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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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