Half of you people are retarded.

It's an engine just like any other... Fuel and air go in. They get compressed and lit by a spark plug, They go bang, and it runs.
There is no black magic. There is no mystery.

I got an RX-7 for a reliable daily a few years ago to replace a vehicle with a Honda badge on the grille because it was down... Valve cover was leaking oil onto the timing belt and was causing it to stretch and skip teeth. No timing belt or valve covers on the rotary.. Ergo, more reliable.



OP... Firstly, head over to a club where there are people more familiar with these cars. In order of preference:
http://www.rx8club.com
http://www.rotarycarclub.com
http://www.nopistons.com

Secondly, take it to the dealer and have them look at what recalls and factory authorized modifications have been done to the car. Specifically, there have been several ECU reflashes that have come out. Some of those reflashes have to do with regional climate conditions... Being that we've had a recent hot spell and things are now cooling down, that might have something to do with the problem.

I don't personally own an RX-8, so I don't know the specific quirks that the car has, but I have an older version of that engine... I can tell you the following:

1.) It is not tolerant of overheating. Because it is built in several alternating layers of aluminum and iron, it is very sensitive to overheating. Keep an eye on the temp gauge.

2.) It is very sensitive to oil changes. The oil is used to cool the insides of the rotors (just like the undersides of pistons in conventional engines.) There are oil squirters built into the engine (under the intake manifold and on the rotor housings themselves) used to lubricate the apex seals (like piston rings in a conventional engine) It will burn a bit of oil as it runs... In working on older RX-7s, I've seen this be as much as a quart every 1000 miles to as little as a quart every 5000 miles. your mileage may vary. Use a good quality oil and do drive it aggressively to prevent carbon from forming on the spark plug tips and in the engine. The use of synthetics is widely debated in the rotary engine community since synthetics are designed NOT to burn. Most people recommend Castrol GTX.

3.) You mentioned chattering as the engine is revved. This is chattering that you will not hear, but it's something to note... First thing to realize: there's a redline on the tach. It's there for a reason. Take the engine to redline once. You'll hear the car beep at you. Notice that it's a smooth running engine and you might not notice that it was at redline as you drive, hence the beep.

If you stay at or above redline for a long period of time, the apex seals will chatter against the rotor housings. It happens when you rub two metal objects together very fast, kinda like skipping a stone on a lake. This is just like the piston rings in a conventional engine scraping up the cylinder bore. Racing engines that see high rpm all the time use a lighter material like carbon or ceramic for the apex seals so that they don't chatter. The iron seals in your engine are better built for street driving.

Enjoy the rotary, but note that there's a few minor quirks about it. Also know that even though the average joe doesn't know much about the engine, there's a HUGE community that'll help you out.

Note the ecu reflash info as well. Beats the people telling him he needs a several thousand dollar engine rebuild, right off the bat with no diagnosis.



Point out the fail, asshole. Otherwise, go back to your FWD econoboxes.



It's not exactly the same, but it's very similar. The rotors will interchange (Giving a significant compression ratio increase to the RX-7.) The eccentric shaft will swap out (Not significant, minor weight difference.) as well. The key difference between the RX-7 and RX-8 is the location of the exhaust ports.

However both engines have port fuel injection. Both have distributorless ignition. The crank angle sensor and fuel maps may be different, but the way they operate is very similar and they both have similar quirks. The RX-7 and RX-8 are more closely related than anything with a piston engine.

Again, I invite you to point out where exactly I gave any false information. Otherwise, get your lack of grade school English outta here.