Hello all you rotary nutters!

[dave5678]

Modified Dave
First of all thanks for doing a rotary story in the most recent Modified Mag. I picked it up at the shoppette on post here in Germany as soon as I saw it. It was an awesome read... hell I still read it when I am in my 'other office' haha!

Second any rotary you do a build on will be awesome! I hope the RX8 works out for you though I always thought about getting one as a DD but RX7's are so cheap for me in Germany... cheaper then what it is in Canada.

[BurnVktm]

Welcome to RCC. I too, am new to this forum but have owned rotary powered cars for years now.

I also enjoyed the FD story in the recent Modified Mag. I am currently having "my super engine" being built by Arizona Rotary Rockets(AZRR) for my FD.

I also have an 2003(04) Rx8 N/a with some nice mods making about 220whp(est) by the Cobb A/P.

If you have any questions regarding the FE and upgrades your planning to do on your Rx-8 (once you get it) I would be willing to offer my trial and error knowledge. Keep in mind though, I'm not an expert......Yet.

[dave5678]

Originally Posted by BurnVktm

Welcome to RCC. I too, am new to this forum but have owned rotary powered cars for years now.

I also enjoyed the FD story in the recent Modified Mag. I am currently having "my super engine" being built by Arizona Rotary Rockets(AZRR) for my FD.

I also have an 2003(04) Rx8 N/a with some nice mods making about 220whp(est) by the Cobb A/P.

If you have any questions regarding the FE and upgrades your planning to do on your Rx-8 (once you get it) I would be willing to offer my trial and error knowledge. Keep in mind though, I'm not an expert......Yet.

Lucky... Wish I was back in Chandler/Tempe(lived in Chandler till April 2009) with my FD so I could have them work on it. Haven't found a rotary shop in Germany yet...

[Modified Dave]

dave5678, are you Canadian military? I'm Canadian too (live in the Hamilton area). I was actually just over in Germany in August doing a story with a U.S. military guy (based in Wiesbaden) who built his USDM STI for the Nurburgring. We had an absolute blast in Germany and the Nurburgring literally changed my life. It's without question the ultimate destination for any real car guy or speed freak. This trip was the cover story on our December 2009 issue, I think.

BurnVktm, thanks for the offer -- would love to know what mods you did to get your 8 up to 220whp. If I could street-legally get mine up to that number all-motor, I'd be very pleased. Shoot me an e-mail at planetdave "at" mac "dot" com whenever you get a chance, because I'd like to learn more about your setup.

I've found a really nice '05 with 66k km on the odometer (about 40k miles), cloth interior like I want, no sunroof (like I want), and a Mazdaspeed front bumper for $13.5 CDN. I'm sure I can get the price down at least $1k with a bit of haggling. It's dark grey in color which isn't the best option for a magazine car (doesn't photograph all that well), but it's the best one I've found so far. I haven't made an offer on it yet (going to have a mechanic-friend check it out for me first), but if it checks out mechanically and its Carfax history is clean, I'll likely buy it. So I might have my 8 as early as next week. w00t!

[dave5678]

Originally Posted by Modified Dave

dave5678, are you Canadian military? I'm Canadian too (live in the Hamilton area). I was actually just over in Germany in August doing a story with a U.S. military guy (based in Wiesbaden) who built his USDM STI for the Nurburgring. We had an absolute blast in Germany and the Nurburgring literally changed my life. It's without question the ultimate destination for any real car guy or speed freak. This trip was the cover story on our December 2009 issue, I think.

Not with the Canadian military(Best snipers in the world!!) but a DoD Civilian now a days...

Anyways The Ring is my goal this spring and/or summer as its 80euros for 4 laps... even though I drive 80kms everyday on a brandnew autobahn which is all unrestricted I stll want to go and say I did.

[Modified Dave]

Originally Posted by dave5678

Not with the Canadian military(Best snipers in the world!!) but a DoD Civilian now a days...

Anyways The Ring is my goal this spring and/or summer as its 80euros for 4 laps... even though I drive 80kms everyday on a brandnew autobahn which is all unrestricted I stll want to go and say I did.

