Ray, my friend had a rotary Mazda years ago. He had the flooding, no start issue many times. The dealer’s tech told him to add a couple ounces of transmission fluid to a suction line and crank. Started instantly every time. Made lots of smoke, but it worked.
Running a rotary for a short period without getting to operating temperature is number one way to flooding and fouling plugs and causing a no start condition
Once you start a rotary engine, you gotta leave it running. My uncle works on race cars that are rotary engines. He said that once these engines hit a certain point...they just crap out.
@@deplorablelibertarian Especially the Renesis engine in the RX-8. The ports are on the side plates instead of in the rotor housing so excess fuel is not slung out of the engine. Also tend to accumulate carbon on the seals for the same reason, which hurts compression and increases flooding risk even further.
I was getting my radiator cleaned and dipped when I saw a rotary in the shop. You do rotary's. NO, that is a special case for the bosses friend. I've been waiting decades to open one up. I was at junk yard, and heard on speaker your rx7 rotor is at counter for pickup. I dropped everything leaving my tools to go check it out. It was a damn brake rotor. Went back to pulling my part disappointed.
as someone who ones an rx-8 best way to get to the spark plugs is to take the wheel off on the driver side and you have perfect access to all 4. good to see a mechanic actually working on an rx-8 instead of just saying "its an rx-8 cant do anything"
Most you tubers skip filming the hard stuff and just show the results as if it all happened instantly. I appreciate you Ray for filming everything. I feel like I am right there with you. What a great video. A friend of mine LS swapped one of these and uses it for racing. It is a beast. Not a big fan of rotary motors for all the reasons you have ably demonstrated here. Can’t wait for the new merch! Thank you
There is a Special procedure to shut down a Rotary after Starting and running for short periods of time. The Mazda dealership should have known that. There is a TSB ... Basicly you dont Turn them Off at idle. You Turn them Off at about 2k-3k rpm to clear Out the junk.
Banning rotary from racing killed them. Without funding and opportunity to stress them in racing. There was no way for mazda to work on them without it becoming just money pit. And to be frank. They are still using them in their new cars as generators. Plus we have LiquidPiston guys
@@SmallKittyPaw I mean they aren't banned from all kinds of racing. The aftermarket has some good options. If it was really an issue they'd take some advice from the aftermarket.
That was corrected with the RX7. I started with Mazda rotary when they were first introduced. Main issue with the RX8 is the US govt requiring thinner engine oil and folks using synthetic oil.@@the_car_guy5915
I am thoroughly convinced that if an individual were granted access to an automotive ECM repair facility they would find the following: A large rectangular room with netted goals at each end with a rack containing hockey sticks. The repair procedure would go like this: The manager/overlord drops the ECM on the floor. The repair technicians then slap the ECM around the room with their hockey sticks. Once the ECM is slap shotted into a goal it is deemed repaired. The customer's credit/debit card is then tapped and the ECM is packaged and sent via UPS/USPS/FedEX/DHL. The package is dropkicked into the back of the delivery van. During transport the packaged ECM bounces and bangs around the back of the van while the driver takes corners on two wheels and gets airborne over railroad crossings. Upon arrival at it's destination the delivery driver dribbles the package to the customer's front doorstep. That is the ECM remanufacturing process in a nutshell. 🤣🤣
Makes me glad that the one time I had to replace an ECM I pulled it out of a front-end collision car in the junkyard. An older car (1988 Chevy Celebrity, if I remember the year right) that had computer problems was fixed by getting a new EPROM and having a shop reprogram it.
The real shame is it may have been the decision of a person who sits in an office and accepted Ray's repair request might have burned the people actually doing the work. Or it is such a small shop that it is the same person doing both jobs?
Ray, To get the plugs out easily next time pull the front left wheel off , there’s easy access with the wheel removed, you can casually reach in and remove them
I had one of these. It was a spare car. We learned that you can't jockey these around. ( That floods them) You should also change the oil after an extreme flood. The oil level increases from the fuel getting past the rotary seals. Fun car
For the Renesis rotary, a redline a day keeps Ray away. Unfortunately, this one's an automatic. Not only negates the high-rev characteristic, but iirc also removes one of the oil coolers. Heat is a prime enemy of this engine.
I used to track mine. Loved that car. Ran it till the apex seals were done, and in hindsight I shouldn't have gotten rid of it and just fixed it, but I traded it in and got me a Miata ND that I now love.
girlfriend used to bug me about my driving in my rx7. Till I loaned it to her while I fixed her car. Damn, it is on rails and wants to just cruise at 100mph. I love it in the rain with the sunroof open. The water being blasted by the slipstream overhead is so soothing.
about the only thing I didn't like was the fan inside did not move enough air for me. Disgusted when they put in the back seats with the 13B engines. The storage box lids hold the 6x9 speakers right behind you. The rx7 holds my rc helicopter perfect, rotor goes from front windshield to the back. Mine is now a mutt. I have parts from 79 to 86 in it. Was a little mad they had a different bolt pattern and I had to get an entire set of rims from an 86 to get my limited slip differential back end installed.
I do Gauge cluster repairs. When I get a unit that is beyond economical repair. I take photos if it is a fault that is visible. And send it to the customer. The only thing they pay for is shipping and I give them a discount on future service. I also offer to buy the core as well. Because when some one has a damaged bezel or a PCB that is burned I can use that core as parts. And some times there are PLA's and other special parts that aren't available especially for a 20yo car.
I owned a '78, put 85k before the seals went. Manual choke, solid rear axel, had to time the points to each rotor, no ecu, I got better at it than the dealer out of necessity. So much fun to drive!!!
My son had a Rx 8 it was only a couple years old and low mileage but he was working on that thing all the time...by the time he got rid of it he had learned about everything about those things
im impressed that you are even working on this. most shops wont touch a rotary engine. it was flooded because someone shut it off before the engine heated up. judging by that spark plug it was way past due for spark plug replacement. they should be changed no later than every 30K to the tune of $130 for a set. also, it would be much easier for you if you took off the drivers front wheel. they are right there very easy to get to. you are exactly wrong. the leading is on the bottom and the trailing is on the top. the spark plugs themselves have an L and T on the plug to tell you which is which.
Good job starting the rotary. When thoroughly flooded, I was never able get my RX7 to start until I pulled the plugs AND the cranked with the fuel pump fuse removed (real flood mode). Just like you, lots of fuel in the exhaust. I learned to never shut the engine off until it ran for at least a few minutes.
My old T2 suffered from slightly leaking injectors which wouldn't allow it to hot start ever. I learned the gentle art of solo bump starting while I waited for new injectors to arrive.
Ray it would have been easier to remove the drivers wheel to get to the spark plugs through the wheel well, but also leave the plugs out and crank the engine with foot on the floor to get ride of the fuel
Plugs are dead easy to get out but you are supposed to access them from inside the wheel arch. There is even slots in the guard liner specifically for access.
