13B RENESIS Total Rotary Teardown. 04-11 Mazda Rx-8 6-Port!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.พ. 2025
- If this is your first teardown video and you want to see the many others I have done, go here • Blown Up Engine Tear D...
My name is Eric and I own and run a full service niche market salvage operation in the Saint Louis area. Part of our model is parting out bad or core engines and selling parts. I've started filming these teardowns to both educate and entertain those who don't normally get to see inside of these engines.
I don't always know what's wrong with these engines, how many miles are on them, or their history.
This particular engine is from a 2004 6-speed manual parts car here, so I did know some information about it. It has 93,000 miles and came in half taken apart in an attempt to diagnose a no-start symptom. The car was pretty rough so we stripped it for parts.
If you'd like to buy parts from this engine or others that I have torn down, email us at Importapartsales@gmail.com
If there's an engine you'd like to see torn down, please let me know in the comments!
Thanks for watching, catch ya on the next one!
-Eric
Having been an Asian import technician for 30 years I can assure you that we dreaded the sight of an RX7 coming in on a rollback. If the design could’ve been made durable it would’ve changed the automotive industry forever as far as power train development. When new they would rev like crazy and as smooth as glass.
If only they could design it so the rotary seals were easily replaceable. Do it every 25,000 miles as regular maintenance. It seems normal to me that such a seal won't last forever, but if only it were serviceable ...
Hey here's an idea. Put the rotary engine into the car vertically, so the driveshaft comes off the top or bottom, or even off the center. Yeah, weird for sure, but then you can service a 2 rotor engine, one from the top, the other from the bottom, remove the end plates and change out the seals, without dropping the engine out of the car.
@@davidquinn9676 I don't think gravity would be nice to it. Who knows, it was never done so I can't say it wouldn't work
@@JasonLuther1 Wankels used in industrial applications are mounted this way. I have seen a couple of Sachs wankels that way.
Lol no they wouldn't have. Even if their durability was vastly improved they are still very fuel inefficient. Their applications would have been limited. Potentially aircraft, sports cars, extremely space limited designs. But as much as I love rotaries they would not have revolutionized anything.
I been working on cars in general for 20 years and I have to say 1st gen 13bs and 12bs and of course 20bs are way way better for longevity just because of the oilers. Many people don’t know but engine oil is injected straight into the combustion chamber on all 12,13,20 b’s except that crap side port Rx-8. Great engineering piss poor emissions thanks California
Even with all the "re-engineering" hype I remember reading about the Renesis project, it amazes me to see how much commonality still exists between it & the original 12A. I spent many years working on 12As when my mom went thru her RX7 phase. Imagine being 19, armed only with a Chilton manual & having this stare you in the face.
I got wise quick. Fun times & unforgettable cars!
I had sort of the same experience, I worked on dirt bikes and my ohc ford when I got my FD rx7, armed with the book. The internet was there but not nearly as helpful as youd imagine
spoiled rich kid
@@fkujakedmyname He drives an OBS Ford lol, his mom having an RX7 hardly makes him a spoiled rich kid
@@benjamins9121 You're right but clean OBS trucks are worth decent money now.
@@fkujakedmyname your mom owning an rx7 makes you a spoiled rich kid xD
Had never seen a Mazda rotary engine apart. Learned a lot, thank you!
Salute to the Mazda engineers who worked night and day to keep the rotary engine alive. They kept it alive through the oil crisis and even won at Le Mans. Ultimately it wasn't durable enough for the masses, but it'll always be remembered as an interesting part of automotive history.
At 15 years old my first car was a very clean excellent body good paint $200 1974 RX4 wagon with a 60000 bad engine. I found a used $100 RX4 engine with 50000 miles that Dad and I installed. 10000 miles later it crapped out as well. This was a nice riding, nice looking, comfortable, decent gas mileage car but from that point on I decided I would never own another Rotary. Been helping dad mechanic all of his own stuff since I was in diapers and this video reminded me of Dad and I tearing down an engine that we have never seen before and never again plus had no clue how it worked, As usual Great Video, Looking forward to the coyote tear down, Many thanks.
I was a rotary nerd back in the 90's - going through a number of RX7's and building a number of engines. My initial interest was one of my friends had an all-original 1976 Cosmo that ran really well.
