engine rebuild ease
 

hey everybody im new to the forums, and new to rotary power. This is problay a dumb question, but how would you rate the rebuild of an rotary engine, compared to a piston engine?? Ive been seeing some DIY vidoes on here, are they good?? My plan once i get the 7, is to do a 13b turbo swap, and rebuild that engine myself before i put it in.

louee

thanks for all help :)

I had never rebuilt a rotary before, in fact I had never rebuilt a piston engine by myself (my brother always did it for me and I helped him). I used the Rotary Aviation rebuild video and highly recommend it. My engine now has over 2500 miles on it and is running perfectly. I'd say that if you can rebuild a piston engine you can easily rebuild a rotary engine. And even if you haven't rebuild a piston engine, if you have a decent amount of mechanical aptitude, you can rebuild a rotary.

Good luck!

Rich

yeah rebuilding a rotary was easy, I just watched Rich do it and it runs so we must not have messed it up too bad lol.

Don't let Ian fool you...he did a lot of the work. Neither of us had done a rotary rebuild so it was a good learning experience. I dumped the Rotary Aviation rebuild video onto a DVD and put a cheap DVD player in the garage. For each new step we watched that section of the video several times, then went to work on it. It went really well.

Rich

How long did it take you guys to rebuild the engine?

We did it over a couple of weekends. That doesn't include the teardown. I already had it torn down and cleaned up, including soaking the rotors in carb cleaner overnight. Putting the motor together could easily be done in a day, or maybe 2 days, but we were being really deliberate and double and triple checking everything as we went.

Rich

I rebuilt my engine 2 weeks ago, and since have put 1200 Kms on it. its running real nice. I thought it was easy, and i have never watched the rebuild video. just with the Factory service manual found online as a guide. clearencing and checking all the parts was the most time consuming part, especially cleaning all the rotors and everything. Putting it back togeather was a breeze, just take your time, and pay attention to small details. It took me about 4 hours to put everything back togeather, but knowing what i do now i could probably do it in 2 hours. Go for it, its an awesome experience!

thanks for all the input guys, its good to hear its easy. But has anybody here done both a piston and a rotary??

I've never done a piston rebuild by myself, but I've assisted my brother on two of them, so I know what is involved.

Rich

I´ve done piston engines, but never a rotary

Mine is apart, clearances checked, but still need parts...

I´ll take pics :D

I too only ever rebuilt rotary engines. I used the video and the manual as a cross refrence. One of the greatest feelings I've ever expierenced (aside from sex) was hearing my engine fire up for the fist time. Watching that baby come alive! The few the proud......the rotorheads! lol

im going to rebuild my engine, but i dont know were to get a kit. Does anyone know were i can get a kit and a video?

I kinda wanna do it to my non-running FB... to get the experience...

I've done them both.

It's hard to recall which one was "harder" at the beginning. I've been putting small blocks and big blocks together since I was 12. My dad used to run Super Gas, so we tore down and rebuilt motors fairly frequently.

I helped a friend of mine put a 12A back together. It seemed harder to me only because I didn't have much experience with funny spinning motors. Just make sure you clean everything WELL and check all the clearances. Mechanically, I think it's less work than a piston motor. There's less parts to bolt down. We also used the factory service manual online.

Kev