RX8 on the Mongol Rally?... (10,000 mile trip to Eastern Siberia)

[boosted]

The 8 has a lsd so in mud youll have ok traction compared to say a cheaper car without which would effectively be 1 wheel drive.

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[boosted]

No prob in this...

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[Vian]

My friend has sent me some photos of the roads in darkest Kazakhstan that you'll be using...you'll be fine!

Theres tarmac! which is a lot better than I was expecting, so I'm taking this a positive

He said he'd be happy to talk to you on email if you want advice - PM me if you want to take advantage of that.

[Ollie]

I still need to walk down my track and record what its like... Then you'll all know what potholes are!

[Louisdg]

We dubbed the Maverick expedition "Mission Impossible" even before they left, thanks to American paranoia...

The US State Department wouldn't allow any US company to provide the team with satellite phone equipment, as they were driving through Russia.
At the time the only commercially available satellite phones were from the US, and come in two suitcases

We were talking with Nokia, who had a single-suitcase system in development and managed to convince them that this would be a perfect opportunity for a field trial. In the end they provided two systems, both slightly different, as communications is not where you want a single-point-of-failure. Each system included an internal incendiary device that would destroy the unit if the wrong pass code was entered - hence the "Mission Impossible" tag.

In the end the team smuggled a couple of Motorola systems in among all the equipment, which was just as well as both the Nokia units and one of the Motorolas, died. One of the cars suffered a loom fire after they ran out of replacement accessory socket* fuses and fitted a solid link.

The team didn't fancy carrying the duff Nokia stuff around so the one that would at least power-up, they took 50 yards back down the road and deliberately entered the wrong code - cue lots of smoke and flame - no it didn't work. They ended-up destroying both Nokia systems and the one dead Motorola by using them for target practise with the shotguns and rifles that the support crew all had tucked away.

Back on topic and you're looking at a very different world now, at least in communications technology, and you're also travelling in summer, which means not only heat but mosquitoes the size of bats.

* BTW the RX-8 accessory socket is only live when the engine is running. just thought I mention that.

[New Duke]

* BTW the RX-8 accessory socket is only live when the engine is running. just thought I mention that.

And we've found another unexpected difference between the series 1 and 2!

[Louisdg]

Also, I read somewhere that Mazda do a warranty for 80,000 miles on all RX8 engines and offer a full rebuild if it breaks. Is this true? And if so is it only for the first owner?
Do you think it'd be worth buying it and getting it rebuilt??

[boosted]

All depends on your budget. A rebuilt car will need running in...

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[Louisdg]

All depends on your budget. A rebuilt car will need running in...

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Ah yeh good point, thanks.
How many miles would have to be done to run it in? The roads will be pretty nice from the UK to the Caspian sea so we could take it slow and easy along there as it breaks itself in if we do rebuild it?...

[Louisdg]

No prob in this...

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That looks perfect! Where do I find one??!!
(Probably quite far out of my budget .... )

[boosted]

Typically 500 oil change 4k rpm max onto 1000miles revs 5k max then oil change further 500 increasing revs.

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[New Duke]

Mazda US extended the warranty (to 8 years or 100,000 miles), but not in the UK. All RX8s are past the year limit in the US now anyway.

A decent rebuild will cost about £2.5k : https://www.ryanrotaryperformance.com/p ... ld-service

After the run in they usually need to go back to the rebuilder to be serviced (and have any rev limiters removed).

Or.... just get a compression test done by a rotary expert and if it comes back fine, just service the out of the engine and drive off on your rally and embrace the gamble.

[brix79]

It would be epic if you did this!

If you've not seen The Long Way Round, it's worth a watch to see what some of the journey could be like. The Road of Bones was a shocker!

[30405]

Who are we sending along for the club YT channel??

[Louisdg]

Mazda US extended the warranty (to 8 years or 100,000 miles), but not in the UK. All RX8s are past the year limit in the US now anyway.

A decent rebuild will cost about £2.5k : https://www.ryanrotaryperformance.com/p ... ld-service

After the run in they usually need to go back to the rebuilder to be serviced (and have any rev limiters removed).

Or.... just get a compression test done by a rotary expert and if it comes back fine, just service the out of the engine and drive off on your rally and embrace the gamble.

Yeh £2.5k is way out of our budget so I guess we'll just have to cross our fingers on the compression test and get it a good service.
Unless we can persuade Mazda to sponsor us...
Anyone got any leads regarding how I could pull that?...

[Louisdg]

Who are we sending along for the club YT channel??

