me and another rotary friend are embarking on a mission next week; to rebuild the engine in my 89 TII........ i am using the rotary aviation basic kit (>15k on blown engine) 2mm 2piece seals with my streetported irons and 2 great rotors and housings (acquired a great rotor and housing out of a jspec).
i have been doing alot of research lately and i'll actually have the atkins "hot to rebuild a rotary engine" video in a few days to help us walk through it, but are there any major tips anyone can give us before diving into this project next week? any strange tools we may need? strange tricks to make the assembly go smoother? etc. drew (delta_rotary on the forum) and I both have alot of rotary experience, but neither of us have actually assembled one, though i have disassembled several, which is way easier

any advice would help.
-jake

 

I havent been around for a long time but I swear you didnt have a running motor as of a long time ago either heh

 

huh

 

I havent posted/trolled the boards in like 7 months but I thought yup were having some trouble with a bad rebuild back then, im tired and prolly should have sent a pm

 

yes i had some trouble with an engine i purchased last summer. different engine, different car (long gone).

 

First off, I am no expert. More like a beginer

All I would say is......Have the following:

Engine stand that bolts up to the front iron.

4' of square tubing to bolt to the flywheel. The length is to keep the motor from turing over while you are breaking the flywheel nut loose. I didn't have anybody heavy enough to hold the motor down.

Torque Wrench.

For your comfort a small compressor and an impact. Only needed during dis-assembly

The Video (which you already ordered)

A 23 mm and a 2 1/8" socket.

A small parts cleaner but big enought to fit the rotors into. They need to soak in Chem-Dip for hours to get the carbon off.

Dial Calipers

Vacuum line (not included in any rebuild kit but 15 year old hose is brittle)

Injector Grommet kit. (again not it any rebuild kit but you'll see yours are like weak plastic that crumbles when you try to get them off. you need the upper/lower grommet and the o-rings. AND usally not found at any normal parts store.)

Cardboard (for under the car, it will puke everything as you are pulling it.)

40 red rags

3 rolls of the good paper towels. the blue ones at the parts store.

I know I am forgetting stuff but those are the things I can readily see here in the garage

Just a tip that worked for me. In the past I used to put all the hardware (nut and bolts) in a tub or bucket ( or something like that) When is came time to reassemble I would be sifting though the tub looking for the bolt/nut. This time I bought a box of sandwich bags. When ever I took something off I pu the hardware in the bags closed it up and taped it to the par that it came from. Re-assembly was sweet, just grab the next part open the little bag and assemble. no hunting needed. AND NOTHING was lost or misplaced.

My .02

Good luck and you'll have fun

 

sweet, thats some good info. anyone else?

 

If you have a camera, take pictures of wiring, vac lines, etc. It helps when you put everything back together.

 

i have haltech and 2 vac lines

 

ok here is a hint if the coolent seals seem to small soak them in warm water that roll(like a byicycle motion) around your two arms to strech them a little

 

i'm no expert either, but i'll be building my 4th motor this weekend, so i do have some experience.

first off, don't follow the video, it's good for reference and you might learn a cool trick or two, but i'd stick to the FSM for details.

second, make sure everything is clean! the worst thing you can do is have a dirty parts when your trying to put a motor back together. everything fits so much better when they are clean.

petrolium jelly is your friend! it's good for holding the hard seals in place during assembly. hylomer is good for holding the soft seals and also help seal!

rubber bands are good for holding in the apex seals while you put the rotor in the housings. i also have put the apex seals and springs into the rotor slots AFTER i had put it in the housing. fairly easy if your using a 2 piece seal, but not for 3.

torque tension bolts in 3 steps instead of one. the motor will seal more evenly that way.

have fun!

 

[QUOTE=need-a-t2]i'm no expert either, but i'll be building my 4th motor this weekend, so i do have some experience.

first off, don't follow the video, it's good for reference and you might learn a cool trick or two, but i'd stick to the FSM for details.


petrolium jelly is.........

rubber bands are good.......

torque tension bolts in 3 steps...........


What video did you watch??? All those steps/tricks are clearly outlined in the RA/Bruce Turrintine video.

I can't imagine trying to put those springs in before lowering the housings over the Rotors.

 

Some of these have allready been touched on, but from my experience I'd say:

-engine stand, you can do it without but for me was a heck of a lot easier with. There's a guy around here, scalliwag performance or something like that sells them on ebay and has a web site.
-You'll need a way to brace the flywheel, either some kind of steel bar/angle or the mazda flywheel holder that bolts to the rear iron.
-Either a good high torque impact wrench, or a big breaker bar with a ~4' cheater bar.
-flywheel puller, I went through one from harbor freight, twisted it up. Finally found one at autozone that worked well.
-slide hammer for the pilot bearing. I found a cheap ~$15 small slide hammer at harbor freight that worked. You don't have to get that expensive mazda one.
-I hesitate to say this, but I bought my measuring tools (dial caliper, dial indicator, mics, etc..) all at harbor freight to check my engine specs. They are cheap and can work if you are careful with them and check for repeatability. I also checked them against higher quality instruments to make sure they were accurate enough for my purposes.
-Send your fuel injectors to a cleaning place like cruzin performance for a cleaning and flow test. They replace all the O-rings that go on the injectors too.
-Get your wiper switch sent off to Mark to be fixed while the car is down. (and any other malfunctioning part).
-I'm going to use those flex steel oil injector lines on my current rebuild, Scalliwagperformance sells those too, something to consider.
-Be ready for the extra expense of all the peripheral things you'll want to replace during the rebuild, clutch, hoses, water pump, belts, sensors etc... They add up.

I havn't seen the Atkins video, but have the RA/Turrentine videos. I used that the most on my first rebuild, and referenced the FSM, Haynes manual sometimes, and checked this forum when something wierd popped up. Use all your resources.

And lastly, make sure you put that short block together right the first time. : ) Don't want to have to re-pull the engine and tear it all apart again because a seal got pinched or something.

 

sweet

 

I bought my calipers from Harbor freight as well. It works awsome

Harbor freight items
Calipers=$15 on sale
Torque wrench=11.95 on sale
Impact wrench 375 ft lbs=19.99 on sale
two oil cans for assembly and MMoil=$4

Harbor Freight stuff is cheap or badly made but how often do you use it??? A real mechanic that uses an impact everyday would ware out the cheap impact in a matter of months and be disappointed. YOU will use it maybe 6 times per year. At that rate you ware it out in 3-4 years.......maybe.

 

cleaning cleaning cleaning, most of your time will be spent doing this. there is no method that is better than others but Kevin did do a post on how to thoroughly clean your parts, since i don't have the time to type it all out or search for it you can do the search.

there really isn't much to it, just be sure to thoroughly inspect the parts for broken o-ring lands, electrolysis pits in the rotor housings, excessive chrome flaking in the rotor housings and the sealing surfaces where the rotor housings seal to the irons. the rest is measuring tolerances and cleaning...

if you have thin o-ring land walls, build them up with some JB weld to help support them and prevent future failures.

 

I forgot this doc. It helped me