How You Blew Your Engine
 

Raced my SP 12A w/ RB SCCA CSP on the weekend & seemed to backfire after each run. Tached it to a constant 7 or 8 RPMS through each run as usual. The next day was driving home from work & went to pass a car & something popped & the engine swayed side to side till I pulled into my Mazda shop conveniently in the next block. My engine builder said it was done. Once I shut it off it never started again.
How did your engine blow?

Last stock motor. Short run from a stop light to 65. Slowed down and about a half mile later it went to shaking and lost power. Should have drove it home but at the time did not know I could.

Blew it on the interstate just rolling normal. Drove it home 30 miles away.:(

Got in my car to go to work it and did not have any power and the engine was just a shaking, but was running. The second engine, I got in and tried to crank it and the starter was just straining to turn the engine and never did start again. Neither time did it go out while I was driving just when I wanted to leave the house.

Now that is a good car. The RX was the first car to brake and not take me home. Lost all of the clutch in a Dodge Daytona but a strip one inch by one inch and it took me 20 miles home. Timing belt on a Sentra broke at the top of a hill and I rolled all the way home. Blew off the oil filter on a Toyota and had enought time to turn around and roll it down the hill before all the oil was gone.

Same here, pretty much. Was flooring it and was noticing some lack of power, but since I was going 80 mph I didn't notice. Soon as I took the off ramp engine died. Was able to start it again, but was running on one rotor. Took it home a few miles away and for the next 4 weeks I drove the car on one rotor, until I got an engine rebuilt and streetported, which is what I have now.

1982 S - in 1981, My Dad tries to start the car and no motion at all. Turns out the engine carbon locked, it was only 3 months old and was replaced under warrenty. 19 years and 160,000 miles later, a coolant seal in the intake manifold leaked so bad that I had to fill up the coolant level after every drive. The exhaust smelled nice though. I replaced it with a SP S5 engine.

1985 GS - in 1999, Driving down the highway, I saw white smoke coming from the back of the car. I pull over and find that the coolant hose that runs under the filter/oil cooler had burst. It had been oil soaked from years of dripping from oil changes. Turns out the engine had overheated (without showing anything on the temp guage) and it was toasted. I had to leave the car at a salvage yard in Wisconsin.

racing a motorbike (cbr 600 fireblade?) ringing out 5th gear, 30 pounds boost, stock engine and injectors. was ahead by a couple of car lenghts, backed off the throttle and heard a pop, then the engine started to run funny. eventully i stoped and worked out i was running on 1 rotor, wouldnt start by turning the key, eventually got it going with a push start, kept racing (and beating cars) all the way home as i was trying to kill it completley.

of all the rotaries I've had I've never killed one either they were dead when I got them or I ran the shit outta them

Mine died on the way home form work. Was driving at 50mph and pop! Drove it another 3 miles to the house and that was it.

racing a mustang GT in the gslse... didn't get me until about 105mph.. went to far in 3rd (90), shifted to 4th and it was over..

you sure your "builder" is saying the truth? or just making money out of you as some "builders" or mechanics sometimes/usually do nowadays. damm i hate that :mad:

never happened to me though :D

and yes current motaaahh still runnin'
i do have my pport being built for upcoming 7stock

1) Driving down the street on the way to work, and just lost power - kept running on one rotor. Drove it to a rotary shop where it finally died.

2) Another car - was at the street races, killing everything in sight. Last Race was against a 4.0 jeep with juice. I lost badly. Car had little power. Lost the leading ignition. Drove it home, and it kept detonating. Popped a spark plug porcelein.

3) Driving a friend home at 2 am, cruising at 50 mph, put it in 4th to pass a Prelude, and gave it some gas. When I left off the gas, it was running on 1 rotor for about half a mile. Left me stranded.

4) Clutch exploded in the middle of 4th gear, at the drag racing track. The explosion was so violent, it cracked my rear plate.

God, I love these cars...

on the way home i was racing older golf with a turbo and once i came to a stop the engine sounded totally diffrent.. drove it for another 4 months before it wouldn't start anymore lol..

As I understand it, when a rotar seal comes apart the pieces score the housing w/ every turn making a rebuild the only thing to do. I converted up to a SP13B, HA!

my 13B-REW FD blew as i was coming off the freeway and rolling to a red light. then bam...it ran as if there was some vacuum leak. I was able to drive it another 3 miles and that's that. It had about 100k on the motor at that point

175K on the clock. Driving down the interstate and wanted to blow it out since it had not been driven in 3 months. Climbed over 100 then hit 125 and never looked daown again. Felt that it was going fast enough I let off the gas when all of the sudden bam! It felt like someone rear ended me. At that time the car was at 120 mph. I let it drop down to 80, and put my foot back on the pedal. Well 70 went buy, then 60............... well my exit was right there so i got off. When I came to the stop the car was jerking very bad. I tried to pull off the ramp and the car had no power. At that time I figured I just lost a rotor so I said the hell with it and drive the extra mile home. I shut it off and the next day I pulled the exhaust and found that the rear rotor was chewed up and all 3 apex seals were gone.

The car running on one rotor did get me home. That impressed me!

Well, this is scary, I am about to do a compression test on mine tonight, hope it passes, if it does Ill replace the coils and condenser. Sounds and runs like only on one rotor.... geezusss I dont want to rebuild mine just yet.

Mine will probably die on the 600km trip to Sterling's place this spring ;)

I'm hoping not... but I have an '83 Auto core 12a that I can rebuild if my engine survives the summer

Jon

i thought i blew my engine twice.

1st time, i left a rag sitting underneath the car (side draft, no air filter) and i redilined 2nd and the rag jumped in and the car came to a quick stop.)

second time i had msd direct fire hooked up and blew one msd coil running on only 1 rotor, only a mile from the house so i made it back both times no problem, but a lil shakin.

carl.

I'd like to note here that although I've gone through three rotary engines, I'm still very impressed with the reliability of the Rx-7 in general and the car's all-around great build quality and part quality. This is a more solid car than the next two generations.

These engines will easily live past 150,000 miles, living a hard life, as long as they are properly maintained, like any other car.

i blew my 12a turbo once when i cranked the dial a boost up 5 turns , instead of turning the boost down...
my buddy riding in the car on the test run said the boost guage went to T !! around 40 psi we figured, oops
oh, and that was on my turbo prepped nikki carb, she gets pissed when you blow too much boost through her!!!

I had a ton of carbon build up and I thought the engine was already blow so I just sat a high rev for like 10 mins and it died and never started. Then I ripped it apart for shits and giggles

i was taking a fellow rotor head to lunch, left a stop light about 3k in 2nd gear it went.... and i wasnt even reving her hard. I drove it 45 miles over 3 days... home, to the dealer to order parts and then to pick them up, pulled the motor friday, started on monday with a fat ass port job on it :)

Southern Mazda Garage
 

Looking for someone who can work on my 83' RX-7. I live in SC but would travel most any southern state to get it fixed right.