Video: 13B Rotary Engine Rebuild
 

As part of my '76 Cosmo project, I just built a 6 port 13B NA engine and posted the entire process to YouTube. I then realized that the video applies to basically all 12A and 13B rotary engines, so I'm going to also post the video in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd gen forums for anyone who is building a rotary.

If you've never built an engine, or are just about to, then you want to watch this video. Covered is the entire build process of a 13B rotary including: measuring rotors, clearancing side seals, assembling all rotor seals, assembling the short block, setting eccentric shaft end play, assembling the "under the front cover" stuff and finally installing the front cover as well as torquing the front hub bolt. As far as I know, this is the only full process free rotary rebuild video out there. This video, combined with the Haynes/FSM manuals, should enable anyone to be confident in putting together their first engine. While the engine shown in this video is a hybrid engine made from both RX-5 Cosmo and GSL-SE parts, the steps covered are the same for any Mazda rotary from 12A to 13B-REW.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijJeUk_GqiI

Enjoy!

Incidentally, this is my first ever post to the 3rd gen forum. Yay for me. :)

Wow, thank you for putting in the time to share the process with us.

You're really doing the lords work :)

Learned a lot just from watching this... there is a substantial amount of useful information that people can use if they decide to attempt a rebuild themselves. thanks for the time and effort put into this video!

Yes, thanks for this. Watched the entire thing and all of was useful. Awesome work! And I am enjoying your video build thread too.

love it!! great job and keep up the good work.

27:15 "Never have too much lube..." :icon_tup::icon_tup:

Great post! and perfect timing for me, Just pulled my engine (for the first time) today!

Great video. Mildy funny part when you are torquing the bolts near the 41 min mark. Cool, Bitchen, sweet, wicked, something awesome, orgasmic, woops!

lol

best video iv seen! THANKs.

Great video!!!!
Thanks Aaron

"Crotch grabbingly awesome".

AWESOME video!!! You make it look extremely easy. One question though. I got tough to put the Apex seals while the rotors where out and use a rubber band to keep them in place. Then install the housing first then the rotor. Once the rotor is half way in you can remove the rubber band. The reason I say this is because I was told that jamming the springs in have the potential to bending them. Is there anything wrong with this method?

Thanks for the vid. I saved it to my pc for future reference :)

Definitively AWESOME!!!!

Thanks Aaron.

awesome, thank you for posting this.

thanks for making the video. Very informative.

great video, watched the whole thing :). your comments when it comes to use vaseline are funny.

great video, thank you.

huge help thank you sir

Great video! Good on you sir ;-) Here is what we did to help with grinding down the side seals...

We decided to use a junk rotor to act as our jig for grinding down the side seals. This is pretty ideal considering it doesn't allow movement side to side (potentially breaking).
Attachment 722980

We then milled down a side of the face to allow the seal to be grabbed and pushed along it's intended location as a guide/rail.
Attachment 722981
Attachment 722982
Attachment 722983

One corner was left untouched for about 3/4 of an inch and then stepped to allow the seal to be pushed down fully with one hand and guided by the other. Once the rotor was milled then it was placed in the drill press and a circular grinding stone was installed, guided inside the corner seal bore and locked into position.

Attachment 722984
Attachment 722985

You can see the seal sitting and the rear is exposed so it can be pushed along
Attachment 722986

Everyone does things different, we just decided to give this a shot. And remember, no good rotors were harmed in the making of this jig :-)

I've seen people use the rubber band method before but it looked very awkward to me. I've always just pushed the springs in afterwards which I believe is the FSM method (and I originally saw it on the Bruce Torrentine rebuild video). It looks like it would be very hard to bend the spring. Interestingly, it only seems difficult to push the springs down when using Atkins apex seals with the springs supplied in the Atkins kit. I wonder if the springs are non-OEM? If the rubber bands work for you then keep it up. Everyone has different methods.

Vaseline cannot be used in a shop without comments. I think it's in the lease agreement.

Yeah, I've been thinking of making one of those but I just don't build engines often enough to make it worth the trouble. Having always clearanced by hand it's not too hard to keep the angle correct.

That makes sense, i'd be in the same boat too if I was in your shoes... It really didn't take much time to mill it down, of course my buddy is experienced on the mill and made it look easy.

wow. really amazing.

I never really had a sense of what this took until now. Now that I see it, I know I can do it!

w00t to you sir!

The video is pretty awesome, thanks

I agree, thanks for making that video. Excellent stuff.
You are truly an asset to the rotary community and we appreciate it.
:icon_tup::nod:

Another great video! I'm a first time engine builder, but not mechanically stupid. I work on multi-million dollar aircraft as my job. Anyways...one question as I have mine apart waiting to get my rebuild kit here. I was wondering if the side seals and/or the corner seals can be reused if they still meet the clearance check at the corner seals? The reason I'm rebuilding the engine is there was some oil smoke that wouldn't go away when the car was up to temp and the exhaust smelled really rich. I did a compression check, which was 80 psi on both the front and rear using the 3 bounce per rotor check. I've cleaned up the engine plates, housings, and rotors. I still need to do some housing and plate measurements. I don't have any gouges in them, but I'm still going to dial gauge them to make sure they are still within limits. Thanks for any replies!