Mazda kicks it into high gear!
This year I've had quite a few RX8 owners who have been told by Mazda that their engine is bad. With OEM soft parts weighing in at well over $2100 and better than OEM soft parts weighing in at $1900, not to mention rotor housings at $700 a pop I decided I would do some research a cheaper engine cost.
My main concern with a Mazda short block has been ongoing since 1980. It seems that the "NEW" engines they sell are just rebuilt and some engines have new housings and some don't . . . . . . hmm, anyway never mind that I have in the past thirty years installed 7 of them for customers , but I have personally seen chrome flake from a crate engine visible with my $80 Harbor Freight bore camera in 4!
Has anybody actually met Mr. John Q Mazda?
This wasn't my first time calling Mazda on an RX8 engine. In January of 2011 I called a local dealer, lets call them Don Tomkin. They quoted me $2000 for a reman engine with a $500 dollar core with my 20% off as a dealer, that made a total cost of $2100 if my core was good. The core refund I heard was another bone of contention, the customers who have given me those seven remans seldom received full credit, at least thats what my poor customers told me.
Now the rub. 2004/2005 RX8 cars had a 8 year 100,000 mile warrantee. In 2012 I called to inquire about that same $2100 engine I was told that the 04/05 engine is $3000 my cost with a $1000 core if they could find one, nice.
The idea of a $4000 for just the reman engine and with OEM parts accessorizing it scares me, especially when I have two dead remans sitting on the floor with blue mazda tags saying they were built by Mazda in 2010.
What even scares me more is the fact that if I rebuild an RX8 engine that the factories track record has a dismal average life expectancy. Die Hard rotary nuts I am with you, but you will easily spend $5-6K on a Renesis Wankel.