speed_monkey

I'm looking at rebuilding my engine. I am going to get the atkins rebuild video and a atkins 3mm overhaul kit, it comes with all of this...

Kit C Includes:
Gasket Kit
Apex Seals
Apex Seal Springs
Corner Seals
Corner Seal Plugs
Corner Seal Springs
Side Seals
Side Seal Springs
Oil O Ring Vitons
Oil O Ring Seals
Oil O Ring Springs
Front Main Seal
Rear Main Seal
Pilot Bearing and Seal
Thermal Pellet (86+)
Bearings
Hylomar Sealant

It's going to cost me $1000.

Or should I get kit B?

Kit B Includes:
Overhaul Gasket Kit
Apex Seals
Apex Seal Springs
Corner Seals
Corner Seal Springs
Side Seals
Side Seal Springs
Oil O Ring Viton Inserts
Oil O Ring Seals
Front Main Seal
Rear Main Seal
Pilot Bearing and Seal
Thermal Pellet (86+)
Hylomar Sealant

I was thinking kit C because the rx 7 sat for over a year and I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Makenzie71

I thought the rotors had to be machined to fit 3mm seals...?

speed_monkey

It didn't say anything...
I found one that doesn't say 3mm so I asume it's 2mm. But it costs $1015

Mabey I should just have someone else do it... OJImports is in Texas. They charge 87-88 : $1,550 + $400.00 Core

Plus with them I get a 1 year 12k mile warranty

Bob_The_Normal

3mm everything is cheaper.

BUT.

You do need to find someone that can machine your rotors to fit them.

And unless you're running shitloads of boost, they won't help... in fact they won't seal as well.

It might list cheaper to buy the parts, but you will save more money going 2mm in the long run unless you're going to be running lots of boost... as in... unstreetable boost.

(This is pretty much a summary of LOTS of discussion about the issue... take it for what it's worth.)

--Gary

speed_monkey

Ok so I will go 2mm. How hard is it to rebuild the engine? How long does it take? Damn I need to get a good job. lol

Thanks
Brad

Makenzie71

On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being pointing at your car, 10 being pointing your mechanic to your car), I'd give it a 7.

Between 20 minutes and 9 years.

speed_monkey

^^^lol
Could I knock it out in a weekend?

ddub

Ever done it before? Got every tool you'd need? All the cleaning supplies? All the info? FSM? If you can't say absolutely yes to all of those I'm gonna say no.

Makenzie71

lol...first rebuild? I'd still say no...

Your best friend would be to buy a rebuild video from ebay or atkins and watch it...over and over and over...

Bob_The_Normal

Depends on how good you are tearing down man.

I've been working on it for..

A month now...

But I'm doing things slowly on purpose... I'm a lazy mother ******. And occasionally I just stop and wait for answers from these forums instead of rushing through it and breaking something.

Other times I rush through it and break something, then come back to the forums and wait for someone to tell me how to fix what I screwed up.

My engine is apart right now... the only thing keeping me from cleaning it, putting it back together and putting it back in the car all in the next two days is my laziness. It could be done though, I think.

You'll run into small problems, I SUGGEST you set aside around $1500 for the rebuild... $2000 to be sure and safe. That will cover all the little costs... like paper towels... cleaning solution... various things you'll need to spend 20$ here and 40$ there on.

I am running out of money 'cause I don't like going cheap.. I broke one of my oil pump lines (very brittle little bastards... except mine are in great condition... I was just an idiot trying to "remove" them when they don't "remove" they are bolted on with a "banjo bolt". WHOOPS.) and so I ordered SS braided lines to replace them. I consider it an investment... I will never have to buy new oil lines... and they won't break, ever. If oil stops being delivered, it's the pump... which I haven't taken a look at, but probably will.

So the point is, there are lots of ways to do your rebuild.. if you have alternate transportation and lots of room to work with and want to do it 100% right, then it'll take a long time. If you just want to get it done, you have to sacrafice quality... doesn't mean the car won't last a long time, it just won't last as long as a really quality job.

You're not saving a whole lot of money doing the job yourself either... I'm doing it myself MOSTLY for the experience and the understanding of the car... the money I'm saving is negligable compared to how much time and stress I have to invest in it.

EDIT: BTW If you haven't done a rebuild before there is no chance in hell you could possibly rebuild your engine in one weekend... just no way. Even if you were very experienced with it and had EVERY tool right on hand, it'd be a fast paced weekend to pull it off. Physically, it takes time... you can't do it faster than that with all the experience in the world.

--Gary

speed_monkey

Ok...
The homeowners association says no working on cars in the driveway. Stupid bastards. I'm going to do it anyways. If they say anything I'll just tell them to shove it up their *** and get a life. lol

I guess I'll just pay someone to do it.

ddub

Oops, I meant yes to all but the first rebuild... yah...


