The first 100 posts cover the car, and my first engine choice, which didn't pan out.
So NOW the plan is to swap a Supercharged 3800 from a Grand Prix.
You can jump to Post 100 where I start tearing it down ~HERE~
So as some of you may have read. I recently got my hands on a 2004 RX-8 6-Port, 6 Speed with 96k on it.
In that time the car went through two engines. Being a rotary I'm not surprised, but the first engine was replaced under warranty at around 36,000 miles
Second engine only seems to have lasted about 60k before it took a dump too.
So it died on the owner and he parked it for 10 months until I got to it.
Here's how it looked when I first saw it (minus the tow strap)
It came with some goodies. A Cobb accessport. Racing beat sway bars. Stainless steel brake and clutch lines.
A second set of wheels with winter tires, A few upgraded engine parts (useless to me, but not to my wallet )
Short throw shifter, Ipod interface, and he even left a 400w inverter in the trunk haha
The previous owner drove it as a daily so it has it's share of rust.
The rear quarters and both rockers are pretty much completely done.
(sorry for some blurry pics, shot em real quick on the phone)
So I stopped at a car wash cleaned it up a bit and got it home and tried to get it running...
We did get it running, and it sounded like it only ran on one rotor. It barely had any power and was a bit of a pain but at least I experienced a rotary. Half dead and barely powerful.
The interior was in great shape though. I think I can get a good price parting it out....
Anyways, onto my plans for this baby.
I'm going to completely gut it, Everything is coming out, full interior, wiring, sound deadening, maybe even the dash, ALL OF IT
I'll run my own switch panel and cluster with my own gauges. I'll wire in my own circuits for lights and windows and such to keep it street legal but awesome.
Someone on the RX-8 forums managed to drop it's weight to 2700 lbs after a full gut.
I plan to get some over-fenders and probably some side skirts or maybe a lip kit or wide body kit to hide all the rust and make it look more aggressive.
Now onto the power plant. My original thought was something light but powerful, Nissan's SR20DET sounded very good.
But I ran into some set backs.
To get a DET (Dohc with turbo stock) I'd have to drop at least 2k and it would be a JDM engine, No emissions compliance here! So I either have to get the car exempt or figure something else out. Like using a nissan sentra ECU or turboing a stock sentra engine.
Then My buddy (who is swapping an Isuzu V6 into his RX- suggested another engine, and it made me smile ear to ear.
I'll explain why I want it before I tell you what it is...
It's a V6, but doesn't take up very much space.
It'll do 400hp-500hp+ on stock internals.
For an iron block it's still not too heavy.
And it's completely off the wall and will make for one unique car.
Figure it out?
It's Volkswagen's VR6 engine that they put in the golf, passat, jetta, and even some eurovans.
I can get a 2.8l 12v for a hair over $500 and rebuild it for cheap.
My buddy and I priced out a twin turbo setup, and I can mostly have a whole twin turbo setup done for well under a grand!
The only issue now is the transmission. Long story short we will be making an adapter plate to mount a RWD manual trans to it.
I'm currently looking at using a Pontiac Solstice transmission. Aisin makes them and they're built like tanks, Local trans shops don't know shit about them because they never break. They were used in the Hummer for towing too!
I also may have to cut the firewall a bit because the VR6 is times on the BACK of the engine.
Anyways it'll make for one incredibly unique and awesome project IMO. I love a good challenge and this is a good one...
So fast forward to last weekend and I finally got the engine and trans out!!
First we undressed the engine and cleaned up the bay a bit.
I then got under the car, pulled the power plant frame (which was a BITCH), removed the drive shaft and drained the trans and got the hoist in place.
A little work here and there and out it came!
So now I have an RX-8 6speed tranny and a 13b 6 port rotary engine.
The engine is pretty much sold, along with some other engine goodies, just waiting for them to come get it.
I've got a few plans for messing around that include the transmission so I'll be holding onto that for a little while.
It's got a long way to go, and winter is just starting so I'll have some saving to do!
