Hey everyone. I picked up an unknown 13b engine. Apparently it’s been rebuilt already. But i don’t know for sure.
I spun the flywheel and it sounds like it has good compression. It has oil in it and hasn’t leaked out. What would the chances be that it would need a rebuild & are there any affordable kits online for this if necessary? I think it’s a good sign it sounds like it has compression but I don’t have a way to test it until it is actually in the car. thanks

 

Unfortunately, your guess is as good as ours unless you take it apart and take some photos and verify the condition that way.

 

^what they said.

good internal part suppliers I’ve used:
pineappleracing
mazdatrix
atkins rotary
rotary aviation

 

I played with using alternative seals for my race engines that require teardowns every season - not for any reason other than preventative maintenance and I've found Atkins and Pineapple to be inferior with regards to every seal they've come up with as an alternate solution other than these: Oil control rings, dowel o-rings, and oil pedestal o-rings.

Atkins at one point had an orange square inner o-ring that was a single piece that was fantastic, however now their Atkins branded (and sometimes what they claim will be OEM) inner o-rings are what look like a poor copy of OEM.

Pineapple at one point was sending me an odd 'clover' looking cross section of o-ring stock for their water jackets that looked nice due to increased surface area however not only have I not received that for a bit, I received two sets with completely wrong sized (in diameter) cord stock on at least one of the water jackets.

Do yourself a favor and just spend the $230 at Mazdatrix (or anybody that will sell a sealed Mazda kit, not repackaged) and purchase a true OE o-ring kit.

 

so you haven’t tried the 2-pc IRP corner seals yet?

IRP 2 Piece 13B Corner Seals ? IR Performance

pretty sure Daryl Drummond made and ran his own version successfully(edit, think he modified the RX8 2-pc corner seal to the RX7 apex seal depth). I figured IRP caught wind of it and just copied them.
.

 

Me? I've used them (by request), have torn down several engines brought to me with them, and I also have had multiple conversations with Daryl - though we certainly don't see eye to on a few things. My personal opinion is when applied to a properly built engine its a solution to a problem that isn't particularly there.