Engine failure poll?

[LeglizHemp]

2001 39,500 miles

had some overheating probs this summer. nothing bad. noticed in late may while sitting in parking lot at work smoking a cigarette at break time with car running and A/C on that car would almost overheat in 15 mins. this is 1st year no workplace smoking laws in effect here. it sucks. it never got that hot while driving. i attributed it to the 90 degree weather. noticed again while in traffic after the F1 race in june. hot day air conditioning on and stopped and stopped more traffic. it concerned me some but but didn't happen again. i went from indy to DC and virginia coast and back in early july. no problems. took car in for oil change tonight and told dealer about overheating and to look into it. guy said they took off radiator cap and it was bubbling, which he said was a sign of a blown head gasket or a cracked head. he said i'd be fine thru the winter but next year could be real bad.

what do you think? fix it now or fix it later? and does this sound correct?

[MoonRaker]

Im rebuilding my motor cause someone sludged the oil before I bought it, I told isuzu about it when I got it at 36,000 miles but they said it was OK, iwalked away calling them cocksuckers. Its at 65,000 miles now 5000 over warenty and im lucky I made it a 1000 miles from DC to Florida, had to change the oil every 500 miles because it was fuming me out and the oil was burning that fast. It also blew the rear main. Gona do a teardown this week and look at the damage. Does anyone now what the cylinder walls are made of. Im thinking of getting them nickosiled to stock specks and getting total seal to make up some gapless rings for it. Do alittle head porting and angle cut the valves and seats, and bearings. Kinda build it bullet proof, atleast try.

[jgalt]

2000 - 65,000 miles

Rod knock started at dealer while in for 60K service. Bought a re-built long block from Rhino Engines for $3,900 (3-year, 100,000 mile warranty) vs near 6,000 from the local Isuzu dealer (1-year warranty). Seems pretty tight now.

[chriswtx]

I was looking at a 2001 with 52K miles on it to buy. Now after reading this I'm not sure. I drive 60miles round trip every day to work..I need it trouble free for the next 50K miles...

[WiSDoM]

MY 2000 has 120,000 +/- and I drive it over 60 miles everyday and no problems. I don't worry about it. Just keep track of your oil changes and fluid levels in between changes.

[MoonRaker]

Ive been dreading the rebuild and putting it off. Ive been reading alot on the history of problems with this peticuler engine. Im a very reputable engine builder so ive got alot of experiance from my 15 years of building. I work at Email address pettitracing,com and have been there since 04, the yellow RX-8 belongs to me. From the info ive seen it lookes like the main problem stems from sticking oil seals on the pistons. It causes excessive blow-by and from what ive seen breakes down the oil very fast causing lots of problems before you figure out whats wrong. Ive herd of crank bearings going out causing crank failure and also rod bearings. Im lucky to the fact of catching the problem early. It seems to happen from 50,000 to 80,000 miles. Im not shure if its from going to long between oil changes or carbon biuldup but im thinking that its the main cause. I mention earlyer in the thread that someone sludged the oil and can also say thats what started the problem. Maintnence or lack of tends to hurt the VX. As good as it still runs im willing to bet that oil rings are the only thing thats wrong with my engine so far. Bearings and seals are getting replaced for shure though.