What have you done to your MSP today?

dont paint it.. thats a huge waste of money.. fix what gives you grief lol. there is a white msp where i live with a kit on it, i dont like it. first of all its not original anymore, which is a major perk to owning an msp. but i guess if you dont have one of the three really specific colors it doesnt really matter too much.

a few bolt on mods are really all the car needs unless you drive it like you stole it all the time.

ps, its the mainbearing support plate, or windage tray someone call it that is tapped for turbo return.
 
I am getting an Accessport for the 8! Too good of a deal to pass up, so the MSP may have to wait a little longer before it's on the road again.
 
IllaNoizeTV said:
What do you guys think of the 8 anyway? Reliability? Worth getting one with 80,000miles plus?
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I have no complaints. 80k, if it's the original engine could be very close to the end of it's life. 80k seems to be the magic number when they fail. Though, there are some owners, very few, that have made it 150k+ miles on the OE engine and 2 I know of on RX8club who exceeded 200k miles. And, what year is it? If it's a series 1, it's more likely to experience engine failure- 04, highest failure rate; 05, high failure rate; 06, lower failure rate; 07, low, low failure rate; 08, low, low, low failure rate... And so on. It primarily stemmed from a poor factory tune that Mazda released flash after flash over a few years to correct. By the later series 1 and the series 2 the tune had been corrected and all but corrected the issue.

I replaced my original engine at 81k, though it was obvious it was on it's way out. I started getting oil smoke on start up, misfires on cold start, random misfires at high rpm. I knew it was on it's way out. The majority of my issues started after my shop switched from a conventional to a blend 5w30 and I wasn't aware, so I continued servicing it with my shop pump oil. Synthetics are a no-no for a rotary. I replaced mine with a low-mileage 07MY engine and haven't had issues since and it's been almost a year.


Other than the engine "issue" there are converter failures which work out great if you like to mod a car and don't live in a state with emissions because you get to replace the most restrictive thing holding back horsepower (the cat) with a catless mid-pipe. I also go through ignition coils every 10-15k. Not a big deal and as a Protg owner, all of us should be familiar with coil issues.

The car handles awesome and is fun. It's not fast unless you're in the twisties at 8k. It brakes very well. Fuel mileage for me is about 16mpg constantly whether I'm WOT or driving ''normal''. I have 1.5 kids, so the backseat comes in handy and is the reason I got an 8 instead of an NB or NC.
 
The engine failure story:
Most of the engine failures were on 2004s with automatic transmissions. The 2004s in general had more issues due to the flash not adding enough oil and a few other things off the boat, and the automatics being 4-port and usually driven much more casually compounded the problem.

Compounding THAT was the original reman facility for the engine replacements did not have very good quality control, and alot of those original reman engines had improper seal clearances and other build issues that caused quite a few people to get to their 3rd or 4th engines.

MSP-16 updated the flash and improved things greatly, and happened early 2005. Mazda North America can tell you if MSP-16 was performed for any 2004 or 2005 if you give them the VIN. they also re-vamped their reman facility, and reman engines 2006+ are now usually far better than the original factory ones. So if you find a 2004, 2005, or 2006 with an engine replacement that occured late 2006 or later, don't take the engine replacement as a negative mark against the vehicle, but a positive one, as it means the engine is likely in fantastic shape, and good for quite a long time.

Plenty of 2004s were still perfectly fine.

2005s have a much reduced failure rate, 2006 further, 2007 and 2008 are relatively rare.

In 2009 they introduced further engine changes correcting several things, the most critical of which was an increase in oil pressure to RX-7 ranges (they dropped it for the 2004-2008 years for some reason), and re-introducing the center oil injector (they deleted it for the 2004-2008 RX-8s for some reason, all prior rotories had it).

A compression test should be standard before anyone buys an 8 though, just to be on the safe side. Most dealers charge $80 to $120 to do a compression test. I go more into the compression test itself in a post further down.

You might be wondering why it is that we have such a poor outlook. The problem is that there are so many different ways for an engine to fail:
- Excessive carbon buildup accelerates seal wear, causing compression loss
- Excessive carbon buildup unseats the apex seals, causing compression loss
- Excessive heat buildup warps the housings to one degree or another, preventing the apex seals from sealing, causing compression loss
- Excessive exhaust temperatures overheat the side seal springs, warping them until the side seal pops out of it's location, clips the exhaust port and shatters, throwing shrapnel through the engine (usually race motors, possible but rare in street motors)
- Fuel pump failure or high lateral G left turns with low fuel causes fuel starvation under load, creating a lean spike that causes detonation and shatters seals
- Cat failure (even more common than engine failure) causes localized heat and pressure buildup that overstresses the seals and breaks down oil viscosity, leading to various issues
- Clogged oil injection lines prevent oil from being injected, leading to excessive apex seal wear and side seal overheating, leading to compression loss and/or catastrophic failure (depending on which fails first)
- Subpar reman engine quality, starting with low compression that accelerates any other issue (reman quality has improved over the years, but bad apples are still reported)

These are just the common failure methods. There are uncommon ones, and/or freak ones, like a transmission issue snapped one guy's e-shaft somehow (probably a defective e-shaft that was too weak), or issues that are entirely owner caused, like too low octane or not keeping on top of the oil level.

Any single preventative measure you can find only addresses at best a couple of these, maybe just one method, and maybe none at all (but people think it does). And since you don't usually know how well the engine was put together in the first place, it's largely a roll of the dice on these engines.

Short answer: If possible engine failure makes you that uncomfortable and/or paranoid, then this is not the car for you. You have to accept the issues or ownership will turn into a nightmare. It still could anyway, but your mindset going in is far more important than statistics. The more prepared you are, financially and mentally, the less of a problem any of this will actually be for you.

Yes, I paint a bleak picture. However, it really isn't much worse than any other sports car. Every sports car out there has had it's share of problems. Why do we still love the RX-8 anyway? We love it because of it's ability to plaster a grin on your face. More on that later.
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o0n8 said:
nothing on the block except oil pan and windage tray if you included that as part of the block.
Click to expand...

So if an engine builder sourced a block (no internals at all) he can transfer everything over without modification?

EDIT: What I mean is, he can take the internals from the mazdaspeed block and transfer them over to the other block
 
So i just bought an msp today. It's spicy and some of you guys might know this one. It used to have a bp in it and was owned by vtec-this. This is my 4 pro I have bought in less than 3 years. I think I might have a problem lol
 
323 said:
nice. is the BP still in the spicy?
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Unfortunately, no it's in a friends 90 protege gt. But the car is set up to put another bp in it so I might put one in next year. For now tho I'm gonna throw an fs in it and supercharge it, once I pass emissions well see what happens
 
IllaNoizeTV said:
Thanks bro. Knowing this Ill prolly go with a Mazda6 s.
Click to expand...

I had one of those, too. 3.0L. Converter failures are common. And don't ignore it. If you do, the EGR system will suck catalyst material back through the intake and kill the engine. That's how I got the 6 for cheap from the original owner. And ignition coils are also a common failure on those. Not a huge deal to R&R unless it's the rear ones. Even then it's fairly easy to pull the plenum off to get access to the rear ones.
 
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