I want to gather an idea, when things are tuned right, in harmony and an engine was rebuilt properly -- how long can one expect to push a rotary @ 450whp(16psi~). i mean PUSH! ie drive the crap out of the car on the track, drag, with full boost and occasionally have some "street fun"

please list how many miles your engine has and how you've driven your car and how much power its making

 

Engine has 10,000 miles on it. Non-sequential turbos. Don't beat on it to much. Almost a year on it. Estimate 280hp.

 

I havent had an engine failure since 2003 (overboost).

I was at the 400-420 rwhp level from 2003 until 2009, probably 50k miles if I had to estimate.

I sold the old engine still running strong, and bought a brand new mazda crate motor. Ported it and did all the oil/coolant mods to it. Been making 430-500 rwhp (depending on boost) ever since, including 7 track days (with two more coming up this weekend) and two DGRR trips. I beat on the car every time I drive it, and she keeps coming back for more

The trick with these cars is to do it right the first time, and not take shortcuts.

 

OP at 450 rwhp a great tune, all the supporting mods, and water injection will give you the reliability your looking for with a 13b. You can also use the unbreakable RA seals. Some say those seals wear the housings. Well I have them in my S5 vert that I rebuilt back in 2005. I even reused the damaged housing during the rebuild. That engine now has 45k on it and fires up every time running premix. Also remember, just because it's built to handle major hp doesn't mean is can't be driven on a dailey basis. You don't have to deat on it every time you drive so you can get nice life out of the engine.

My orginal stock Fd engine lasted 108k before it blew due to over booting. Bottom line, if you know what your doing, a highly boosted rotary can last many thousands of miles.

 

^+1
Just turned 40K miles on my STOCK motor with Twins at 15PSI non sequential. I beat on this car at every turn and it jsut asks for more. I also am meticulous on the maintenance and have done all of the proper supporting mods except for water injection (next when I can find the rice spot to put it).


BTW, just shy of 350RWHP and 306RWTQ.

 

65,000 miles on a rebuild in mine, ran stockish for many of those miles but has been pushing 15psi on stock twins now for a while and beat on as well...whenever I have the chance I push it, and frequently take it on back road mountain runs.

 

WELL SAID! i been telling customers this for years.

on a side note I personally have never had a motor that i have rebuilt blow or come back to me and i dont have any clue about the miles on the motors but i been rebuilding rotarys for many many years as i dont rebuild a motor unless its done my way.

 

My fd is completely stock except for a catback exhaust lol. It's at 120k miles no rebuild original motor. Still runs strong.

 

Someone is going to be rebuilding soon, but this is your mileage leader right here.

As it has been said in the past, the rotary does not handle shortcuts in rebuilds our maintenance well. It will punish your wallet if you skip on these items.

I have 850 on my fresh rebuild, cannot wait till I can pour the coals to it.

 

i have about 15,000 miles on my motor runs strong and starts every time. as stated its all about doing things right the first time, take the cheap route and you will have a pile of bills in front of you. with my car i just bought a Meth kit and a few more mods, making big power in these cars is all about reaching your limit but also leaving some play room if things go wrong. for example maxing out a fuel pump or injectors while making big power is not good, its better to have some cushion room if the car were to have problem. but i have seen high power rotary's run for a ton of miles as long as they are taken care of and properly maintained and modded, and for the same ive seen people dump thousands into RX-7's only to blow the motor soon after due to cheaping out of some much needed items or poor care and knowledge.

 

500,000 km's on my chassis, I've rebuilt it the first year I owned it. . .been going strong for 3 years. . .going to see what I'll get with 30psi+

Another engine is in the werks. . .

 

holy mother of miles, thats 300,000 miles where the hell do you drive lol.

 

the fuel system and cooling system maintenance are the most critical aspects to these motors.

sometimes things just happen and there is no avoiding it unless you spend time to constantly check things over. but the best example i can offer at the 450+WHP range is one of my customers who put a little over 30k on his engine which dynoed at 449WHP@17psi, street driven but he doesn't baby his car at all and does canyon runs every weekend up hills, around twisties, very similar to a closed circuit track. the engine did die due to a semi fouled secondary fuel injector which was diagnosed by sending the injectors out to be flow tested and cleaned and the results came back conclusive.

when i pulled his motor apart there was no major wear and it could have gone another 50k+ miles with a full bridge ported engine. with the new motor i have opted away from the OEM fragile seals, even though it was on 3mm i went with a more durable apex seal and pinned the motor. one rotor and housing were taken out by the OEM seals so with higher horsepower builds i am opting away from using OE seals anymore(will do the same with less power but OEM seals eat a rotor/housing 90% of the time and cannot handle even light hiccups with the fuel system or tune).

of course i could have tuned the engine more conservatively but with water injection you can't go too conservative.

anyways, in part due to that i plan on putting together my own injector flow bench as there is no injector service shops in this town of over 1 million people... closest we have 1 (one!)diesel injection shop that can do gasoline injectors and they do not give me any flow #'s which is worthless to inducted engines which need to have tight tolerances.

 

Congratulations on the mileage. What are your driving habits? I really didn't beat on mine too much. You can save yourself some money if you go ahead and refresh it now. When I opened up my 108k block, the undamaged housing was nearly perfect and had really no flaking on the edges. I used it in another customers rebuild. Side plates step wear was perfect also. If the 3 piece apex seals didn't get so brittle with mileage and age, the engine itself could easily go 200k before you would start to see excessive wear.

 

I send my injectors to Witchhunter. They do a fantastic job.

 

I bought my car with a mazda reman engine in it, idk how long the engines been in there but ive drivin over 20000 miles in the past 2 years as my FD is my daily and still starts like a charm everyday, no burning coolant or overheating issues.. not to mention, still hauls a$$ like the 1st day picked her up. =]

 

i took care of both these. engine never overheated. all fuel clips were snuggly fit together, afr was good(10:1, even with variation, i doubt the front rotor saw any less than 11.8 to even detonate). still two of the front seals gave up. looks like one came out from its groove and the other one took the impact of a seal hitting it.

for me im personally tired of replacing chras, and engines. even if i did a proper rebuild, id be spending well around 3k to do it myself properly plus 500 to replace the the turbine. i could fully build a piston engine which is much less complex and doesnt eat turbines for less. however the piston engine lacks the beauty of a rotary, the smooth powerband, and revving. that makes me very sad to leave the rotary behind

 

81,000 miles,pfc,catback,greddy fmic,stock boost and I beat on her every time I take her out ...hey goodfellafd3s what's the name of your shop and location plz.

 

some people just have bad luck with force inducted engines, i still say a 3 rotor naturally aspirated makes plenty of power and sounds better than a V8.

could easily outlast a V8 too, but at the cost of fuel mileage.

 

N/A 20B easily beats a V8 in Smiles per gallon!!! All hands down!

Oh, you said miles per gallon....

 

Car was imported to Canada from California a few years back. . .I bought it with just over 300,000 miles on it. . .still looks good except for some cosmetic damage on the rr fender. . .

3 years going on this engine, streetport with twins @ ~16psi. . .runs like a dream and excellent mileage as well. . .until i get to the track. . .

 

AGRESSIVE street port making 713hp. on E85. Daily Drive as this is my only car for now

2 years so far with no problems


like goodfella said. You cannot cut any corners with these cars, the littleist thing missed will cause you to blow your motor.....