What can I say? Ponies bring out the best in people.

Those marks are like "inspected by" stickers on new products like clothing and kitchen machines. I totally ignore them. :)

Um, chartreuse is the color of Mountain Dew. I think you meant sky blue on the housings. ;)

When it comes to R5 engines, it's one subject I really know a lot about and kinda enjoy passing the info on to others if it helps them.

Speaking of that, should I post about my next R5 build? It might be kinda fun. But I'm not anywhere near able to work on it just yet.

It's funny; some rotor housings have the inspection marks on those little raised pads you see in the lower right in your pictures, others have them kinda whereever on the top of the housing. I've seen both ways.

Ray, I was able to score a brand-new (as in, was still in factory box and cosmoline) NO mid-housing for my current build; I'm hoping it lasts me some years, even though it is an old-school non-nitrided unit.

If you weren't so distant, I'd probably be trying to buy that whole motor off you, even though I have no reasonable argument for getting one with less than 1000 miles on this freshly built one, nor space in which to keep it; my smog-rotary hoarding instinct has become a serious monkey on my back.

Likewise that center housing; I'm hoping not to have to build another motor for some years, if ever. Right at the moment, I'm actually a bit burned out on garage stuff.

OTOH, there's this monkey chittering in my ear.

Divin, if I still had any NO plates I'd give them to you for the cost of shipping. They were low mile nitrided virtually no step wear.

By the way get ready for smokey startups in 20k miles with the non nitrided stuff. It wears the oil seals really fast. Never nitrided factory stuff is still better than resurfaced nitrided irons due to the differences in hardness. The underlying iron on nitrided plates is softer than early never nitrided plates. Those kill all the seals on the sides of the rotors in record time.

You know the ketchup and mustard R5 engine from the white rotary baja? I tore it down because the owner accidentally dropped a washer down the carb. This engine had probably less than 20k on it, but it smoked a lot at startup caused by resurfaced nitrided side plates. The remaining apex seals measured in at 8.1mm tall. That's very little wear, but it smoked like an original never opened 180k+ motor with hardened ancient oil o-rings. So be prepared for increasing unburned HCs at your next several emissions tests. Make sure your CA specific emissions parts are top notch and stay away from direct fire ignition upgrades. Not trying to be a downer, just telling it like it is.

Jeff what I'm thinking is the RD blue for the rotor housings, and RD green chartreuse for the front housing, RD yellow chartreuse for the midhousing and RD pony purple for the rear housing. Then something pretty, but radical, for the front cover and water pump housing. Still a work in progress, but I can see it in my mind. Should be the prettiest 12A in Georgia when I'm done.

DD, I tore down the R5 (here's a link with some pics:

https://www.rx7club.com/1st-generati...t-shop-1018461

It was really shiny inside and I was excited at first, but there are some flaws. All the rotor seals were fine, apex, side and oil seals were all floating on there springs and in great shape, much better than any of my previous 12A tear downs.

The end and mid housings are decent, better than most of the flat housings I pulled out of the other FB 12As I've torn down recently, but of no use to me because I'll use FB flat housings for my rebuild.

Unfortunately, the rotor housings appear to be the problem, they have that tell tale flaking around the edges of the chrome surface, probably what was causing the low compression on the front rotor.

I might hold on to the rotating assembly if it can be used in an FB 12A, but pretty much all of it is up for grabs, send me a pm if interested (I can do up close photos).

I think you want grabber green and daytona yellow. These are engine paint colors. They also have a nice purple. Actually all the engine paint colors match RD. It's interesting. It's like they used pantones or something.

I'm starting to think paint colors Jeff, you got a link for those RD engine paints?

No, but I just did an internet search. I found this.

Dupli-Color :: Engine Paint with Ceramic

Lots of choices. So I'll list the six colors that seem to match the pantone the artists at Studio B (pony show) used.

DE1653 Red
DE1620 Chevrolet Orange
DE1642 Daytona Yellow
DE1641 Grabber Green (Lime)
DE1601 Ford Blue
DE1640 Plum Purple

These are the exact colors I used on my two Rainbow Dash engines.

The only color I didn't use is a sky blue. I never looked it up in the store or online so I don't know what would look good. This is up to you and your eye for finishes.

Just a note about looking these colors up online. They don't look the same as they do in real life. Something to do with differences in computer monitors: theirs vs yours. Plus you need to see it in the light of day, not projected on a computer screen.

I find the Ford Blue and Chevy orange to be intoxicating in the sun. I can't look away. Oh and Grabber Green... burst! The yellow is nice too and similar to the 93 RX-7 competition yellow mica.

The Red is technically a match for RD, as is the Plum Purple, but being a darker color, doesn't pop in the light. Plus for my purposes, as I'm redoing the R5 in my REPU, I'm going with a nicer looking red this time which contains more purple. Comparing both in the light, the other red matches the Mazda color better. But for you doing RD, you must go with the Red listed above. Heh, doing RD. Did I just say that?

Yeah, I agree, the red is the critical match to get it authentic RD. I played with the colors online, it looks to me like the Ford Red (DE1605) has a slight edge on the Red (DE1553) in terms of getting the red to pop, but probably need to buy samples of each to be sure.

I'm on board with the grabber green, plum purple, chevy orange and daytona red, all excellent RD colors.

For the rotor housings (the most critical part, after all) I'm divided on your choice of Ford Blue (DE1601) and the Torque 'n' Teal (DE1643), which I think I like a little better just because it has a more RD sounding name, maybe a little lighter too.

So here's what I've got so far, what'd think?

Ford Red - rear plate http://www.duplicolor.com/images/swatches/DE1605.gif
Torque 'N' Teal - rear rotor housing http://www.duplicolor.com/images/swatches/DE1643.gif
Daytona Yellow - midplate http://www.duplicolor.com/images/swatches/DE1642.gif
Torque 'N' Teal - front rotor housing http://www.duplicolor.com/images/swatches/DE1643.gif
Chevy Orange - front plate http://www.duplicolor.com/images/swatches/DE1620.gif
Plum Purple - front cover http://www.duplicolor.com/images/swatches/DE1640.gif
Grabber Green - water pump housing http://www.duplicolor.com/images/swatches/DE1641.gif
Chrysler Hemi Orange - water pump http://www.duplicolor.com/images/swatches/DE1652.gif

Ray you will have that poor sa engine looking like a damn easter egg . please save it send it to me

Ford blue does not belong on rotor housings. Tried it, hated it. Too dark, looked wrong. I said to go with sky blue. If you can find a color from the website that will work, go for it. Otherwise go to the auto parts store and check them out in real life.

Ray about your color location choices, I don't think that will get the desired effect. You see, the way I did it was in order from red down to purple, just like Rainbow Dash in the show. It seems the way you're thinking of doing it is random, like Pinkie Pie. Not sure if this will translate well to an engine. But what do I know!?! Both RD engines I've done ended up not looking that good once completed. So don't fillow my advice. Yo Ray, do it your way!

Jeff, I suspect anybody who paints their 12A using a Rainbow Dash paint scheme is "doing it their own way". It takes a lot of balls to go RD, and there aren't any copy cats.

I'm using your early prototype as a starting point

https://www.rx7club.com/attachments/...nbowdash07-jpg

but I'm sure it will take super brony and with those big exhaust ports I'm expecting Rainbow Farts at start up.