you're missing the part in the chain where Mazda USA stopped stocking them. a few years ago they were ordering 20-50 at a time and they had them in stock. at some point they stopped doing that.
so they were always backordered, because they only ordered it for you. sales didn't seem to change much, but perception did.

and someone at Mazda USA seems to think if they have a part in stock its bad, so its kind of typical.

 

Glad you brought that up. in 2023 the other thing that happened is that Mazda USA raised prices, but Mazda Japan didn't (plus the exchange rate is really crazy right now), if you can look at prices globally, Mazda USA priced themselves out of the market. buying globally you need to include shipping and maybe taxes as well, so its delivered price. stuff from Japan shows up pretty quickly too (unless you use FedEx, they took a week to go make the pickup).

Mazda prices vary a lot, rear housing is the glaring one, as its hard to see why (they use an R stamp, and drill 1 hole the other way?) Mazda USA wants $1600, Amayana, which is my Mazda Japan proxy wants $693 plus $60 to ship...

or you can just order two fronts and live with the OCD :P

 

Yup. I'm thinking Mazda's days of manufacturing rotary engines, that aren't for the range extender, are numbered. Hopefully the aftermarket will step up, and maybe even bring a little affordability, to our little shrinking corner of the automotive world.

 

Looks like the Billet options are starting to be more of a reality, especially with the price hike for Mazda. For not a ton more money, you can go billet. I don't personally know the longevity or quality of these billet builds but I'm hoping they will be more of an option in the future.

 

the rotor housings though, those are still fairly exclusive to Mazda, but apparently Atkins is attempting to pull something off without a liner. They had some 12A housings made and posted on social media. So maybe somebody else will try.

https://www.rx7club.com/se-rx-7-foru.../#post12582627

unfortunately a number of racing classes require the engine “block” to be OEM, which is plates and housings on a rotary engine.

I did luck out buying all the major engine components; all three irons, pair of housings/rotors/stat gears, etc. about 9 months ago. Glad that I didn’t wait.

but I just posted a wtb ad for the REW “distributor gear” spacer on the eshaft stack between the front pulley hub and the oil sprocket, as it seems to be NLA. I didn’t readily find a revised part number for it and wasn’t sure if the Renesis part is the same thickness. Please lmk if you have one laying around.
.

 

It's entirely possible that they raised the price because they are production limited and wanted to reduce orders, and maybe want to have some actual profit margin. They can only build x amount of engines. At 11 grand demand will drop to match supply.

 

like maybe zero 😭

well apparently I stumbled across the new part no. 0839-11-531 for the distributor gear spacer, but it’s coming up everywhere except on Motorsports. So I was thinking maybe JP only then, but I’m seeing it listed on USA websites. 🤔
.

 

it went further than that already. there were a few engines ordered at the old price, but received at the new price and then not sold. they will after a while get returned to Mazda USA, who has a propensity to scrap stuff like this.

 

Need to find that scrapyard.

 

so way back in the mists of time someone followed the truck to the scrap yard, and there were armed guards.
truck was full of 84-85 Rx7 leather seats, $3500 each

in the USA, you can write off anything you scrap, which is more advantageous than selling at a discount.

 

Beware random URLs from Nebies.

 

so funny enough I checked the Motorsport pricing for a full set of new REW iron plates today, and the total price for the full set of three only increased $75 from a year ago.
.

 

Maybe that's vindication on where exactly the deficiency is. IIRC the plates and housings are all manufactured in Malaysia or something now. If the price discrepancy is between a collection of parts before and after its assembly, then there you go.

 

yeah, the 8.5 CR T2 engine rotors are still a much better buy from Japan. Enough to justify the ship cost. So it does seem to be more of an assembly issue in that regard.
.

 

Mazda has 41 engines in stock now, more than they have had in 5 years?

 

Please elaborate.

 

Mazda, they have 41 engines.

/snarky fun internet trolling comments

 

Yup, and it appears the market has spoken as to the new pricing

 

I feel a rash of LS swaps starting up again...

 

Local economic factors in Japan are at play as well. The Yen has devalued around 50% against the USD in the past 5 years.

 

I tell you what. I wouldn't be running a motor with stock or ceramic seals anymore. You can no longer afford to have them take out a housing, two irons, and a rotor when it gives up. And lots of premix and cold plugs to keep those housings healthy.

 

I guess? I build all my personal engines with ceramics and make sure that I have a reasonable power goal in mind so as not to be on the verge of detonation. I also have customers with 10 seasons on rotor housings using ceramics - NA generally - that never need to even be looked at with regards to wear, only crush.

 

I have a feeling turbo guys will be learning about crush with the recent popularity of stud kits.

 

Oh no.. what is crush? Please teach me, wise ones!

 

Yeah, most definitely. I like the 'standard' size stud kits just for availability and piece of mind, I don't like the torque numbers some people are recommending.

Crush is the deformation that happens to rotor housings on or about (usually just passed actually) the centerline of the leading plug/combustion chamber due to sustained high temps - aluminum deforms in the 1100* F range-ish (can be lower can be higher depending on the makeup). This is one of the larger culprits in 'water in the combustion chamber' on otherwise well built and taken care of race engines.

Section C-54 in the FSM illustrates what I'm talking about.