Gents,

Please pardon my ignorance, I am a noob with the 20B, but if you would so kind to entertain my question it would be much appreciated.

I am starting down the 20B path...

I have been pricing imported 20Bs lately and they are upwards of $6K for the later series, and as with any performance oriented venture the engine will have to be built so I am looking at another $4K for rebuilding, for a total of $10K.

Would it not be cheaper/better for me just to buy all the parts new and piece things together (for the exception of the eccentric shaft). I have an earlier series (JCESE) eccentric shaft, are there any real differences between shafts of different series? If not, would it make more sense for me to purchase new; rotors, rotor housings, side housings, and center housing? Or is it not as straight forward as I am making it sound, am i missing something? A rough calculation puts me around the $10K mark for all new parts.

So I have outlined two different approaches which one would your recommend and why?

Thank you for your time.

V/R,
Steven

 

Im no expert but im in the same boat as you trying to build a 20b. And im leaning towards buying each part separately. My list is new rotor housings, chromoly eshaft, turbo smart center plate, projay upper/lower inatke and piece together everything else.

 

I think it depends on your application. I went with a late c code block that was running perfect. Block was stripped, ports touched up, all new seals, 5 pinned and its perfect. My car is a street car and I felt I wanted a block the way mazda built it.

It all comes down to personel preference, I have seen great motors that have been peiced together and there running awesome!

But to me you cant beat an original running block and starting from there.....

 

^ As he says, it depends on application. For moderate power levels, it is reasonable to buy a used engine and 'freshen' it.
If you want very high power (say 600+ whp or so), it is maybe a better idea to use all new parts. I am not sure that the thick center iron is available from Mazda anymore though?

Another, and IMO the best option, is to buy a 3 rotor 'kit' from one of the performance shops such as kiwi-re. This is a little bit more expensive, but not extremely so, and you will have all new parts that were designed with the performance enthusiast application in mind.