A little info on the motor.:
Car was given to me. Well 300 dollars or a hard top for a Jeep (if I feel like giving it up). It sat with a bad coolant seal since 2003. It has 168k its a 89 GTU. I got it to start last weekend, no compression on one rotor and it still fired up. It just needed a little drag for a compression start.

Anyways. I took the motor out and wanted to rebuild it, but the housings have ALOT of buildup on them from sitting im sure. I scrubbed down some spots and it is cleaning up really well. I am wondering what the experts think though.

I have access to a parts washer at a shop, will these harm the iron's or housings just washing them in one of those mechanic shop washers? I am going to watch the rebuild video's soon and see what I should do. However I figured I would see what you guys thought. If they are trash I would just start looking for another short block.

This is only one housing/rotor since I can't get the other side apart yet... its a little stuck. Im sure the other side will look similar though... Any thoughts would be great.

Pics:

 

 

 

I'd sand/glass blast the rotors, the housing look trashed, but the irons appear okay.

Throw it all in the parts washer over night and see how they look.

 

Thanks for the quick reponse, I will definately toss them in the parts washer and see how it turns out. It looks pretty bad for the housings but I started just washing them down and all those black marks in the housings are just oil deposits. I was able to clean it off with little effort... I was more worried about the deposits in the water jackets (I think they are called) around the housings. Even those are cleaning up pretty good by hand so I guess we will see tomorrow...

So just to double check, everything should be ok if I toss it in the parts washer? I figured the motor could handle some soap and water if they could handle the combustion heat. Just wanted to make sure though..

 

As far as I'm aware, the parts cleaner will not damage the parts.

 

I've heard sand/bead blasters will damage the rotor face.... but I'm not sure. might wanna get some more info on that before/if you want to do it.

but parts washer will be good.

 

You can't tell anything at all right now. Clean them before making a decision! You can't even see if there are any nicks, gashes, or gouges, so you can't tell at all if they're useable or not.

 

ditto, clean the parts before we can condemn them!

 

I just didn't want to damage them somehow while cleaning them... So I figured be safe and ask first, take the flames people might send my way

One quick question.. On this picture below, is there a trick to getting this off. It looks like the only thing left holding the other half of the motor togeather...


Thanks for the info everyone, I will post back once things are clean.... or if some more info comes these ways...

 

if you really want you can take some carburetor cleaner and a rag and simply wipe down the faces of the rotor housings to see what you got to work with. sand the sides with a sanding block and some medium/fine grit wet sandpaper and some water.

rotors can take some abuse, i doubt they are trashed beyond use unless they tossed an apex seal or something got into the engine, clean them and take measurements and compare vs the FSM or haynes manual.

the irons are tricky, water sitting in irons can pit them pretty badly to where they will munch side seals. clean em up real good and see if you can see any major pitting or rust eaten areas. also pay close attention to the inner and outer coolant seal walls, they tend to break but i hope you knew this having been around the forums.


for that last pic you posted, use the claw end of a hammer or a L prybar and pry it around the circumference, it will eventually pop out. make sure the key is out also or you could nick the bearing.

 

Thank you very much for the info, I will see how far along I get with this this week. Damn full time jobs getting in the way of all the fun only a couple hours here and there at night left over.

If I can get the last half apart I will drop it by my uncles parts washer and let it have at it for a while, should I bother shoving the rotors in there as well? or just the housings/irons?

 

i tossed my rotors in the parts washer first, it loosed up the carbon so that i could bush it off easily with a wire brush so it couldn't hurt.

 

I've sand/bead blasted housings and irons, but I mask off the surfaces that the apex and side seals ride on. I also turn the pressure down. Works good for cleaning out the coolant passage ways.

You can also send them out and have them hot tanked. Just make sure they are handled carefully.

The rotors are hand work. Use old side and apex seals to clean the grooves and carb cleaner to soften the carbon. Scotch brite pads, steel wool and fine sand paper on the rotor faces.

 

I will try and clean them up best I can then post some pics of the cleanup and see what the judges say. :blink:

Thanks again for all the help!

 

HOLY COOLANT SEAL FAILURE BATMAN!

What the hell was that previous owner running in that thing, straight water from the tap? thats like the worst water corrosion and rust I have ever seen on a housing. A 50/50 mix of coolant and water could never make it that bad, only straight water would **** it up like that.
I remember taking off my water pump housing and inspecting it. Living in canada antifreeze is a must, but seeing the inside of my housing proved that. It was nice and clean, like factory.

eh.. I guess people get lazy and just fill her up with the hose.. I spose what we see above with the water jackets are the downsides to that.

 

I had never seen one with so much crap in the water jackets either. I guess we will see once things have been cleaned up if the housing is still happy enough for a rebuild.

 

Take your rotors and dump them in the carb cleaner tank and let them sit. You don't need them for now anyways. The carbon on the faces and in the cracks will be hard to clean if you don't soak for few days. You'll still have to scrape the grooves.

Take the housings and the Irons to the machine shop and have them put them in their big dshwasher looking thing. what would take you hours of scrubbing, It will clean in 15 minutes. The guy will charge you about $40 bux. You'll still have to scrape the coolant seal grooves.

Once you have it all clean then you can truley asses the condition.

 

I've seen much worse than that, trust me.

 

That's what water in the housings will do after sitting for a few years. Good luck Brian

 

At least it doesn't look like this

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.php?t=387876

 

Haha thanks, I feel better about mine now. (after seeing that link you posted dDuB) At lunchtime I hope to run home and get the rest of the housings apart as sugested so I can get it in the parts washer and take a look at how things turn out...

Let me know if you're feeling bored Stan, I know a car that could use a little TLC at the moment. Thanks for the luck, its looking like I will be needing it.