Thinking about rebuilding my own motor...
 

Seeing that it's October and it's already started snowing here in balmy Connecticut, I will probably have to go get a 4wd or something... Meaning, I can yank my own engine and rebuild it... If I do, can I send the housings out to have them ported? I am doubtful enough of my rebuilding skillz, I am pretty sure I can't do the porting myself...

Any other advice/pitfalls I should be aware of before I consider doing it?

New housing are used for porting.
You could order the new housings ported for you.

Yes. Most shops will be happy to port your housings.

shitty, its snowing there already.

Aaron, do I have to get new housings, or will my old ones be fine?

Doesent it take years of experience and skill to rebuilb an engine? I mean what if you forget a part or somthing and ruin the engine. Why not pay someone to rebuild it for you and know that its being done well. It just seems like itd be extremly difficult to rebuild an engine. Or no?

You can use the old housings if they are in spec.

from what I know its not that hard. I bet you could prolly port it yourself. all you mainly need is a dremel, and a little bit of skills, and you could do it, but it's better to be safe than sorry

It really isn't that hard. The engine has very few parts and if you have the video its pretty hard to mess up. Only thing that ever concerned me was remembering where all the harnesses/vac hoses/etc go when reinstalling it. But with the tape I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard.

Now porting would just depend if you were confident enough and if you had the templates it would help.

DO NOT REBUILD YOURSELF!!! it will cost you about 500 extra dollars... instead give kevin landers 2500 and your engine wiil BE SWEEEEEET!! ( this comes from a guy who rebuild his engine for about 3000 dollars and im not even sure is gonna last 20k )

What the FOCK you talking about - 500 extra dollars. If you have access to the tools, it will cost less. I do mine for under 500.00 each oh and I am sure mine will last another 100K!

Yeah Kevin has a good rep here. No issue there, but don't mislead folks about reality.


Chicken or egg here dude - how do you get experience, have to start with the first one.


Many threads have been started on this topic - most if not all reccomond to buy the tape from Atkins. I reccomond the same. Watch it and then make up your mind. If your sure you can do it, go for it! If you run into problems, just come right to this board. Thats what most of us are here for.


Now porting is all together a different topic. I would find some junk housing to practice on first. Anything that gets cut should have some practice first.

DUDE. im 100% sure the guy has no tools. its 100 bucks for the racing beat flywheel nut wrench and stopper, he needs a cherry picker and an engine stand.
he need a inch and pound torque wrenches
he needs mad carb cleaner which is 10 bucks a gallon.
he needs to deal with shit damaging and not putting enough blue sealeant and if this went in properly or not. dude if you dont have the tools dont do it. dude installing the apex seal's springs is hard as hell!!!

so which is it? if u dun't have tools is it more or less expensive??

Bottom line, if you dont have tools, don't attempt it.

Peruvian, where the hell you get $2500 at? I do s4 NA motors for $1000 plus porting, shipping, and other options. Shit, you get the whole thing installed for under $2k on an s4 NA.

I tell people all the time...you'd be surprised how easy the rebuild **assembly** can be. But, you'd also be surprised how hard the rebuild **cleaning and measuring** can be. It;s hard for someone who doesnt know you to make the judgement of whether or not you could do the job properly. It depends on your knowledge, your work habits, your tools, and work area.

Torque wrenches, engine stands and cherry pickers can be borrowed or rented. Hell, one guy had a post with his engine on a tire as opposed to a stand. I don't think the tools are the hurdle. After rereading this thread, I have to question the whole post count deal. I have rebult 100's of rotaries and sit in the mid 200's. Our poster is alomst at 500. I guess posts are not knowledge . . . Bottom line, buy the video, watch it and make your mind up. If you dont think your up to it, hire a guy like kevin.

Oh and your right on the very first spring you install. It gets way easier the more you do.

Guys rebuilding is easy, did it first time and will do it again soon, my car started first click when rebuilt with no run-in issues and the car put down 300rwhp with a s4 high flow turbo and no porting in australia.
I have all the tools, i didnt use an engine stand, i got a torque rench and engine hoist and bloody big garage.
If you have the tools do it, if you dont buy the tools its worth the investment, im doin rebuilds for mates now.

It cost me $1300AU for new housings, $1000AU for a full seal kit with 3mm seals and solid corner seals, and that was my build, in all $2300AU. Without housings would have cost me just for seals but my housings were screwed.

I have tools, thanks jack ass.

I just figured it would be a fun winter project...

But, if hypntyz7 can do the rebuild and porting, I will farm it out to him.

naaa, do it yourself, you'll learn more, and it should be pretty fun to do I guess. theres no way it'll cost you more than a rebuild. You can spend 900 for the mazdatrix kit, and then do it yourself.

It took me four hours to put my engine back together when I rebuilt it myself this summer. However, I probably spent about 4-6 hours just CLEANING the damn parts before I reassembled everything.

Just got back from a weekend of tearing my old engine apart. If you can, it is worth it to do it yourself.

It comes down to convenience and cost. If you will have the time and work space and want to get some experience and/or learn, go for it.

Therefore, it all depends how interested you are into doing it. The more you want to learn and do it, the better it is going to be. If you go as far as ordering the rebuild kit, taking out the engine, opening it up, cleaning it and then you get fustrated or something and not want to deal with it, it will suck. If you continue and make it work you will have a sense of accomplishment and feel good about it.

Personally if I had the time and resources I will do it.

I remember when I was making the decision to rebuild myself.

I am a total hack but a hard worker. I had no prior experience rebuilding any motor till my first rx blew up.

I loved the car so much I just decided to do it. Now I have taken out four of these motors. Done an auto to manual conversion, drive train conversions and a semi successful s4 to s5 swap which is still in the tunning process.

You will learn alot. And after a little while you'll be able to yank the throttle body off in your sleep.

One thing that I learned afterwards was that while rebuilding is hard and you learn alot, I think from now on I'll just buy remans and pop them in for almost the same cost as rebuilding myself, only it saves me alot of time. The next time I rebuild a rotor motor it will be more customized.

You can get better rotor bearings with more open oil flow though them. Put holley carb jets in the eccentric shaft. Get stiffer oil cooler control springs. Different light weight apex seals etc etc etc.

Eaither way the peice of mind that generated from any new rebuild in the rx is always worth it.

so if i was to rebuild all i need is the engine gasket set let say from mazdatrix and 2mm apex seals?
on mazdatrix and atkins site all i see is 3mm ceramic apex seals.do you guys know a placw where i can get 3mm steel apex seals instead of ceramic?

and tools