I got a TON of miles out of all my rotaries, but likely that was only because of the OCD maintenance I put into them. They are very unforgiving of marginal maintenance routines. My race car was bet to a pulp, yet the engine continued on.
They are fun, weird, and can definitely be reliable with the right owner. They are not for the casual car owner, however.
Yeah I had a 1982 and loved it. I was doing a drain and fill every 1k miles (yeah overkill)
I’m glad I found this channel, my grandpa used to work on cars from the 60s 70s 80s. I showed him a few of your videos the fist one was of a Mercedes engine with the blown piston. He was stunned at how far engines have progressed and kind of terrified of all the electrical stuff on it 😂
That’s awesome. Is he a spirited driver?
I'm in New Zealand, and we have a *big* rotary scene here, and some of the best rotary tuners around. A mate of mine has a RX8 with 300,000+ KM (186K+ Miles) on it, only thing he's changed is plugs, apex seals 3x, belts and fluids, the rest is original. He also drives it like a rotary likes to be driven - like it's on fire ;)
please keep doing these tear downs, I really enjoy watching these
Me too!
I tore down a 12a rotary around 1988 and I was looking forward to seeing you pull the flywheel. Damn.
What I did: purchase the socket, which I still have, then made a trip to the steel scrap yard and bought about six feet each of stout angle iron and round pipe sized to slip over my breaker bar. Drilled a pair of holes and bolted the angle iron to the flywheel using clutch cover bolts. Then braced the angle iron on the driveway, attached the socket, breaker bar and steel pipe extension at an acute angle, and then stood on it.
It took a substantial amount of my 180lbs standing near the end of that pipe to break it loose.
No surprise: rotor housings were thrashed. Large sections of the chrome facing were gone. Also the end housings weren’t in good shape. So we just bought a used engine and dropped that in. Not so long after, my wife left me, took the car, and wound up blowing the replacement engine.
I wish I could sit down with this guy and learn all of his knowledge and skills with motors. It’s amazing how much he knows about several different motors. Seems like he would be a perfect teacher, nice, mellow, and very knowledgeable!!
Yeah, there is a block that you can put between the coils and the engine that helps keep them cool. I installed one and it worked great. My second RX-8 made it to 120,000 miles before it started to have issues. The housings needed to be replaced and that is not cheap. I miss the car though.
Honest guy and great in depth tear downs.
Re the RX8 engine, in our opinion its not in bad condition at all. The casings do have some marks agreed but if the rotors were thoroughly cleaned and new tip seals
installed it would very likely pass a compression test at 85-90%, enough for easy starting and many more miles of life.
Greeting from Russia, Girood Airfield Hangers.. ❤️
I did not expect to see a Mazda rotaries fan Russia! (to be honest anywhere outside North America and Japan and even in North America these were rarely seen)
curious to know how often you see any rotary mazda's on the road, either now or in the past 20 years? even in North America they weren't very common to see!
My Girlfriend in high-school had a 1984 Rx7 I loved driving it, the car fascinated me. The car reminded me of my two stroke Yamaha banshee 350 the way it sounded and it smoked like a two-stroke also.I graduated in 1993 so the car was not that old but it was a very odd car . She never had any problems out of it and she drove like a mad-man.
This guy is super humble and a classy character. He would be that awesome friend that you call to help with a motor swap and he'd probably do the job faster lol. Awesome content brother!
Hey you brought me back good memories. I had a 12 a swapped In a 1982 Toyota Celica and was a little bullet. I used either brake fluid or transmission fluid through the intake to clean the apex seals . It never gave me any problems but that was 23 years ago. I wish I still had that car. Thanks for the video.
I’ve been a tech for 15 years and I’m not sure why I was always drawn to this channel as it was such common content for me on a daily basis…but I literally know nothing about rotaries and have never even thought to watch someone rip one open. And this is extremely educational for me. After watching this I have a little bit better understanding for how these function although I’ll still never take a job on one lol
Thanks for showing this.
As an engine man for 50+ years I wanted to poke my eyes out because I never saw the inside of a rotary.
I once owned an 85RX7 5 speed 13B engine and it was doing just fine (original clutch and no engine issues) until the car was stolen at about 125K miles ... With the rotary, oil level is critical and must be checked often. Also never let them overheat or the aluminum housings will warp.
