Since my car has had 5 owners including me, and runs surprisingly good for 111k , I was wondering if there is anyway I can go about checking the engine to see if it has been rebuilt before?

 

hmmm well u can see if the vin on th engine is the same as the one on the car... but if they used the original rotorhousings/block then nevermind.

 

My rebuild from Pettit was pretty easy to tell. Pettit places a plate on the upper rear (closest to the firewall) on its redone engines. Don't know if other vendors do this though.

 

where is the vin located on the block dude?

 

The vin is not on the block. Your original could have been rebuilt, or it could have been replaced with a different core. Pieces and parts of several rotaries can be used to build one, so the concept of a numbered block is pointless...there are numbers on the front iron under the alternator, but they dont directly correlate to anything on the car...I believe you can call mazda and they can check this for you. IT still doesnt mean much, just that this is the front iron that came in the car, or not.

Mazda remans, in the last 2-3 years, used a blue tag on the front cover. They also had red paint on the tension bolts under the flywheel, and often a sticker on the oilpan.

Atkins remans have ARS stamped in the rotorhousings beside 13b mazda.

Anytime you see RTV or sealant of any kind between rotorhousing/iron mating surfaces, you can guarantee it's a rebuild of some sort. Obviously anytime you see paint on irons or rotorhousings it's a rebuild too.

 

I should know little about this, since I bought 4 engines in the past year..

Most of the Mazda reman will have small 1x 2 inch plate on the front cover.. its usually upper right side of the main pulley.. It will have date of reman stamped on it..

Far as vin stamped on the engine.. I say I have never seen that on all my 6 engines..

 

For me, it's typically been very subtle things that can tell if the engine has been replaced. Most of that comes from knowing RX-7's really well and how they put them together at the factory - little brackets, hose and wiring routing, etc. are all typical clues as to someone replacing the engine. But, there is no surefire way.

Odds are, though, if your car has that kind of mileage and runs good and strong, it's likely been replaced, sad to say. Not that replacing the engine is a bad thing, just speaks to the problems the FD has had in this country.

Dale