Engine rebuild questions
#1
Junior Member
Thread Starter
Engine rebuild questions
Basically I'm at a crossroads. I have an 85 GSL with 110K miles on the clock on the original 12A. I've done a compression test and am getting 90+ on all the rotor faces. The goal is a reliable and fairly quick street car resto-mod that's daily drivable for a while. I know 12A housings are hard to get so I'd like to either preserve the existing housings for a while longer or rebuild the engine as a 13B but ideally I would like to keep the 12A in as good a shape as possible.
Here's the question: is it worth tearing the current running engine down and replacing apex seal springs (maybe even the apex seals) and doing a little porting and putting it back together? Or should I just wait until it starts losing compression to tear down and rebuild? My thoughts are that if I rebuild it now and get ahead of the wear I might be able to get a longer life out of the rotor housings but I'd like some thoughts on if that's a realistic expectation.
Here's the question: is it worth tearing the current running engine down and replacing apex seal springs (maybe even the apex seals) and doing a little porting and putting it back together? Or should I just wait until it starts losing compression to tear down and rebuild? My thoughts are that if I rebuild it now and get ahead of the wear I might be able to get a longer life out of the rotor housings but I'd like some thoughts on if that's a realistic expectation.
#2
Moderator
iTrader: (3)
is the car stock? if so, why not start with a full exhaust system and see what that does for you? it will wake the engine up significantly. if that doesn't satisfy your desire for a "fairly quick street car", then you can consider porting, and for me, i would still probably leave THIS engine alone. what if you end up porting and not liking it? i doubt the engine you would replace it with would be in as good of shape as your current one. i would get a second engine - whether 12A or 13B - and build it.
#3
Senior Member
iTrader: (4)
Yes I think that is some good advice. Opening up your 12A to replace a few parts.. I don't think will get ahead or reduce wear rates. New seals and springs might even accelerate the wear, maybe some one more experience could comment on that.
I had sourced a second engine and had that rebuilt.. streetport 12a, like new housings (not sure where they came from...), all new seals, springs, gaskets, and lapped + Nitrided irons. It is a night and day difference to a stock 12A.
In the mean time, I pulled my original 12A apart... I had it stored for a few years and figure why not open it up to see how things are. This is my cars original 12A.... 60k miles or so. Maybe bad luck? I have no reason to think the engine was abused. Cooling, oil system, bearings all look great.
So don't open up a good 12A because you might not like what you find! Only option from here is build up a 13B...
Looks good from this angle... Pretty clean right?
Wow.
I had sourced a second engine and had that rebuilt.. streetport 12a, like new housings (not sure where they came from...), all new seals, springs, gaskets, and lapped + Nitrided irons. It is a night and day difference to a stock 12A.
In the mean time, I pulled my original 12A apart... I had it stored for a few years and figure why not open it up to see how things are. This is my cars original 12A.... 60k miles or so. Maybe bad luck? I have no reason to think the engine was abused. Cooling, oil system, bearings all look great.
So don't open up a good 12A because you might not like what you find! Only option from here is build up a 13B...
Looks good from this angle... Pretty clean right?
Wow.
Last edited by tommyeflight89; 11-01-21 at 05:25 PM.
#4
Junior Member
Thread Starter
is the car stock? if so, why not start with a full exhaust system and see what that does for you? it will wake the engine up significantly. if that doesn't satisfy your desire for a "fairly quick street car", then you can consider porting, and for me, i would still probably leave THIS engine alone. what if you end up porting and not liking it? i doubt the engine you would replace it with would be in as good of shape as your current one. i would get a second engine - whether 12A or 13B - and build it.
The problem I'm running into with getting a second engine to build is just availability. There aren't a ton of RX7's in Alaska and the ones there are are priced like "I know what I got". No parts cars to speak of so that leaves shipping an engine up for substantial cost and hoping it's close to usable.
You're right on though, I may just leave well enough alone for the meantime and work on the rest of the car. My main hope was that for the cost of a seal kit and springs I could keep the wear on my existing housings to a minimum but it sounds like that's not a guarantee.
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
NMJ87T2
2nd Generation Specific (1986-1992)
44
05-31-06 10:45 PM