These Mazda Rotaries are a Love/Hate thing...
Very unusual engine concept with insane potential as tuners and Mazda themselves have proven.
But unless you build one from the ground up with performance and longevity in mind they are just a weird and painful engine.
Just a recip engine.
The tip seals need to be relooked at by someone with lateral thinking, a whole new approach.
Just took my 1988 RX7 FC Turbo for a spin today, great fun. Had 1 rebuilt in 1997@ 100000 kms. Car has now 150000. Next rebuilt scheduled in Summer 2045.
really only the later engines are tough to live with. As long as you have an older one (with two-piece apex seals), don't flood them and keep them properly oiled they're long lived.
@@heikopanzlaff3789 Wait, your bragging because your engine needed a rebuild at 65k miles? Most engines don't need that until 150-200k miles if maintained properly. Weird flex i guess?!?
This guy has such good content. I am shocked he doesn't have more subscribers
It is surprising hopefully that changes soon I really enjoy these videos get to see the common failures in motors
its really sad that trashy lil jogger with his trash reality TV content or Kpop trash gets millions of views while good content creators like this guy don't have the views that he deserve
they'll come... it takes time...
Only a matter of time at this point!
I subbed because I love taking engines apart.
There is something about you taking apart all these engines that keeps me glued to the screen for hours. Lol. Love it
Perfect example, I've been fascinated by rotary engines since I was a kid in the 80s and this video answered a life time of questions. Thank you.
I dont know anything about the Rotary Engine, but from what i gather from this video is these 2 facts:
1. DO NOT SKIMP OUT ON OIL CHANGES!!
2. Be willing to pull the engine, or have a Dealer do it at around 80,000 to do new seals and Apex Seals.
It seems to me that these are a Niche Cult Following. And only HARDCORE Rotary lovers should own these. And not the shade tree mechanic that dreads doing head gaskets on a regular engine, let alone doing Apex Seals on a rotary.
As someone who doesn't know much about internal combustion engines, hearing your opinions is one of the reasons why I keep coming back for more videos. So, keep 'em coming!
I had a 1993 competition yellow mica twin turbo R1, basically stock, that I drove hard for 126,000 before it lost a water seal. I attribute that longevity to changing the oil every 1000 miles. The exhaust temps are around 1800 degrees and the oil takes a beating. Just Havoline mineral base oil. 4.9 seconds to 60, with a good driver and great tires, which was pretty speedy back then.
Thanks for the great content.
Thanks for this great video. I have 56k on mine and still have no issues. Great to see this tear-down and learn about potential problems that I may see coming my way!
You should get the apex seal replaced soon, definitely before 80k
Had my RX-8, bought new, from 2/2006 - 9/2019. Zero engine problems. Not one. Had to replace cat converter at 42K+ miles and sold it then, as I was concerned about getting future rotary service while on long road trips away from big cities. Fabulous car. And quite reliable.
Brings back memories, I had 85rx-7gslse 13b that still had strong compression at 320k. I modified the crap out of it to 215hp from 135hp stock. I had more problems with transmission and ring and pinion. Man did the memories flow on the takedown. Thanks
Yeah right how many times was it overhauled
@derrickwoods2803 My GSLSE didn't die until my brother beat the crap out of it & didn't add to oil to 2nder oiler. I had the oil going to apex seal as natural oil. The engine was synthetic, RX7 heaven shop recommended the splut oil conversion. I had multiple throttle bodies warp before the greater mods. The oil cooler was a piece of crap, The fitting would crack and leak. I replace everything when I street ported it, it was mild. I had the porting done through Racing Beat. Course replaced anything the parts needed. We lowered the compression slightly when had a custom turbo added. Then we put heavier pressure plate, & clutch. Replaced the fly wheel with lightened mass steel plate. Lightened the pulleys w dual belts can't remember why. Rebuilt the rear end clutch pack for the limited slip & added 8.5 quart oil pan. There was the option for a custom pick a ratio transmission thru RB but I had spent way too much money. It took months since finding & getting parts for custom work was slow. The other crap was done by hand or too much to type.
'82 12A here, went over 500k before it got retired for chassis related reasons.