We've got a facebook page:
"Please Don't Yurt Us"

and an instagram account under the same name I think. We will also be writing a blog post each day but we haven't started that yet. I'm the car guy, the other two are in charge of social media!
It's all in very early stages of planning :/

[Ainmhidh]

I see you've seen my previous post in the 'What have you done...' thread. When my cousin did it your car had to be under 10 years old, I think under £2000 and was left behind, supposedly to benefit the locals. By the time they got there in 'Mica the Micra' they'd had to remodel one of the wheel arches using the jack handle, and get various bits of the suspension welded a couple of times in random places along the way. It wasn't many more years before Mongolia told the organisers that they didn't want the cars left behind!

My cousin did it with a mate and his then girlfriend, with them variously camping or sleeping in the car at points along the way. Before they went he reckoned if his relationship survived the trip then the girlfriend was a keeper. They're now married with an 18 month old. The mate was the best man.

You'd definitely want a couple of spare wheels - I suspect you'd have some difficulty finding 114.1mm centre ET50 18s along the way!

[Louisdg]

I see you've seen my previous post in the 'What have you done...' thread.

You'd definitely want a couple of spare wheels - I suspect you'd have some difficulty finding 114.1mm centre ET50 18s along the way!

Yeh I thought I'd have a quick search to see if anyone else had asked the same question and your thread popped up.

That's a very good point about the wheels though, especially with them being alloys, as they are more likely to crack on the potholed roads than steel ones as they're more brittle I think. (I'm not sure steel ones even exist anywhere!) I guess we would have to take a spare. The kit list is piling up :/

[Ainmhidh]

Think someone's going to have to sleep on the bonnet like a cat!

[ChrisHolmes]

dont fit a ram air intake because you want the air intake as high as possible for when you are fording rivers. A snorkel set up may be advisable and coils well waterproofed too.
Regarding the engine then I would advise a strip check and rebuild so you know all is well before you set off. Just about anything as can be repaired by an ingenious local with a lump hammer and stick welder!

[New Duke]

Good point Chris, I forgot about the water. If a snorkel is fitted then might be a good idea to design it to suck in air actively with it's own fan. The Renesis can overheat even when idling/low speeds if the ambient temperature is high enough and not enough air is being supplied. I found that out on The Mall a couple of summers ago to much embarrassment.

[ChrisHolmes]

Good point Chris, I forgot about the water. If a snorkel is fitted then might be a good idea to design it to suck in air actively with it's own fan. The Renesis can overheat even when idling/low speeds if the ambient temperature is high enough and not enough air is being supplied. I found that out on The Mall a couple of summers ago to much embarrassment.

Excellent point Haydn, I have a switchable 12v 300cfm Bilge fan in my VFAD duct to direct ambient air onto the cone air filter inside the engine bay which works well.

[exiled--viking]

Get your self a good old army land rover that will do the job carry all you need and you can sleep in it

[warpc0il]

Would that be the sub-1200cc 2WD Land rover?

I've actually driven one of those...
... if a missing drive shaft and two bent exhaust valves count, but I would fancy trying to get across Eastern Siberia in one

[Honkytonk]

To mostly echo what has been said above, you're brave but it won't be impossible if you take the right steps. I'd love to do the Mongol Rally 'proper', followed a mate's progress a few years back as UK support and had some very interesting moments as he tried to get a green Goddess fire engine there.

Under the car you'll need to armour most of it, something like cracking your diff or puncturing a fuel tank or brake line might be terminal once you're past eastern europe, and they're all pretty low on the car. You'll probably need to do something about the rad/oil coolers as well as they're right low down on the chin of the car and you're probably going to smash them if they don't get protected. I'd keep both oil coolers as the car is likely going to get hot, and you can always blank one of them off with the mouse mat mod if it's cold.

Beefing the suspension up and trying to gain a bit of height, and fitting a snorkel with a toggleable fan as Chris mentioned would be a great idea. Finding a way to keep water away from the coils and leads is going to be important too, they're designed to get a bit wet but I'm not sure how they'll like being soaked repeatedly. I'd advise against a sealed box as the coils get hot and it provides somewhere for water to sit rather than drain away (precisely what you don't want).

The weight of the car is going to suffer from this, especially with 2 more blokes and all your kit in there, so make sure you check your ride heights after filling the car with everything rather than before. One of the Micras the year my mate ran didn't do that and beached themselves because they didn't account for the weight pulling the car lower to the ground...

This might all sound like a lot of work but other than suspension and snorkel you're really just upgrading the plastic to something a bit tougher when it comes to the underside. I don't doubt you could get there in a 'boggo' one, but if you've got the time to plan then make the most of it and make your lives easier.

I am 100% pro you doing this, and wish you all the luck. Please check back in if you go ahead, I'm sure we'd all be delighted to hear how it goes on the build and the actual journey.