4 ms·

How many death threats have you received for the "heresy" of removing the rotary engine from the RX-8?

• robin_reala 5y ago
  They typically remove themselves.
  • elihu 5y ago
    I wish that were literally true, it would have been a lot easier. Those engines are heavy (especially with the exhaust manifold/alternator/flywheel/etc.. hanging off it).
• elihu 5y ago
  None. I bought the car with a bad engine in the first place, so it's not like I threw away a perfectly good engine. (I even took the old engine to a guy that rebuilds rotaries; he took it apart and said there weren't any parts that were worth trying to reuse.) This is true of a lot of conversions: they aren't "destroying" a perfectly good ICE engine, they're salvaging a car that would otherwise be sent to the wrecker because it doesn't work anymore. I think the RX-8 is a great platform for conversion because it's a nice, reasonably modern car and they can be had for almost nothing if the engine needs rebuilding, or is too damaged to be rebuilt.
  • kingcharles 5y ago
    When I was heavily in the rotary scene back in the early 2000s people would get lynched for even hinting about putting a ICE block into their RX-?.
    • elihu 5y ago
      That may be true of some rotary enthusiasts still; I don't really know that many. I could see it being more of a thing with RX-7s, which are kind of rare and expensive. RX-8s aren't super common, but they're also not hard to find. And if the engines are due for a rebuild, they're sort of like old pianos -- people will practically give them away. Also, climate change is a thing. I'd expect more people are aware of that these days, and its hard to justify running such an inefficient engine even if they are admittedly really cool.