RX7Club.com - Mazda RX7 Forum - How much did you pay for your Rebuilt Engine?

Pulling your own engine is a fairly straight forward job provided you have a good place to work and a decent selection of hand tools.

The most important thing to practice is safety. A poorly supported car will be a danger to you and an inconvenience to work on. Invest in four jack stands. You will need to jack the car up on all four corners to get to the exhaust and driveshaft. Both of these need to come off to pull the engine if you pull the engine/trans together. I have found this to be the easiest to do. Others may have a different opinion.

You will also need either a good chain hoist or a "cherry picker" The picker is also known as a hydraulic engine lift. These can be rented.

A concrete surface is a must. You need a firm solid level surface to roll the engine lift on and dirt is the worst enemy of any mechanic. You also need to invest in a good steam cleaning of the engine, engine bay, and the underside of the car before you start work.

I rebuilt my engine myself. I may have gone a little overboard, but I wanted to be certain the job was done right. As an aircraft mechanic it goes against my nature to do anything halfway. My engine has lapped and re-nitrided side housings, new rotor housings and new friction bearings for both the e-shaft and rotors. All of the seals and springs are new as well. The only moving parts that were re-used are the rotors, oil pump, e-shaft, and oil control rings. The thrust bearings, oil pump chain, and water pump are new.

I ended up with about $2,200 US in this deal. The rotor housings accounted for over $800.00 of this total, and the machine work and re-nitriding of the side housings added another $400.00 or so. It is feasible to overhaul a rotary using the original rotor housings and side housings for less than $1,000.00 US and still get a very well built engine if you do the work yourself. It is not hard. These engines are simple in design, and as long as you utilize good mechanical practices the overhaul will be successful. If you would be comfortable overhauling a piston engine then you are more than qualified to overhaul a rotory. Otherwise hire the job out to an experienced rotary engine mechanic. Not having a valve train greatly simplifies the entire process compared to a recip. The overhaul of a rotary is mostly a clean up job, then a measuring job, then re-assembling the engine properly. In fact the build up of carbon on the rotor seals is why an overhaul is usually needed. These seals freeze in their grooves and can't offer good compression.

The overhaul video sold by Tracy Crook at a web site called Real World Solutions is a must have item. It is guaranteed to save you more than its cost of about $30.00 US by preventing some costly mistakes. It is a very well made video produce by a highly experienced mechanic named Bruce Turrentine.

Hope this helps you make up your mind. If you are in doubt as to trying to do it yourself, purchase the video then make up your mind. The video is entertaining enough to justify its cost.