@@craigfin3222 I'm not entirely sure but I think Ray never claimed to know everything about every car and would never make mistakes?! and yes, there are always comments under the videos from people who think they know everything better, that's nothing new and will always be the case, not just with Ray 🤷
lol. Did Ray just find out by an oreilly parts delivery guy that this engine has two different plugs? Don’t yall have website access that tells you everything about the vehicles you work on? Like alldata etc
I always consult a repair manual before doing these jobs. And yes, if you own a shop and accept a car in the shop to work on for money, you should have a repair manual for that car. If you can’t afford the manual, stay home in mommies basement and don’t say you can work on it. And yes, there are e-manuals.
I had a 1979 RX-7 and it ran great. Never saw this issue. It used 4 plugs, all the same, center electrode with 3 side electrodes. ( I once bought plugs with just 2 side electrodes and it just didn’t perform). It ran so smoothly that when stopped at a light I had to look at the tach to see if it way still running 🤪
I was just starting my tuneup when my dad stopped by, and said I have that dialed in. Told him I hadn't started yet, was warming it up before draining the oil. LOL It is amazing 45 years later and the parts catalogs are still wrong. You need to buy the automatic starter for the manual car, and the manual starter for the automatics.
This is why I love the channel and what you do/stand for! You’re not afraid to call yourself as a business out if something isn’t up to your standards and you do your best to make it right! I wish you were closer to Charleston, SC! Probably not worth a fuel bill and hotel stay for me to bring my Silverado but I wish it was. lol Super hard to find a trustworthy shop around here! Anyway, love the channel and yours/Lauren’s morals! You two are amazing!
I myself am pretty apprehensive about using ECM repair places that I have never used I had to once because the normal place was upfront to me saying that they didn't think they could work on it. The place that I went to, like you took my money to almost send me an email the same day received saying they could not work on it, and kept my money as a "diagnostic fee". smh. Great Video Ray!
I scored a nice all black 1991 RX7 a few years back for $300 on Craigslist, guy didn't have a clue about rotary engines so I got a great car for a steal. (It just had fouled plugs!)
In the day I had a Mazda RX3. I bought it in Florida when I was stationed in Key West. This was 1973. It had a rotary engine. Ran the daylights out of that engine. I loved the performance and durability of the car. Ran across country 5 times. If not for getting T-Boned I think I would still have tat car. Loved it.
I love to see how much this channel has grown. Thank you for putting out such great content to watch while I am at work all day. I am no mechanic and never plan to, but I love to watch!
The one mod I absolutely recommend on rotaries: fuel cut switch. If it floods, just kill the fuel pump and crank until it fires, then turn the pump back on. Sometimes even flood-clear mode doesn't work very well where manually shutting off the fuel pump will solve the problem every time. It's also useful as an anti-theft feature.
I had a 89.5 Mazda RX7 and I took Spark Plugs out of it, no problem. Probably one of the first mechanical things I ever did. I loved that rotary engine. Gas was much cheaper back then though. Knew a guy in Florida that had one making over 900 HP. Very good engine if you have knowledge about them.
Pretty reliable too if you properly maintain them. My late pre-facelift Turbo II has been converted to premix now and runs much cleaner than when it still sucked on engine oil. There's also no more emissions stuff on it either, lots of oomph when the uprated turbo starts doing its thing. I love running it up to the redline buzzer.
Thank you for putting the models you are working on in the titles again. Clickbait titles are only good at the start, but later when looking for a video it is difficult to find. Love your videos
A long time ago, I owned a 1988 RX-7. Never again. They overheat easily, and there goes your compression. They reqire constant care, like a puppy. BTW, I got my plugs out using 3 extensions and a swivel joint.
@robertsmith2956 Might have been. I just learned that if you crank it, let it run for a few minutes before you turn it off. I never had a problem after I did that.
We own a 2018 Mazda 3 with the 2.5 L engine and it's a great car. I'm personally a fan of Mazda, as they are innovators and while I admire the innovation of the rotary engine and Mazda's decision to use it, I can't escape the feeling it's a fancy version of a 2-stroke engine. It has a great power to weight ratio but it burns oil and fouls spark plugs. It's an advanced version of the engine in my chain saw.
Mazda seem to be the only Japanese car manufacturer that still has build quality. I know the rotary engine can be annoying, but when they are put together right, then wow Nelly, your in for a treat. I built a 6 rotor engine. We really went to town, to make a truely Superlative engine. I ran 2 fuel tanks, one with super unleaded, the other tank had 120 octane race fuel. I used fuel metering tech from a jet engine to very accurately put fuel into a small third tank, this tank fed the engine. The ECU had 3 maps, each map used more 120 octane fuel. I got 101, 108 and 115 octane fuel, that I could switch between in the car whilst driving. 8:1 compression ratio as we were running turbos. 6 speed manual gearbox with a LSD that could be locked for quick get aways! 730hp at the hubs @ 9250rpm. 645ft/lb at the hubs @ 5200rpm. Oh my, I loved that car.
To do the plugs in an rx8, you take the driver side wheel off, then pull the little panel out in the firewall, basically gives you straight in access to the plugs.
Yup, a little bit of an oil film helps the apex seals provide a much better seal. The normally present film gets washed away by the fuel during flooding.
In the UK (and I know this will be controversial/lead to an argument!) but my experience is these engines are good for 60-80,000 miles before low compression issues arise. Yes, I’ve heard of owners running them to 100,000+ miles but I’ve never actually met one.
my uncle had I believe RX-5 it was rolled and he rebuilt it it was very peppie motor! 4 door sedan do not know what ever happened to it. but it looked like a monster to work on! great job! it is hard to un flood that rotary engine! Take care Ray! “the magic man” bring the dead cars to life!
Remove the left wheel and you should get easy access to the spark plugs. For de flooding try slowly lifting your foot up on the throttle till it fires then push down again and do it again till your able to get it to fire.
spark plugs, you got two different ones, one leading, and one trailing, if the engine is flooded, jumper the battery with external power ( what ever it is, extra battery, car what ever) gas pedal down to the floor ( kills the gas pump ) and started multiple times, you will hear it run and shut it off as it cleans the rotor chamber. Done this many times on my old 2010
Hey Ray, there is another youtuber, Northridge Fix, this guy is awesome with electronics. He usually repairs consumer electronics like iPhones, on chiplevel. He repaired key fobs already and different stuff he made working again. Maybe give him a call, no fix no pay he claims. Now you have an ECM over? Maybe give it a try.
I have to admit, I loved the RX-2 I had in high school. It was a blast to drive, very peppy, and extremely easy to perform maintenance items on in my high school ROP Automotive Class.