You MUST go to the Ring. It would be a tragedy for a car guy not to go there if they're in the area. It's beyond cool just being there and lapping is well worth the price of admission.

Hey Max777, you'll be happy to know that we're featuring a FC on the cover of Modified in April. It's a pretty sick Time Attack built machine!

[Herblenny]

That 8 sounds good Dave. I do miss my 8 some days...

[Rotarytech7]

Het Dave, the cover story for Phil's FD was very inspiring to me as a rotary fan...i think it is a good idea to have an FC build...im 19 and i Love the FD, its my all time favorite but its way to expensive for me right now...i currently own an FC and i would like to see one placed on the cover of Modified Mag, u know just to be inspired and also to get some ideas. So hopefully i'll be seeing more FCs featured in the magazine along with other rotary powered cars, even though the Rx8 build doesnt sound bad either but my personal opinion...i think u should consider doing both :] so thanks again for creating the FD story and for taking in consideration our ideas..Godbless

[Herblenny]

Nice looking 8 Dave!

And tires that I been wanting

Congrats on your 8!

[Modified Dave]

Hey guys. Just a quick and long overdue update on the 8. The project has been slowly evolving the last few months, having done a BC coilover kit to go along with the upgraded wheels and tires, followed by an ARK MFD install with Racing Beat oil filter sandwich adapter so I could hook up their oil temp and water temp sending units. After that I did a few fixes to weak spots on the 8 using parts from Black Halo Racing, namely their ignition kit, fuel pump and clutch pedal. Then I moved on to some exhaust side tuning using a Racing Beat header, a very high quality motorsports catalytic converter from Milltek in the UK (cat is made by HJS Motorsports) and a resonated Racing Beat midpipe. I've left the muffler section stock for now, just to keep it very quiet and civilized for the street. Will swap it out for something lightweight and loud eventually Here are links to all those stories, JIC you're interested:

Wheel & Tire + brake pad and fluid upgrade and track test:
http://www.modified.com/projectcars/...x-8/index.html

BC coilover track test:
http://www.modified.com/projectcars/...rx8/index.html

ARK MFD install:
http://www.modified.com/features/mod...rx8/index.html

Black Halo Racing fixes including ignition system, clutch pedal and fuel pump + dyno testing:
http://www.modified.com/projectcars/...ity/index.html

Exhaust Side Tuning and dyno test story:
http://www.modified.com/projectcars/...ing/index.html

Up next we've got a full-on Renesis engine build (already underway), due to a low compression engine that I haven't been able to fix with the usual methods (ignition, fuel, combustion chamber cleaning, etc). Still sorting out the build sheet for the new Renesis, but already have my hands on a Racing Beat porting template and instructions and will definitely be going with upgrades seals as well as a full blueprint and balancing. May either stay NA with lightweight rotors or go FI with a s/c or turbo setup. Kind of kicking around the remote-mount turbo idea at the moment, but ultimately I want/need a reliable setup for track days, so will have to research all my options further. Here's a few pics of how the engine looks at the moment





Got the engine cleaned too, so will have to paint the irons before they get all rusty looking.

Joe Ferguson, the engine builder I've teamed up with on this, is a name many of my fellow Canadian rotards will be familiar with, and Joe may even come down to the Deals Gap Rotary Rally with me this year. Looking forward to meeting many of you at the rally this year! We're going to do a feature in Modified on the car voted Best In Show at the rally, so I'll be bringing my photo rig so I can get some sexy rolling close-ups like these ones I snapped of my 8:




And a few static shots for good measure:

[Sephitrask]

you know, I was wondering what had happened with this project when I didn't see it in the last Modified. Look forward to seeing it at DGRR!

[Modified Dave]

Well, I have to apologize for not making it out to DGRR again this year. Last year it was my Achilles tendon (oh snap, literally), this year it was the engine build for the RX-8. My buddy Joe Ferguson and I have been working on a pretty sweet Renesis engine build for a long time now, and after a lot of waiting around on parts and some machine work we finally had everything together to do the build and swap it into the car. This happened a week before DGRR and I was hopefully I could break it in and do a quicky tune in time for the drive down, but things didn't go quite to plan (as usual). The engine was throwing a misfire code and I'm still trying to track down the source. My latest theory is a bad knock sensor or knock sensor wiring, having already looked at the fuel and ignition systems prior to DGRR.