NO overhauls.
I bought a 1986 RX7 with 16k miles on it and I don’t know why but it was still running great at 243k miles when I gave it to our gardener for helping us move. Almost ruined it twice; once when a heater hose blew while in the middle of the Oakland Bay Bridge where I had to keep driving to a safe exit and again years later when a rubber O-ring behind the factory oil filter adapter split. Both times coolant and oil level alarms gave early warning. Had it completely loose compression once when I did a “short start “ to back it up for a landscaper. Mechanic said engine was a goner but a rotary specialist told me to disconnect the crank angle sensor (so no gas was injected) and pull two spark plugs to put a tablespoon of oil in each rotor. After cranking for a bit the compression pulses came back and I drove it for 8 more years. Never expected it to last so long. Replaced leaking fuel pulsation damper and as long as the intake plenum was off replaced brittle oil injection tubes but other than replacement of old heater and radiator hoses no work done on the engine. Electrical switches all failed and driver’s door handle broke every 5 years though.
Enjoyed the teardown and Rotary motor explanation. Went by "the car wizard" and by chance, he was repairing a customer RX-8. Your video made that one a lot better as he walked around the motor external and talked about the rotary motor internals. Thanks to you I could see everything he was talking about! I am now subscribed to your channel.
Awesome video for folks like me who never owned or worked on a rotary. Not that there's much to work on without hoisting the motor out and splitting it up first.
But seriously, this kind of wear and compression issues on a motor with not even a 100k? That's not bad, that terribad!
Maybe back in the 50s it was okay to have an engine need a full rebuild every 50-70k miles, but this is 2023, not 1923.
That was cool I never saw one of them apart it's so different. I heard they have a great power to weight ratio and power to displacement ratio but I didn't realize they don't last very long. A lot of mechanics don't seem to believe me but trust me it's true that anti seize grease and Dielectric grease can be your best friends
Enjoy all your videos, this one was special as I’ve never seen an actual rotary engine dismantled. Many thanks from UK.
Great tear down
Really informative for those of us who don’t do tear downs on a regular basis
Looking forward to the next one
Thanks for sharing
That's a sweet disc golf sticker on the headache rack
If overheated the rotor housings warp. knocks out the apex seals I have built oer 700 of these in my younger days... Thanks for the tear down, so much nostalgia
That doesn’t make any sense
@@joshmanagosta12 What part? Tearing down 700 of them or the housings warping? If you're saying it doesnt make sense how the housings warp then...well.. it actually does make sense. Things contract when its cold, and expand when it's hot. After so many heat cycles the Renesis tends to lose compression rather easily. Besides that, if literally any other car overheats once it's done for.
@@joshmanagosta12 if you can warp a block or head you can definitely warp a rotor housing
In 1983 the RX7 was like a dream car for me. I was 17 yrs old and had no clue they had rotary engines. It said rotary on the side somewhere but all crankshafts are rotary so it seemed normal. Really happy I never bought a used RX7 like I wanted to.
This is a series 1 renesis with two oil injectors per rotor. 03-09 basically. 09-12 is the renesis 2 with an extra oil injector in the middle of the rotor, increases/improves lubrication tenfold and makes the engine longevity much longer.
Just so therapeutic watching engine tear downs 😂 and I love the commentary! Keep up the good work.
Over the last 10 or so years of watching things on TH-cam, I've subscribed to very few things after just one video....
Me and my 2005 Shinka Thank you.
TH-cam isn’t even 20 years old
Hello fellow Stargate fan.
I had an 04 rx8. Kept it for 12 years. I love the car. Sold it at the end. And it was still running strong and no concern. I tracked it and autocross it. Love the car
Love hearing your opinions on the reliability of certain engines. I never knew exactly why rotary engines wore out that fast, until now.
Yep but they are abused by the most owners. Good oil and gas is important.
A series 2 renesis (09-12) has more lubrication and doesn't really have many wear issues compared to other engines. Extra oil injector.
they don't wear out that fast unless extremely abused.