Most of the time my children that are under 40 now bring me their cars with little or no gas in the tank when they want service done on them. I don’t know if they expect me to fill it up but if it needs to set the evap system it has to have at least 1/4 tank of gas
Hello Ray and Wifey Unit, I was just on your merchandise website to purchase a shirt. Hoping to find a shirt just like what you wear on the videos with your name on it and and Rainman Ray pocket patch. The short sleeve blue work shirt. It would sell awesome. Please think about it as I would be the first purchaser. I love your videos and have 2 other friends watching them now.
That's leading and trailing plugs. Reminds me of the time i changed out plugs on a '75 Chevy Monza V8. After the two and a half hours it took to replace them I looked up the spark plug changing procedure in our Chilton manual(hate Chilton), the manual said to unbolt the engine mount bolts and jack up the engine to properly reach them. 😮
@@mustbetrue1602 well,working for a guy that leased service stations from the oil companies at the time,the boss had his own collection of work manuals. That was something necessary for the time. The boss would go through mechanics like changing underwear because each one had their quirks along with some being outright crooks and thieves. There a few really good mechanics that ran their own businesses and mechanics that worked for dealerships which had formal training by the car manufacturers. Those were the coveted jobs to have as they got the necessary training and equipment to work on newer cars. It got to where our place of business had to turn away more and more work because we weren't equipped and didn't have the expertise and training and diagnostic tools that the dealership mechanics had for newer cars. I myself was a GS man but could change out parts that the boss would diagnose. I was making only $4.25 an hour at the time so I took my uncle's advice and applied for a job at the premium concrete ready mix company in my city. I got an immediate pay raise to $7.26 an hour with plenty of overtime driving a mixer and I never looked back. I retired recently making almost $27 an hour plus retirement benefits. As I'm mechanically inclined I still worked on my own cars and even worked on some relatives cars for fun.
@@mustbetrue1602that's why my friends and I got the bright idea to photocopy the sections of manual we needed at the library... At the time, it was a nickel a page.
I used flagship for the ecm in my 06 Chrysler 300c. It lasted about 50k miles and crapped out. Tried to warranty it and it took many phone calls, emails and live chats but I finally got the replacement 6 months later.
The rotary has a long combustion chamber because of the design. The leading plug fires first and the trailing fires after to facilitate the flame propagation in the correct direction for complete combustion of the fuel. The non standard plugs are supposed to be fouling resistant but if the engine is not run hard occasionally the carbon won’t burn off and will end up like the plugs he removed.
You should see the distribute on the 12A engine. 4 plugs, 6 posts. 4 90 degree offset, and above it a pair of them. Never could figure out how that worked.
One thing that I learned from the older rotory engines especially if it gets flooded have to add some oil to the cylinders or in the gas to help get the rotor seals to make good seal again
I ordered a Flagshit ECM for my car a year ago and they sent me one that couldn't possibly have been programmed for my car. The car ran much better on the original ECM. They are aholes.
All Ray had to do is check the BBB site. Read the complaints. Of course, that’s too easy. Just like taking the wheel off and changing the plugs in 10 minutes.
In 1975 I was staying at a motel while working on some core drilling for Anaconda Copper in Navaho Arizona. The owner of a Mazda Rotary car spent the night at the same hotel and it would not start. The local gas station owner was not a mechanic, but knew I was a licensed mechanic and asked me to look at it. I pulled out one of the lower plugs and coolant came pouring out. That told me that the seals were blown and I did not have the tools or time to work on it. Mazda was contacted and they towed the car to Phoenix and repaired her engine free of charge. She was put up in a hotel in Phoenix while the work was done, also free of charge. I was impressed by the service as she was out of warranty. The plugs on the engine I worked on were very accessible.
I thought I complained a lot about not being able to get to or reach my spark plugs to change them. But watching this my plugs are child's play to do. Ray, you are a master contortionist to get to these plugs. You are to be commended.
Why commend someone for showing how to do it the wrong way. It takes about 5 minutes through the wheel well or if you’re too lazy to take the wheel off, from underneath.
Retired Jeep tech reporting in. I too know the pain of rotary engines. Had a customer bring one in for this very service. The service writer may have gotten a wrench hurled at him. I'm not an expert on them, but they're a ticking time bomb as the miles creep up to like 100k, the apex seals wear out and have to be replaced. I have a buddy who has 2 complete engines, he just swaps them out every 80k and rebuilds the one that came out in his spare time. Glad to see this one was just mega flooded.
I like 99% of your videos. As long as there are some ramblings and views good videos or can't see videos. Being taken for the ride is entertaining in itself for me.
Thanks for the video, if you're needing to get to the plugs again the best way is to remove the wheel and reach past the breaks to the spark plugs, also under the car is better than above the car.
I bought a refurbished Flagship ECM for my 2001 Camry through Ebay. The ECM was bad but my purchase price of $270 was promptly refunded. I bought two salvage ECMs for $50 and got a local electronics expert to recap them.
A few years ago. Manual transmission version. Same problem. Just put a rope onto it and pulled it. After 10 secs or so, it started to go. Took around 25 secs before it ran clean on all chambers. Never even lifted the engine cover.
Your commentary on your videos is superior, and today that came in handy for this one where visibility was minimal at best. So many modern vehicles that come through your shop give me an education, this rotary engine...well okay, some. You will tackle any job.
The used car dealer I worked for in 1978 bought two 1975 RX3 wagons at a car auction. They were good sellers. He sold one 4 times and the other 3 times. They came back flooded after a few weeks and the customers traded them for different vehicles. I figured out that the way to get them started again was to remove the plugs, crank the engine to clear it, install the plugs, set the acetylene torch to a good flame, turn the tanks off and back on and use the mixture to start the vehicles.
But Mazda spent like $700 million over the years developing the engine. They can't give up on it so it's still on the books as a live design. Just to keep the accountants semi-happy.
As a person who owned a 1982 Mazda RX-7 with a 12-A Rotary engine, the lead plug is the primary ignition plug, the trailing plug is to burn any other remaining fuel in the combustion chamber as it rotates around, in order to clean the emissions better.
