plan on either a T2 engine swap or more preferablly a 20B 3-Rotor swap from the J-spec Cosmos (big$$$ though), in my research ive also seen alot of american v8 engine swaps (much cheaper power) but appears to be quite the sacrelige(sp?) in the rotary community.
Anybody have some good experience with the rx's car to give me some opinions???

My frends and i have done v8 swaps in 3 of these cars and there is no comparison in performance, people that scream sacrelige are ones who have never driven a v8 convo. so what the rotary will spin to 8500 or 9000, its not all about the rpm when you have to rev the bitch to 2000 rpm just to let the clutch out in normal driving so you dont stall it. i know, i had to drive one to school and back for a year. It isnt Difficult to do if you have the right tools. when you are redneck v8 guys like us it is cheep compared to the turbo setups or j spec engines. on The last one (and best) we did, we bought a wrecked 95 camaro with an lt1 and a six speed(3500 on ebay). used the stock rx7 rear (close to a 3:73 i believe) and had a drive shop build a short drive shaft. it was a little challenging to get the bugs worked out of the computer setup, only cost about $150 in computer time. The engine had aluminum heads, headers bought for this setup, and we moved the battery to the trunk. the only guy we associate with that has a turbo'd rx7 went to the scales with us, we were 95 lbs heavier, BUT he was 5 lbs heavier in the FRONT than we were. our car was almost exactly 50-50. our buddy actually went to a v8 about 6 months ago after he popped his rotary for the 3rd time.

the only problem we have ever had with this conversion car is on our 1st gen (at the strip with big tires) the back pillars kept twisting enough to split the rear glass. so we made a lexan window for it.

[speedyfast]

thats awesome, you dont happen to post on rx7club.com do you? I am thinking about a v8 conversion possibly, ive just been trying to find some performance #'s but havent been able to.
what is the performance like compared to the t2's???
any pics? really interested
thanks man

[Kavalk]

What does one of the engines weigh?? I'm wondering if this design could be an alternative to the killer heavy, no rev 4 stroke outboards. Return to rotary O/B?? Is it time?

[1BadAction]

i dont post on any websites like that for the reason how they down on american ****. everytime i go over there they piss me off about something. see, i tell the truth, about the cars and what their problems are (like the weak steel they are made of, **** grade that is hard to weld), and they deny it call me an asshole. screw that.

in the v8 convos the HP is not the problem. the big problem on the strip is hooking them up. SO MUCH torque, and around 350 hp will kill just about any street tire you can fit in the wheel well. a good tire is a 285-35-r17 kumho ecsta they are about 110 bucks each and they have grip from hell. BUT they kinda wear fast. 10,000 miles in daily drive conditions taking the car to the strip once a week. The best tire i have used are the firestone firehawk sz50EP tires, they have as much grip, lasted till 30,000 miles, and were quieter, but they cost 220 each.

[1BadAction]

also the rotary would be tits as an outboard if they could fix their sealing problems.

[speedyfast]

i understand about the rotary diehards giving people a hard time, ive read some **** and didnt really understand where they were coming from. What name did you post as, maybe i could search some of your discusssions??
About the torque of the american muscle.... If its that tourqie and the frame is fairly week as you have posted ( an considering ive got a vert) [im thinking htere must be a lot of chasis flex?? is this true, would this not be a good project for me.
I want the car to have balls but still be fully functionable as a street car ( no track ) just want to lay a woopin on some ricey civics etc.
what do u think
hmmmm rotary outboard Yeah!

[1BadAction]

Originally posted by speedyfast

About the torque of the american muscle.... If its that tourqie and the frame is fairly week as you have posted ( an considering ive got a vert) [im thinking htere must be a lot of chasis flex?? is this true, would this not be a good project for me.


i didn't post- i was reading up on some ways to add stiffness to the car, and searching on v8+rx7 i came across some BS that made me not want to post. go to modernmusclecars.net and see what you can find.

on the cars themselves, its not really that they are weak, but they were NOT designed to hold the extra size and torque of a v8. an engine with more rotational mass takes a little longer to spool, BUT when you slam that beast into second it takes more to slow it down. (called inertia ;) ) I haven't messed with the verts, but i imagine that they would be worse. In our cars we added some "subframe" connectors that we made from 1"x2"x3/16" steel tube. if you dont have torches, welders, and the right tools it is a hard swap to do. there is alot of things i took pictures of on a reg camera. i'll see if my friend has them still. If you don't have access to the fabrication stuff, you would probably be happier with doing a performance rebuild on the engine that you have. just my 2 cent...

[HOTTAMALE]

Im new here....

Heres a picture of the rx-8 Engine...

[Cobalti]

I'm building one now. Furthermore, using aluminium end plates and RX8 rotors, I believe I can keep the weight within 420 pounds complete with turbo, intercooler, and 2.5 offshore leg. See my thread on tech talk "13b rotary on 2.5 efi leg", and keep posted as I will keep posting on progress. I'm hoping to import one of your STV RR IL boats to Australia to put it on. There is no sealing problem now. That was in the early days. then, when you consider how often a good two stroke needs to be refreshed to be kept alive, for the smae power, the rotary would go four times as far, and only cost a fraction to refresh.

Merry Christmas everyone and have a happy new year!:D