hey guys, im just about to purchase an 88 GTU. it has about 130k miles on it. now my question is, i have a friend who has a garage, who is willing to take it apart and rebuild it, throwing in that he has never rebuilt a rotary (just piston/4 stroke), what would I need? i have seen those master rebuild kits for around a grand but i really dont know what i need for a complete rebuild. this also goes for the standard transmission, what and where, please! once i get the car, i will be bringing it to a shop, the closest is meineke. i will have the car tuned up, replace all plugs and wires, replace all fluids, given that they do sevens.

tips? suggestions? please. thanks for your time.

p.s. would an instructional video on how to rebuild a rotary be crucial? my friend's dad said its alot easier to rebuild a rotary then a piston engine.

also, around how much would it be to replace all hoses, plugs, maybe even clean out the cat? tune up.. everything that can be replaced, i want to check if they need to.. a 18 year old is going to be my daily driver to work and school.

 

First, why are you even considering a rebuild??? Is the compression low?

And plugs/wires/fluids is something that you should do yourself.

and to replace all the coolant hoses with new Mazda OEM ones, you probably are around $200, Oil hoses: $100, soft brake lines: $100

 

only because it is quite old, and that it hasnt been started for a while, the guy whos getting it back from said that hes pretty sure that it hasnt been regularly maintained, and its not like rebuilding is a bad thing, is it?

just for the first time, i would really want a professional service to up and running the car right.

 

A S4 motor with only 130K miles on it is probably just fine. No need to rebuild it at all unless compression is under 85 PSI on any face.

And unless your buddy has rebuilt several rotary engines before, rebuilding a motor that does not need rebuilding can be a bad thing.

 

anything else internal i should check on? replaced? also, im sure he would take good care of my rotor

 

You should check compression

 

Dude, you can take most concepts and experience with piston engines and throw them out the window when you get into a rotary. I work at an engine shop that builds $80,000 engines and wouldn't blink an eye on rebuilding any piston engine. I have spent the past 2 months on here reading stuff, and the factory manual, and now have the engine completly dissassembled and I still need to know more and ease into it. Most places here when I ask them for the spark plugs I need look it up and scratch their head because they don't know what it would need.

"Leading and Trailing what the heck?"

"Sir does it have 2 or 4 spark plugs?"

I would agree if the compression is good, leave it alone. If it needs to be rebuilt take it to a reputable ROTARY shop, otherwise you can probably expect it to never run right again.

 

spray 150 shot blow the engine then rebuild it

 

^^ or don't listen to him that would be bad. would cost you more.. you would have to replace parts you should not have to in the first place.

 

If you do decide to rebuild the motor yourself, atkinsrotary sells a instructional video for $25. Here is the link: http://www.atkinsrotary.com/store/customer/home.php

My friend bought the video. I thought it was pretty informative.

 

Rotaryaviation.com also sells en excellent video.

 

Pm a member named Gonzz good guys lots of exsperiance and he is located in vegas for you.

 

if you are going through all that work.
go through all the electrical as well.
there can be plenty of issues in the wiring that can cause all sorts of problems.

redo all the groundings.
resolder the cpu.
go through al the connectors, clean with contact cleaner and rejoin using dielectric grease.
test all sensors that you can ( most are pretty simple with a multimeter )
make your own error code checker, and go through all the codes that may come up ( once again back to the connectors, they can cause ghosts in the machine )
that should save you lots of money right off the hop.

wiring is the major issues i found in mine.
after two other people gave up.

 

Yea, fixing all the wiring is a good thing to do with the engine out, very easy to access everything. I just got weatherpack connectors and some other stuff that will make my harness probably better than new when I get done with it (and my rebuild).