Ray, this must be included if you ever do a best of series. Shameless self promotion. Smutty innuendo. Pointless wittering. I loved it😂 You said that your shop didn’t perform well. I think it did an excellent job you sorted it for your customer. 👍
I’ve had some nice cars over my years like S3, Subaru WRX, Focus RS. The RX8 I had was the best to drive than all of those, but it was just not a reliable enough vehicle to nip to the shop in as we flooded it too many times. Take it out on a winding road and you’ll experience something close to a super car for a lot less money. Plugs for the Mazda are expensive, and the easy way to change them is from the wheel well with a “wobbly “. If Mazda could ever get that car reliable, I’d buy another in a heartbeat.❤
Ray. Do not beat yourself up over that Mazda those rotary engines are hard to work on. They’re a beast when they are running right they’re a hell of an engine but when they’re not running right, they’re hard to figure out. They’re hard to work on. they’re hard to get running right I owned one back in the 70s and RX four and it had the big rotary engine in it at the time the biggest one they made and it was carbureted had a four barrel on it. I made it to 100,000 miles with it, but we were always in and out of the shop, keeping that thing tuned up like I said it’s hard to work on a good mechanic knows and understands them very well. A standard mechanic isn’t gonna cut it. I guarantee you it takes a good Mazda mechanic that knows those engines in and out to be able to fix them and turn them up properly, been there done that they drink a lot of oil they design that way that’s what keeps those rotors wet but they’re a good engine otherwise for their size they put out a lot of power high revving power lotta fun on the race track back when I had mine we didn’t have all the smog equipment they have today But we still had the catalytic converter stuff that they think they called heat exchanger then they bolted right up to the exhaust outlet constantly they are prone to cracking just part of the deal of owning that engine but anyway glad you got it running and with those old plugs there’s no way it could’ve fired no way They were shorted out just by looking at them. The video took me back to my old days of racing the old Mazda RX four before they built the RX seven have fun. Enjoy your nice warm weather being cold here in Albuquerque.
The most amazing thing about this video is that you didn't completely cook the starter. But I haven't watched to the end of the video yet, so there's still hope.
My son had an 08 RX* and it was a fun car, but definitely requires a lot of attention and maintenance to operate properly. He ultimately lost compression in it and we ended up selling it rather than rebuilding the motor. Looking back, I would love to have kept that car and rebuilt the motor on it. Looks like a lot of fun to work on.
Don’t ever shut it off cold. That’s what causes the flooding - they run stupid rich until they warm up. Also you can squirt some oil or atf in the plug holes to help get the compression back. They only sound like that cranking when they are blown up or flooded.
This process was a real pain before Mazda upgraded to a gear reduction starter. We used to pull-start the manual trans models. Looks like this one is an auto though… just gotta keep hammering it. And btw, trailing top, leading lower… the plugs are labeled T/L and the rotor housings are stamped accordingly beside the spark plug holes. Don’t wanna get them wrong
Ray, it’s a good thing you make terrific content and are funny and knowledgeable and honest… I had to sit through a 12 second, unskippable, political advertisement featuring some senile guy to watch this thing finally fire…. I’m going to go buy a candy bar with my earnings from yesterday now….
"I'm just gonna poke around till it slides in."
We've all been there! 😉
Giggity.
I was going to comment on that, but I'm too late. Unintentionally, Ray always finds something funny to make me laugh. What a character.😂
Make sure you apply a liberal amount of anti-seize.
Hahaha
Does astroglide make anti seize?
lol, now Ray is going to get invited out to that ECM repair place 🤣
I don't think that will happen in this case.
Hey Ray, take my Flagshit ECM and ask then WTF?
"That ECM repair place" sounds ominously like "A farm upstate" where sick pets go when kids are young.
If he talks crap about any serious part on a car, like a computer or injector...the manufacturer will cry and complain.
They'll teach him all about blue stamps and upcharging.
Ray, my friend had a rotary Mazda years ago. He had the flooding, no start issue many times. The dealer’s tech told him to add a couple ounces of transmission fluid to a suction line and crank. Started instantly every time. Made lots of smoke, but it worked.
The rotary may be crap. But that starter is gold plated FIRE!
Running a rotary for a short period without getting to operating temperature is number one way to flooding and fouling plugs and causing a no start condition
Once you start a rotary engine, you gotta leave it running. My uncle works on race cars that are rotary engines. He said that once these engines hit a certain point...they just crap out.
@@deplorablelibertarianyour uncle is an idiot then and/or someone is making up stories. They run for a long time, they just require extra maintenance
@@deplorablelibertarian Especially the Renesis engine in the RX-8. The ports are on the side plates instead of in the rotor housing so excess fuel is not slung out of the engine. Also tend to accumulate carbon on the seals for the same reason, which hurts compression and increases flooding risk even further.
From what I've heard, you also want to get them warm to prevent carbon building up on the housing which isn't good for the seals for multiple reasons
specially when just warm.
“ We’ve come so far”, except we’ve lost the “Doodly-doo-de-doo”! I want that back!
he should cut it from an old video and put it in editing when he switches views at least once per video
The Wife Unit had that on her phone and played it for him a while back. He DIDN'T like it.
Yes that is spot on
I WANT THE DOOODLY DOOO' BACK!!
Me too! I want it back!!!!😅
I must give you props for not being afraid to work on this rotary engine Ray, 75% of mechanics will outright reject working on them!
66% of mechanics tend to be component replacers anyway. The other 9% are scared of technology they don't understand.
I was getting my radiator cleaned and dipped when I saw a rotary in the shop. You do rotary's. NO, that is a special case for the bosses friend.
I've been waiting decades to open one up. I was at junk yard, and heard on speaker your rx7 rotor is at counter for pickup. I dropped everything leaving my tools to go check it out. It was a damn brake rotor. Went back to pulling my part disappointed.
as someone who ones an rx-8 best way to get to the spark plugs is to take the wheel off on the driver side and you have perfect access to all 4. good to see a mechanic actually working on an rx-8 instead of just saying "its an rx-8 cant do anything"
Do they still use a single bolt holding the flywheel on?
Most you tubers skip filming the hard stuff and just show the results as if it all happened instantly. I appreciate you Ray for filming everything. I feel like I am right there with you. What a great video. A friend of mine LS swapped one of these and uses it for racing. It is a beast. Not a big fan of rotary motors for all the reasons you have ably demonstrated here. Can’t wait for the new merch! Thank you
he
There is no film involved. He is using an electronic camera, recording on computer memory. \he is not "filming".
@@The_DuMont_Network Wow, I think you get the troll crown, lol.
Those spark plugs are insanely easy to access from the bottom of the car! :)
😮💨🫨
There is a Special procedure to shut down a Rotary after Starting and running for short periods of time. The Mazda dealership should have known that. There is a TSB ...
Basicly you dont Turn them Off at idle. You Turn them Off at about 2k-3k rpm to clear Out the junk.
Rotaries seem like a technology that is perpetually 10 years from being perfected.
Kind of like cvts.
Right? It seems like they dropped it right before they found the right material for the DAMB APEX SEALS
Banning rotary from racing killed them. Without funding and opportunity to stress them in racing. There was no way for mazda to work on them without it becoming just money pit. And to be frank. They are still using them in their new cars as generators. Plus we have LiquidPiston guys
@@SmallKittyPaw I mean they aren't banned from all kinds of racing. The aftermarket has some good options. If it was really an issue they'd take some advice from the aftermarket.
