I have a 85 GS that I pulled a 12A from because it was leaking oil really bad between the front iron and front rotor housing. It just kept getting worse and worse to the point I was adding a quart of oil almost every 4-5 days and making a real mess of my underbody and engine compartment.

The motor started up easy, didn't smoke from the exhaust, and pulled to redline right before I pulled it from the car with 108K miles on it. I wish I had taken a compression test when it was in the car but I didn't.

My question is if I tried a rebuild do you think I could get away with the bare minimum by just fixing the oil leak. I know if you do something you should do it right the first time but I'm thinking of doing it just for the rebuild experience.

Also I have a set of TII irons that are in really good shape that I wanted to put aside... Does anyone have any ideas how to store them so they wouldn't rust or pit over time being I have no idea when I'm going to actually use them..?? I was thinking to coat the surface with a thick smear of vaseline...?

Thanks.

 

sounds like a dowel pin o-ring is dead.

for the irons spray them down with a coat of wd-40.

 

try some lucas oil stabalizer for the oil leak, last time i changed my oil i added lucas and it nearly stoped the oil leak.

 

A quickie rebuild is fine. I like to do them on my personal use vehicles to save a little cash.

At the bare minimum I would get a new set of springs and oil o-rings. Also if the apex seals are near spec or below (7mm), plan on getting some new ones.

As you said, it doesn't smoke and pulls hard to redline. No point replacing obviously good parts with new parts. Just get a gasket set, and things I mentioned above, and clean it up real good before reassembly (so you could eat off of it) and have some fun dropping it back together.

WD-40 doesn't guard against rust for long. A smear of vaseline sounds good, although lately where I store my side plates, the atmosphere is pretty stable, and has been for a number of years. I don't bother with any rust protection so I can't offer any sound advice about it. I just clean 'em and store 'em dry.

 

pull the tranny and re-torque the engine /tention bolts in the dowle area to approx 60 -80 foot pounds.. it will definatly slow the leak if not stop it.. hit up rx7 doctor, he says he has some liquid additive wich stops any leaks, LOL i guess its worth a try

 

Jeff... by springs you mean apex seal, corner seal, side seal, and oil seal springs..? Is that it..?? Or are all of those even necessary...???

I'm going to put a torque wrench on it before I order a gasket kit and whatever else... if it's not already near 60-80 maybe I'll skip opening her up. I'd hate to retourque it and drop the motor in the chassis to find out it still leaks.

 

Yeah, those springs.

I wouldn't retorque it. The tension bolt washers could leak and it will overstress the rotorhousings. The engine will be harder to turn over (that starts as low as about 35 pounds and gets worse the tighter you go). Bad advice.

 

Want to save money here you go

Heres a really really basic rebuild kit...

Mazdatrix Shopping Cart

Part Name Description Part Number Price Delete Quantity Total
APEX SEAL 12A 75-85 11-300B-N201 $50.29 $301.74
APEX SEAL SPRING 12A 74-85 11-304B-1011 $7.43 $44.58
CORNER SEAL ALL ROTARY 74-75 11-3210-1011 $4.39 $52.68
CORNER SEAL SPRING 72-92 11-323A-1202 $4.18 $50.16
ROTOR SIDE OIL SEAL -95 O-RING SMALL 11-3410-0820 $9.32 $37.28
ROTOR SIDE OIL SEAL -95 O-RING LARGE 11-3430-1202 $17.96 $71.84
GASKET SET RX7 81-82 89-100A-N201 $100.51 $100.51

Parts Total $658.79