I called a local dealer and they said between 25-30 hours to remove the blown engine and drop in another one. I find that completely ridiculous at $60 an hour. I am seriously considering doing the swap myself even though I have no idea how to do it. How long should it reasonably take. I guess if I did it myself it would take a few weeks

 

if you have it done somewhere its probably gonna cost you between 1000-1500 to get it dropped in the car.

 

for me it was $980 at a local shop and $1500 at a mazda dealer.

local shop charged me for 14 hours of labor.

 

If you did it yourself, working atleast 3 hours a night, it should take 5-7 days.

 

I have done 2 with the help of friends. The first one took longer because I didn't know what I was doing. Give yourself 3 or 4 twelve hour days to get it done. Don't be in a hurry. Do it right.
Also... Do it yourself instead of a shop. The more you learn about the rotary, the better off you will be in the future.
I have learned enough to fix almost any problem myself now.
I save lot's of $$$$.
I have heard of people doing this job in a straight 24 hour period.
I need to sleep in between!

 

I have done it with help in 4 hours. That was at the race track though with air tools and a engine hoist. I'm also a mechanic. Realisticly they shouldn't charge more than 15-20 hours. you should find another shop. Or the best thing to do is find a mechanic that works on these and ask him to do it on the side. Most of them will. He will charge you a lot less per hour. Most of my buddies and myself usually charge about $30-$35 an hour. It might take longer because it will be done in their free time, but you will save a lot of money. You won't pay for more hours, You will just be out of a car more days.
Or if your up to it, do it yourself. It's not a small or easy job but if you get a manual and follow every step and don't get in a rush, you should be fine. If you don't have at least some mechanical experiance you might want to rethink it. Not trying to scare you, I just don't want you to end paying more because you got yourself in to deep.

Good luck,

Mike

 

I used to work at mazda and the guys there where bad....they took like 1 1/2 hours to take out and put back in..if they only work on that car...they told me it was easy...of course they have done it many times....

Peace
Buddy

 

Well I work on 2nd gens as a part time job(now my fulltime job since Im unemployed now). TO pull an engine/tranny requires about 4-5 good hours of work, maybe 3 if Im in a hurry. BTW I have a nice big garage with air tools. Then, if I take a rebuilt block laying on the floor, and swap everything over from the old engine to the new one, that takes about 6-8 more hours. This is a lot of work to get right, this is the hard part, but it is straightforward if you have the proper work environment. Putting it all back in is about another 4-6 hours. So 15-20 hours is not unreasonable, assuming your old engine is still inthe car. I highly recommend doing this yourself, if you have metric tools and an enging hoist. IF you have any further questions just ask hypntyz@hotmail.com

 

it depends on how many trips you need to make to get little parts...

mike

 

well It depends
are you swapping out a motor that comes complete
like manifold, flywheel, harness exhaust?
then IF you have a engine hoist I say 4 hours max
to take out old engine
4 hours in

8* hours
I removed the bolts from the tranny lifted the car and unbolted the mounter mounts
removed carpet to get to ecu
unhooked harness and slipped it thru the firewall
disconnect some sensor wires the are in the secondary harness
disconnected rear ground (top of tranny)
take out radiator
fan shround
fan
drain oil
disconnect oil lines
took off slave
hook up hoist chain to rear and front--->(alternator)
lift engine up
shake engine side to side to get it off tranny
pull the sob out.......
puting it in is another story
getting it to mate with the tranny can be a bitch
need 2 people for that task most of the times

 

I will soon be putting a new motor together for the first time. I had to read a shop manual, HAYNES, and view a rotary overhaul video. THis will be my first time so im very excited!...i think i can do it as long as i have possitive thinking. Before i start i will make sure i will have all the stuff i need suck as lubricants and vaseline. I will also be putting new housings so i dont have to do that much measuring. I really cant wait!!!...To install the motor i will have my friend help me!..he will also bring his AETII so we can just copy everything from his car!...I will let you guys know how we did!...=)

 

I've also taken apart 2 turbo motors just to study it!...BOY i love ROTARY!..It is so COOL!!!!!..I think anyone with right tools can work on this motors!!!!!..Show me a PIST-ON motor and i'll be scratching my HEAD because i dont know how the heck it looks like!..FURTHER more i dont want to learn how to work on PIST-ONS..JUst straight out ROTARIES!...

 

For warranty purposes Mazda allowed 8hrs to Re&Re a motor.It may have been possible on a nearly new car,but it cannot be done on an old car--to many things go wrong.My local Mazda dealer normally charges 15 hrs,but on occasions have done deals.On average they take about 13 hrs.
I would not try it yourself unless you have all the tools and lifting gear available,including a good manual.It's a lot of money if you screw up
For those who claim they can re&re an engine on a regular TII in 4-5hrs,either they never did it or they on drugs and lost track of time.

 

It took me about 1 hour to remove all my externals down to the core, another hour to remove it, 3 hours of fighting with flywheel nut until I gave in and took it to a shop who did it in 4 seconds... maybe another hour to take it apart.... hour and a half to trim the side seals down, and put all new seals in rotors... 2 hours to reasemble motor.... hour to put motor back in, and another hour+ to put all externals back on... Then add about 10 hours of CRAP THAT GOES WRONG... =)

That is basically my gestimate of what it took me,, (the second time) If you know exactly what you are doing, and have done it before it's a piece of cake... If there were no problems you can have it done quite quickly... I helped rebuild my friends and we took it out stripped it down rebuilt it and popped it back in and had the car running in 22 hours ....

 

My first time swapping an engine, it took me and another guy 24 hours from start to finish. This included food breaks. After about the 16th hour we were so tired that everything started taking forever. I'd guess that if you took a break to sleep in the middle you could do it in less time than I did