That was corrected with the RX7. I started with Mazda rotary when they were first introduced. Main issue with the RX8 is the US govt requiring thinner engine oil and folks using synthetic oil.@@the_car_guy5915
I am thoroughly convinced that if an individual were granted access to an automotive ECM repair facility they would find the following: A large rectangular room with netted goals at each end with a rack containing hockey sticks. The repair procedure would go like this: The manager/overlord drops the ECM on the floor. The repair technicians then slap the ECM around the room with their hockey sticks. Once the ECM is slap shotted into a goal it is deemed repaired. The customer's credit/debit card is then tapped and the ECM is packaged and sent via UPS/USPS/FedEX/DHL. The package is dropkicked into the back of the delivery van. During transport the packaged ECM bounces and bangs around the back of the van while the driver takes corners on two wheels and gets airborne over railroad crossings. Upon arrival at it's destination the delivery driver dribbles the package to the customer's front doorstep. That is the ECM remanufacturing process in a nutshell. 🤣🤣
That would take more effort than I think they put into it😂
Makes me glad that the one time I had to replace an ECM I pulled it out of a front-end collision car in the junkyard.
An older car (1988 Chevy Celebrity, if I remember the year right) that had computer problems was fixed by getting a new EPROM and having a shop reprogram it.
The real shame is it may have been the decision of a person who sits in an office and accepted Ray's repair request might have burned the people actually doing the work.
Or it is such a small shop that it is the same person doing both jobs?
"We didn't fix anything. That'll be $40 per blue stamp"
That pretty much explains anything you send via the US Post Office, in my experience.
Ray, To get the plugs out easily next time pull the front left wheel off , there’s easy access with the wheel removed, you can casually reach in and remove them
That’s too easy. Ray likes to do things the hard way and cry about his wrist hurting 😂
I had one of these. It was a spare car. We learned that you can't jockey these around. ( That floods them) You should also change the oil after an extreme flood. The oil level increases from the fuel getting past the rotary seals.
Fun car
For the Renesis rotary, a redline a day keeps Ray away. Unfortunately, this one's an automatic. Not only negates the high-rev characteristic, but iirc also removes one of the oil coolers. Heat is a prime enemy of this engine.
I used to track mine. Loved that car. Ran it till the apex seals were done, and in hindsight I shouldn't have gotten rid of it and just fixed it, but I traded it in and got me a Miata ND that I now love.
girlfriend used to bug me about my driving in my rx7. Till I loaned it to her while I fixed her car. Damn, it is on rails and wants to just cruise at 100mph.
I love it in the rain with the sunroof open. The water being blasted by the slipstream overhead is so soothing.
@@BenMConner Should have at least kept the engine, and put it in the miata.
@@robertsmith2956 oh man, I regret getting rid of that car every day. I love my Miat, but there’s nothing like a 9k, fire breathing red-line.
I had a friend back in the 80's that had an RX7 Mazda, and it drove great. But the maintenance schedule must be followed. Thank you Ray.
Mt buddy had one too. That this was awesome
about the only thing I didn't like was the fan inside did not move enough air for me. Disgusted when they put in the back seats with the 13B engines. The storage box lids hold the 6x9 speakers right behind you.
The rx7 holds my rc helicopter perfect, rotor goes from front windshield to the back.
Mine is now a mutt. I have parts from 79 to 86 in it. Was a little mad they had a different bolt pattern and I had to get an entire set of rims from an 86 to get my limited slip differential back end installed.
I do Gauge cluster repairs. When I get a unit that is beyond economical repair. I take photos if it is a fault that is visible. And send it to the customer. The only thing they pay for is shipping and I give them a discount on future service.
I also offer to buy the core as well. Because when some one has a damaged bezel or a PCB that is burned I can use that core as parts.
And some times there are PLA's and other special parts that aren't available especially for a 20yo car.
I owned a '78, put 85k before the seals went. Manual choke, solid rear axel, had to time the points to each rotor, no ecu, I got better at it than the dealer out of necessity. So much fun to drive!!!
My son had a Rx 8 it was only a couple years old and low mileage but he was working on that thing all the time...by the time he got rid of it he had learned about everything about those things
They suck
@@stevestevens9046 automatic, or manual? If you don't mind me asking of course
@@YouNameItGaming automatic
@stevestevens9046 apparently manual ones have less issues, because the engine is able to rev higher
@@YouNameItGaming I didn't know that... I think a manual would be a blast to drive
im impressed that you are even working on this. most shops wont touch a rotary engine. it was flooded because someone shut it off before the engine heated up. judging by that spark plug it was way past due for spark plug replacement. they should be changed no later than every 30K to the tune of $130 for a set. also, it would be much easier for you if you took off the drivers front wheel. they are right there very easy to get to. you are exactly wrong. the leading is on the bottom and the trailing is on the top. the spark plugs themselves have an L and T on the plug to tell you which is which.
Good job starting the rotary. When thoroughly flooded, I was never able get my RX7 to start until I pulled the plugs AND the cranked with the fuel pump fuse removed (real flood mode). Just like you, lots of fuel in the exhaust. I learned to never shut the engine off until it ran for at least a few minutes.
My old T2 suffered from slightly leaking injectors which wouldn't allow it to hot start ever. I learned the gentle art of solo bump starting while I waited for new injectors to arrive.
Brave man, I'm a family mechanic. Just light regular maintenance on my family's vehicles. I wouldn't even try to work on those black magic machines!
New t-shirt design idea: “I should have been an astronaut!” Ray in a space suit holding a ratchet.
Ray replaces Jerry L. In the remake of the movie "Way, way out!"
while sitting in the Delorean
He'll have a tough time without GRAVITY.
Does brake clean work in space?
Good idea 👍
Ray it would have been easier to remove the drivers wheel to get to the spark plugs through the wheel well, but also leave the plugs out and crank the engine with foot on the floor to get ride of the fuel
Plugs are dead easy to get out but you are supposed to access them from inside the wheel arch. There is even slots in the guard liner specifically for access.
Yup, quite smooth
@@craigfin3222 I'm not entirely sure but I think Ray never claimed to know everything about every car and would never make mistakes?! and yes, there are always comments under the videos from people who think they know everything better, that's nothing new and will always be the case, not just with Ray 🤷
👍nice
lol. Did Ray just find out by an oreilly parts delivery guy that this engine has two different plugs? Don’t yall have website access that tells you everything about the vehicles you work on? Like alldata etc
I always consult a repair manual before doing these jobs. And yes, if you own a shop and accept a car in the shop to work on for money, you should have a repair manual for that car. If you can’t afford the manual, stay home in mommies basement and don’t say you can work on it. And yes, there are e-manuals.
