Well my car has 150,000 miles and i dont think its in good enough condition to mod any. How long do you think this engine could last? It doesnt smoke on start up, sometimes its white but that is from water not coolant. Is it possible that if i do maitence and take care of it that it will last to 200k?

Also does anyone have a 12A that has lower miles or is rebuilt for sale? I want a engine that i can turbo charge or street port etc.

 

i've seen a couple 12a's on Ebay lately cheap

 

its really hard to know how long an engine will last...u would know better than any of us since you know how the engine feels...it could last 1 more mile or it could last another 50k...who knows man...depends on how well its been treated...

anywho...i suggest that if you have another DD...you pull the 12a out of yours and either rebuild it yourself or send it off to Kevin Landers at Rotary Ressurrection...

 

these are so small you could remove it w/ 2 ppl, overhaul kits are like $280..

as for how long itll last, most iv "seen" is 328,000 miles original non-rebuilt w/o performance upgrades

 

Get a running spare and put it in the Garage.

Start doing the normal mods to your current engine, When it dies do the swap.

 

dude at one time i didnt have faith in my cars engine, so i woulnt take it past a 20 mile radius. but if you keep normal care of your car, then what do you have to worry about?

 

well i just acquired the car a year ago and got it back on the road this summer. The previous 2 owners put 148k on it. I have only driven it 2k miles. I would like to have a spare 12A that my father and I can mod while its not in a car and possibly turbo it. If i sent it to kevin landers he would charge me 1000 dollars and doesnt replace the housings.. I want a 12A that will last and handle mods.

As far as the engine being taken care of, I take very good care of it and ONLY use the best maitenence parts available. I change the Oil religiously every 3000 miles ( castrol GTX) Got new NGK spark plugs and use K&N oil filter and i have a fram air filter, so i think i got that covered.

 

I put headers and did the tb mod on a friends 240k GSL-SE. Motor is fine, I think the PO babied it a bit.

Do i expect his engine to last another 20k, no, not when he keeps trying to drift it.

 

Im in a similar situation with my 144K '85 SE. What I did was bought a parts car with the same engine (bad coolant seal) with the intentions of rebulding it in the near future and probably do some porting or other fun things to it while its open. My daily driver has been getting all of the suspension /steering /braking components upgraded while the engine is still very strong. I dont want to do anything that may cause extra stress or heat in the motor but when my engine does go (knock on wood) I should hopefully have a running rebuilt and modded replacement tested and ready to go. REbuild my 13b and drop it back into the parts car, sell parts car with new rebuild. It all sounds simple in my head but I know this will be a longggg ride....

 

Well, see my sig for details....

198k now, and I drive it daily. In fact, I drive it hard daily, 50 mile round trip to work each day.

Only engine related issue that I've had is the oil control rings started leaking, so I was blowing smoke on deceleration. Added some Lucas to the crankcase and haven't had that issue for about three thousand miles now, so I seem to be in pretty good shape.

One thing I did that really freed up some hp; added Seafoam to 1/8 tank of gas, then took her out for a hard run. After about five miles there was a huge gain in power, and the engine seemed smoother. This happened suddenly, like someone flipped a switch or something. I figure that I had a stuck "something or other" and that freed it up again.

Maybe my motor will last another 100k, maybe I'll loose it on the way to work tonight, who knows? But I feel pretty confident in it. Wouldn't hesitate to check the oil, coolant, gas her up and head to California if I had to.

Anyway, like I said, I drive her hard on a daily basis and I think she likes it that way. I've seen people baby these cars thinking they're doing them a favor, then end up needing a new motor a lot sooner as a result. I bought mine from a retiree who drove it just hard enough to keep it alive I think. First couple of times I really opened her up, she blew big clouds of black smoke which did not smell like gas or oil, so I figure its carbon buildup. After she did that she ran a lot better, and ever since then I take her to the redline whenever possible to keep her clean and loose. Works for me.

Oh, and I now have a spare motor in the garage just waiting for the day that she does give up the ghost, so I'm ready for it when it happens. Don't have any feeling that it'll be anytime soon though. Damn, am I rambling?

 

See thats what i need. A spare motor so incase in goes on me. I can drop the new one in!

 

1st gen engines are notoriously reliable.Getting into the throttle and higher revs is good for them so long as they are maintained well and not beaten when cold.
Keep it under 8500 RPMS
Keep that oil clean
Flush the coolant regularly
Dont ever overheat it

If you have no blue smoke on startup and you maintain it like you say,theres no reason you cant do some mods.Just dont get too crazy with the revs and stay on top of your tuneups and youll be fine.Turbos are a completely different story since they introduce loads and thermal stresses the engine was never designed to see.You can pop a brand-new engine if you fudge a turbo setup or tuning session.

If you really wanna find out how the internals are doing,have a compression test done with a real rotary compression tester.That'll tell you how the apex/corner/side seals are doing.The oil control rings are obviously OK if your not seeing any startup smoke or abnormal oil consumption.

 

If you want to find out the internal condition, pull the engine apart.

Then port it before it goes back together.

Which reminds me, I need to do a compression test on my "amazing pile of junk" P-port. It's surprisingly strong. Surprising, given the amount of housing flaking, and the incredible wear on the corner seals and side seals. I'd never seen corner seals with grooves worn in them before!

 

i really need to see your amzing pile... lol..

 

i just put 180000 on my se when i bought the car it had alot of aftermarket mods to it suspension, brakes and msd direct fire but no serious mods. i have recently removed all emisoins and ac ditched the fan clutch for an electric and am in the process of sending my injectors in. I have ported my mannies and removed the 5 and 6 port sleeves and actuators my car runs great it is fast and a joy to drive i have the smallest amount of smoke on start up which i believe is leaking injectors i will find out soon enough if this is true. The way i see it is it is a car a 20 year old car if you want to mod it out dont fukin baby it drive it like it was meant to be driven if something breaks replace it. Or just go buy a beater for 500 as a DD and beat up on the 7.

 

well it depends what you definition of modifications are... If you are just going to run exhaust and stuff its only going to positively affect your engines life because your engine can breath better. But now if we are talking about 150 shot of NAWSSS you can already consider your engine blown. I recommend that you do a rebuild and either consider a streetported motor or build yourself a turbo monster!

 

my old 7 that some kid has now do to finacial trouble in the past,lol,has about 200k and still runs as strong as when i got it,with 80k. my new 7 aside from some mikuni carb trouble,seems strong too at 200k. my friend in fla who races spec 7s and now it something or other? buys used junkyard engines for a song and races them till they go,wich usually isnt very often,1st gen 12a's rock!

 

if you have a secondcar and little bit of dough get it rebuilt make sure you get the hbousings lapped anmd may be a smart idea to get some new rotor housings since yuo'll have the thing torn down anyhow

 

my care has 233,000 miles on it and still runs strong. i think yours could take some minor mods... like the guy before me said... exhaust and stuff like that.