rear rotor: 120 120 120
front rotor: 120 90 90

F*ck. Waited 5 years for this day, broke it in according to directions. Never boosted past 4 psi by accident. Reached above positive boost maybe 15 times over the past year putting the 1127 break in miles thus far under Minimal Load (mostly occured by accident). Never revved past 4000 during break in, except an occasional ~4800rpm burst by accident due to pissed off lawn mowing proffessionals riding my *** in Ford F-10000050's at 45 MPH. Never Abused-for Chrissakes, I'd been saving forever and I was breaking it in like it was my 3rd engine and didnt want it to blow (other 2 engine were used and ****)(go figure)..

It was a stage 3 streetport motor, ceramic coated rotors, 2mm sodium-nitrate coated seals...I thought this was the end of my woes.

Anyhoo, I am drinking right now and the buzz has taken the edge off of my totally dashed dreams of finally owning the car I wanted when I bought her 5 years ago...

Strange thing is that she always purred at 750rpms after the intial break-in. I know I have a competant base map, same as my last map for the EXACT same setup just a different motor. Not like I was running it hard regardless (read above). Wideband was good.

Only 2 things I can think of that could be the error. 1, the injectors not working correctly? Me and a buddy checked this out and it seemed not to be the problem. 2, Bruce told me not to take it over 4k for the first 1000 miles, and I didnt (atleast not enough to do damage-especially considering I was not under any loads), but it is a dog under 4k rpms? As soon as it hits 3500+ to the upper 4000's it would just spin up like a good NA motor. Of course I shifted soon after. Maybe I was putting too much load on the motor because of the aggressive port? ( He smiled as he gave me the motor-said it was one of the largest non-half bridge ports he's done).

I know he is badass at motors, I am very familiar with his work living in Raleigh NC. F*ck.

I am sure it has something to do with me, although ever since taking it off the jack stands after the first initial warmups, it has been blowing through spark plugs on the front rotor every 100 miles. I thought that might be due to the base map/premix/who knows. I read it was not uncommon to be doing, especially with a map not perfectly tuned to the exact motor.

Anyways, sorry to give you all the green smiley face of happiness at the thread title, and then have you have to deal with this ****. Its depressing isnt it? Yeah, me too.

Its for sale in the 3rd gen classifieds. That motor encompassed every single last penny I could scrape together in hopes of not having this **** happen for atleast 50k miles. Maybe after I am back from vet school I can buy another one, assuming I dont get married in the next 4 years. Depressing. I guess I deserve it for helping a friend put an LS1 into his FD.

40oz of miller high life. Your my only friend now......................................

 

Im sorry man that trully blows. Its a kind of the life of us rotary owners doing everything we cant not to break the motor, and no matter how hard we try it will pop out of no were for no reason. Again very sorry man I feel your pain good luck in vet school.

 

maybe a stuck apex seal/corner seal?

 

What vacuum at what idle rpm? Is it idling like it's blown/has a chipped seal?

 

1,000 miles, and was eating plugs from the get-go? Take it back and ask for a tear down. Sounds like an assembly issue.

 

Vacuum at idle averaged around -17 but got as low as -11. depended on the humidity and spark plug change. If I put new plugs in it right now it drives like a million bucks, but sure enough (this distance has been decreasing constantly over the last 500 miles) it gets shity after like 70 miles right now.....

 

This was my 3rd engine. I know how rotarys feel, and how they love to be felt. It just boggles my mind to think I fucked it up.

 

well i got my rebuild done at pettit and like professionals they warranty their ****. you should talk to the shop. you should've at least gone with 3mm seals

 

Even Petitt is not going to honor a warranty if the ECU wasn't properly tuned for the motor. No builder will.

 

Im not going to tell you what to do but it sounds like the tune is off and maybe is preventing it from sealing properly. On my new motor, i heat cycled about 8 times put it on the dyno and hit 420 at 16 lbs. Put about 800 miles on it and went to the track turned it up to 20 lbs and went tens. Its been doing well and caused me no problems. Im not saying thats the right thing to do but i wont live in fear of blowing a motor. Im going to enjoy my car or theres no need in me having it. If it was mine i would change plugs get it tunned by a pro and blow the cobb weebs out of it, ceramic coated rotors run cooler and may need to breath a little. Any way good luck with what ever you do.

 

You know, this is going to add fuel to the fire, but I don't care.

A lot of you guys like Rynberg etc. go around on this forum spouting off that "you get what you pay for" and how some builders are gods while others build from scrap parts laying on the floor.

As some of you may know, I work more on the budget end of things while still maintaining great quality and reliability, based on the customers budget and the goals for the setup. I help a lot of people this way, but I take a lot of **** talking from some of the rich guys on here who actually think anything less than 4g's for an engine block is a steaming pile of crap.