I had a 1979 RX-7 and it ran great. Never saw this issue. It used 4 plugs, all the same, center electrode with 3 side electrodes. ( I once bought plugs with just 2 side electrodes and it just didn’t perform).
It ran so smoothly that when stopped at a light I had to look at the tach to see if it way still running 🤪
I was just starting my tuneup when my dad stopped by, and said I have that dialed in. Told him I hadn't started yet, was warming it up before draining the oil. LOL
It is amazing 45 years later and the parts catalogs are still wrong. You need to buy the automatic starter for the manual car, and the manual starter for the automatics.
This is why I love the channel and what you do/stand for! You’re not afraid to call yourself as a business out if something isn’t up to your standards and you do your best to make it right! I wish you were closer to Charleston, SC! Probably not worth a fuel bill and hotel stay for me to bring my Silverado but I wish it was. lol
Super hard to find a trustworthy shop around here!
Anyway, love the channel and yours/Lauren’s morals! You two are amazing!
I myself am pretty apprehensive about using ECM repair places that I have never used I had to once because the normal place was upfront to me saying that they didn't think they could work on it. The place that I went to, like you took my money to almost send me an email the same day received saying they could not work on it, and kept my money as a "diagnostic fee". smh. Great Video Ray!
Major scammy vibes
chevy had a problem maybe still does modules worked at room temp not in real world solder joints intermittant
A lot of them know what theyre doing. But if its cheap........sketch vibes.
Went to dealer running played with keys and security codes came back not running.....? And it's whose problem?
@@turboturtle9083 but its running. You didnt watch the video?
I scored a nice all black 1991 RX7 a few years back for $300 on Craigslist, guy didn't have a clue about rotary engines so I got a great car for a steal. (It just had fouled plugs!)
First gen?
Second gen FC non-turbo @@Meowface.
@@jSON-ze8uy
Oooo dream car
Almost bought one myself for my first car
Ended up with a transam instead
In the day I had a Mazda RX3. I bought it in Florida when I was stationed in Key West. This was 1973. It had a rotary engine. Ran the daylights out of that engine. I loved the performance and durability of the car. Ran across country 5 times. If not for getting T-Boned I think I would still have tat car. Loved it.
When I bought couple of Wife unit t-shirts, everyone is having a great laugh about it here in the Philippines 😂
Give one to your brother who can't read english. Shh.
I love to see how much this channel has grown. Thank you for putting out such great content to watch while I am at work all day. I am no mechanic and never plan to, but I love to watch!
"I should have been an ASTRONAUT" t-Shirt would be awesome!
The one mod I absolutely recommend on rotaries: fuel cut switch. If it floods, just kill the fuel pump and crank until it fires, then turn the pump back on. Sometimes even flood-clear mode doesn't work very well where manually shutting off the fuel pump will solve the problem every time. It's also useful as an anti-theft feature.
floor pedal , clear flood mode
it literally has that, hold your foot to the floor, that cuts out the fuel.
this ecm thing is going to be next injector-gate with the ecm repair shop.
I had a 89.5 Mazda RX7 and I took Spark Plugs out of it, no problem. Probably one of the first mechanical things I ever did. I loved that rotary engine. Gas was much cheaper back then though. Knew a guy in Florida that had one making over 900 HP. Very good engine if you have knowledge about them.
Pretty reliable too if you properly maintain them. My late pre-facelift Turbo II has been converted to premix now and runs much cleaner than when it still sucked on engine oil. There's also no more emissions stuff on it either, lots of oomph when the uprated turbo starts doing its thing.
I love running it up to the redline buzzer.
"We're just gonna poke around till it slides in." -Ray
That’s how you get children!😅
Thank you for putting the models you are working on in the titles again.
Clickbait titles are only good at the start, but later when looking for a video it is difficult to find.
Love your videos
Again, you did what was right, regardless of your cost. You're restoring reputation of mechanics one car at a time!
A long time ago, I owned a 1988 RX-7. Never again. They overheat easily, and there goes your compression. They reqire constant care, like a puppy. BTW, I got my plugs out using 3 extensions and a swivel joint.
I had an 86 RX-7. I loved that car, but it was very easy to flood it. Something about those rotary engines.
@mustbetrue1602 Other than flooding, if it was turned off too soon after starting it, mine was very reliable.
yea freinds 86 had that. My 85 with12a aspirated never had that problem. Figured it was the injectors that are the problem.
@robertsmith2956 Might have been. I just learned that if you crank it, let it run for a few minutes before you turn it off. I never had a problem after I did that.
We own a 2018 Mazda 3 with the 2.5 L engine and it's a great car. I'm personally a fan of Mazda, as they are innovators and while I admire the innovation of the rotary engine and Mazda's decision to use it, I can't escape the feeling it's a fancy version of a 2-stroke engine. It has a great power to weight ratio but it burns oil and fouls spark plugs. It's an advanced version of the engine in my chain saw.
Mazda seem to be the only Japanese car manufacturer that still has build quality.
I know the rotary engine can be annoying, but when they are put together right, then wow Nelly, your in for a treat.
I built a 6 rotor engine.
We really went to town, to make a truely Superlative engine.
I ran 2 fuel tanks, one with super unleaded, the other tank had 120 octane race fuel.
I used fuel metering tech from a jet engine to very accurately put fuel into a small third tank, this tank fed the engine.
The ECU had 3 maps, each map used more 120 octane fuel.
I got 101, 108 and 115 octane fuel, that I could switch between in the car whilst driving.
8:1 compression ratio as we were running turbos.
6 speed manual gearbox with a LSD that could be locked for quick get aways!
730hp at the hubs @ 9250rpm.
645ft/lb at the hubs @ 5200rpm.
Oh my, I loved that car.
Toyota must have been making pool cues the last 20 years it seems
Pics or it NEVER happened. At all..
To do the plugs in an rx8, you take the driver side wheel off, then pull the little panel out in the firewall, basically gives you straight in access to the plugs.
Fender wall, not firewall. xD
Hey Ray. There is a Access Port in the wheel well and on the Block it Staates which Plug goes where :) they are marked L and T
It's also pretty easy to remember that on a Mazda rotary the trailing plug is above the leading one, so L for lower, T for top.
I am reminded of all the cold start diesel videos I've enjoyed. Hello again Mr. Al Go-Rhythm. :)
Coming soon: field trip video to Flagship ECM 🤣🤣
we always squirted some trans fluid in thru the plug holes on flooded RX-7s it did help
Yup, a little bit of an oil film helps the apex seals provide a much better seal. The normally present film gets washed away by the fuel during flooding.
Hey Ray! Thank you so much for fixing my car. I know it can be a headache but I really appreciate all you did for me.
Your RX-8 Friend? Always I wanted one of these.
