Rear main seal is toast.

 

****! Still gonna look into it more but that is probably the verdict.

 

Could also have been an oil contamination that toasted the bearings.

James

 

Talked to the previous owner and he said he has used this engine and rebuilt it three times using the same oil pump. not sure of the total milage on the pump but it could be a possibilty for the problem. I have a very hard time believing the seals are bad especially since the previous owner told me it was just rebuilt by a rotary guru in japan. i have purchased some engine UV dye and am gonna put it in and search with a black light to find the exact spot where the leak is. If it were the rear main seal I think I would have alot more leakage, especially under that pressure even when it is low. Has anyone here had a rear oil seal go out? how much oil was present when leaking? I can hardly see any flow when under the engine while running above idle.

 

All I need to do to replace the rear seal is drop the tranny, remove the flywheel and counter weight and that is it right? who here has done this? any pointers? heard something about rear rotor and top dead center.

 

all right, replaced rear main seal and rear stationary gear o-ring(o-ring was BAD) and oil leakage from rear of engine is fixed. As for the oil pressure problem I dropped the pan again, tested and replaced anything that was faulty(spring on oil control valve was out of limit). Replaced the o-ring and teflon ring and DID NOT use a front housing gasket, replaced the pump, check the regulator valve tension and sealed the oil pan VERY WELL. I had to work the next day so I will start it up later tonight.

Lets hope this works and fixes this problem, if not I am COMPLETELY lost. and I know my main bearings are good, talked to the Japanese rebuilder(very tough conversation to understand but he spoke pretty good english for never taking a class)

 

Well....... Started the car up and the first 30 MINs pressure was awesome, 30 at idle and 65 above 3000 RPM BUT after that it started to drop. Good news is that this time the reading is about 20 PSI at idle and when driving I read about 45-50. THAT is better what is was when reading slightly above 0 at idle(read about 10 psi on mechanical gauge) and little lower then 30 above 3 grand.

I dont know what is going on but I am going to do another mechanical reading to see the exact numbers. There has to be a slight leak somewhere internal and who knows maybe my front housing clearence from the the casting with the o-ring is tweeked.

It is a mystery but I am happy the pressure is showing improvement.

Any thoughts guys??

I am not a unexperienced mechanic and don't assume I have no experience with rotaries or any engine of that manner. I wrench on GE F-16 turbine engines for a living. This is just a crazy *** engine with oil pressure problems(out of my last four motors this one runs the best but is soooo quarky).

 

bump

 

should I just put a **** load of RTV around the o-ring casting? This will be the third time taking off my ******* front cover.

 

Two things that I don't think have been covered yet. Seems like pretty much all that is left.

1.) Poor seal between pickup tube and block.
2.) Poor seal underneath the pump itself.

Best of luck with it.
Cheers

 

Pick up tube was re-sealed after the second front cover removal. One of my many trouble shooting thoughts.

Pump seal is outstanding and the pump is brand new too.

I know what the problem is, the first time I did the oring replacement I did everything that the FSM stated to do and followed Mazdatrix's directions. RE-used old gasket( I know, dumb move but gasket looked great and I used rtv with it) Came out with the original pressure problem.

Second time I didn't use a gasket, used new o-ring and teflon ring. When I out the rings in place I used a small amount of RTV to hold the rings in place. RTV'ed seal outline and was on my way(even let it cure for 24 hours). End result was better pressure but not factory spec.

** I think the small amount of rtv I used to hold the rings actually sealed about half or that amount around the rings and between the front cover.

Going to tear into her again this weekend and am going to re-use the rings and also put a layer of RTV around both rings(not too much to clog the passageway though). Wish me luck guys.

Now Im a pro at dropping the tranny and removing the front cover.