Housings uable for rebuild?
 

I tore apart my S5 rotary engine and I'm in need of advice. I know the front rotor is dead (apex seal shattered, the slot it went into is all mangled), but i'm not sure about the housing.

The front housing seems to have some deep marks, not really deap but enough to make me wonder and the rear housing looks to have some chrome flaking.

I have picks if someone could host...other wise i'll chop them and post them on photobucket in a minute.

if it's gouged in any way, just don't use it. 13b housings aren't scarce. The rear housing is probably fine.

Blast photobuck isn't excepting new free accounts. Anyone want to host these or know another site beside imagestation?

I'll host ddub114@comcast.net

How many miles on her? If the rotor housings have more than about 150K on 'em, IMO they should be replaced anyway. Any defects that will allow compressed gases to "escape" are going to show up in lower compression numbers, period...

You could also use photoshop or Acdsee (picture viewing program) to resize and save the pictures smaller so they fit in the 100k attachment limit.

--Gary

i agree, housings aren't hard to come by, you can usually find a decent set here, on ebay or at your local wrecking yard for relatively cheap.

Yeah I'm guessing i'll have to get new housings. I already know i need at least 1 new rotor. I'm not sure if I'd want to buy housings from ebay without inspecting them myself first.

Pics

http://home.comcast.net/~drewrx7/frontrotor.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~drewrx7/rearhousing.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~drewrx7/everything.jpg

1) looks like diagonal gouges made my pieces of seal flying around...not useable if that is the case.

2) looks like normal (pretty mild) chrome flaking from the stock seals and 75k+ miles. Other than the above damage, this would be useable.

Thanks dDub for hosting!!

Awesome, thanks Kevin that's what i was thinking. I went over them pretty well and that's all i could find.

Would that flaking cause problems under boost?

Also, what's the best way to get the gunk of the engine? This thing is completely caked on grease that won't come off easy. I've tried 3 cans of engine bright...

Chrome flaking is going to be found on any original housing with over about 50k miles, the more miles/abuse, the more flaking. The more flaking, the less desireable it is to use, up to a certain point where it would build an engine so shitty that though it had new seals, compression would always be weak. Even a severely flaked housing will build a running engine, but the needs and expectations of that engine must be evaluated and matched to the quality of housings.

The more flaking, the harder initial start, longer breakin, and less compression it will make. The flaking you have there, for example, is perfectly useable and should still build a 110-120psi engine once broken in.

For reference, 89-91 housings flake less (and thus make better rebuilds) than 86-88. During almost every series change, they changed the composition of the housing surface for better wear characteristics. Most older housings, even with lower miles, will be badly flaked. Most newer ones even with 150k miles will be in much better condition.

Simple Green.

I now SWEAR by this stuff. :biggrin:

--Gary

The best thing you can do for a one-time cleaning, is to soak your parts in a pan of mineral spirits, gas, kerosene, diesel, etc. for a few hours at a time. Then take them out and pressurewash them close up. This works weel for all the coolant passages too. Thats basically what a big parts washer is, just a fancy heated dishwasher/pressurewasher.

Might have to find me a pressure washer then. Thanks guys!! :D

That's how I did mine, with a pressure washer, then blew them out with compressed air. The tough spots I hit with acetone. Worked fairly well. Still took me a couple of days to scrape all of the gunk out of the housing seal grooves, lol...

I cheated at the cleaning thing.. My dad works at a university, and they have a big (gas powered) steam cleaner... Put on a biohazard-esque suit to protect me from the severe steam (it was bloody hot!), and blasted those puppies clean.. . it was awesome, whole engine done in less than 30 minutes ;)