Bought my first rx7 in 08 and it had a small internal coolant leak. Drove it for a year and a half until it finally died on me.

Bought another fc to drive while I tried to my original running.. It blew up after two weeks because the previous owner had repaired the water jacket seals with block seal stuff..

About six months later I finally bought a rebuilt, streetported engine with 40k miles on it. It lasted me from feb 11 to Sunday.

I took it apart Monday night and it.. well. The rotors were caked in carbon, housings looked really good but I think they are warped. (Only had a shitty measuring tool and it kept giving me different readings).

So.. now I'm without a car again. I can only manage to save about 200-300 a week towards a rebuild. The rx7 (my first one I've had for 3 years) has a dented frame from a pole I hit because I was driving too fast/pissed, busted windshield from same occasion, and it is flat black. Everyday I go through the cycles of if I want to get rid of it or not. Give up on rotaries all together because I live in Kentucky and nobody near by can lap my housings or make sure I'm assembling it correctly when I rebuild it.
So any advice or motivation would be great... I'm starting to think rotaries are just too expensive for me.

 

Sounds like you don't take care of your rotary. For 1 year my cars hasn't given up on me and it's a drifted car. The engines are reliable. You just got to know how to take care of them.

 

I'd ditch that car and get another 7 if possible. Part it out, and then scrap it.
If you dented the bottom and cracked the windshield from a pothole, it had to be pretty substantial damage.

I can tell you from experience, if you move on to something else, you'll want another RX-7.
Good Luck!

 

I take really good care of my rotaries/cars. The first one was blown up when I bought it and I managed to drive it a year and a half. Then I bought one that was already blown up bad and temp fixed w/o me knowing. This engine blew because of something internal. I heard a loud clunking noise and then it started overheating. But I haven't been able to find the cause of it.

I just can't find any of the motivational posts on here in favor of rotary powered rx7's...

 

um...



...don't be a quitter.

 

You know the more you rev them the last they will last. I was told the owners manual for the RX8 says rev the car at least once to redline after reaching operating temp.
this on mazda's facebook



Also When I did follow Grand am racing most the rx8's that DNF was do to something like a fuel pump failure or drive-train issue I didn't see due to motor failure. It maybe smarter to rebuild a motor yourself or have one rebuild so you don't have to try to fix someones else half assed unknown patch job.

 

Those sort of things don't just happen to rotaries you know...
You can buy a new car off the lot and have it take a **** within a few weeks. Hard to say it but **** happens, and it happens in 3's. Maybe you luck will change, be picky and find a nice looked after car and it will treat you right.

 

With $200-300 per week towards a rebuild, you've got a pretty good starting point.

IMO, saving little by little to buy the parts individually is the way to go. While you're saving for parts, clean and inspect everything you already have. You'll have more attention to detail if you take it slow. Dont rush.

 

as said, learn to do it on your own. it sounds like you have just had bad luck in the past with people selling you crap, but now you already know what you have to work with so mix it up and build one good engine.

 

I sold my well running 2000 Ford Mustang V6 5-speed. because it was slow heavy and felt nothing like my 87 with bad bushings, clutch issues, coolant leaks, front rear diff mount issues. I beat a 05ish GT mustang with my S4 JDM with ported TB, Rtek with stock tune, 8psi and a slipping clutch. I have also had **** break on that car that would leave any other car stuck. I drove 15 miles on one rotor. It sounded like a lawn mower and had no power but it would do 70mph. 6 hrs on one good front brake cailper.

 

If you have a daily just do what the others are saying, those few hundred bucks will add up fast

 

Hope this helps...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6wRkzCW5qI

 

I know how it is to want to give up... In the end, it is COMPLETELY worth it.

$200-$300 a week is plenty to save for a rebuild. These have to be some of the cheapest and easiest engines to build. Buy a rebuild kit, and use this video by Aaron Cake for your rebuild.

Aaron Cake's rebuild video

Don't give up man.

 

^that vid, along with the Atkins-Rotary 13b Overhauling dvd, and the FSM.
Listen to what they tell you, and you really cant fack it up.

Thats how i did mine.

 

spend more on the rebuild. beef it up. studs and dowels and better seals. better bearings etc. put money into supporting mods. big radiator more or better oil cooling, ewp if you want to have better control and have it run after shut down. really good tune and fuel system. replace anything and everything that you suspect as a weak or worn part. always warm up and cool down engine blah blah blah. youll be fine. and itll be worth it

 

Never give up!!