@@chriskline3763 Yep! I love RX-8s so much. This is my second one.
@@xoxolivgraceHow many miles can you get out of a rotary engine with proper care and maintenance? Are these engines pretty reliable?
In the UK (and I know this will be controversial/lead to an argument!) but my experience is these engines are good for 60-80,000 miles before low compression issues arise. Yes, I’ve heard of owners running them to 100,000+ miles but I’ve never actually met one.
@@JW-xn9fj Hi nice to meet you. You’ve met one now lol. My last one I had at 120k before it got totaled. Never had any engine issues at all.
my uncle had I believe RX-5 it was rolled and he rebuilt it it was very peppie motor! 4 door sedan
do not know what ever happened to it. but it looked like a monster to work on! great job! it is hard
to un flood that rotary engine! Take care Ray! “the magic man” bring the dead cars to life!
Remove the left wheel and you should get easy access to the spark plugs. For de flooding try slowly lifting your foot up on the throttle till it fires then push down again and do it again till your able to get it to fire.
spark plugs, you got two different ones, one leading, and one trailing, if the engine is flooded, jumper the battery with external power ( what ever it is, extra battery, car what ever) gas pedal down to the floor ( kills the gas pump ) and started multiple times, you will hear it run and shut it off as it cleans the rotor chamber. Done this many times on my old 2010
"Nothing personal against them" 🤔😂😂
Hey Ray, there is another youtuber, Northridge Fix, this guy is awesome with electronics.
He usually repairs consumer electronics like iPhones, on chiplevel. He repaired key fobs already and different stuff he made working again. Maybe give him a call, no fix no pay he claims. Now you have an ECM over? Maybe give it a try.
My spidey sense says there's a factory tour of flagship ecm in the future.
"What condition my condition was in" was done by Kenny Rogers & the first addition 😂😂😂😂
I have to admit, I loved the RX-2 I had in high school. It was a blast to drive, very peppy, and extremely easy to perform maintenance items on in my high school ROP Automotive Class.
“Ain’t got no gas in it”
Most of the time my children that are under 40 now bring me their cars with little or no gas in the tank when they want service done on them. I don’t know if they expect me to fill it up but if it needs to set the evap system it has to have at least 1/4 tank of gas
Hello Ray and Wifey Unit, I was just on your merchandise website to purchase a shirt. Hoping to find a shirt just like what you wear on the videos with your name on it and and Rainman Ray pocket patch. The short sleeve blue work shirt. It would sell awesome. Please think about it as I would be the first purchaser. I love your videos and have 2 other friends watching them now.
That's leading and trailing plugs. Reminds me of the time i changed out plugs on a '75 Chevy Monza V8. After the two and a half hours it took to replace them I looked up the spark plug changing procedure in our Chilton manual(hate Chilton), the manual said to unbolt the engine mount bolts and jack up the engine to properly reach them. 😮
@@mustbetrue1602 well,working for a guy that leased service stations from the oil companies at the time,the boss had his own collection of work manuals. That was something necessary for the time. The boss would go through mechanics like changing underwear because each one had their quirks along with some being outright crooks and thieves. There a few really good mechanics that ran their own businesses and mechanics that worked for dealerships which had formal training by the car manufacturers. Those were the coveted jobs to have as they got the necessary training and equipment to work on newer cars. It got to where our place of business had to turn away more and more work because we weren't equipped and didn't have the expertise and training and diagnostic tools that the dealership mechanics had for newer cars.
I myself was a GS man but could change out parts that the boss would diagnose. I was making only $4.25 an hour at the time so I took my uncle's advice and applied for a job at the premium concrete ready mix company in my city. I got an immediate pay raise to $7.26 an hour with plenty of overtime driving a mixer and I never looked back. I retired recently making almost $27 an hour plus retirement benefits. As I'm mechanically inclined I still worked on my own cars and even worked on some relatives cars for fun.
@@mustbetrue1602that's why my friends and I got the bright idea to photocopy the sections of manual we needed at the library... At the time, it was a nickel a page.
Now days, it is an on line script. Alldata is $60 year. Per car.
I used flagship for the ecm in my 06 Chrysler 300c. It lasted about 50k miles and crapped out. Tried to warranty it and it took many phone calls, emails and live chats but I finally got the replacement 6 months later.
First time I’ve ever heard of two different type plug in the same engine
The rotary has a long combustion chamber because of the design. The leading plug fires first and the trailing fires after to facilitate the flame propagation in the correct direction for complete combustion of the fuel. The non standard plugs are supposed to be fouling resistant but if the engine is not run hard occasionally the carbon won’t burn off and will end up like the plugs he removed.
You should see the distribute on the 12A engine. 4 plugs, 6 posts. 4 90 degree offset, and above it a pair of them. Never could figure out how that worked.
One thing that I learned from the older rotory engines especially if it gets flooded have to add some oil to the cylinders or in the gas to help get the rotor seals to make good seal again
I ordered a Flagshit ECM for my car a year ago and they sent me one that couldn't possibly have been programmed for my car. The car ran much better on the original ECM. They are aholes.
All Ray had to do is check the BBB site. Read the complaints. Of course, that’s too easy. Just like taking the wheel off and changing the plugs in 10 minutes.
DEI hires ...
I had one, many floods from cold shutdowns. Also two plug cats.... very expensive cats. Traded it.
You live and learn!
Ray FYI We always recommended an oil change on these when they came in flooded. Nice job love your videos.
In 1975 I was staying at a motel while working on some core drilling for Anaconda Copper in Navaho Arizona. The owner of a Mazda Rotary car spent the night at the same hotel and it would not start. The local gas station owner was not a mechanic, but knew I was a licensed mechanic and asked me to look at it. I pulled out one of the lower plugs and coolant came pouring out. That told me that the seals were blown and I did not have the tools or time to work on it. Mazda was contacted and they towed the car to Phoenix and repaired her engine free of charge. She was put up in a hotel in Phoenix while the work was done, also free of charge. I was impressed by the service as she was out of warranty. The plugs on the engine I worked on were very accessible.
I thought I complained a lot about not being able to get to or reach my spark plugs to change them. But watching this my plugs are child's play to do. Ray, you are a master contortionist to get to these plugs. You are to be commended.
Why commend someone for showing how to do it the wrong way. It takes about 5 minutes through the wheel well or if you’re too lazy to take the wheel off, from underneath.
@@justpray365This, but don't tell the fanboys that Ray is wrong. In their (not saying his) eyes he can do no wrong and knows all.
Fanboys=little to no experience.
Retired Jeep tech reporting in. I too know the pain of rotary engines. Had a customer bring one in for this very service. The service writer may have gotten a wrench hurled at him.
