sorry to hear it ryan . water injection will be a good addition when you get her fired up again.

 

Did you have it on monitor mode (commander handset)? If so, did you happen to have it showing peak knock numbers?

Tim

 

sorry to here about your engine. i'll have to upgrade a few things befor i start tracking my car. but you can always rebuild bigger and better.

 

I had it in monitor mode with the knock displayed even, but once if died in the paddock I turned the key off by habit. I was so concerned about what could possibly be wrong (other than the apex seals ) that I didn't think to check AIT or knock right away.

I started making room in the garage tonight so I hope to have it out and at least partially disassembled by weekend.

Thanks for the condolences guys. I'll be setting up a Hurricane Poss fund that you can make donations to help those who lost their engines in the tragic events of September 17th.

It sucks, and of course it's certainly not a rare occurrence, but as Silvia2seven pointed out, I look at this as an oppurtunity to make it better. Only if my bank account looked at it the same way...

 

damn. really sorry to hear that. i know the feeling. sorry man.

 

The engine is out of the car and I'm tearing it down. I pulled the turbos off and took a peek through the exhaust ports and to my surprise, all my apex seals are in place and appear to be in good shape. There are no marks or dents on the rotors or housings. The only thing I saw is that at least one of the apex seals looks like it isn't sticking out of the seal groove far enough to seal against the housing. I was just reading tonight that the RA apex seal springs are not up to par with mazda's. It would have been nice knowing that before I used them last time... At least right now it's looking like it'll be a fairly cheap rebuild.

 

As soon as I read a couple bad posts I sold my RA seals and bought the new mazda 2 piece 2mm seals. A bit more expensive but the money isn't deserved more anywhere else. Speaking with Demetrios who has over 700rwhp on the same seals sealed the deal for me.

Sorry to hear about your misfortune. Seems like you take care of your car very well and are one of the last few good members left on here that has had the car for more than a month lol. I can tell you that you won't be happy with the RX-7 if you put a LS1 in it. Sure it'll be reliable beyond belief but it's not a RX-7 any more. If you want that get a C5 like I did. I really enjoyed everything the rotary had to offer except for its sensitivity to lean conditions.

 

Yep it is recommended that you use stock springs for boost levels higher than stock. Some forum members have gotten away with higher boost on the RA springs and their engines are still running fine. I think the difference could very well be the A/F ratios. What did Steve tune your A/F ratios too at 14psi? Also could you post pics of your housings. There is a huge debate in the rotary performance section about how the RA seals are supposedly destroying the housings. Lastly do you premix?

 

I'll post pics of the housings when I start disassembling the short block.

I don't remember what Steve tuned the AFRs. I just told him to make it fairly conservative, which he said is how he normally tunes unless someone requests otherwise. I didn't get a print out from the dyno either.

I don't premix and I'm using stock OMP settings for the PFC unless Steve changed those too.

 

Thx. Just trying to gather any and all info about these seals.

 

Good news, Ryan, I will keep my fingers crossed for ya. Man, i am SO glad that I went with OEM Mazda seals

 

I finally took everything apart.

Looks like the front bearing got cooked. The rotors rubbed the side housings and the side seals stuck in the rotors; that's why I lost compression.

After talking with Kevin@rotaryresurection, he suggested that the failure might be due to high oil temps. I agree that that was probable given I am on a stock touring oil cooler and tracking it...stupid me. I don't have an oil temp gauge so I have no clue what the oil temps were.

Most of the parts aren't too bad. I am searcing for a donor engine to cannibalize though.

 

Per tvon's request here are my housings. They have AT LEAST 100k miles on them. 85k with stock seals and 15k with RA seals.

They actually still look pretty good. One of them has some chrome around edge that was chipped off before I rebuilt it with the RA seals. It hasn't worsened at all in the last 15k miles. They both have some small cracks around the sparkplugs, once again there prior to my last rebuild.

 

Thx for posting those pics of the housings. They look great! I'm going to link these pics over to the rotary performance section if you don't mind?

 

I have seen oil temps of 260F (measured at return pedestal) when tracking the car with a single OEM oil cooler, and that was on a cooler day. If you are using dino juice instead of synthetic, you are definitely approaching (or exceeding) the limits of the oil. This is why anyone tracking the car should run synthetic oil, IMO.

Still, how often have you tracked the car since the rebuild, and in what ambient temps and at what boost level?

 

Ryan,
Coming to the party a little late, but still sorry to hear about your motor. I guess this will also give you a chance to try the tighter clearances for the corner seals that Kan mentioned....
You also have a PM.

 

Is this the pizza delivery guy?

 

That's what his profile says.

 

This was on 2 day old 15-50 Mobil Extended life or whatever. The full synthetic, 15k mile oil. (obviously I wouldn't let it go that long. )

I had tracked it one day on this motor at 12psi in 85ish ambients. The day that it crapped out, I was running 14psi in 90+ ambients. I had also been on a recent "mountain run." I used to think they weren't any comparison for tracking in terms of temps, but where at the track I was not seeing water temps above 210F I was seeing 225F on the mountain. I am definately investing in an oil temp gauge.

 

Might as well invest in an aftermarket set of upgraded oil coolers while investing in that oil temp gauge. All that gauge is going to tell you is that you oil temps are too high and that you need bigger oil coolers. Word from the wise - I saw 250+ on R1 oil coolers on the track at 12psi in ambient tmeps of 80F. I can only image what your temps must have been on a single oil cooler at 14psi in ambinet tmeps of 90F! Get the oil coolers

Good luck with the rebuild.
Regards,
Crispy

 

Any idea what the track temps were since it's always hotter closer to the asphalt?

 

Do you still have the old oil out of the motor?

I've seen Numerous cases, especially when it first came out, of the "15K extended life" synthetic oil breaking down and causing a lack of oil pressure. I saw it first hand happen in a DSM, and the oil pressure dropped to like 5 psi at idle and cooked his turbo and main bearings. When we drained the oil, it was about as thick as water.

 

Is this just anecdotal or is there some documentation of this?

 

I still have it, but it's contaminated with coolant since I used it to catch extra coolant when disassembling my engine. My oil pressure, while lower than normal street driving, didn't ever get dangerously low. I did pay attention to it when draining it and it didn't look or pour like water. I haven't had it tested, but it didn't look like anything was out of the ordinary.


I have no clue about track temps.

 

There is no written documentation, but whenever we saw the oil come out of the oil pan like water, we began to examine it. He sent a sample off to get tested, but I haven't talked to him since.