is it possible to sand rotors and the sides of the rotor housings?
the rotors have real bad caked up carbon that wont come off in the parts washer....the housing has stains from where the gaskets were can those be sanded or clean???? what are some ways to clean these thing up?

 

CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG!!!!!!

I think emory paper or REALLY fine sand paper would be fine... How I cleaned my rotor (didn't scratch it or anything, so it worked for me..) Soaked em over night in cleaner... This stuff tingled when I got some on my leg....

In the morning, wiped as much as I could off with rags and whatnot.. Then sat down, and with an old SIDE seal, I carefully scraped off the carbon that was on there, not scratching surface, but taking off carbon, then wipe with cloth... Worked fine for me, no scratches at all ..... May not be the best idea though HEHE I know that so don't flame me please =)
Surprisngly, besides my 12mm socket, I used apex seals and side seals more than any other tools it seems HAHA

 

my rotor and housing are soaking in a parts cleaner now...ill emery paper it tommorrw then

MY FINGERS ARE BURING from that damn cleaner....my rubber gloves fell apart

 

I have absoultely no experience with cleaning rotors .. but I cleaned off a piston from an old 240SX KA motor with carb cleaner Just sprayed a lot and the stuff kinda fell off. Maybe it was a fluke?

 

DOH! I clicked on the last thread thing instead of 2 ... Sorry for bringing this back from the dead .. Maybe I should just go to sleep now.

 

I don't think sanding would be a bad idea. Just make REAL sure that you don't have any rough edges--these can lend themselves to a hot spot that may cause preignition.

IIRC, the 86-88 rotor indentation is cast...if you could smooth that out, that may make things a bit nicer..

Also...any removal of mass from the rotor face will lower compression.. Sure, it's a REALLY, REALLY small amount..

-Tesla

 

I wouldn't use sand paper and this is why.

http://www.mazdamotorsports.com/weba...rotor#cleaning

The face of the rotor may be different but considering the tight tolerances needed to put an engine together properly I wouldn't use any abrassive item on it.

 

Go ahead and sand away!!!!!!! Use 220 sand paper and gasoline to clean it up. After you are done spray them thoroughly with carb cleaner. I sanded mines when I took the engine apart, the ended up looking like new!!!! and they work fine. Our drag RX-7's rotors get sanded once in a while with no problem at all... 710 RWHP 8:32 @ 158 MPH with traction problems... Any other questions about sanding?

 

From that Mazda Motorsports page: So it’s the apex seal grooves that shouldn’t be sanded, the faces are OK.

 

dont sand the apex seal grooves or the sides, the combustion chamber/face etc sure