i just picked up a jdm turbo s5 motor and its pretty low milage. i want to do a mild street port before it goes in the car. are all my seals and gaskets reuseable assuming they don't tear when i open the engine? while im in there is there anything that should just be replaced for good measure? from what im told, its only got 40-45k miles on it.

 

if the seals pass the test for tolerances, etc, feel free to re-use them. with only 40-45k (assuming that's right), you shouldn't really have any issue with that.

gaskets definitely need to be replaced. if you are able to successfully remove a gasket in one piece, i'd be impressed anyways

you're already one step ahead of most by saying you're going to rebuild a freshly-bought jdm motor, good luck.

 

so definitly get the gasket set, but hold off on seals until they pass inspection?

 

are all the part numbers for gaskets and seals the same between the usdm and jdm engines?

 

yes, def new gaskets...sux because even that costs ~$200.

iirc, yes, the part #'s are the same, since the only place to get the gaskets is from japanese sources (or imported from japan anyways)

 

good point
how about this for a kit. the price seems good. too good to be true? i know its ebay, but hey....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/RX-7-...mZ380036629679

 

That kit has Nothing to do with Opening the Engine up..get an Atkin's kit..200 or so bucks..it's a soft seal kit..it will do fine,if the Rotors and Apex seals are OK.

 

Personally I would replace the apex seals with perhaps atkins on another respected brand rather than the oem, less potential housing damage in case of failure in the future and they're not that expensive.

 

you might as well do it right if youre getting into the motor

 

I'd definitely replace the seals if they're 3-piece instead of the 2-piece... not to mention that a Japanese driving mile is probably 2-3 times rougher on the engine than an American mile due to low speed and stop and go driving, sometimes mixed in with very very hard driving.

If you don't replace the soft gaskets when you pull the engine apart you're a tard (it's only 170 bucks).

 

no of a website were i could get these gaskets? im doin one as well

 

What is a "mild street port"? Anytime I've seen someone making a "mild" street port, it's porting almost not worth doing. A good street port will open the ports up a good 2-3MM earlier, and close them 5MM later. Most would not consider that mild. "Mild" just often means polishing the runners, which is essentially useless.

If you have a great running engine with low mileage, why even port it at all? Assuming you are not shooting for 400+ HP then the stock ports will do just fine and you won't have to tear down the engine.

That said, just replace every seal. Sure, you can spec out apex seals but why not replace them while you are in there? Don't try and save money here. Save money on other stuff instead.

If the price of a $200 gasket set is a problem, then save up more money before you start this project.

 

i meant mild in general, im not going with a bridge port or anything.
the 200 for a gasket set isn't my issue, wasting money is.

 

im not aiming for 400hp, but 300hp at the wheels seems reasonable. i plan on using this car for a weekend toy, but im not turing it into a race car or anything. for that kind of power would stock ports be safe, or is a street port recommended?

 

you can make 300 on a stock keg easily no need to break it open just for porting...... Now if you are worried about if the internals are in good shape or not go back to Valkyrie's post what he said is 100% on point, not to mention many of the importers claim 60K kilometers which is a lie.

10 years ago you would find them with 60k km nowadays anything under 100K km is rare, expensive and not in a junkyard or exporters stock either, anybody who tells you different is full of ****, I live here and only occasionally find a sub 100k motor thats not in a car already

Lots of junkyards and importers keep odometers sitting around to take photos of though

Kenn

 

so basically i should just spend the $1200 on a full rebuild kit with 2 piece apex seals? is there a potential to loose power if i do a street port aiming for 300 at the wheels?

 

if you have any doubts at all, you can't go wrong with a full rebuild kit. you know at that point that as long as the irons, housings, and rotors pass tolerance tests, everything else will be replaced, and should last you quite a while (assuming you don't go bananas with your 300whp motor ;D)

and, like aaron and others have said, don't go mild...go full street port or go home.

 

Stock port will do 300HP to the wheels easily on a hybrid turbo. No point street porting it.

 

I agree, spend money on the internals and keep the stock turbo and tmic. Later you can upgrade these as bolt ons.