RX8 motor into 1st gen ?
 

Has anyone done this? I know it would probably need motor, tranny,ecu,fuel pump.

And thanks to Eric for the help with the comp test.

Not sure why you woul want a timebomb for a motor. :lol:

I've done it.....

PM BrewerBob
It's his car, I just built it. It's ALOT more involved that one would think though and you NEED an '04 ECU or an aftermkt ECU.

There's nothing wrong with the motors, as long as they start right up cold and have decent compression cold they can be rebuilt and brought back to life.

Lets put it this way, the donor RX8 for FrankenB was a 2004 with 140k on the original engine. Had all sorts of issues so he bought the donor REAL cheap.

Pulled it apart, rebuilt it, reused the rotors and housings, built the engine the way I build engines and it made 206wrhp on the dyno. Highest I've ever seen.

But talk to Bawb about the car, so far he loves the thing.

Tell Eric I said, wassup!

:smilielol5: We're like the stalking Grammar Nazi's

Brian will piss in your fruitloops if you do this on the cheap. Aftermarket ECU will be easier but more expensive. If you want to drive it, go stock. If you want to data log, you'll have to go aftermarket or use the 8 dash.

Brain says he has a 1,000 hrs in the build; I believe him. I only mention this if you are NOT doing the work yourself. At $20 an hour labor rate, you are looking at $20k car without buying a single part. Never mind the fact that shops charge $75~$150 an hour.

My donor RX-8 was $3k. The FB I already had but got it for $400. It wouldn't run in '04 when I bought it. Rebuilt the carb and it ran fine. Good luck finding a rolling chassis for that price.

Ask Brian (Bri, feel free to share, I don't mind in the least) what the parts cost were. I'm thinking it was somewhere around $12k including the RX-8.

My friends renesis FB motor is oretty much dead. Flooding and hot start issues. He wants to sell it, ive considered making an offer but he has about 17k into it and its hard for people to let go without a partout.

No problem! I was wondering what you had decided. I'd like to test the new engine too when you get a chance, so we can practice using the tester again lol.

Wassup Brian! When are you doing another cross country trip? lol

That's being gernerous :rofl:

The '04 is the only ECU that can have the immobilizer deleted which makes it easier, and cheaper. The wiring though would be WAY easier with an aftermkt ECU. You don't have to reverse engineer EVERYTHING that the factory did, than build what the factory did, then adapt it to the 30 year old car.

The driveability when we're done with the new ECU will be parallel with the stock drivability. Ask MC. His 400rwhp FB drives like a stock car... until you hit the go pedal... then watch the fuck out as the rear comes around rather quickly.... hell... he's broken the tires loose on the highway in 5th gear with that.

But yes, aftermkt ECU will make the wiring and any troubleshooting much much easier as the stock ECU alone will not communicate with an OBDII scanner. When FrankenB went into LimpDickMode it was old fashioned troubleshooting to find the problem which was luckily nothing more than a blown fuse

Between all of us... yes. Not to mention we're not the speediest of workers, we enjoyed it (for the most part) and there were only two times when it was a rush.

But also think about all that was done.
On the light side
50 hours to do the FC subframe swap and reinforce the chassis after plasma cutting everything out.
Building the harness and the electrical there has got to be 100-150 hours into that alone. Hell you spent 10+ hours just crimping all the pins for the stock ECU connectors!
Then there was all the fab and plumbing that I did for the heat exchangers. 50+hours there
the rear brakes were both of us for a weekend.....
I know I spent a solid weekend doing the chassis harness tuck (my weekend generally consist of 30hrs of work)
Yeah... the all the little shit that I know I'm forgetting about. All total, I would say 1000hrs spread out over 5 people..... yup
Then again... lets see some pics of that beautiful bitch!

That might be a little on the light side by a grand maybe. The engine rebuild could've been done for a few hundred cheaper, there was a good amount spent on AN plumbing (there are only four hose clamps on the ENTIRE CAR, the heater core at the firewall has two FC short heatercore hoses that run to a -10x5/8" barb, every other cooling, oil, fuel, Fuck even the vac spider is all AN lines :smilielol5) I also donated a ton of parts too... all the brake cores, the FC subframe, 5 lug hubs, 'vert wheels, and lets not forget the piece of rotary history.... the first ever TitaniumTT de-powered rack EVER! :rofl:
Also of note, I tend to not go cheap when building cars that I know are going to be tossed around at their limit around mountain roads. Also of note, the first four thousand miles resulted in one unexplained stall, followed by a quick restart and the only leak was from changing the oil. That made daddy proud!

Cross country???!??! Not sure about that. I won't be taken the FC though. If I do a x-country again it will be in my soon be created TDi Jeep.... and I plan on driving all the way to Prudhoe Bay:leaving:

You guys are expensive.

We can do that in TN for like $80 and a case of high octane beer.

Maybe 4 Loko.

Just wanted to say I seen your FB at DGRR this year and it's sweet swap!
Brian did a kick ass job!!

Nice meeting and chatting with you too Brian:patriot:
Steve

There's some voodoo going on in TN

:awesome: Thanks Steve! Great to meet you too! Always love seeing that 8 of your pop up since leaving us in PA! You've done a great job with it!

Thx man