On my very first rebuild where I rebuilt, ported, and put on an aluminum flywheel it took me 21 days to get everything back in the engine bay and then 1 more day before I started it for the first time. So call it 22 days overall.

http://home.comcast.net/~drewrx7/rx7.html


My main issue with how long it took was tools I needed and the fact it took me a "few days" to get that stupid flywheel nut off. Get air tools... trust me, I eventually had to get ahold of some to get it off.

ddub

Garages work well too.

speed_monkey

Bob the normal said set aside $1500-$2000. For that much I'll just have OJImports do it so I'll have the warranty. Thanks for the help.

Bob_The_Normal

Hey man, I saw your site before... what is the adapter you broke? What kind of adapter and while doing what> heh

Nice rebuild adventure btw, my pictures look almost exactly the same... except I didn't break any tools, I put the engine in my car and took it to Tri Point and had them pull the flywheel and pulley nut in like 2 mins flat for 35$ and they'll tension them for me for free when I'm done. =)

Oh and I'm not porting, just keeping it regular. I'm contemplating the sleeves right now... I should ship them out tomorrow to Pineapple to have THEM put them in, so I don't screw it up.

--Gary

ddub

1/2" to 3/8" adapter from schucks. Tore right apart

Thanks, it was an adventure indeed.

Cost on parts was under $450 for me, about another 50-100 for tools and junk I needed, and then the RB aluminum flywheel for 450 bucks or whatever it was. So I spent under a grand and that was WITH an aluminum flywheel and tools/junk I needed to buy.

Bob_The_Normal

$450? Hah, geez what'd you do replace the apex seals/springs, gaskets and reuse everything else? I suppose since you were porting your engine might not have been worn at all... looked like it had been rebuild too with the housing painted.

I'm also going to paint the housings.. but I've got a weird idea for it... thinking of doing an zebra type look with Metallic Dark Red and Black... I haven't decided whether I want the housings Red and the plates Black, or the other way around... but it'll be to match the engine bay, which will also be themed in these colors... and the car is stock Black in color... so... I think it'll look good.

The color I'm shooting for is the same color Higgi uses on those FD pulley's... the red ones have an awesome color to them.

NP, just remember this was also a very very conservative quote... I'm basing it on the fact that you don't have the tools necessary, and would be doing a "full" rebuild. A mechanic won't for sure do a "full" rebuild... if parts are in spec he will probably reuse them.

--Gary

ddub

My list of things from atkins:

86-88 N/A Aftermarket Gasket Kit #16259
2mm Corner Seal Plug Set #16193
93-95 Corner Seal Spring Set #16714
13B 2mm Side Seal Spring Set #16187
Atkins' Rotary Viton Oil Ring Inserts #16578
Front Main Seal #16622
Rear Main Seal #16623
Atkins' Thermal Pellet #16401
Hylomar Sealant

$ 130.00
$ 21.00
$ 27.00
$ 18.00
$ 39.95
$ 3.75
$ 6.15
$ 8.50
--------------
$ 254.35


Then I got the Apex seals and springs from rotary aviation for $182. I had a thread about rebuild questions before and Kevin Landers said most the time corner seals and side seals are almost hardly used on an engine that hasn't blown or has extremely high mileage. I rebuilt my motor when there was ~95 compression on the front and rear rotors, still running great absolutely no problems. The side seals and corner seals upon tear down looked almost unused. The things in some of those kits really aren't "needed" always, and like I said Kevin Landers said on most tear downs they are in great condition still unless they've been abused.

Another thing you could get in addition to what I did is the pilot bearing if you want, it's like 11.50 from atkins.

Also, I had the luxury of driving to atkins (about an hour or hour and a half away from where I live) instead of having them ship stuff to me. Their shipping from quotes online seem so high for some reason, luckily I was just able to drive there and get it. Seemed like I got a better deal by buying it in person too, they even gave me 2 free oil filters for my rebuild (atkins brand but Mazda OEM spec).

ddub

Oh yah, that total doesn't include the cost of Hylomar Sealent because you can just get that at an autoparts store like Schucks or Autozone.

Bob_The_Normal

Yeah I know you can re-use everything but my engine was at 158k, it was going through oil faster than I think is good... so I'm just making sure everything is good. Reggie from Tri Point Engineering also told me that the side seals are important for compression results... he siad they always replace them. Kevin told me they're probably re-useable though... and that trying to fit NEW ones in there would be easy for me to screw up, because you have to grind them down to fit... and if you do too much/too little, bad sealing. Old ones don't have to be re-fitted.

Kevin is helping me a lot with my rebuild too, he's a great guy and VERY VERY helpful... hopefully when I'm done and do a full writeup people can look there for questions, then he won't have to be bugged to DEATH again by someone like me. I might leave out a few "industry secrets" and let him sell that part of the writeup for himself. ;D rotfl

It IS pretty ironic too... "dont you think this is like going into burger king with no money and asking them to show you how to make a whopper?" ;D hahahah...

--Gary

ddub

My engine had 155k on it when rebuilt, corner and side seals were fine. The corner and side seal springs, though, needed to be replaced.