You Can Finish the Job on This 7.3L Power Stroke Diesel-Swapped Mazda RX-8—If You’re Brave Enough
Just believe us when we say…It won’t be easy.
Gearheads are no strangers to the blood, sweat, tears and cash that project cars can draw from you and your bank account. If you think that's true about a Honda Civic with HID headlights, just imagine building a Mazda RX-8 with a hulking Power Stroke diesel in it. That's the predicament one guy's currently facing with his half-finished build that's sure to make someone a hero or a zero, depending on their fabrication skills.
As outlined in the car's for-sale listing on Facebook Marketplace, the owner has spent the last three months fitting the 7.3-liter turbodiesel V8 from a 1997 Ford F-250 to his 2007 RX-8. All the work has been done in a hotel parking and lot and, apparently, the Mercedes-Benz W140 S-Class he used as a mobile storage shed was broken into. While they were at it, the crooks apparently stole all his tools, leaving his project high and dry. As a result, he's been forced to list the car for sale.
According to the current owner, some of those months were spent completely rebuilding the engine, complete with new fuel injectors and pistons—practically the express ticket to more power with a turbodiesel. It links to a ZF five-speed manual (presumably the one from the F-250) which sends power down a driveshaft from a 2002 Chevrolet Tahoe to the Mazda's stock rear end. Seeing as the RX-8's diff was designed to hold up to an infamously torque-less Wankel rotary, it probably isn't up to the task of handing the diesel's grunt.
To buy this RX-8, you'll have to really want it or really want to help the seller. It's sporting an asking price of $12,500 and, considering an RX-8 shell and a 7.3 Powerstroke long block can be attained for about half that, you'd be paying a premium to have the engine and transmission mounted up for you. And if doing that yourself is beyond your skill level, so is finishing the rest of this build.
Regardless, you'd be the only one on your block with such a machine and, for some, that's all the reason they need.
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