If you had a 12a sitting in your back yard ready to be rebuilt, and you wanted to build it for the street, what would you do to it? say you had a $3k limit....

 

first get it inside before your irons rust and pitt the housing edges, then i would tear it apart first to asses what sort of damage there is inside, then i would re asses the situation, although with budget like that you could make a pretty mean 12a, have fun with it, take it slow, its a learning experience,

Paul

 

Half bridge, all new seals and springs (stock 2 piece steel seals and FD corner seal springs), 3 window bearings, HV oil pump, high pressure oil regulator and shimmed front bypass, light flywheel and button clutch. Throw a decent carby and exhaust on it and you have a very nice street 12A with potential for turbocharging later on.

 

large streetport with a fuggin turbo

 

Can you dummy this up a bit for us amateurs?

Thanks!

 

the engine is made in "slices" aluminum, then iron, then aluminum, then iron, & then aluminum, again, he was talking about the iron "slices" that are in the middle that are actually your combustion chambers. If the edges of the housing rust, then material is lost, loose enough & there will not be enough left for the engine to seal properly, or the seal will be likely to fail permaturely in the future.

Hope this helps.

 

With that budget, you could use your 12a to go to the Moon!

Other than obvious: porting, cleaning, new apex seals I read that there's a way to coat the rotor housings in ceramic. Apparently at high heat it acts almost like a lubricant. I'd also paint the engine's exterior to roughly match the body color

 

i have the 12a in the back coverd....hopefully the edges are screwed yet

 

Its actually carbide that it is coated with, as well as the rotors...the lemans winning rx7 used it..pretty pricy though i'll find the site for you then post it up...its some place in Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada) does that

 

I have a spare 12A in my garage. A few years back, I had the engine idling, in the summertime with the A/C on to cool it down. Came out and jumped in and drove about 1 mile and stopped at a stop sign. It cut off on me. I looked at the temp gauge and it was peaked HOT. Upon inspection, I found that the lower radiator hose had busted while I was in my house, and it had lost all coolant. I had it towed from there, back to my house. It blew white steam-smoke forever upon starting if it sat for more than a few hours. If left sitting for a couple days, as I often did, I'd have coolant on my spark plugs and it wouldn't crank with new plugs.
One day I'll tear that thing down and consider some of these ideas. =)

 

its ashame cause i have a complete engine with nikki carb under a cover in my yard, but i dont have a garage to tear it apart in

 

Gilmore bring it here... I have PLENTY of room to tear it down

 

ChasRX you probally (almost for sure) will require new housings, when these engines overheat the aluminum housings warp... New housings are $$$ too, so unless you have a whole wack of spare money, you might want to look for a servicable short block or something as a project.

I had a similar experience with my old engine and losing coolant, the result was after about 20 minutes after fixing the problem and driving, a ton of smoke pouring off the back of the car. I will never forget the feeling of not making it up a small incline in the road and the looks on the peoples faces walking past me as I slowed more and more down.... lol Anyways, tear the engine appart and see if the housings are garbage or not.

And to answer the original question, I would rebuild it, streetport it, paint it, make it look like new...