@@pda041376 Yeah. Like I said series 2 are better but a series one can do a decent bit of mileage too
They fail because the people who own them typically don’t take care of them properly you have to really take care of these engines or they will fail like any other
I bought an RX-7 new in 1980. I loved that car. I sold it when it had 88K miles. The clutch was completely fried and I knew it was going to need to have the engine pulled to replace the clutch and apex seals. I explained this to the kid who bought the car, but I could tell he had no idea what he was getting himself into. I'm glad this video wasn't around in 1988, or I would never have been able to sell that car!!
Im a simple man, i see an engine teardown on this channel and immediately click
In all fairness you also quickly clicked on “naked Bigfoot pics”
They built a good boat anchor. I rarely saw a good engine over 100,000 miles. Most of the time customers would complain about the engine stalling in stop-and-go traffic when the ambient temperature got into the upper 90s or above. I've always said if you buy an RX-8 make sure it has a sunroof. When the engine dies at least you can turn it into a planter box.
Everyone that buys an rx8 knows it wont last past 100k, that s why you get a cheap one that s almost dead and rebuild the engine yourself, then you got an rx8 that s going to last you 100k miles
Cool video man! Enjoyed it!
Thanks!
Sup Eric O!
@@I_Do_Cars I've never seen one of these cracked open. Thanks for posting it.
@@I_Do_Cars rotisery,,should of stayed on planes. only push a prop round. good german tech.. we ausies,were the first to hot,,,them up.. mate had an rx3, pulled it apart to re build it,, threw it in bin,bought a v8 holden torana.
I had a series 2 of this motor. It was a 09 R3 edition. They did several changes vs the 04-08 RX-8’s. It ran like a charm!
This was your best video yet. The total tear down was awesome. The complete engine out of a car was very cool.
Thanks for taking the time to explain this one! These videos are very therapeutic for me even though I would be very unhappy to find similar results when I tear down my own engines.
This was very interesting, I have been a motor head for a long time but have never come across a rotary much less watched on get torn apart. You are a public service person
50 yrs of motors and my first rotary! thank you!
DUDE! I needed that flywheel nut!
For reference it’s a 54mm (2.125”) nut and needs to be torqued to a solid 350 lb feet lol. Racing Beat actually makes an awesome proprietary wrench just for this nut that can be used with the engine still in the car or on an engine stand. It’s a must have tool if you work on these engines at all.
Those flywheel nuts are bastards to get off.
The Sawzall makes an appearance! And when that cut pipe falls off and shakes the camera at 7:35, man that's gold!
It's crazy how much you know about all these motors. How? I've been a tech for 7 years and learn something new every time I watch one of your videos
I still learn every day too! I’m not scared of working on anything and after tearing down engines from all types of cars, and buying all types of cars, you learn all the different failure points. In my business I see a lot of engines and cars at the end of their lifecycle. That’s when little problems cause big, catastrophic failures. I’ve been doing this about 18 years so it just comes from experience! Just think of where you were 7 years ago and imagine where you’ll be in another 7.
pfft this guy knows nothing, just some crap he once read about how "terrible" these engines are.
@@plav032 yea they're great motor soooo.... great 130k miles and apex seals are gone such a great motor
@@TONYSTARK-jh2wuturn up the opm duty cycle
That was cool, thanks.
I rebuilt my 81 rx-7 back in 95...great learning experience , had an oil leak in the front of the motor....didn't know that they come apart from the rear forward....I originally was just going to pull the front cover off, but Mazda has other ideas....loved the car, great driver, so much fun to go thru the gears and it handled great! Wish I still had it.
I still have the humongous socket for the flywheel.....
This was an extremely educational rotary engine teardown! Thank You Very much for creating this video for us fine sir!!! Fred
In the past, I've toyed with the idea of buying an RX8, after seeing the complexity/potential maintenance nightmare of this engine, that desire is no longer on my bucket list, thanks for settling this matter for me!
Also if you want to get the most out of your air impact, get one of those 5 gallon tanks. Put a T on the filler, 1" diameter; run the biggest hose you can manage up to the tool with matching fittings and the improved flow will feed the tool better. It'll need time to refill between blasts of course.
Good tip for sure! The reel I use is likely a pressure killer
Back in 1978 One of the college tutors said of the Wankel engine "Clever design but likely to be 20 years before material technology makes it really viable." Mr Weston was right on many things but not this, maybe in another 20 years... Another great video and very interesting too. Thank you for all the good stuff you put up.
