Well this engine lasted about 6K miles
 

Yup I had an old friend build the first engine in this car (a S4 NA) then when a coolant seal blew at 3K miles I had him rebuild it again and it lasted another 3K miles then it blew. So thats 2 engines that didn't make it over 3K

Then I had him build another engine for it when I had enough money cause by now I poured over 2 grand into rebuilt NA engines. The next engine was a S5 NA setup. First it didn't last 30 seconds and the coolant seal let go then built it again and it lasted the summer and died.

So over the winter I drove my 82 RX that lasted 180K before I rebuilt the engine just because and it now has 43K on my engine I built for it.

Next year came and I decided to have him build a TII engine for it because he said he knew how to build good turbo engines. So 4 thousand dollars later I had a turbo swaped 88 RX. Well guess what happened last week? It threw an apex seal. And for no reason at all, it wasn't boosting which is set at 5psi max and it didn't lean out cause my wideband hardly saw 14 and the engine ran pretty rich.

This engine lasted 6105 miles. Cool huh? I've put almost 9 grand into this car since I bought it.

Well I'm looking to find another for it only not built by this guy and I'm not interested in building another one too. Who sells good (unfortuantely used import) Turbo engines? I've heard japan2la is a good guy to go with

why do you let him keep rebuilding you engines. after the first two I would have let somebody else rebuild them and saved all that money.

u have problems for letting ur friend throw ur money away that many times. just try atkins rotary or rotary resurrection build you an engine. pay someone that knows what they are doing..

i agree with keithrulz, i've dealt atkins and they are extremely helpful and informative with any questions you have. i rebuilt one for the time by myself and they answered a bunch of my questions. the complete rebuild kit was like $900. i got mine running first time. just don't forget you have to break the engines in so they can build up compression. it takes a little bit of time. i let mine run for like 45 mins at 2k rpm before i shut it down and re-started. good luck.

have you heard of brian@rotaryresurection?

better than a used motor any day!

I paid him to build the motors because I had seen him build many engines and they all still run. All these motors got the atkins rebuild treatment too.

All these engines got a 2K mile break in period. I've owned and have a few other 7's that I my self built and put engines in so rest assured they got the correct break ins and tuneups and oil changes. This is the only one I've owned and put so much money into.

Now that winter is on its way and I'll be driving my Diesel truck more than the supra or the 7's and now I'm just kinda done with this car and want something in it to make it run so I can sell it. Besides I don't need this car, I've got my built up TII putting enough down to keep ya in the seat for a long time.

I've talked with the guys over at rotaryresurrection but they rebuild short block engines for 1300 plus extra this and that. In the end I still have used irons, rotors, housings, etc etc. And its not like the engine lost compression a little, It litterly blew an apex seal and for some reason it didn't take out the BNR turbo it had on it too. Who knows what damage has been done internally so I'd probably have to buy more parts for the engine at rotaryresurrection.

All I'm looking for is an un-rebuilt mazda S5 TII engine. Seems like the stock engines run longer than rebuilt ones by far.

You win the most stubbornest trophy award...
Good gawd...


-Ted

I think there's far less "shit that can go wrong" potential in a turbo than an N/A. Get a new friend, for the sake of your wallet.

There is no difference in difficulty or internal seals between a turbo or N/A engine. Sounds like this guy just does not know how to assemble an engine correctly.

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result".

yea, i think when you say rebuild engines... rotaries are a bit different from the rest.

All engines but one failed through a cooling seal failure. Sounds like damaged irons were used, or the guy doesn't know how to seat the o-rings in the grooves during assembly. Or the grooves were not cleaned properly.

The moral is to find someone who knows what they are doing when you want an engine built. :)

An excruciatingly and needlessly expensive moral...

I say you give him another shot.

john ny

+1, it couldn't hurt.

I'll build one for you for 2k and will make it last for 7k. :\
Time to find a smarter friend.

that's incredible in a bad way. why not build it yourself if you've done it before and had good results?

I call shennagins on that. Turbos have plenty more to go wrong. NAs are boring though, so you take the good with the bad. Truth be told though, if I were starting over with my track car I'd do a 20B NA instead of my 13b turbo.

Sure, if money were no object :P I'd prefer to do that, too, but I never have had the money to do that. Eventually I will... I hope. However, if I ever do a 20B, I'll make sure I still have a turbo FC around, too.

and this is why i dont let my friends drive my car much less work on it. man u need to find a new engine guy. roatary resurection did my rebuild and he was really great in the entire prosess. even sold me a housing when one of mine was worn out. it isnt running again yet but it would be if i didnt get 5 stiches in my hand at work the other day...

With what' I've spent on popped motors I'm pretty sure I could have done it!

ouch, that's why I did my research as best I could. I like doing it right the first time, I shouldn't have to build my motor again for quite a while.

Your engine builder *FAILS*

Well, the rebuilt motor of unknown provenance that came with the car blew after a number of track events. It suffered a full coolant loss on the way home from summit point and kaboomed on the highway. My fresh rebuild was done up very nicely and then popped on the track from going too lean, which wasn't my engine builder's fault. He rebuilt it again, fortunately all it needed was two housings and one rotor, and it's been running like a champ ever since. It's very a very conservative setup though, the motor is probably good for 400+hp but right now I'm only doing 213 at the wheels on the stock IC and turbo, and it's running on a Microtech now and has plenty of fuel. I also run 100 octane at the track, just in case. I figure it would take me 10 years to sped enough extra on 100 octane to match the cost of rebuild caused by detonation, so it's cheap insurance.