craigny1

The company I work for also owns a Mazda dealership. I called the parts department today and they said they could get me a remanufactured motor for 1980 plus my core. I was going to rebuild mine by my self. now I am not sure if I should.. What do you guys think.

Craig K
www.drivinhard.com

Mahjik

iTrader: (1)

If you have the time, tools and knowledge then I would say do it yourself. That way you'll make sure everything that needs to be replaced is replaced.

FYI, I'm using a Mazda reman. It's been in the car about 5 years with around 25k miles on it. No problems yet.

craigny1

What special tools do you need to rebuild a rotary?
Is it really that much different from building any other motor. Excuse my ingnorance. I have built a few v8's but this is my first Rotaty..... If I do the rebuild myself what am I looking at money wise?

jpandes

I've done tons of research on getting a rebuilt motor since I had to have mine done three months ago. Here's what I found:

The general consensus is that its a CRAP SHOOT when you buy Mazda Reman. Motor. Some guys get a good one and have no issues. Some guys like ErnieT are running 10's on a Reman with a big single. Most people have bad experences with them. My last Mazda Reman lasted 45k miles before developing a front cover leak(a $1200 repair job). I've called all the CA BayArea Rotary Shops and NONE will order a Mazda Reman to install in any of their customer cars. They end up having a lot of them return with issues.

I ended up buying a Mazda Reman. motor for $2,195 and had it shipped to Pineappleracing.com too be torn down, ported, Stage 2 Oil mods and got upgraded Coolants seals for $1,400 including 3 gals of Evans Coolant and shipping.

The guys at Pineapple said that the bearings used in my reman were shot and had to be replaced along with an engine cover that was grooved.

turbojeff

iTrader: (30)

None of the shops will use Mazda remans because they make more $$ selling their own motors.

Most people have had bad experiences with them? REally, be fair. Most people? Show me the stats.

People around here are plain old SCARED to talk about bad experiences with some rebuilders while other's bad experiences with some rebuilders are perpetuated beyond belief. I know someone that blew TWO Atkins rebuilds because the fuel pump voltage was too low. They blamed Atkins, turns out it wasn't thier fault.

Some problems become "urban legend". I've bought a few Mazda remans, one one had used housings, the rest were new.

Front covers develop leaks, so do oil pans. I bet if people were honest you'd find that engines from many rebuilders to the same. Same goes with factory original motors to that were assembled NEW.

Everyone should have a temp guage, the T-stats seem to fail often, the stock guage doesn't really show a mildly overheating car.

Jeff
Works on FDs quite a bit...

sirjury

if you have not rebuilt a rotary before dont start with an fd engine. they are a fairly simple motor to build but you really need to know all the tricks/things to look for.
personal experience
i have built 10 n/a motors and one fd. i ended up spending 1600 on parts from mazda comp to build the motor. if i had known i could have bought a built motor from mazda for 300 more i would have gladly done it. as far as remans i have heard many stories both ways. i work at a race school that has 22 rotary powered race cars. of the 14 motors we bought in the last two years we had one failure. our previous engine builder had a failure rate of one in three. so yes i think the remans are pretty good. every motor so far has had new rotor housings and apex seals. and yes every rotary ever will leak from the front cover and/or the oil pan at some point. having said all that i would recommend pinneaple. i have heard nothing but rave reviews about them and you can have your motor built exactly the way you want it