Anyhow, I'm seriously bummed out about not making it this year, but hopefully Phil keeps this event going one more year for me

As for the engine build, the full story on it will be in the July issue of Modified but here's a few deets JIC you're curious.

-Racing Beat lightweight rotors, good for 10.5k rpm
-Goopy Performance refurb'd housings and apex and corner seals (we EDM wire cut the rotors to allow for the deeper seated FD seals)
- full rotating assembly including clutch and flywheel professionally balanced
- ported irons and LIM using Racing Beat templates and instructions
- all new OEM gaskets, springs, seals, rings, etc
- Mazdaspeed rotor bearings, flywheel (ACT ProLite) and pulley set (main and alternator, deletes a/c)
- Bully Stage 4 clutch kit

We're hoping to make some good all-motor power out of this build (once I get the misfire dealt with and the engine fully broken in, of course). I'll post up a dyno plot once she's tuned.

A few pics of the engine build, just for fun:

assembling the rotating bits to send out to the balancer

porting the irons...

Checking the porting against the template

Goopy refurb'd housing looking minty fresh -- they not only bring the chrome surface down to a flat, uniform, matte finish that's ideal for seal break-in and seating, they also media blast it so it looks like new from the outside.

Pressing in the Mazdaspeed race bearing

A rotor and Goopy (apex and corner) seals ready for assembly. Notice how Joe has marked them all up so he knows where to put each one after having carefully clearanced them all prior to assembly.

Lets build an engine!



That's Joe's old school 616 up on the hoist, waiting for a 13B swap and some other goodies. He's planning to bring it to DGRR next year.

[GySgtFrank]

I'm very glad to see someone from the publishing world take an interest in rotaries. Like you, I've owned cars that were far more powerful. It's just that there's something about the powerband and RPM potential of the rotary that keeps drawing me back. The enjoyment of running a rotary hard is greater than what I get from the more powerful piston engines that I've had. It's kind of a visceral thing for me. On the street that powerband is also a lot more useable, you don't have to hit 120 mph before things get fun.

[Modified Dave]

Totally agree with you, Frank. There's something really special about the sound a rotary makes and the way it delivers its power. For me this really came to light when I test drove AutoExe's RX8 demo car in Japan (about 4 years ago) at a private test day that Yokohama tire organized for some western journalists up at Fuji Speedway's handling track (sort of a glorified go-kart track that they also use for drifting, not the big GP course). At this same event I was driving all sorts of modified piston engine cars, from HKS's GR STI and Evo X to a modified MINI Cooper S and even a E90 M3 with that high revving V8. Coming from a racing background, I just loved the way the RX-8 felt in the corners and under braking, but was especially taken by the way the Renesis revved. I think they had the fuel cut set to 10k rpm, so I imagine the engine was quite modified but it was still normally aspirated so wasn't making a ton of power. But it was just so smooth and had a lightness to it (if that makes any sense -- the sensation was that the rotating mass was much lighter than a piston engine), it was really different and appealing to me. It was after that day at Fuji that I decided my next project car would be a RX-8 and here we are. My hope is that the engine build I've just completed will provide a similar feeling to the AutoExe car -- I've gone with lightweight everything, from rotors and flywheel to clutch and pulleys. If my calculations are correct almost 20 lbs of rotating mass has been eliminated during the build. If you can't tell, I'm really looking forward to getting this motor broken in and tuned so I can start to give it a proper beating!

[GySgtFrank]

I'm very interested to see how the light weight rotating assembly works out. I've always thought the strength of these engines was their ability to rev to high RPMs. If there was some way you could get the RPMs high enough and still feed the beast efficiently, they should make very good power. It's a thought I've been kicking around for a long time , but never had the time or money to pursue. I had a 1975 REPU with the 4 port 13B back before there were RX7s. There were times I took it to around 12K rpms momentarily, stupid I know, but I was a dumb teenager at the time. That truck took all the abuse I could shovel it's way and kept asking for more, it never did quit or give me any trouble at all. That little 80 cu in engine put the fear in quite a few V8 musclecars at the time.