Can't wait to get this thing running and sideways
So NOW the plan is to swap a Supercharged 3800 from a Grand Prix.
You can jump to Post 100 where I start tearing it down ~HERE~
So as some of you may have read. I recently got my hands on a 2004 RX-8 6-Port, 6 Speed with 96k on it.
In that time the car went through two engines. Being a rotary I'm not surprised, but the first engine was replaced under warranty at around 36,000 miles
Second engine only seems to have lasted about 60k before it took a dump too.
So it died on the owner and he parked it for 10 months until I got to it.
Here's how it looked when I first saw it (minus the tow strap)
It came with some goodies. A Cobb accessport. Racing beat sway bars. Stainless steel brake and clutch lines.
A second set of wheels with winter tires, A few upgraded engine parts (useless to me, but not to my wallet )
Short throw shifter, Ipod interface, and he even left a 400w inverter in the trunk haha
The previous owner drove it as a daily so it has it's share of rust.
The rear quarters and both rockers are pretty much completely done.
(sorry for some blurry pics, shot em real quick on the phone)
So I stopped at a car wash cleaned it up a bit and got it home and tried to get it running...
We did get it running, and it sounded like it only ran on one rotor. It barely had any power and was a bit of a pain but at least I experienced a rotary. Half dead and barely powerful.
The interior was in great shape though. I think I can get a good price parting it out....
Anyways, onto my plans for this baby.
I'm going to completely gut it, Everything is coming out, full interior, wiring, sound deadening, maybe even the dash, ALL OF IT
I'll run my own switch panel and cluster with my own gauges. I'll wire in my own circuits for lights and windows and such to keep it street legal but awesome.
Someone on the RX-8 forums managed to drop it's weight to 2700 lbs after a full gut.
I plan to get some over-fenders and probably some side skirts or maybe a lip kit or wide body kit to hide all the rust and make it look more aggressive.
Now onto the power plant. My original thought was something light but powerful, Nissan's SR20DET sounded very good.
But I ran into some set backs.
To get a DET (Dohc with turbo stock) I'd have to drop at least 2k and it would be a JDM engine, No emissions compliance here! So I either have to get the car exempt or figure something else out. Like using a nissan sentra ECU or turboing a stock sentra engine.
Then My buddy (who is swapping an Isuzu V6 into his RX- suggested another engine, and it made me smile ear to ear.
I'll explain why I want it before I tell you what it is...
It's a V6, but doesn't take up very much space.
It'll do 400hp-500hp+ on stock internals.
For an iron block it's still not too heavy.
And it's completely off the wall and will make for one unique car.
Figure it out?
It's Volkswagen's VR6 engine that they put in the golf, passat, jetta, and even some eurovans.
I can get a 2.8l 12v for a hair over $500 and rebuild it for cheap.
My buddy and I priced out a twin turbo setup, and I can mostly have a whole twin turbo setup done for well under a grand!
The only issue now is the transmission. Long story short we will be making an adapter plate to mount a RWD manual trans to it.
I'm currently looking at using a Pontiac Solstice transmission. Aisin makes them and they're built like tanks, Local trans shops don't know shit about them because they never break. They were used in the Hummer for towing too!
I also may have to cut the firewall a bit because the VR6 is times on the BACK of the engine.
Anyways it'll make for one incredibly unique and awesome project IMO. I love a good challenge and this is a good one...
So fast forward to last weekend and I finally got the engine and trans out!!
First we undressed the engine and cleaned up the bay a bit.
I then got under the car, pulled the power plant frame (which was a BITCH), removed the drive shaft and drained the trans and got the hoist in place.
A little work here and there and out it came!
So now I have an RX-8 6speed tranny and a 13b 6 port rotary engine.
The engine is pretty much sold, along with some other engine goodies, just waiting for them to come get it.
I've got a few plans for messing around that include the transmission so I'll be holding onto that for a little while.
It's got a long way to go, and winter is just starting so I'll have some saving to do!
Can't wait to get this thing running and sideways
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