Hey, i have a 79 12a I’m working on and one of the housings has some pretty severe flaking. With how rare 12a housings are is it worth running?

 

Oof man, Im not as experienced as the other guys here, but thats a paper weight Im pretty sure. You can atleast make a nice display out of it. And if your plates are any good, You can use em for a 13B 4 port build

 

i wouldn't use it.

 

that isn't close to severe flaking! obviously its got enough where you couldn't expect the engine to last a long time, but it would run

 

How long do you think it would run for?

 

I would not use them unless it's a floor sweeper, you're reusing a bunch of other parts, and don't care that it's an iffy engine - I definitely wouldn't be buying new parts to use with those housings. Mazda replacement spec for flake is only 1 or 2mm from the edge if I recall correctly. Granted yes, I've seen engines with far worse chrome flake and they did still run, albeit not optimally.

12A housings are certainly less common, but you can usually find some for sale on Marketplace or elsewhere, they'll just cost you. Alternative is getting some 13B housings milled down but that's probably just as expensive. Realistically this all depends on your budget and goals though, and if you're just trying to get a cheap engine going then sure, they'd "work", but that's not to say I'm suggesting you use them. I personally wouldn't waste the time and money to run them.

 

A guy i know has brand new 12 A turbo housings 1200$ a pop. I want to buy them so bad but just to say i have em 💀

 

The flaking is severe enough that I would not use it for a rebuild unless it were absolutely necessary. While it will run, it will not last as long as a clean housing with little to no flaking. I would personally look for another housing that has a better chrome surface.

 

Bringing up a question out of my curiousity but also for everyones sake; Are there companies today that can refinish/sleeve/coat the chrome surface? It feels like such a waste to have to toss an entire iron when its only the equivalent to a cylinder sleeve being bad.

 

No. The chrome isn't really chrome, it's some proprietary coating mazda made .