It would be fun to build a Wankel-powered AMC Pacer so that the Pacer would be as AMC originally intended!
I always thought these were cool and have always wanted one. But when he mentioned that they usually fall apart by around 90k miles, I suddenly remembered why I never bought one. I work with a guy who has an RX-7. He always talks about the "fun" he has keeping that thing going. You can understand why some people LS swap them.
What, no "test", no dipstick thrash? Heresy I say! Great job Eric.
Rotary engines seem like a royal PITA. That's probably because I don't have a very good understanding of them, but this teardown video was an eye-opener. Thanks for sharing!
The 13B, 12A etc older engines are actually pretty easy to rebuild (this is coming from an LS guy, they are also easy).. doing it good is another story though :)
That's the trade off of having fewer moving parts
@@andrewgarcia3136 I guess, but like I said it may well be due to my very rudimentary knowledge of those engines. Maybe if I learn more about them I'll have a better appreciation of them.
my brother bought a new RX2, many years ago. He picked it up from the dealership & we drove it straight down to the Bay area in CA for my other brother's wedding. Man, that thing was smooth, fast, and quiet. I had great fun driving it, but I think my brother didn't get much more than 100k miles out of it, and it wasn't worth fixing it.
Awesome! Total rotary engine teardown "documentary ". Modern marvel " what a rotary engine looks like on the inside"
Loved my ‘83 RX7-GSL with the 12A that bought in ‘85 and drove for six years with no engine problems. But I recognize that I got rid of it before its inherent design flaws became an issue for me.
I have to say I'm so happy I came across your videos, they help me after a long stressful day. Not sure what it is about tearing engines down that calms me but it does! Cant wait to see the Cyote motor apart!
Am I the only one that thinks he has a passing resemblance to Adam Sandler? Adam should be so blessed to have this guys working knowledge of an engine teardown.
11:50 Oh, they're almost exactly like the power valve on high performance 2 strokes. Neat.
Found your channel by accident, you're good at speaking, I could listen to this for hours lol, keep doing your thing, it comes natural, and that's what people look for
Very cool teardown! I've always wanted to part one, but why get dirty when I can sit back and watch you. Thanks again.
I've pulled a lot of these engines apart.
I really enjoyed this upload as I've wondered what these rotary engines looked like since they came out in the Mazda. I remember early on that a lot of guys hopped these up and made some serious power. Thanks.
THANK YOU! Iv always wanted to see how these rotary work!
Gear Porn, Im excited...Love this channel.
When you put steel bolts in an aluminum case you get electrolysis which is what causes corrosion and bolts to lock up. All bolts in an aluminum housing should either be coated with an anti seize compound or have steel helical inserts. Obviously automaker will not go to that cost. Bolts should never be dry and should have some type of lube, unless specifically denied by the automaker. I come from the aerospace industry, 36 years experience in assembly and testing of electric motors and blowers. In our designs we always used helical inserts.
29:19 SPOT ON... though you could say that for any car ever. You mentioned you have an RX-7... if it's one of the twin-turbos, THAT would explain your calmness... if you can deal with 94 million vacuum lines, everything else is cake! :)
Not sure how I landed on this channel but its cool!! Neat to see him taking engines apart and seeing the insides. Good job! I'll keep watching!
Thank you really enjoyed this, see plenty of TH-cam with old rotaries but never seen a renesis disassembled. I admit to being biased, I love rotaries , I agree they aren’t necessarily as durable as the average piston engine, but disagree with your view they are bad engines. It’s all about the driving experience and they are just fantastic to drive. Even if you have to pay a bit of a cost, in all senses, to own one I think it’s worth it.
He owns an rx7 and says he likes rotaries. They’re just not for noobs.
They're good in some ways and not so great in others. I feel like the 13B-RE was the best of them. Those things actually lasted a sustained amount of time and seems less finicky than the REW. Less potential, but less headaches. REW just had so much shoved into such a small area and is relatively miserable to work on. The Renesis seems like a more finicky FC engine that never really delivered the goods. FC is the most practical of the 3, but the worse chassis and suspension. FD is raw. 8 seemed like it might be a great option for a car, but the interiors seems to be of lower durability than FDs (which are already pretty low). As for the cars I think their chassis are what give them their driving experience. FD is still an amazing car to me even when I drove other engines. I think a low torque high reving engine like a K could deliver a similar feel with some more vibrations and I'd imagine better TQ. If anyone hashes out something to do with the 8 chassis I'll probably get another one, but when we already have a supercharged ND it seems redundant. I'd still want it to add to my imaginary ugly cars collection along with a Merkur.