Read my sig! The rotary is the heart of these cars, it means everything.. You can do it, believe in yourself! ^_^

I pulled, disassembled, reassembled, and reinstalled an engine virtually alone.. With nothing but the Haynes manual, an Atkins DVD, a rented hoist, and the garage floor as an engine stand. It lasted 3.5yrs and only failed because the coolant channels on an iron had broken in *two* places! [I suspect one of them had been broken for a long time with no ill effects..] That was also the first major work I'd done on a car.. Prior to that, the hardest thing I'd done was replace the heater hose. [btw.. Take off the TB/DC/UIM if you need to do that - totally worth while to have room to work ]

When that engine died back in May of this year.. I had to borrow a friend's car, and I managed to pull that engine back out, take it apart, clean it, throw away all the plates [coolant channels were too thin] and housings, and got a new engine built and installed in 13 days flat. [Removal, disassembly, and cleaning were all done alone.. I built the engine with a friend and had another friend help with the reinstall]. Now the car's even better off.. I usually get 300mi/tank, it made 157HP to the wheels [estimated 185 flywheel HP - 5HP more than an S4 turbo XD], and it's much more responsive around town. [S5 rotors, S6 housings, Pineapple Sleeve Inserts, Airpump 5th/6th ports, SAFC2 leaned cruise/basic power tune -- I highly recommend all of these if you're able - though the airpump 5th/6th ports and high compression rotors are built into your S5 ]

So.. Even though it was a huge pain [and large expense..] to build a new[er] motor, in the end it's been totally worth it.
In spite of all the pain and work my RX-7s have been.. I don't think I've ever truly regretted owning them, or making them rotary powered. All 3 of the FCs I've had, I've built engines for.. Working on the 4th soon for my '91.

I hope you're feeling better. If not.. Remember, it could always be worse, and it will get better. ^_^

 

Don't drink and drive?

 

The fact that they are expensive to rebuild is the problem. To build one correctly it takes a lot of money. A full rebuild is close to 3,000 dollars or more. All new housings, oil pump, rotors, etc.
Also I don't have a daily driver, that's why it is hard. I can walk/bike to work but I don't think I can sacrifice the two months of having a life for this car.. after I already did a couple times before. lol. Oh.. and it is getting cold, walking/biking won't work for too long.

 

Check the specs. Everything man made has wear tolerances. A certain amount of measured wear is acceptable. Used housing and rotors and plates and oil pumps are fine if they're within specs.

 

if you own an FD i suppose, those guys are the main ones who think it's necessary to replace 50% of the engine while doing a rebuild. sure you get better results but it's not absolutely necessary and can be done for half that even paying a shop to build the block.

 

None of my housings are in spec and I can't use any of it other than the rotors.. and they might be warped too if that is possible. I don't know. I've got two 13b blocks disassembled in my room and they are nothing but junk. Best I can tell the guy I bought my engine from didn't use any of the parts he told me he used other than the TII housings...

 

if you would have started with a fresh build, this thread would not have been made... when i started playing with Rx7's i got bit a couple of times with bad engines too, its discouraging, but if you learn to build your own its rewarding, and then you don't need to depend on all the "mechanics" floating around.

it is possible to build a good engine from used parts, in fact 90% of the motors built on this forum are this way. new housings are rotors are better (i've done it a few times) but sometimes time and budget are more important.

 

My rebuild costs from May:
$400 - two 77K mile FD housings
$180 - Pineapple HD water seals
$280 - Atkins apex seals and springs [though I already had these laying around]
The plates I used were good condition 87 NA plates - nothing expensive or special. [from another engine I had had..] If I'd had to buy those plates.. Probably $100-150 more.
Reused the side seals/corner seals/springs, didn't touch the oil pump..

~$960. To build an engine from almost nothing.. You virtually always reuse rotors, eshaft, and the oil pump. Most of the time you can reuse the plates [well, the ones without broken channels anyway]

3 or 4 weeks, depending on how much you can save, or even less depending on how your parts are.

You don't even need all of that.. When I rebuilt the motor for my old convertible [@188K!] all we replaced was a single plate + coolant seals [failed coolant seal channel again..] That motor still starts beautifully and makes excellent power! [I know because I sold it to a friend for his wife]
If you have enough good parts for that.. You're out ~$230 B) [Or less if you use Atkins water seals]

Don't worry about checking the housings for warp unless you know the motor got quite hot.

Drag your fingernail across the plates and feel for anywhere it catches. [usually near the middle top-bottom, near the outside]. As long as that's not too bad your plates are fine. ^_^ [Ask these guys for a better explanation.. Hard to describe feel]

 

My housings, irons, oil pump, rotors, eshaft, and so on were all used. 20k+ miles on my first motor ever built and it still pulls like nobody's business. Most of the new stuff were seals, gaskets, and bearings.

 

there is no measurement for warpage of the rotor housings, just thickness variations and you need the surfaces all cleaned to represent your figures, slightly less in width than 80mm is ok also, not as critical as mazda and other manuals make it sound. the housings originally are only a hair over 80mm at the thickest points.

the irons also take alot of heat to warp beyond spec and depending on your procedure the measurements may be inaccurate.

at any rate, i think you are focused too much on the failure points that killed the motors initially. new seals will give you much more confidence in the rebuild once it is back on it's feet.

electrolysis on the housings(pitting) and broken seal walls on the irons are mainly what you have to watch out for in biting your ***.