Okay guys, long story short. I got hayes rotary to do my engine back in '99 before I knew any better. After having the engine in the car for just over two years I am having to pull the engine again because of failed coolant seals. I'm guessing the housings they used were crap and finally gave way to the seals. I dunno. Either way, Don has agreed to honor the warranty for me. SO, this is my question. Would I be ok letting hayes do my rebuild again BUT this time with Brand New Rotor housings?? I've heard that they can put the motors together with no prob. it's just that they use bad and out of spec. internals. I have heard of them pocketing good parts so I will be ordering the housings myself and stamping them before sending them off to Hayes. What do you all think? Since they are honoring my warranty and not charging me anything...it will only cost me for the new housings. Engine will be sent off this month. Any advice is appreciated.

 

BTW, I will be getting the Brand new Housings for dirt cheap. Mazdacomp

 

i probably am going to be mistaken, but i heard of a type of silicon coolant seals and i could have sworn they were available from hayes. they are supposed to be a lot more durable then the oe water seals. any help on clarifying this will be greatly appreciated....anyone?......by the way, who is the hot chick in your avatar and why isn't there a bigger picture for everyone to enjoy?

 

See the northwest forum on "Hayes Rotary" for the long post.

 

Anyone else ??

 

It's not really the rotor housings that are the problem. It's the side plates that Hayes uses in their engines.

They've been lapped far too many times, in most cases, and the grooves for the water jacket seals (Hayes silicone seals or not) aren't sufficient to retain the seal. In my case, my ZERO mile engine already had the seals split and compromised because there was almost no groove left whatsoever.

Insist on new or newer side plates, or provide your own. You can also insist on inspecting the parts before the final assembly of your engine. Hayes has had "problems" with new parts getting "lost" in the past, and substituting used (very used) parts in their place.

 

Thanks J

 

Thanks Jim. I was looking for you to post something.

 

I would honestly cut my losses and move on to a more reputable shop. If they took negligable care in building your engine when you first handed them good money, I seriously doubt they would expand much more effort in doing a 'free' (warranty) job.

Best of luck.

 

kdrotary or pineappleracing. I've dealt with Dave at KDR and they know their rotaries extremely well. All of the engines that have been built by him have been solid.

 

What happened that ultimately made you pull your engine? I have an engine built by Hayes, and I'm trying to figure out a coolant problem. When your seals went, did it smoke constantly and was there be water in the oil? For me, the water in the filler neck keeps disappearing, and this past weekend I packed it with water and really got it good and full, and when I started the car it sputtered and smoked white smoke like hell. Smoke was also coming out just to the left of the intake manifold, but I could never see the exact source since it was night. After five minutes it all cleared out and didn't do it anymore. And the oil and coolant don't look like they're mixing. Just curious if the symptoms were similar or not (hopefully not!).

Good luck with your rebuild.

 

TailHappy: Check your intake manifold.. There are coolant lines in the intake manifold.. It sounds like they are leaking.. They are in between the intakes ports.

-Zach

 

Sweet. I've just been reading lots of old posts and noticed that there were both turbo and manifold coolant lines that could be leaking. Is there some way that the manifold lines could leak into the intake, because there was definitely smoke in the exhaust? The exhaust didn't really seem to have a coolant smell, though. It actually had a vague smell of pumpkin instead of the normal sweet caramel smell.

Anyway, thanks for the lead!