my cars engine already has a lot of miles, so i think that a rebuild is very close. and i was just wondering how hard it is to rebuild the engine for a 91 N/a ? or about how much do they charge at the shops for a nice rebuild.

 

First off, it's NEVER a good idea IMHO to "prematurely" rebuild an engine. You're really not going to gain anything by doing it now instead of later.

Second, the engine itself isn't that hard, but all the stuff that bolts onto the motor is the tricky part. That's where a lot of people have problems.

A basic rebuild starts at around $600 for parts, and quickly goes up from there - that's parts for you to do it yourself. Rebuilt motors from a shop usually run around $1500-2000 for the short block.

Anyhow, just keep driving, enjoying, and learning about your car and don't sweat it until the time comes.

Dale

 

About as difficult as rebuilding any other engine...If you are not comfortable working on your car and have never done any serious work to it, then don't try...

Rebuilds can range from $1000-$5000, depending on what you want done. Average price is around $1700.

 

It's easier than a piston engine. If you have ever rebuilt a standard engine it should be no sweat ... if not I would get the video from Atkins ... watch it all the way through and decide if it looks over your head. The video will give you a good insight as to whats going on .. even if you decide to have somone else rebuild it. I think its only $24 also.

 

the rebuild for us so far has been ok.
we went to atkins and the video cost $34 i believe

we dont have a wheel puller and cant get the counter weight off of the engine.
anybody have any tips?

 

Just hit the counterweight with a big soft faced hammer. I got stuck there once to. I actually broke the puller that I borrowed from autozone. then I went to the "supposed" rotary specialist in town. Thery said Hit it with a hammer. What do you know it worked.

Marc

 

Yup thats what i did .. vibrated it right off.

 

I beg to differ?

By doing it now, you leave yourself with 2 good rotors, and 2 good housings.

By waiting till it kills itself, you run the risk of losing a rotor and housing from the damage.

But it is an awful lot of work to do when there is nothing wrong, I agree.

 

Yeah, I think Matt sums it up for me, unless you're going to use new housings every time, rebuilding before you bust an apex seal is the way to go..

PaulC

 

yea matt is right, why wait til you toss a apex seal and ruin the housing when it was fine..and now you have to pay for something you may not of had too?

 

And on a Turbo car .. 9/10 times your turbo will eat pieces of Apex when it goes... costing you a new turbo also. But, its usally a good idea to get the turbo rebuilt when you do the engine anyways.

 

u could use some lub and lub up the area between the e shaft and the counterweight and use a pry bar and pry it out. Banging also works, banging seems to work for most of the parts that dont wanna come out.

 

If you use a prybar, make sure you keep moving it from one side to the other... so you don't bend anything.

 

I was going to rebuild my engine... but i decided to get JDM S5 motor instead...

~Mike

 

I agree too... and for us who live in the darkside, if the busted apex seal goes out of the exhaust port and into turbo, you can kiss your turbo good bye too. plus if you rebuild now you increase the overall reliability of your car so you won'tbe caught in the middle of no where with 1/2 an engine

 

I rebuilt my own motor with a help of my friend that didnt know much about rebuilding a motor. We watch the video and had both Haynes and FSM on the side and it went good. I havent fired up the motor yet though. But i dont think it was hard. Do some more research. If you mess up it will cost you alot. GOOD LUCK and go for it!

 

yea if you got the time and money go ahead and hank that bad boy out

 

Thanks a lot for the info guys, i'll buy the video and see how hard it looks, i helped my friend to rebuild his engine, but it wasn't a rotary, so i'll see how this one looks, but most likely i'll do it myself,
Thanks a lot

 

I rebuilt mine, and I am inexperienced.

First, for all you who say a rotary isn't hard. Well, wow.
It was a nightmare for me.

I did learn a lot though, and in hind sight 20/20,
I say, screw rebuilding it. Buy one for about 1000-2000 dollars-cause it'll cost a lot more than that if you fubar it.

Don't insert new barrings by yourself, in the stationary gears if you can help it. Pay a rotary shop to do it.
I pressed them in exactly like the way the haynes manual said so-and well...... What happened was really bizzare. When you tighten down those long rotorhousing bolts, and the berrings are pressed in beyond their tolorences, then The berrings will actually clamp down on, and or bend the eccentric shaft ever so slightly, but just enough to cause sever damage upon startup-Thank god my project was still salvageable after I had done this.


Secondly, when you tear the engine apart, and you discover significant scoring in the rotorhousing, your compression is going to greatly desrease with new apex seals -so you'll have bitch of a time trying to start her up on the first try.

Also, don't buy all the parts beforehand. Take her apart and know exactly what you'll need. This way, you can determine if you would just like to buy a whole new motor instead of buying new apex seals and other crap at a strartling cost not competitive with a new motor that you can just simply swap in and out.

One other last thing is that you will need to keep track of your front and rear rotor. Do not mix them up.

I do not think that rotarys rebuilds are even comparable to piston engines.

My Rx is great now, I love it. And I learned alot. Good luck.

 

Download the Factory Service Manual from wwww.fc3s.org it will help a lot...

 

How Do I get the atkins video? Do they have a website. If so what is it?

 

never mind I found it.

 

"First off, it's NEVER a good idea IMHO to "prematurely" rebuild an engine. You're really not going to gain anything by doing it now instead of later."

Well I've come to find that it's a lot cheaper in the end to rebuild one before it blows. Usually, especially if done by a mechanic, parts and cost will be a lot more expensive when the engine is blown. You never know if you'll have to replace something or if it can be re-used. I know for a fact, on most 3rd gens at least, that it's a heck of a lot cheaper to get it done before it blows than to wait until it does. Usually you will need new housings and crap if you wait until it blows, not always, but in most cases you do. But, I guess you really never know until it blows.

Just my honest opinion.

~Marshall

 

yeah so very true.
my brothers car was smoking pretty bad whenever he boosted hard. i think he needed a rebuild then before everything broke. he let it go till he blew an apex seal and now he needs the rear rotor, the housing and all that stuff becouse his apex seal that blew out scared the crap out of it.

i guess its always best to get it done when you start seeing symtoms.

 

How would one know when an engine is about to go?

I have a 91 conv. It has over 115k miles. I had problems recently with engine running on 1 rotor. The Leading sparkplug of rotor 1 (front one) had its insulator cracked.

Once I replaced the plugs, it runs normal again. But just recently, I got the stumbling engine again at startup 1 week after the change. The sparkplug looks fine.

Thanx
Toan