I know that a lot of people will sand the iron faces with 400 grit to help oil retention and break in times, just like honing cylinder walls. I was wondering if anyone has done something like this to the faces of the rotor housings for the same reasons? It makes sense that you would want the same benefits on the housing face but i am not sure Mazda would go through the trouble of putting on a fancy nickel chrome plating if they intended for the surface to be roughed up. Anyone ever done this, or heard of this? Any thoughts on the idea?

 

Never heard of it, probably for a very good reason.

 

yeah i figured as much but is there any way to get the slight grooves out of the surface other than buying new housings?

 

You could get them cermet coated, but do your own research before doing that.

 

yeah i could but that stuff isn't cheap unfortunately and i'm just a poor teenager

 

I think people might do something similar to that on the side irons, but I never heard of anyone doing it to the rotor housings. Check with a rotary engine builder

 

No. You don't touch the chrome housing. If there are grooves, you don't use the housing.

 

Yikes! I wouldn't sand the irons either. I just use a Scotch Bright pad and plenty of lubricant (parts washer fluid) to clean both surfaces but not damage them. Don't mess with the chrome.

 

Drag racers rough up the surface of the housings to break in the apex seals faster for better compression.

 

Well, I didn't mean use sandpaper on sidehousings, but yeah, scotchbrite. Sometimes for flywheels and brake rotors I use scotchbrite to scuff up the surface a little. I guess I gotta be careful what I write

 

Ive done it with great success even on new parts and I will continue to do so in the future.

The hardness created by the mazda coating is great, however, after years of beeing peened by the metal that rides on it, all the oil retention is gone(hammerd shut) especially on the housings.

The grooves created by honeing the metal create a place for oil to sit and get streaked across the high points when the wearable parts slide by.

I do it to both the housings and the plates. Anyone who has ever re ringed a pistion engine will get it, those that have only done rotarys will think your crazy.

The plate pattern looks like a new set of break rotors and the housing pattern looks like the inside of a piston bore.

This is not a "new" thing, rotary builders and racers have been doing this for a very long time.

I have always wished mazda used replaceable plate inserts with an aluminum plate base and did away with the chrome face with just a hard metal on rotor housings so one could use a cnc recipricating drum to re-hone housings.....

 

+1, Greg.

 

Cool! Got any pics?

 

I figured this was standard practice? I never even considered NOT doing it.

Wow.

You give it a (very) light scuff for oil retention so the oil actually has something to adhere to. It also helps the contacting surfaces to better shape to each other.

Agree w/ Greg 100%

 

sweet thanks for the reply it made sense but for a second i wasn't going to do it because no one had heard of it, however i will go with it know that i know how many others have done so thanks.

 

Ugh, if mazda made replaceable plates and housing inserts (similar to sleeves in pistons) it would be f-in amazing.