I'm not an expert on them, but they're a ticking time bomb as the miles creep up to like 100k, the apex seals wear out and have to be replaced. I have a buddy who has 2 complete engines, he just swaps them out every 80k and rebuilds the one that came out in his spare time. Glad to see this one was just mega flooded.
I read that if you put an oil mix into the fuel and do the rev thing on shut down there's no wear issue anymore.
I like 99% of your videos. As long as there are some ramblings and views good videos or can't see videos. Being taken for the ride is entertaining in itself for me.
"just gonna poke around till it fits in"... Ooh err matron.....
I know, I know....
Thanks for the video, if you're needing to get to the plugs again the best way is to remove the wheel and reach past the breaks to the spark plugs, also under the car is better than above the car.
Rotary engine doing rotary things
They suckkkkk
How many rotors are in this engine? I remember a long time ago when there was a race car with 4 rotors. How many are in this street car?
@@deplorablelibertarian 3....I think
Since he just changed 4 plugs I'm going to say 2 rotors in this car.
@@deplorablelibertarian 2 rotors and one rotor have 2 plugs.
For any future rotary repairs the spark plugs are a lot easier to get to from behind the driver front wheel.
An early Kenny Rogers reference! Nice!
The First Edition, 1967 😎
I bought a refurbished Flagship ECM for my 2001 Camry through Ebay. The ECM was bad but my purchase price of $270 was promptly refunded. I bought two salvage ECMs for $50 and got a local electronics expert to recap them.
The opening sounded like my first Kawasaki dirt bike 45 years ago.
From the title was expecting this to be a too expensive to fix. Happy it worked out!
This car will be back soon for a new starter motor !
A few years ago. Manual transmission version. Same problem. Just put a rope onto it and pulled it. After 10 secs or so, it started to go. Took around 25 secs before it ran clean on all chambers. Never even lifted the engine cover.
#2 in tonight.... 😁 Always fun watching Ray!
Ray, my preferred way to do plugs on my rx8 is to remove the left front wheel. You can get to them with a long extension and wobbly socket.
Ray, welcome to Asian and European style design and manufacture of vehicles 😅😅😅😅😅😅
Your commentary on your videos is superior, and today that came in handy for this one where visibility was minimal at best. So many modern vehicles that come through your shop give me an education, this rotary engine...well okay, some. You will tackle any job.
Perfect LS swap candidate.
why not a dodge slant 6?
Or a Supra 2JZ swap
Just buy a Corvette, it's cheaper than swapping. Stop ruining rx-8s.
@@davehoffman515lol you said stop ruining rx-8s.
The used car dealer I worked for in 1978 bought two 1975 RX3 wagons at a car auction. They were good sellers. He sold one 4 times and the other 3 times. They came back flooded after a few weeks and the customers traded them for different vehicles. I figured out that the way to get them started again was to remove the plugs, crank the engine to clear it, install the plugs, set the acetylene torch to a good flame, turn the tanks off and back on and use the mixture to start the vehicles.
The Rotary Engine idea looks good on paper, but in reality it is a dismal failure.
But Mazda spent like $700 million over the years developing the engine. They can't give up on it so it's still on the books as a live design. Just to keep the accountants semi-happy.
As a person who owned a 1982 Mazda RX-7 with a 12-A Rotary engine, the lead plug is the primary ignition plug, the trailing plug is to burn any other remaining fuel in the combustion chamber as it rotates around, in order to clean the emissions better.
And you learned a lot. That's how you grow, that is by taking on the hard stuff which ultimately makes you more proficient
Ray, this must be included if you ever do a best of series.
Shameless self promotion.
Smutty innuendo.
Pointless wittering.
I loved it😂
You said that your shop didn’t perform well. I think it did an excellent job you sorted it for your customer. 👍
I owned an RX-8 from new from 2004. Thrashed it for 12 months. Rev to the beep guys, rev it to the beep
I’ve had some nice cars over my years like S3, Subaru WRX, Focus RS.
The RX8 I had was the best to drive than all of those, but it was just not a reliable enough vehicle to nip to the shop in as we flooded it too many times. Take it out on a winding road and you’ll experience something close to a super car for a lot less money.
Plugs for the Mazda are expensive, and the easy way to change them is from the wheel well with a “wobbly “.
If Mazda could ever get that car reliable, I’d buy another in a heartbeat.❤
Ray. Do not beat yourself up over that Mazda those rotary engines are hard to work on. They’re a beast when they are running right they’re a hell of an engine but when they’re not running right, they’re hard to figure out. They’re hard to work on. they’re hard to get running right I owned one back in the 70s and RX four and it had the big rotary engine in it at the time the biggest one they made and it was carbureted had a four barrel on it. I made it to 100,000 miles with it, but we were always in and out of the shop, keeping that thing tuned up like I said it’s hard to work on a good mechanic knows and understands them very well. A standard mechanic isn’t gonna cut it. I guarantee you it takes a good Mazda mechanic that knows those engines in and out to be able to fix them and turn them up properly, been there done that they drink a lot of oil they design that way that’s what keeps those rotors wet but they’re a good engine otherwise for their size they put out a lot of power high revving power lotta fun on the race track back when I had mine we didn’t have all the smog equipment they have today But we still had the catalytic converter stuff that they think they called heat exchanger then they bolted right up to the exhaust outlet constantly they are prone to cracking just part of the deal of owning that engine but anyway glad you got it running and with those old plugs there’s no way it could’ve fired no way They were shorted out just by looking at them. The video took me back to my old days of racing the old Mazda RX four before they built the RX seven have fun. Enjoy your nice warm weather being cold here in Albuquerque.
The most amazing thing about this video is that you didn't completely cook the starter. But I haven't watched to the end of the video yet, so there's still hope.
Trying to get a car started like that is super frustrating, but this was a fun video to watch you get it figured out.
My son had an 08 RX* and it was a fun car, but definitely requires a lot of attention and maintenance to operate properly. He ultimately lost compression in it and we ended up selling it rather than rebuilding the motor. Looking back, I would love to have kept that car and rebuilt the motor on it. Looks like a lot of fun to work on.
Don’t ever shut it off cold. That’s what causes the flooding - they run stupid rich until they warm up. Also you can squirt some oil or atf in the plug holes to help get the compression back. They only sound like that cranking when they are blown up or flooded.
This process was a real pain before Mazda upgraded to a gear reduction starter. We used to pull-start the manual trans models. Looks like this one is an auto though… just gotta keep hammering it.
And btw, trailing top, leading lower… the plugs are labeled T/L and the rotor housings are stamped accordingly beside the spark plug holes. Don’t wanna get them wrong
Ray, it’s a good thing you make terrific content and are funny and knowledgeable and honest…
I had to sit through a 12 second, unskippable, political advertisement featuring some senile guy to watch this thing finally fire….
I’m going to go buy a candy bar with my earnings from yesterday now….