I have been able to have success doing things the way I do, reusing what some others would want to replace as a matter of course. I have as good a reputation from the standpoint of failures as any other builder I'm aware of, though of course I would not claim to be better than, or know more than, any particular other builder, especially those with lots more experience in building and racing.

My stance has always been that the SETUP is more important than how the engine block itself is put together. Sure, the engine has to be done meticulously to hold up. But, you can take a bone stock engine in good health and make 600rwhp out of it if the SETUP is perfect, and by the same token you can take a 6 thousand dollar fully modded engine and screw it up at stock power levels if the SETUP is imperfect. Turbo rotaries are very finicky with regard to the setup and tuning, so it doesnt take much for damage to occur. Or, in other words, it's more likely that you'll tear one up than not.

So, if you stand back and think about it, it makes less sense to put a ton of money into an intricate engine build and hope it lasts forever, than to put less money into a standard build and be prepared to go back through it in 2-3 years. IF you break it due to a mistake, then you won't feel so bad, and you won't be out so much money. You can still build 2 more and be ahead of where you would have been if you had built that one really bad *** one earlier. Odds are, if you did something to damage the standard engine, the high dollar one would have broken too.

IN the case of the OP, he clearly states that he dumped ALL of his money into the engine build. Now, he is trying to sell the engine and do a swap, or he may even sell the car (this happens often, too).

Now, ask yourself...would it have been better for him to pay 1500 bucks for a budget engine? Let's say the budget engine is not 100% perfect. Let's say it "only" makes 110psi compression. Big deal! It'll run for 3 or 4 good years unless it breaks from too much timing or too much boost. Let's say that whatever happened to this big time engine of his, happened to the budget engine? Well, he wouldn't feel nearly so bad, and in fact he could ride on it until it actually broke and wouldn't run well enough to drive anymore. Then he could build 1 or 2 more and still be ahead of where he is now.

Instead, we're about to lose a rotary brother to an engine swap, or possibly he might sell the car altogether because of the high cost of this engine "built the right way" that failed just as soon as a 1000 dollar engine might have.

Rynberg and all you other high dollar, new rotorhousing engine sackriders, before you go spouting off the next time on the forum about "doing it right" and "getting what you pay for" come and talk to this guy.

To the OP, good luck with your saga. I would try to see about warranty for the engine. If you decide to go the rotary route once more, I'd love to help you out while not breaking the bank. It's possible you have a minimal issue that could be solved for just a few hundred dollars. Never know until you look inside.

 

^^^^

Before we delve into who builds what and why, the OP might want to CALL his engine builder. I'm not sure what "wideband was good" means, but it would seem to indicate that tuning/setup was OK. Sounds like it had a stuck/bad seal from the get-go the way it ate plugs.

 

i'm with landers.

original poster: i have been in your shoes before, buddy. in fact, i think i kept kevin landers in business one year back when i had my FC if i had spent 3500 bucks on an engine i would have been much worse off.

 

What he spent on the motor has absolutely nothing to do with anything if the motor was FUBAR from day 1. If the fronts have been fouling since the day it came off the jack stands its a build issue and that motor should have gone back immediately.

How long has the motor been in? If it took 5 years to break it in I would have to imagine its not going to be easy getting him to warranty anything.

 

You guys have it so easy...a bugdet rebuild this side is £3500 / $7000 + porting...

My 2p would be check with the builder and see what the score is...its the only way

BTW what are those measurements in on the comp test...as in what units?

 

Got you beat, i think i only had ~600 miles on my motor when i ran a 10. :


And to the thread creator. I doubt your break-in procedures had anything to do with the problems you are encountering.

 

you may want to go get a 6 pack so you would have more friends. hahahahah
jk

 

Thanks zinx! Thats what i was trying to tell the op its not the break in.

 

They're in psi.

 

Thats what I was thinking....... My streetported rebuild with uprated clutch from one of the top builders in the UK has just set me back £4900 which is about $9800. Which wasnt the most expensive either when I was initially pricing it up.

Granted it took me a year to get the funds together, but imagine the motor I could have had for that if I lived in the states.

 

^ damn, you guys get raped over there...

 

Oh believe me my pants are still round my ankles!

 

Well I am selling her. If any one wants her she is only 6500$ obo. I bet if you took the motor out and brought it to bruce and it turns out it was his fault originally you could probably get a free motor out of it. I have given up. Too many parts to list, definitely worth more in parts than what I am asking. will be posted in the classifieds section.

 

sounds like a stuck side seal to me.

 

If it's a stuck side seal, run about a gallon of distilled water through the engine (from one of the UIM nipples on the pass side) while a buddy keeps the engine rev'ed to 3000 ish.