Im so upset. I waited for a whole year to save enough money to get all the neccessary parts to do an engine swap with a reman and to get some safe mods put it. Gave this guy that works for Mazda my car for a month and a half, just got it back three days ago. Saw an oil spot under the car after the first night. So I called him and told him about it and he said its probly some spilt excess oil. I cleaned it all up from under the car and now its still leaking!!!!! I dont know whats worst the fact that i gave him lots of money, or the fact that when i give the car back to him it might be weeks before I see it back. F#%&#%#&k

Im just venting. Does anyone feel the pain.....

 

Could you take some pics of where the oil is leaking from?

 

Uhm, dude...oilpan leaks on FDs are common. Even if you know what you are doing and take every precaution to prevent oilpan leaks, the design is so poor that they are likely to happen anyway. About 25% of the pans I seal leak within 3 months of startup. And I take plenty of precautions. I try to straighten the thin stock flange out as best as possible. I clean the block and pan with a wire cup brush on an angle grinder to bare metal. I clean both surfaces with a clean towel and brake cleaner and let dry. I install the pan on the engine from the bottom so that I dont have to flip the pan over and let residual cleaner or oil run down and contaminate the clean surface.

Still some of them leak.

It's not just me either...most every FD owner has an oil leak to some degree, unless theyve spent money on the $500 aftermarket oil pans. I have even heard that they leak slightly under some conditions. This is a design flaw. The entire weight of the engine AND transmission rest on the motor mounts, which bolt THROUGH the oilpan. Each time the engine accelerates or decelerates the weight and torque generated shifts and the soft seal between the pan and block gets compressed or puilled apart. It doesnt take a rocket scientist to figure out why the seal eventually breaks loose and leaks.

The best luck I've had is using a paper gasket with a thin layer of ultra black on each side, installed as described above.

 

a slight oil leak is nothing to fly off the handle about.Just keep an eye on it and if it gets worse have the guy check it out.

 

I saw a mod where you put in a flat baffle plate w/ some holes for the FC oilpan. Then you use 2 gaskets with gasket sealer. Wouldn't this pretty much stop the leak 99%? Or would it not realy matter? RR, we need you advice again.

Like this: http://www.atkinsrotary.com/store/cu...cat=437&page=1

 

Baffle plates have nothing to do with oilpan sealing...in fact the added complexity of 2 more surfaces to slide makes it more likely to cause a leak.

The plates are used to keep oil around the pickup tube when accelerating/decelerating/turning side to side, rather than letting it slosh up and down and potentially causing lack of pickup.

FD oilpans already have baffles in them. In fact they are more like 2 big tanks. I am not sure I understand the thinking behind the tanks with the small openings for oil to flow in and out of. When you drain an FD oilpan the tanks still retain LOTS of oil, and combined with the oil coolers and the insides of the engine rotors you're only changing about 75% of the engine's oil. It kinda sucks. If I had my way I would have the baffle plates with no tanks built in so that it keeps oil from sloshing around so much.

 

Sorry not feeling it. (the pain)

 

oil pan brace?

jason (rx7store) just stocked garfinkle's brace, jump on it

 

This is the way it is supposed to be done in the first place...Tells you this in the shop manuel.

 

Yes, but there are several other methods that various builders and owners swear by. I was just stating which one works best for me.

The manual is not the end-all of working on rotaries, either. Besides...the factory didn't send the engine out with a gasket, so whether or not the manual says it should be there, I don't put 100% faith in that. Also, this is the same factory that came up with such ingenious devices as the stock precat, the plastic AST, and the 70-some odd vacuum hoses on top of one of the hottest production engine bays in the world...so you'll forgive me if I don't bow at the mere mention of the factory's service manual.

 

well i took the car into my buddies garage and check the torque specks. The guy had them somewhat like hand tight, and then one of the bolts just spins never get tight, so im thinking he stripped the block. Im taken it back on monday. I dont know what he is going to do if he stipped the block.

 

Dude.....relax!! ..... I know what it is like to save money and have great expectations of everything being just how you imagined...

If the bolt is stripped then he can drill and tap it. We are talking about an oil pan leak not a seized apex seal.

 

Check out the oil pan brace made by David Garfinkle. I just put one one today after receiving my engine back from a rebuild. It started to leak about 3 months after the rebuild as Kevin stated. I hope this works. Others swear by it.

 

Yes, I must say I agree with you! I did not have my car brand new and was unaware that they did not have a gasket on from the factory. It's pretty funny that they tell you to put one on in the manual. I guess they figured there was a problem and decided to throw a gasket at it. I figure they did'nt want to deal with coming up with a new location for the engine mounts...Let the dealerships deal with the problem!
You know, dealerships don't make their money selling cars...Parts and service, baby! The manufacturers set it up for something (s) to break... Throw another part at it!!

 

You do realize that the torque specs on the oilpan are almost hand tight...right? 100 in-lbs of torque is not much at all. With a standard ratchet and socket, that's about snug plus 1/8 turn. The motor mounts are like 55ft-lb, which is considerably tighter, but still not bust-*** tight.

Now think about this...the rear of the pan, where leaks occur, gets torqued to about 10 times what the front and sides do. Combine this with the above mentioned weight/torqing back and forth issues and you'll see where there's not really a fix for this.

The braces don't really help that much in my experience. For one, they are a BITCH to install if the engine is in the car. Bear in mind that 10mm thick brace raises the motor up 10mm. IT also takes away 10mm of clearance when trying to bolt up the motor mounts, making it almost impossible to install the motormount bolts without dropping the subframe...something I have no trouble doing with a stock pan. The old style braces also put more force on the center of the pan where the depressed bead is, which just serves to warp it in different ways than it already is. I think garfinkle's brace might have engineered for this, though.

They also raise the motor up 10mm, changing alignment of intake, exhaust, coolant hoses, IC piping, and driveshaft angle. Most of the time it's no problem, but these are still worth mentioning.

Same goes for those full aftermarket oilpans with the 10mm flange cast into them.

 

"Te ahogas en un vaso de agua" literal translation: you are drowning in a glass of water.

Relax. Both of your problems are fixable at no cost to you. For future reference when you have an engine built/installed or have any major work done on your car expect SOME bugs to surface. As long as your mechanic is willing to fix it you're okay.

It's actually unreasonable for you to expect everything to be hunkydori at this point in time. Now if you continue to have problems after you've taken it back, then get upset.

 

well ive been trying to get a hold of him so that he can take care of the problem, but he hasn't answered yet. So hopefully he will stand by his work and take care of the problem.
thanks

 

actually bro: When I first did my rebuild I had this annoying *** oil leak coming from my oil pan. My mechanic kept trying to fix it and he would, but after a very short time (days) the damn thing would leak again.

Finally he showed me exactly what was the deal meaning that he showed me how it goes on and the condition of my pan. At that point we both agreed that if I purchased a brand new one the leak would stop. $70 later no more leak .