@@jinxtacy Lucky 7 Racing is putting a REW into my Rx8 right now. You're right about them being finicky. A brand new block from Mazda ended burning oil somehow, so doing a rebuild on a new engine :scratch-head: anyway. Doing street port while they are in there. But the reason I did this is because of the way this car handles and for the price, can't really be beaten. Longer wheel base allows for more stable high-speed handling versus a Miata.
My 40th AE is pretty to me, but i guess i have odd taste, haha.
@@TexasVexes I like the car a lot I just think they're overstyled. I've only been in three. First one was a turbocharged 375 wheel horsepower RX8 from Minnesota, the second was a Speedvision car with a Motec. The third was just a intake and exhaust yellow car that I wanted to see how it fit. I did not care for the ergonomics and I was kind of surprised to see how the interiors lasted at least for a car that lived outside. You're in good hands from what I've heard about Lucky7.
my 1990 GTU second gen first engine lasted 185,000 miles. U.S.A. it was a great car. i loved it. the second engine was removed at 245,000 miles. not because anything was wrong with it, but because someone pulled out in front of me and i "T boned" them at 45mph. when he pulled out in front of me, i was less than 30 ft from him. it totaled the car. i was depressed over it for nearly a year. i kept that car in great shape. all of the suspension bushings were replaced, the transmission was replaced. all of the plastic inside the car was new straight from mazda. if it broke it would get a new part. it was factory except the seats. i put racing seats and a racing steering wheel in it. that was the only non factory part in the car. i loved it. i now have an RX-8, and i know it is not as reliable as my GTU was, but i will be pulling the engine soon and sending it off to get it reworked and modded so that it will be more reliable. i dont think it will ever be as reliable as a second gen 7, but hopefully more reliable than it is now. it has 80K on it and has zero compression. i bought it for $500. it looks brand new in and out. it looks really nice, and i cant wait to drive it.
After 50+ years in the trade,this is my first look at a rotatery mess!!!!!
And that's exactly what they are..a mess. It amazes me Mazda has kept making them all those years with all the problems they have..
@@oldcrook510 The biggest problem is they are inefficient as hell lol and are terrible for emissions which is every government's biggest fear in the world rn haha
@@oldcrook510
The Renysis was absolutely a disaster. They essentially re-engineered it with the intake and exhaust ports on the side to make it more efficient and more emissions compliant. The earlier generation engines 12a and 13B were more reliable if properly cared for, which I think was one of the major problems. There were definitely things you needed to do as an owner if you wanted to have it last a reasonable amount of time.
I had a couple different rx7s both of which were early 1st gen cars. And each of them went 150,000 Miles
They were rather inefficient for their displacement however produced pretty good power for the displacement, And they were far simpler. Even complete they looked a lot like the stage where he said it was a short block.
Honestly I think the early 13 b with the fuel injection or probably the best.
You had more complete combustion and so less carbon problems.
But mechanically they were basically the same as the 12 A.
Eventually piston engines overtook them power wise anyway.
I would say one advantage that they do have is they are incredibly light and compact for the power they put out.
Its literally easy. There is nothing to those engines.
Love the T-shirt, for years I used only Zalinsky auto parts “car parts made for the American working man” but ended up switching to Callahan because of the warranty on the box. 😂 Really enjoy your videos, thanks!
Maybe you can contact the Vargas Bros (Angel Motorsports) and see if they want to buy the engine. That way can try to do some sort of YT collab video with them
That was brilliant. To actually see the insides of a rotary motor was brilliant. Thanks. That was really intresting.
Back in the days when the first rotary engines were used (NSU RO 80), owners of these cars would greet eachother holding up their fingers, indicating how many enigine swaps they already had...
