the RX8 engine is very good, i know someone that drives one, smooth and powerful but crap fuel effeciency but in a 7 who cares? but i think they sound crap IMHO just a bit too "whirry" instead of the sweet noise of a V8
Matt
Looks a bargain to me, anybody fitted one of these?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MAZDA-RX8-ENGINE_W0QQitemZ150081831629QQihZ005QQcategoryZ52640QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Spins the wrong way IIRC
quote:
Spins the wrong way IIRC
or you could flip the diff in the casing?
James
Much heavier then a bike engine.......And not as good as the 13b......
Not as good as the 13b? I thought it was the same engine further developed? Same power and torque without turbo?
my mate built a westfield with a rotary engine and box , using a sierra diff .
apprently the RX8 engine is better than the RX7 in terms of reliability, i.e not having to replace the rotor every 30,00 miles to retain performance
and economy
the RX8 engine is very good, i know someone that drives one, smooth and powerful but crap fuel effeciency but in a 7 who cares? but i think they sound
crap IMHO just a bit too "whirry" instead of the sweet noise of a V8
Matt
In my opinion the RX8 engine is a seriously good proposition for lightweight front-engined rear-drive cars.
Where else can you get 230 hp in a small and light package for less than 1K ?
My thoughts:' this engine gives R500 equalling performance ( albeit about 10 kg heavier as an installed package ) with potential for 100+k mile
durabilty all for less than 1K. Compare the power with that for the R500 when the gearing is modified to suit. The RX8 is way better.
Other benefits:
Silky smooth, 9.5k rev limit, 1300cc = low insurance and road tax.
I believe that you can get aluminium housings to get the weight lower than a k-series! Not sure about the costs.
Downsides:
> Image ( do I care ? yeah because I'd like a Cosworth BDG)
> Fuel consumption
> Relative to normal engines, requires a larger silencer and a well insulated exhaust manifold
> ECUs to run rotary engines are less commonly available compared with normal piston engines
> No one else uses one so I'd be on my own with regards to installation, engine mounts, manifold etc
If I were in the market I'd definitely use one of these engines.
P.S. Am I wide of the mark ?
Goes the wrong way? Put it in the back and drive the front wheels...
[Edited on 16/1/07 by coozer]
[Edited on 16/1/07 by coozer]
I've heard of people using the RX7 lump in 7 type cars & they go like Sh*t off a stick. The Rx8 is even better & who cares if they chew
rotors in 30,000 miles who ever does 30,000 miles in this type of car!!!
Is that the 3 rotor one? I believe some of the hassle could be removed by using carbs. IIRC one of the UK tuners use SU carbs as one of the first upgrades! Or go silly and use the direct port stuff, simply big, straight tubes that lead to the block with a carb on the end!
quote:
Originally posted by jlparsons
Not as good as the 13b? I thought it was the same engine further developed? Same power and torque without turbo?
quote:
Originally posted by russbost
I've heard of people using the RX7 lump in 7 type cars & they go like Sh*t off a stick. The Rx8 is even better & who cares if they chew rotors in 30,000 miles who ever does 30,000 miles in this type of car!!!
quote:
Originally posted by DIY Si
Is that the 3 rotor one? I believe some of the hassle could be removed by using carbs. IIRC one of the UK tuners use SU carbs as one of the first upgrades! Or go silly and use the direct port stuff, simply big, straight tubes that lead to the block with a carb on the end!
Spins the same way as a Ford, which is the "right" way.
Looks like a good compromise to my mind. I like the bike engine idea but I want to use my car everyday and the reliability issue would catch up to me
quick, plus itd be tiring all the time. On the other hand, car engines are heavy and you need to do some serious monkeying about and a lot of
spending to get a power-to-weight that would match a bike engined car.
This is far lighter than a 2 litre lump, has 230 horses straight out the box and revs to 9k. Perfect. Each to their own though. Bike engine would
still be it if I was building a sunday car or track day special.
The big problem is I'm not sure what electrical gubbins are required to get it moving outside the rx-8. For that reason a 90s BMW 6 or a duratec
4 is probably what I'm aiming for.
Anyone know how to wire up an RX-8 engine then?
RX-8 ECU's are a nightmare!
That's what I thunk. Shame. Still, someone's got to be first. Perhaps I can sweet-talk a mazda service engineer. £3k for a duratec with
equivalent power in far-from-waranteed spec, or a grand for an stock RX-8 engine and end up spending the rest on making it start in a locost.
I think the only way to do it would be to buy a written-off RX-8 with good running gear and take note of everything as you dismantle it. Sell all the
other bits on ebay and might make up the cost too.
Anyone giving it serious thought? Or started one?
quote:
Originally posted by iiyama
quote:
Originally posted by jlparsons
Not as good as the 13b? I thought it was the same engine further developed? Same power and torque without turbo?
Totally different engine!
OK....wrt electronics....
Bill Shurvinton has been tinkering with getting a Rotary to work with MS for quite a while now, so if you were considering this route then he would be
my first port of call...
Is that the one from the rx-7 or the rx-8? I've seen locosts built with rx-7 engines, look damn good too. I saw one guy who built his chassis
'book' size then was able to shrink it further once he'd fit the engine as he had excess space.
Never seen a locost with the rx-8 engine, though I did search a bit when I was thinking about it for my build. I concluded in the end that it needed
someone with more experience than me to be the trailblazer. I've got at least another 6 months of planning though (baby) before I start looking
for donors, so who knows.
Hi there was also a discussion on the wscc site similar to this one also with input from Bill.
WSCC linky
cheers matt
useful, thanks mate.
Doubt I'll have the guts though to be honest, unless I can assure myself that I can definitly get a renesis running. Perhaps speaking to a
couple if the tuners on that link might do that, but even so a duratec 2.0 is such a tried and tested (and powerful) solution it's hard to pass
up.