so i bought an "atkins reman" from rotaryworks and it ended up never reaching over 90psi on either rotor so rotaryworks said they would rebuild it for only the charge of parts (i thank them for working with me since i had no warranty)
however, i have found a local rotary engine builder that has done several rotary rebuilds and they have all been strong motors. long story short, i'm planning on having him do my rebuild just to save me the trouble of shipping/wait/etc. with the same quality.

anyways, which seal kit would you recommend we use? i have heard good things about both atkins' and rotary aviation's seals, are there any others i should consider?

 

That sucks, jacob, I was hoping you'd find something simple to fix her...

I can only give you input on the RotaryAviation stuff, since that's what I used..."bout 2500 miles on her now, with no problems whatsoever. Their combustion seals are stout, so stiff in fact I had a fun time keeping them in the grooves as I was setting the housings in place (even with shitloads of hylomar). Which is why I have exactly one OEM Mazda combustion seal on my rebuild, at the front housing to front rotor housing junction. (The RA seals don't take kindly to being squished between the housings, if they happen to pop out of the groove!)
Other than that little adventure, I loved the kit, everything fit as it should, yada yada...

 

yeah i think the only thing that will make my compression above 100psi is beter condition housings

i just think there are minor imperfections that will never let the compression get to an acceptable level

should i buy NEW housings or just settle for some good condition used ones? i want 120psi on both rotors this time..

 

I have run RA's and like the combustion orings. Atkins uses Mazda type orings. I have engnes with over 100K on the rebuild still tooling around the country side. Basically I have used them all and in day to day application they are all good.

 

what do you mean by the combustion orings?

 

The little animals I was talking about earlier...

If you've got the cash, go for the new rotor housings, you'll thank me for it in the long run.

I had above average compression at about 600-800 miles with the RA kit & new housings...

That's the problem with rebuilds & remans- those guys are trying to do it as cheaply as possible, so the profit margin stays high, it's not their engine, so why should they care in what condition housings are? This of course does not apply to every vendor, but it does to the ones that sell them "cheap", because they know people will buy 'em. You get what you pay for, man...

 

whats a good price for NEW rotor housings? what about good used ones?

what kind of numbers?

exactly.. thats been a problem for me and my rx7 since day 1

 

RA seals and old housings do not mix well. These are harder seals and take quite a long time to seat correctly to a housing that isn't 100%. I believe rotaryresurrection using atkins apex seals because they are softer and take well to used housing rebuilds.

 

you have any idea where to get a good deal on NEW housings? depending on the price i'll probably have to just use used housings

 

Jon88Se - my housings were pretty worn, (I probably shouldn't have used them, but i'm a poor college kid...) but my rotary aviation seals didn't seem to have any problems getting it running.. I don't have access to a compression tester, so I'm not sure of the numbers, but It feels strong, and I didn't have any trouble getting it started.... well, any trouble that was related to the seals seating themselves..

No idea on where to get cheap housings, though...

 

do you ever have any problems starting it in the mornings? or when its hot?

like how long do you have to crank it to get it to start up

 

Here is a price from Mazdatrix

http://mazdatrix.com/getprice.asp?partnum=10-B50C-N318

 

oh my..

 

I just rebuilt with the RA kit. I'll second or third the combustion O-rings being a bitch and a half to deal with.

I've got 500 miles on the rebuilt now, and it feels a lot stronger than it did before. I don't have compression numbers, unfortunately, but I haven't had any starting problems, and the engine braking is a lot better than it was before the rebuild. I'm using some lightly used housings I obtained. Eventually I'll probably rebuild with new housings, if they're still around in a few years.

-=Russ=-

 

I don't have any problems starting it hot or cold.. I did find that it was sorta easy to flood for the first 3-500 miles or so, but never to the point that I had to remove the spark plugs.. it was just one of those "turn the key for 2 seconds, it didn't QUITE catch, so i had to flick the fuel cut switch and crank it for a second or two" things.. It doesn't do that anymore.. I'm up to around 3000 miles now, for reference.

and DAMN are those housings expensive!

 

Jacob- if you're on good terms with your local Mazda dealer, you can "talk" them down from their listed price. I got one of my housings this way, the guy undercut Mazdatrix by 50 bucks or so (but by the time taxes were added, it wound up being 5-10 bucks cheaper than Mazdatrix, so...)

It's just one of the costs of building a rebuild that will last, just like buying a $900 seal kit when they don't seem like they should be worth that much...

One of these days I'll actually get some compressions #s with my tester- I haven't bothered yet because she's running so good (don't want to jinx anything, lol...)

I had 90 on each face before the rebuild, and she pulls MUCH harder than then, so I know the numbers are "up there"...

 

Mazdacomp has rotor housing for just under $400/each + shipping.

 

that still counts as an ouch i guess i'll have to use used housings :/

 

how can i tell the condition of a used rotor housing? i mean i'm sure one could be better than the other with no visible damage to either...

 

for these kinda money you can get a reman engine, $900 rebuild kit + $1000 housings versus and extra $600 for an engine thats professionally built and is brand new. The cost doesnt justify itself.

 

huh?

 

could you word that better???

 

he's saying it would be cheaper to just get reman engine instead of $900 for rebuild kit, $1000 for housing, and $600 to assemble.

i think that with reman's u don't even know if the housings ur getting are better than the ones u have already, they could be real ********.

ok i'v read his post again and i got no idea wat he's on about

 

Mazda reman--- $1300 on mastercard

Rotary aviation master rebuild kit--- $869 on mastercard

Two new rotor housings--- $1000 on mastercard

Knowledge gained from doing it yourself---PRICELESS...

 

ummmm not a chance its brand new. Ever pull apart one??? I have one or two or three or four or five . . . times

maybe one new housing,
new apex seals, gaskets, springs and orings - after that, well can be new, can be used.