Well crap.

Went to start the car, it took FOREVER to get it to fire, and when it did start it spat coolant and nasty white smoke out the exhaust.

****.....

The bitch of it all is.....I am in the armpit of hell here in Wichita, KS.

Do I DARE just take it to the dealer and say, "put in a new engine"? I know these guys, they have treated me well in the past, but do I trust them to fix it right?
I dunno.
At least it would be close, and would be much easier to deal with any lingering warranty issues if any.

Where the hell ARE the 'good' trusted rotary specialists at, geographically speaking?

 

Sorry to hear that. Honestly, your best bet is to take it to a RX7 specialist. When the dealership replaced my engine under warranty (and when I did not know any better), they did a shoddy job. An example - they broke the nipple off of one of the vacume/pressure tanks, and SUPERGLUED it back on. WHen I was having my auto tranny swapped out for a manual, the performance shop found two bolts - holding the bellhousing to the rear engine housing - missing, with a third coming lose. If it had waited another few thousand miles to do my tranny swap, I would have likely dropped my tranny somewhere on the road.

You've got Rotary Performance www.rx7.com just south of you, and MZM Performance www.mzmperformance.com a little further south.

RP's work speaks for themselves, and I have found MZM (they did my tranny conversion and Apexi single turbo) to be an excellent, affordable alternative. Don Marvel is also in Dallas too, and I've heard his work is first rate.

It a pain to have to go so far, but if you don't have anyone local and you really like your 7, I'd honestly put in the effort to make sure it's done right. I live in Houston, and so far have taken it to Austin for the tranny and single turbo, and will be taking it to Dallas later this month for custom body work.

I took a bus back and forth, but you should be able to find very cheap air fares thru SouthWest Airlines/etc if you plan early enough.

Best of luck.

 

Here's what everyone told me when mine blew up at 98K: You lost your virginity!

Anyways, it sucks. I second all of dclin's choices. I have been lucky enough to meet all those named and have nothing but nice things to say about each of them. For you, it may just come down to whose schedule is open first.

 

i feel your pain, mine died over the weekend. just gotta suck it up. don't go to the dealer!

 

Sorry to hear that. ...look for the silver lining...

 

I'm doing mine in my garage but if you dont want to take on the task, take it to texas

 

I don't mind pulling the engine and sending it somewhere, I have pulled a LOT of engines in lots of different cars in my life. I just wonder if these places warranty the engines if they don't put them in?

Man, this sucks....my car was running SO good to.....
I know I jinxed myself with recent posts, saying **** about how automatic trannied cars like mine would likely live longer, etc. and NOT giving the intended sacrifice to the Rotary Gods......

Oh well, it will be back better than ever some day, maybe I can crack that magic 160 mph number with a new engine!

I wonder how hard this would be to do by myself? Since the bitch....er, since my ex is gone, and my best friend has hurt his back, my helper options are limited.
The way I see it though is that the money saved by taking it out and installing it myself could go towards wheels or something....
But then again, it WOULD be nice to drop off a broken car and pick up a working car.....hmmmmmmm, decisions, decisions......

 

Pineappleracing

A first rate engine builder and Rob Golden of Pineapple gives you a warranty. Check out his website

 

Oh no!! The cup holder's gone?


j/k

At any rate where is Alabama to you? I'm bad with geography, if they're not to far then I think I'd also check out BNR Supercars and Bryan over there seems to know his stuff. I'd check as many options as you can to see when's the soonest you can get it in and done, and check prices as well. If they're too far then definately check out Dclin's reccomendations.

 

Also check out Pineapple racing as well if you plan to pull the motor and send it away. If you do that then you have a ton of great choices.

 

Removing the engine is a one man job. Installing the engine is a two man job.

 

My deepest condolences...

Good luck...

 

While I'm not sure about where you should take it in specific, I can say that I've had the chance to talk with Ari Yallon at Rotary Performance in Garland, TX, I believe it is, and he was a very cool guy. I called RP on the phone wanting answers to some questions that I had and he offered quite a few solutions over the 15 or so minutes we talked. Ari also exchanged an AST that I thought to be defective 6 months after I had purchased it (hadn't put it on yet).I'm not sure if he actually works on the cars himself, but their customer service has been great from what I have experienced. Good luck.

Kyle

 

i've decided to do mine myself. just ordered the videos from bruce. real nice guy - i'll post what i think of the videos after i watch them

 

Didn't you just post saying how you just beat the **** out of the car? Oh well, time for some porting

-pete

 

I agree with that one. You don't need a second person until you drop the motor/tranny back in. And by all means pull the motor with the tranny; piece of cake if you've done motors before. I was suprised how quickly the motor came out.

 

Try and keep it running as long as possible. Use that copper weld stuff in the coolant. It has band-aided a few woorst scenerio's if you just can't say bye yet.

 

I think I am about to loose my virginity too will be taking it to RP in TX...good luck dude...

 

Anyone remember the link to that copper-weld stuff?

 

it is? then there are a few of us who are going to have to change the number of dependants on our taxes...

 

bajaman:
If you have no qualms about doing the R&R yourself the I second PINEAPPLE Racing as the first choice for a Rebuild - The only place I know of that will build you a streetported 13b w/ a FIVE year warranty!

I wish I had know about them when I had my rebuild done.

 

I don't understand this, how can engine go from being good to bad over night. Is there some percotions that need to be taken in order to avoid this?
I have 68k on my original engine and the turbos were rebuilt. Is there anything i should do this so that i don't wake up one morning and i can't start it?

Thanks

 

It seems that the 80K mark is about the usual mileage where coolant seal problems start to take place.
I possibly exacerbated a beginning problem by all the uh..."spirited" driving I was doing. I was doing a LOT of long smoky burnouts, lots of on-the-gas-off-the-gas running, putting HUGE thermal loads into an engine that was likely marginal on a seal. I HAD been experiencing some strange coolant problems for about a month or so, I thought that a leaky cap was causing my problems, turns out different, eh?

Oh well, I figure to put $3K to $5K in this thing, and it SHOULD be good for another 80K miles, which would be about 10 years in my driving of the car. Not a bad cost-out, in my opinion.
(thank goodness for my 3rd gen 'slush-fund' I kept back!)

 

I wonder how easy it wil be to find 13B rebuilders 10 years from now... and how much it will cost?

 

My guess is that there will be a few VERY busy folks!
Let's face it, these cars will be around for a LONG time, as long as there are parts, and providers of services like rebuilding.
The RX-8 and the Renesis will hopefully bring a renewed interest in the rotary engined cars in general.
I predict that someone at some point will figure out a good Renesis-to-FD swap. And if, as we speculate, there eventually IS a Turbo Renesis, the likelyhood of a conversion becomes even more possible.
The 13BREW is not a ticking timebomb of a motor, now that we know what we know, HOWEVER.....no one can say that it is the most reliable engine ever made either.