I used to have a 91 Rx-7 and I gotta say that it was my favorite driving car ever. Thank goodness someone wrecked it before I had to work on it
Great video. That was the first time I've seen a full teardown of a rotary. The apex seals are the Achilles heel of this engine. No wonder they didn't become popular.
Nope, neglect, cheap fuel and treating them like piston engines kills apex seals on rotaries, this is only exacerbated by Mazda deciding to inject engine oil into the intake to lubricate the apex seals and people cheaping out on oil. Using rotary engines without bringing them up to operating temperature and regularly redlining them does them no service either. Basically rotary engines are not for the average driver, if you don't know how to use one properly or are willing to learn you should probably stick to simple piston engines.
Comparing the amount of money poured into the development of the Otto cycle piston engine over the last 90 years to the amount spent on the development of the Wankel rotary engine and you will have a perspective of how skewed the development really is.
My first car was a 1979 RX7, loved it while it lasted, lol. Later I got an old 1983 RX7 while I was in the military in the 90's. That car had oil leaks, clutch issues and every other rotary issue. I traded it in for a new 93 Probe and I asked for $500 for it. The dealership wasn't to happy when they took a test drive in it after I already signed the paperwork, lol. They were real quiet afterwards.
Well if I've learned one thing from this video, it's that I don't EVER want to own a car with a rotary engine! Dang what a pain in the butt to work on.
Wrong. Less parts then a piston engine. Less moving parts to. Easier to fix to
If you're the kind of guy that pays someone else to do your enthusiasm builds, get a honda or some American v8, if you like doing your own maintenance, then you'll be fine with a rotary.
Thanks for the video. You confirmed I NEVER want to ever work on a rotary engine.
The core is way easier than a piston. Trust me.
"Just a bunch of 10's so its pretty easy" yeah, as long as you have a 10mm
That one that always happens to be missing, well in my workshop anyway 😂😂
The elusive 10mm
;))))))
@@TheLiamerator that's for every workshop.
A miracle happened. Last week I ACTUALLY found a 10mm that disappeared 5 years ago.
Nice work! Never seen a full tear down of a rotary before so that was cool!
When you hear chasing down ignition problems and rotary engine in the same sentence you already know the carnage you will find inside.
But he didn't find any carnage, like none, zero. Also, my 13B Rx7 has been running cheap LS2 coils for 8 years no issue
@@arrancoote Yeah I was shocked when he split it open to see it was still all together. Wasn't a ignition problem. Just a worn out low compression problem. You having a rotary engine know the destruction that detonation will cause to the apex seals though.
Probably just had a weak starter
Good job I watched the whole thing nonstop which normally I have a maximum 6 minute attention span
16:04
I like to think the chipmunk chatter is expletives of frustration lol.
After watching. Defiantly not interested in a rotary. .
I want to thank you for an extremely entertaining and informative show! I have never seen a rotary engine taken apart. I am impressed!
You run em long enough they tear themselves down.
Hilarious!
They run out of compression long before anything else can wear out, stopping them from running altogether
@@Lazaralis th-cam.com/video/xECUrlnXCqk/w-d-xo.html
Owned a 2003 RX8 for 10 years. The ignition coils went bad on me every 20k miles on the dot. No other major issues over the the years. Smaller issues included bad coolant reservoir sensor, a rear strut leak and interior radio lcd going bad. Car had little power and no torque to speak of. It was such a huge difference when I eventually got rid of it for a 2013 335i.
I once encountered one without enough compression to even start. The owner got 130,000 miles. Mazda gave him a great price on a replacement engine. I never heard exactly how much he had to pay, but Mazda supposedly gave him a deal to protect their name.
Nah
No way, mazda doesn't care about their customers after you buy their new car. I've heard too many stories of mazda trying to not repair something under warranty to believe you.
Well, that was back in 2008. Maybe Mazda decided to be awful?
Thanks Eric. I remember the Mazda rotary’s from the 70s. I have never seen one taken apart before seeing this video.
A coworker replaced his worn out rotary in his RX-8 with a 3.2L V6 out of a Taurus SHO & 5-speed manual from a Ranger. Took him about 2 years of scrounging and fabricating but it turned out to be a surprisingly good albeit somewhat mild mannered swap.
That was a unique tear down. Thanks. The actual engine without the harnesses and tubes/pipes is a unique motor.