Stevey629

ok, I am on the brink of getting started on rebuilding my motor, and was wondering what prices any of you guys have paid as far as a basic rebuild, or any other things like any type of porting, either for coolant passages or intake and exhaust ports, etc...any suggestions on what I should or shouldnt do are also very welcome, as I want to know what the best path or route to take to getting the motor running, and running healthy.

I was also wondering if it was beneficial to have certain things done to the motor that would help increase engine life. I understand that many factors go into making the motor last longer, for example how hard u drive it or how much you boost, etc. A mild street port is something that I was considering, but again, I have no idea how much this affects engine life. I do want to make some extra power, but nothing extreme. I would much rather have a motor that would last longer and put out a bit less power. And lastly and most importantly, I need to get price ranges for a lot of these items, because as for most of us, rebuilding isn't exactly paid for by finding change in the couch. Thx for the help.

Stevey629

bump ^

Stevey629

so I'm the first person to try to get prices for rebuilds? cuz no one seems to be answering.

spurvo

I spoke with Rob at Pineapple on Fri. 5 year warantee on parts & labor (but not tuneing f'ups!) for a rebuild of your motor with brand new housings and cryo treated oil components = $2695

Malloy Mazda reman = $1990, with another $1000 should you choose to keep your engine

Pineapple will crack open a reman ($160 in shipping), check out everything inside (search for reman horror stories), get it all up to 5 year warantee status for $600 - $900, depending on the condition of the reman. And you get to keep driving your car until the two weeks are up for the race shop to finish. And you can probably just run a u haul to pick the thing up.

There's more to this little story, like gasket kits and the stuff you need that the gasket kit does not contain. You also want to replace some of the fuel system stuff (FPD, O-rings, injector clean, yadda) and maybe the ECU harness if yours is as toasted as mine. Probably $1000 to $1500, but I'm speaking out of my *** here (typing with my shorthairs?). Ray has an email from me for cost on the above errata, and since this is the route I'm taking, I'll post part numbers and cost when I know this stuff.

This help? Mazdatrix is at around $4130 for their C level rebuild, and $6145 for essentially brand new engine. That's all I know, other than Rob from Pineapple is a delight to talk to. So is Ray.He actually went and got shipping quotes to send the reman to Portland for four different companies. Really good customer service.

Stevey629

thx again for the help spurvo. So do u think that pineapple would be the way to do it? I mean, I still have to find a place around here thats gonna put the motor in for me, but from what it sounds like with the warranty and all, I should go with that, granted I am able to come up with the cash.

I still dont quite get the whole concept of the rebuild from pineapple. First off, isnt that place a bit far from San Diego? I don't have the time for a road trip. Secondly, how is it that I still drive my car for 2 weeks or so before the shop finishes? Im throughly confused, but otherwise, I think I get the idea.

And this whole core thing still confuses me. So what happens is, is that the company that u decide to do a rebuild with orders a new "core" which is essentially just the outer parts of the motor without the internals like the rotors and eccentric correct? From there, they use those to do the porting, lapping, etc, and then use ur old internals and replace seals and gaskets along the way. This is what I understand as far as a basic rebuild goes, so please clear this up in plain english so an idiot like me can understand this. Now I've also heard that a new motor isn't always necessary, and in most cases its just better to bet on the housings being fried anyways without having to take apart the motor and find out, but if the motor is being taken apart anyways to get the the internals, then why replace the outside housings? Again, dont mind a lot of my blabbering, I don't really know what Im talkin about here, which is why I need to fully grasp this simple concept in order to understand this whole deal. Sorry if this may seem like a waste of time to explain to someone like me, but I would really appreciate someone could take the time in pointing me in the right direction with this.

spurvo

This is long!

Not a waste of time at all. I was being a little curt there 'cause I'm not totally thrilled about having to have mine done (blown O-rings).

