First Rebuild
 

Hello all! This will be my first time rebuilding. The car is a 86 NA , car still has low mid 90s compression but am doing a resto. So I figured to rebuild it while it's still got some life left so the housings will be in better shape. My question is what is the best overhaul kit. Atkins I'll skip I've heard not so good things. Pineapple I've been eyeing, is it better to mix and match from dif sites or just buy a whole kit? Thanks In advance!

I think to answer that you might want to set some goals. Do you have a budget? Have you torn the engine down yet to see what needs replacing? What is your expectation for the car? A fun driver or building it to race?

I agree with you 100 percent. Budget for rebuild hopefully tying yo keep it under 2500 at least seal and rebuild wise. Also not quite yet close to it though but i figured why risk using 40 yr old oem stuff again and just replace with new. Figired better safe then sorry. Also just a street fun driver, no porting or racing. Just a nice fun na for the weekend and on mountain and canyon trips, want it to be fun and reliable

Gotcha. Well I think you and I are in similar boats. However I just tore down my engine and found the center plate is unusable, as the coolant passage broke through. So keep in mind there will be scope creep without opening it up.

With that in mind I think I'm going to go with mostly Mazda oem seals and parts. I know it'll be slightly more money but it's peace of mind. I might get the Atkins oring kit for convenience but I'll be using Mazda oem oil control ring orings.

for what it sound like you want out of the car, i would have to second the advice to keep it OEM. you will spend more up front for sure, but it may mean spending less on the back end (without Mazda QC, compatibilities, etc.). i'm older now, so i can appreciate this sort of thinking a little more than i did some years ago.

that said, i have used Atkins stuff, myself. I can't report any of the negative things i've seen others experience, but i don't discredit any of those negative experiences either. i am really looking forward to giving the Pineapple water seals a try though.

+1 for a stock engine you just can't go wrong with Mazda parts. if you buy from Atkins you need to be careful they will substitute stuff, and the stuff they use is terrible.

I'm going to agree with others to stick with OEM parts but also make a suggestion. First off I would street port it. Only the primaries and secondaries though. Don't touch the aux ports. If your rotor housings are good I would replace the exhaust inserts that have the diffusers in them with TII ones. If you have to buy housings buy TII housings. Mild street port on the exhaust. There isn't really any penalty other than a little loss of low end. I didn't port my first rebuild and I regretted it later on.
As for parts on my last rebuild I used Pineapple racings kit. And got what few necessary parts it didn't come with from Mazdatrix. I used Mazda two-piece apex seals. I was skeptical of the Pineapple Racing HD water seals but so far so good. engine currently has around 90,000 miles on it. I went with Pineapple because at the time their kit came with FD side and corner seal springs and Mazdatrix's didn't. Looks like Mazdatrix includes the FD corner seal springs now. Not sure on the side seal springs.

Wheres a good place to start looking for housings?

At this point I'm not sure who has the best prices. I'd start with Mazdatrix and Jim Ellis Mazda Mazda Parts - Jim Ellis OEM Mazda Parts (jimellismazdaparts.com) they seem to have good prices on new parts. I got my rotor housings from Pineapple racing as they had the best price at the time so might check there too along with Atkins as well.

^agreed.

also, might as well throw Ray Crowe on the list of contacts for engine parts. if you search the Gen 3 Forum, you should find his contact info.

I emailed ray over a week ago and he never got back to me.

i had a couple weird experiences emailing him. one time it said that my message could not be delivered. double-checked the address and it was fine. re-sent the message and he got it.

maybe try sending yours again?