2004 RX8 SPORT AT

Project page for the 2004 RX8 Sport (automatic). This page documents an ongoing rebuild of my car. I will be doing similar maintenance as I did on the RX7.

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Background

10-owner (WOW!) 2004 RX8 Sport, automatic transmission. Bought as a "running" car with large service history gaps. Owner prior to me kept it mostly stock, with the exception of a Sohn Adapter. The car was broken into at some point. The body is mostly fine, however (as you will later learn), those 10 previous owners weren't very nice to the car. Regardless, I wanted to take on a challenge, especially after restoring the RX7. The rotary engine piqued my interest and I wanted experience rebuilding one.

Initial Condition

Car "drove" when purchased but wouldn't hot start and had almost a 2-minute starting time. Safe to say, the engine was pretty trashed. Me and my dad drove all the way to eastern Washington during the summer to pick this thing up. We left at 10pm and got back at 2am. It was funny because I was taking summer classes and this one event completely destroyed my sleep schedule. Anyways, here's a pic of the car the night we brought it. Car looks pretty good.

Engine Teardown

The initial teardown of components peripheral to the engine was fairly easy, albeit finding materials pertaining to the AT RX8 was fairly difficult outside of official Mazda service manuals. I mostly followed a Rad Potential Youtube video on how to disassemble the peripherals. It took maybe a weekend to prepare the car for engine removal.

The basic stripdown goes as follows: • Remove intake assembly and UIM.
• Remove Battery.
• Tear out the air pump (Won't be using mine!).
• Disconnect all electrical connectors.
• Detach exhaust manifold from catalytic converter.
• Disconnect transmission from engine.
• Remove motor mounts.

Taking the engine out was a battle and a half. My father helped me do this. The engine lived on a tire for a few weeks while I finished up classes in Spring of 2026. I was also waiting on a rotary counterweight tool from Billet Rotary to arrive. The automatic cars have a counterweight instead of a flywheel that needs to be locked in order to disassemble.

The engine disassembly went as planned. The previous owners beat down hard on this engine, evidenced by the line on the eccentric shaft. That line only appears when the engine has either been overheated many times, or through oil starvation. The bearings in the rotors also were done, they showed a lot of copper. One of the housings was super scratched up as well. The rotors are servicable, but had huge carbon deposits prior to cleaning.

Current Status

The car is currently still in the shop awaiting an engine rebuild. I plan on purchasing new Mazda housings over the summer and working a job during the school year to help pay for a rebuild kit from Atkins Rotary.

Here are some things I did do to the car that are unrelated to the engine rebuild: • Fit new Jegs Performance transmission cooler on
• Installed Rotarytronic Ultimate Gauge kit + GTAcarkits ipod adapter
• Removed navi screen from the car (thank goodness!)
• Installed RX8performance Ultimate Radiator.

I am excited for what this car will become in the near future. Hopefully a better commuter car than the RX7

A Note On Junkyards

I frequent local junkyards in a desperate attempt to find cheap RX7 FB and RX8 parts. I see some go by at a scrapyard often, even if they don't specialize in rotary cars. It always breaks my heart to see them crush these cars, especially with so few RX8s ever being produced.

The yard I visit often has this beautiful RX8 that I was going to pull the intake and coilovers from. I had to leave for a week, and the car ended up being crushed in that period. It broke my heart then because I lost the opportunity to get some sick suspension parts and a really quality AEM intake. I did end up sourcing the Racing Beat REVi intake from someone else but the AEM would have fit my car better.

Anyways, here are 2 pics of the car. Really beautiful RX8, such a shame someone couldn't go fix it up.