This is my first attempt to overhaul a rotary although I have done many piston engines This is a 13B out of my 85 SE. It came apart pretty easily just hope the assembly goes as well. It seems to be in pretty good condition except for a stuck apex seal. One of the rotor housings is in great shape but the other one is questionable as there is an area of chrome flaking in the bottom of the rotor about 1/8 inch wide by 1-1/2 inches long. What do you guys think ?

 

id keep it, that should last a long time... id say 100k

 

Depends on what you are shooting for? Personally if you want something streetable, id say use it. Its not real real bad. Evetually whats gonna happen is its gonna peel the chrome of in a wider degree and eventually cause premature wearing of the apexs etc and loss of compression. Id say if driven marginally 80k+ ?

 

I don't plan on racing it or anything. I just want to make it a good running fun ride. I really appreciate the input as I was kinda lost. Should I hit it with a fine hand stone to knock down the ridge or just leave it alone ?

 

If you were racing it I'd say leave it alone, because you'll probably blow something else up before the housing got to be a problem.

But for street use... I dunno... I guess it depends on if you don't mind potentially rebuilding the engine again in a short time.

 

Taken from Mazdatix's site:



"This is a questionable one. Here at Mazdatrix, we would not use this one - it would be sold for $35 in our "as-is-no-warranty" "you-inspect-it-you-keep-it" area for "walk-in" customers (and they all sell). If used, it would "work", but will always be blowing by the flaked chrome and will require a long break-in time before it even gets marginal.
The chrome flaking, as above, is the hardest judgment call for the home engine builder. There is no "solid" rule for when to discard the housing - it becomes YOUR choice. Minor flaking (less than 1/8" wide, for maybe 2-3" total length around the housing) can usually be used with good success. Flaking in the 1/4" range becomes highly questionable - you need to really think about what you want out of the engine. "

 

Sounds like a real toss up. I hate to pay the price for a new housing. Any ideas where I could find a good used one at a reasonable price ?

 

I'd use it in a standard port or mildport and it will serve you well. It will be within 95% of what a new housing would give you for no extra cost. So use it!

My two paso's