im not saying the green is responsible, im saying for arguements sake those that expierence coolant failures while running the green- what was thier issue?

if I came and said " i have been running extended life in my original, unrebuilt motor for the last 12 years, I took the car out this weekend and I blew the motor up" everyone would say "you should not be running extended life"................. but if I was running green- what would the response be?

btw- my coolant was orange on color

 

I completely agree to take all imported engines apart. I just took apart my 13B-RE about a month ago. I couldn't compression test it but just by the sounds of each chug, with the exception of 1 face slightly fainter, the engine sounded good. I decided it was too risky so I took it apart to find that something small got sucked into the engine and although it didn't actually cause too much damage, it wasn't at its best. There were little scars on the front housing, lots of carbon buildup, and caused some seal sticking.

While that was the only damage caused by a malfunction, I had a big surprise of junk built up in the irons/housings as well. Turns out in a couple of spots on the irons, the water jacket eroded half way through and in a couple more spots, water got on top of the jacket and caused it to roughen up. I don't know if there is a good way to build the jacket back up to prevent a future coolant leak but hopefully they aren't junk.

If I could have done it again, I would have never bought the 13B-RE that cost me around $1400 total. If you consider everything I bought to replace, and will have to buy more of, that block had little value. With that $1400, I could have bought all new irons, Rx8 stat gears and eccentric shaft. I would have then just bought the RE intake manifold setup from Japan2LA and put other cheap used parts on; rotors, front cover assembly, housings, etc. Not only would it have been cheaper, but a better build up.

 

i think it boils down to what some people call acceptable compared to others, some want to truly rebuild thier motors and try to have one that does not smoke and runs well, and will hopefully run well for a long time.

When we did my motor if there was a single doubt- it got replaced. I ended up with a MUCH better motor, including alot of practically new FD internals.

What some call a engine rebuild is barely a freshen-up, I cant really blame them as rebuilding everything costs alot of money, money some do not have so they take the chance.

another thought is some of us will expierence failure for other reasons that would have nothing to do with a rebuild, but rather a tuning or boost issue.

 

Almost looks like someone in the past was running pure water or a very lean coolant/water mix.

 

I believe it was green if there was anything to come out, I used the green to store it, and I used green when I ran it. In all honesty the first time the motor went in for startup I was short on coolant and used maybe 25% coolant, 75% water. It was in there for a total of 2 weeks before the motor came out again though.

I believe that most imported motors are "great" candidates for rebuilds. They should be slightly lower mileage engines requireing few if any internal parts but all the seals/gaskets. Those can be had for ~$12-1400. If you've got a blown TII block, depending on what blew, the imported motor is cheaper. Look at my math from above. If you've got a popped imported motor, than you're back to square 1 as you said.

I think that was just your bad luck with that one motor. Also, in some cases, people like me are doing N/A - Turbo swaps so everything is needed. While you can order an entire new engine including manifolds, it gets really expensive. It would probably be close to $6000 to build a keg this way and then the mani's etc are still needed. That's too much $$$$ even for me. 3x the cost or more for something that is marginally better as a toy? I can't justify that expense

I agree with you on this point. My point is with an imported motor, the irons, housings and rotors should all be acceptable. They obviously will require ALOT of cleaning, but they should fall within factory specs. When I bought my motor I was given 2 TII housings that the PO had collected for his rebuild. To me, they were garbage except for the sleeves that I now need, but he was completely set on reusing them. They were scarred, deep enough to catch a fingernail easily. Had he rebuilt that motor, it would've been a low compression, really smokey, short lived engine.

I would consider replacing all the rotor seals and engine gaskets a rebuild assuming that everything else falls withen spec. There's nothing wrong with that. The appeal of the imported motor is that all of the irons, housings, rotors should be useable making it generally cheaper to buy an imported motor and rebuilding it, rather than buy two new irons, a housing and a rotor when you popped a turbo motor. Or again, those of us doing a swap.

Which is entirely possibly as well. You could spend $6000 on all new parts & blow the thing up on the dyno with a wrong keystroke.

 

Rob-I don't think the choice of coolant color has been blamed for blowing up a rotary motor by anyone-except by you in your example! I don't think that our coolant seal failures have anything to do with the type antifreeze used, unless the coolant seals are made from Nylon or Silicone. Why? Because OAT is known (by GM, Caterpillar, International Harvester, Ford etc) to degrade nylon and silicone gaskets. It is intolerant of aeration, this includes low coolant levels when say, there is a pin hole and the coolant doesn't fully return to the radiator. Ever heard of that on a rotary? Of course you have! I do think that corrosion looking like the 'chevy mud' is likely caused by similar reasons that GM has Dex Cool problems. It is as simple as using what is intended for our cars- Silicates. But remember, Honduh hates silicate tech! They use phosphate tech! There is no bad no good, just the correct spec. The correct answer is, it depends...

Just because you used OAT doesn't mean it is appropriate for rotaries. You had no problem. GM had radiator cap problems, cylinder head gasket, intake manifold gasket problems, overflow tank problems that 'caused' corrosion, but never any admitted Dex Cool problems. And remember, GM didn't have problems in 70% of the engines in their troubled platforms; now think of the inverse of that statement.

I've beaten this to death, kinda bored with it now. Use all the OAT you want. I will use what the manufacturer intended in my cars. And some Evans NPG+.

 

I was only answering your questions, I cant say for sure what exactly is in the coolant I used, I put it in long before this board or any other board existed, there was barely internet, lol.
I know every car I own came with some kind of extended life antifreeze, from my jeep to my Lexus, even my ford pick up has extended life, whats in it- beats me?