well this question has come up many times by my older brother and his piston head friend makin fun of me buyin a mazda... but i dont care about that i was just curious how long a freshly rebuild 12a or 13b engine would last in K's they always tell me 180-200 if your lucky, i thought it could get more if you properly maintained and cared for it .... im sure this question has been asked many times, and people are going to get mad and say search... but i am also tryin to make 100th post lol

 

I think someone here has one that's got 320,000kms. but thats the highest one i've ever heard.

engines can be rebuilt though.

 

K's? damn.. not so sure...

I've got well over 100k miles on both of my cars with no issues... I've heard many people above 200k..

 

My 82 sits at 151k...runs just fine.
Like allot of people will say, it's all on how you care for you car. Hell, with any car it can last long if you take very good care of it.

 

mine has appx 190k miles and wasn't taken care of till i got it,,no problems with engine,,,,,,

 

should last 200+ na fine as long as the omp and cooling are kept functioning properly. race teams getting a few seasons out of one motor is not unheard of. try doing that with a boinger.

 

As with all engines, it depends on how well YOU matain the engine. One of the reasons rotaries got bad raps is because not everyone can take car of their car.

 

I just opened up a 13B, with 185.000km on it, and it looked like a bomb exploded in the rear housing...(only a few pieces of apex seals in place...) The front was pretty nice though. It simply all depends on how well the engine is taken care of. Change oil at the right time, be carefull enough during warm up... And you should get a very good number of miles/km on the clock. Really no reason to make fun of a Mazda! After all, they got banned in about every race-class, because the ******* ****-tonheads couldn't win from them!

 

The engine of my dad's 3rd gen lasted 155 000km, it was the original engine. not bad for a 93 rx7..

 

cool thanks for the info, just as i thought... WOOT BTW 100th post !

 

I just read in the Kills section that this guy has 310,000 original miles on his car and capable of pulling 13.9 with slicks in the 1/4 mile.
I bought my first SE with 116,000 miles on it ten years ago and just pulled it out a few months back with 282,000 miles on it because it started to have a smoke screen effect when running it at redline, it still ran fairly strong
Turbo'd cars are another story

 

Yeah know, I'm thinking that apex seal failure is the biggest risk with high mile rotaries. But I am thinking that a brand new 1st gen 12a or 13b and ran with no omp and premix off the show room instead probably would end up with some amasing long lasting engines depending on driving habbits, etc. 2cycle is a better lube for the apex seals and doesn't build up on the rotors like regular OMP delievery. Plus its completely mixed with the gas so there is no un-even distrubution of the oil as it passes into the chamber and the rotor housings benifit also. If anyone has looked at a EFI rotor housing and see that hole for the oil-injection, there is definite marking along the housing surface were more oil gets then other spots on the housings.

But anyway, I bet a properly maintained BRANDNEW PARTS IN stock/mildport form 12a-maintained carb and no cats(since they would put less backpressure on the engine) and pre-mix could easily see 200,000miles with less material missing from the apex seals and the housings. IMO!

The key is to figure out when your apex seals are getting dangrously thin and need to be replaced and no damage will occur, hard to justify rebuilding a engine that is aready running good though.

 

WackyRotary- you've inspired me to do a search on premix.

 

My old motor Lasted till about 230,000km but it was pushed everyday, and who knows how the previous owner took care of it....All i do know is that he raced the car.

 

I have 127,000 miles on my 12A. As previously stated; "it depends on how well you maintain it"; in addition, it depends even more on how you drive!!!

Short trips (city driving) do not allow the combustion process to completely burn off harmful by-products; therefore, detergent additives (ie. marvel mystery oil or rislone) should be used to prolong an engine's life.

Long trips (highway driving) generally burn off the harmful by-products but play havoc on viscostiy. Therefore, a viscosity additive (ie. STP) should be used to prolong an engine's life.

 

I really do laugh there is a entire industry exploiting peoples knowledge of additives and there real benfit. And don't take this personally tubby, but most stuff out there will do nothing IMO. There are a FEW exceptions, but you won't find me wasting any of my money on them unless a Mazda engine devlopement engineer recommends it.

Short drives in cool weather(harmful by-products)-water & gas in the oil. I don't see what will fix that other then fully warmed oil. Many short trips will accumulate more gas/water in the oil, so simply change your oil more often in cold weather? Why waste time on additives that couldn't phyically remove them?

Long trips are the best ofcourse. Hotter oil is generally better, and getting it there quick helps too(up to about ~220F, above that the lighter components boil off leaving the heavier sludgy oil). Less viscous is better generally-hence less spinning resistence-more power, better effiency.

What is the point of a viscosity additive(which I'm unfamailer with) if you get the correct oil weight? I'll need to hear a VERY indepth explaination why long trips would play "havoc" on visocity. Thats the absolute best use of regular engine oil.

 

I have almost 200,000 kms on my 13B and other than a wonky solenoid she's running fine

 

well a rotary engine is one constant motion, as opposed to a piston engine's violent changing on directions. also, pistion engines have many more moving parts that can fail... we dont have to worry about valves, cams, valve springs, connecting rods, lifters, etc.

--eric

 

There's great info on oil in some links found on Felixs Miatas sites.
I think it's all about the oil! Oil is the key.
When I rebuild one of my 12As (someday...someday!), I think I'll run synth thru it, and two stroke in the fuel. Hopefully I'll get back to you in about thirty years when it finally dies with the results!

 

200k is relatively common, but its not a definate thing. my car has 104k on it and is starting to burn coolant. it all depends i guess.

 

Why do I keep reading that people are or are going to run synthitic in their engines. You should never, I repeat NEVER run syn. in a rotory engine.

 

Absolutely RIGHT. Yet, on a german forum, there was a poll, and I was the only one (!) using high quality mineral oil!!! So again, all you synthetic oil users: check Mazdatrix site, and the Racing Beat catalog. These guys know something about rotaries, right? Well, they clearly state that only very few synthetic oils can do the job in a rotary, and therefor it's better no to take the risk and simply use (good) mineral oil. For those of you too lazy to search: it comes down to the fact that the rotary engine MUST burn oil (as it's injected into the engine, and mixed with the fuel). Most synthetics burn very badly, leaving a lot of left overs. These can clodge up about everything. So quit using that stuff please!

 

Thanx rotary emotions, it's a little early for me to explain anything.

 

That is why you would disable the OMP and run premix!

 

It's still be burned, so it'll be burned rather badly if it's synthetic. And I really don't want to start premixing anyway. I mean, I'm not driving a trabant, right?