Blew my 4th engine in 3yrs...done with rotary turbos. How reliable are NAs
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Blew my 4th engine in 3yrs...done with rotary turbos. How reliable are NAs
Yeah so I decided to sell my FD after many years of frustration. I still want a rotary but I can do with lower power but I do need reliability. I'm picking up a blown apex seal 89 GXL from a friend and will have that rebuilt. I'm going to do a mid level street port (stage 2?) and other than an exhaust and intake that will be it. How much life can I expect from the non turbocharged rotary? I'm going to take it autorcossing and maybe road racing and it will be my daily driver for a while if I don't need to take my work truck.I need it to be reliable if I'm going to do this, I just went through a lot of heartache with my single turbo FD and everyone has been telling me NA is th way to go if you want hondalike reliabi.ity
#2
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From my experience the NA's have been bullet proof. Out of the 12 Na 7's I've had, they all were good cars. My old 13b in m7 85 gsl-se had like 230k orig miles when I traded it for another 7.
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An N/A is great and very reliable for a daily driver as is a Turbocharged Rotary, however we all know the more you upgrade, and the more aggressive one drives, the more likely you are to blow an engine.
I cannot understand how so many people have blown so many engines on this forum. I have had 4 rebuilds on the six that I have owned and that was because I had them ported not due to engine failure.
But to answer your question the N/A is reliable, start autocrossing and road racing and understand you putting the motor under much more stress furthering your chances of yet another rebuild. And I can't imagine tooling around in an N/A after having a single turbo FD!
What a downgrade.
I cannot understand how so many people have blown so many engines on this forum. I have had 4 rebuilds on the six that I have owned and that was because I had them ported not due to engine failure.
But to answer your question the N/A is reliable, start autocrossing and road racing and understand you putting the motor under much more stress furthering your chances of yet another rebuild. And I can't imagine tooling around in an N/A after having a single turbo FD!
What a downgrade.
#5
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i have blown more (3)na motors than turbo (0)motors... first one was coolant seals. 2nd one was bad tune on n2o(lil bro blew that one for me) third one was engine builder used silicone for oilpan gasket and it clogged the pickup.
Last edited by stevensimon; 04-07-06 at 11:43 AM.
#7
Tear you apart
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Originally Posted by Terrh
the n/a's are totally bulletproof!
Turbo's are bulletproof too if TUNED PROPERLY.
Turbo's are bulletproof too if TUNED PROPERLY.
Go buy a 3 Rotor,9.7 rotors, streetport, a tweakit kit, Haltech and have someone make you some headers. For 10-12k you could easily have a powerful FC , all motor with 300HP and 250lbs of torque with all the relaibility you could imagine.
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#9
I "lost" my emissions....
n/a's are as reliable as you want them to be. all stock the things'll run forever. if you build them up and dont do supporting mods it'll go pop just as quick as a turbo. if you mod it out and upgrade fuel cooling ect, it'll remain bullet proof. make sure you keep up with that cooling tho.
#11
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NA's are known to last significantly longer than turboed rotaries. There's something about adding positive manifold pressure that rotaries just dont' take too kindly to.
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I agree. My 87TII has a half bridge along with all the proper mods and I have had it for over 4 years now. Worse thing that happened was I broke an oil cooler line do to metal rubbing up against it. Then again I don't beat the pants off of it...
#14
Former Moderator. RIP Icemark.
Originally Posted by Terrh
the n/a's are totally bulletproof!
Turbo's are bulletproof too if TUNED PROPERLY.
Turbo's are bulletproof too if TUNED PROPERLY.
People post weekly 200K miles on non turbos.
#15
Sharp Claws
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yep that is true but FDs tend to average about 100k per rebuild, not impressive but not bad either. statistically the more power you put through a rotary the longevity of it will decrease even with proper tuning.
n/a - 200k+
TII - 150k
FD - 100k
300RWHP - 75k
400RWHP - 40-50k
etc etc etc
these are just averages and mileage can be exchanged, such as using RA seals to trade the life of the rotor housings for more rigid apex seals which are less likely to fail. using Atkins seals may last a little less but are less likely to damage the rotor housings when they fail.
keeping a boosted motor out of boost can help keep it alive longer but i see no point in owning a boosted motor if it rarely sees it, point being i have seen FDs with 200k original miles and TIIs with over 200k as well.
n/a - 200k+
TII - 150k
FD - 100k
300RWHP - 75k
400RWHP - 40-50k
etc etc etc
these are just averages and mileage can be exchanged, such as using RA seals to trade the life of the rotor housings for more rigid apex seals which are less likely to fail. using Atkins seals may last a little less but are less likely to damage the rotor housings when they fail.
keeping a boosted motor out of boost can help keep it alive longer but i see no point in owning a boosted motor if it rarely sees it, point being i have seen FDs with 200k original miles and TIIs with over 200k as well.
Last edited by RotaryEvolution; 04-07-06 at 02:28 PM.
#18
7th Heaven
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Originally Posted by turblew
Yeah so I decided to sell my FD after many years of frustration. I still want a rotary but I can do with lower power but I do need reliability. I'm picking up a blown apex seal 89 GXL from a friend and will have that rebuilt. I'm going to do a mid level street port (stage 2?) and other than an exhaust and intake that will be it. How much life can I expect from the non turbocharged rotary? I'm going to take it autorcossing and maybe road racing and it will be my daily driver for a while if I don't need to take my work truck.I need it to be reliable if I'm going to do this, I just went through a lot of heartache with my single turbo FD and everyone has been telling me NA is th way to go if you want hondalike reliabi.ity
it is probably from stupidity.....
#19
Sleeper but still slow
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I've seen a -gasp- FD with 140k on original engine. However it was not driven like an FD should be. Also as long as you don't shift at the buzzer during daily on the TII and keep the fun WOT and hardcore driving to a minimal, the TII can last around 180kmiles. I don't know what the previous owner did to my car but it's effed up at 94k miles.....
#24
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Nah man you know how many people out there are killing to have an FD3S and you come out of nowhere thinking about selling it??? Look if you are that kind of RX-7 owners who drives agressively all the time and blowing engines... DAMN THAT PISSES ME OFF!!! You should think again and learn how to take care of your car