Ok, first, you could get your engine rebuilt. This means it has to pulled out of the car, torn apart, all old parts examined and replaced if needed, with many being replaced anyway like oil seals. So during that period, of course, the car is inoperable. The thing is, who will you have do the rebuild? The shop that pulls it? This is fine if you are sure they have experience doing it. Do they offer a warantee on their work? Some do, some don't, and some do but you can expect to need to USE that warantee within 10,000 miles. So, I'm chosing Pineapple to perform rebuild work, because they have one of the longest warantees, AND I've read nothing but good about their work on this forum. The other option from having the puller do it is to have the puller send the engine out to be rebuilt.

However, I like driving my car sooo much that I don't really want to pull the engine, ship it down to Portland (or drive it in the back of a pickup), have them pull it apart, rebuild it, and then get it back up here, then put it in. This would all told take at least a month, maybe more. Note that I'm chosing to pull and put it out and in myself, though there is a local shop that does great work on rotaries that could do this for me. Kinda costs, though. Furthermore, I simply don't know the quality of what's in my engine, and I'm not sure I want to use it.

So there is the other option, which is a remanufactured engine from Mazda, specifically Malloy Mazda in Virginia. These are being sold for $2990. These have mostly new parts, though there have been horror stories around this forum of others having their reman fail prety quickly, and there is only a 30 DAY warrantee on these engines. Note that when you swap out your old engine, you will have an extra engine lying around. So you ship it back to Malloy as a "core engine", and they give you $1000 back. So the reman really costs $1990. All that is meant by core is that you send back essentially the same parts that were sent to you, in roughly the same configuration. Further note that the reman comes with front eccentric shaft pully installed, and a "fresh" flywheel, though the flywheel may not be brand new, just re-surfaced. So the bottom line with the remans is that it's a crap shoot. You don't absolutely know the quality of everything in the engine, and 30 days is barely enough time to get the thing in there, let alone determine if some of the tolerances are off by enough to allow failure in say 8,000 miles.

So I'm mixing the two. I'm buying a reman from Maloy for $1990 (Ray is waiving the core charge. He'll charge is to my CC if I don't return the engine within a couple months or so. So I have what's called a delayed core charge, as opposed to an up-front) and having it shipped to Pineapple racing for $160. They will dissasemble it, inspect it more thouroughly than the remanufacturer, replace anything that isn't right, cryo treat the oil system components (basically extends the life of the oil pump) and place their heavy duty housing O-rings in instead of the less strong stock ones, all for $600 to $900. This will warrant the engine against defects and workmanship problems for 5 years, but not against mistakes I might make by improperly tuneing the engine. I'm going to remain stock, though this would be a great time to port the engine if I were so inclined. Then I'm going to drive down to P-land (NOT in the RX, just use a friend's van) and pick up the rebuilt reman and drive north. I'm going to pull the old engine, swap the parts across to the new engine, replace many fuel system components, and drop the new engine in. Hopefully, it won't be tooo terribly hard after that to get it running and off down the road I go. Wish me luck!

So the options are rebuild your engine (at $2695 from Pineapple as stated above, and more from other builders), replace it with a reman, or mix it up. Pineapple's prices seem to be the most reasonable, and they have the best reputation I've seen so far. But you are perfectly right, that's a bit of a haul from Diego. So you might try looking for a shop nearer to you that specializes in rotaries, and is not totally booked, and is willing to pull the engine, rebuild it, put it back in. This may cost from $2500 to $5000 from the posts I've tracked on this forum. I think ArchangelX had this done recently. Or find a shop close to home, have them pull it, get it shipped to a rebuilder, tow your car home (or not, but I HATE having any car of mine in someone elses shop. Too many times have I seen customers' cars in local shops sitting with parts all over them, or worse, parked outside for the month it might take them to get around to doing your car), have the rebuild sent to the shop, tow the car in, and have them put the rebuilt one in. Do a good bit of research on the shop, and call them. If they don't have the time to talk you through their pricing and timing and service and warrantee and so on, don't bother IMO.

That better?

rynberg

There are several places that do good rebuilds in LA. Do a search in the West forum for contact info. A few places would be Mazdatrix and Rotary Racing and Reliability.