wizzbangca

I wouldn't recommend him for long blocks. Definitely won’t go back to rotary resurrection for any work. Not because of the shipping. I can pay for shipping if the work is worth it. For those who don’t want to read a lot, a quick point rundown:

Customer Service: 1 point, A++++++
Shipping: 1, point A+++++
Rebuilt Block: If it works, I give him a point. But I can’t yet, read below.
Engine Paint: 1 point, A+. I don’t care about engine paint for a driver car, but was done pretty good and doesn’t peel or scratch easily.
Cleanliness of Components: They were clean? (only including the engine block in this category) 0 points
Transmission: 1 point, seems to be in good shape.
Drive Shaft: 1 point, a little cleaning and she’s ready to go.
Rear Differential: 1 point, seems to be in good shape.
Half Shafts: 1 point, seems to be in good shape.
Fuel Pump: Don’t know, using a higher flowing pump instead.
Wiring harness: Eh, ok for a turbo. Nah, in good shape for a turbo, but I will still tear the harness down to check the wiring. Can’t leave anything untouched.


Here's why:

Most rotary engines are filthy from leaks, need all the rubber replacing because most owners who aren’t gear heads don’t bother with minor details like vacuum lines, water lines, and cleanliness. However, I expected very different from a reputable so called seasoned rotary buff. Um, I recently changed my mind.

Let’s start with customer service. One of my biggest pet peeves. I can stand bad customer service for any reason. I could be the biggest *******, I still want awesome customer service. Rotary resurrection really shines there. Gave me the time to figure out a shipping company and even really really cooperated with the shipping company. If I could find Rotary Resurrection’s written ordeal, I would post it. Really attests to the fact Rotary Resurrection cares, about shipping anyway.

I bought one of the t2 conversion kits Rotary Resurrection had up for sale back in December. I thought everything was going to be pretty well done since Rotary Resurrection comes highly recommended from many sources. He seems to have plenty of experience. His customer service really stood out very well. I did expect rust on some of the components, after all this kit is coming from back east where rust is prevalent. I am already expecting some work to make the engine worthy of starting, but not a lot. I stopped being worried about what I was getting until….

Then the conversion kit came. My jaw dropped. The long block engine stuff was very very very very very very filthy, and installed on what might be a freshly rebuilt engine. Who puts extremely dirty stuff on a freshly rebuilt engine? Definitely not a good or educated mechanic. Where rotary engines, all engines for that matter, are concerned, cleanliness is godliness. There is absolutely no excuse for the long block stuff being dirty, at all. Even for someone like rotary resurrection who can clean stuff up very easily. That’s assuming he is using a parts cleaning vat. Cleaning up that kind of stuff isn't even a question, that's automatically a requirement for any good mechanic regardless of the kind of job. Complete failure on that! If everything was clean, I would have dropped the engine in without having noticed some of the extra surprises that await me.

Get the engine block in the garage and the crappy long block work keeps on making itself known. First thing I noticed: there's a gasket on the oil pan. What? A gasket, and a crappy one at that? Come on now, rotary resurrection should know better. But, the pan should at least be dry. NOPE!!!!!!! LOOOAAAADDDDED with leaking oil. Not loaded, saturated. Looked at the screws, half of them aren't even tightened down, not even finger tight. By now I'm thinking there will be a bad fuel pressure regulator, bad vacuum lines all around, bad water lines, bad vacuum components, and with my luck bad fuel injectors. At least for now I have to tear the oil pan off, clean off the pan and engine block and properly install the oil pan. Something rotary resurrection should have done right PERIOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now it's time to get the crappy looking intercooler off to see more surprises. Keep in mind, I don't care too much about the intercooler, the fins and faded red lettering can be easily fixed. But, pulling the intercooler off the engine led to my first real shocker. One of the bolts was messed up, but still wrenched into the manifold. What kind of idiot wrenches an easily seen messed up bolt into an intake manifold? Everyone: Rotary Resurrection does, that’s who! Why bother using the bolt if it's messed up? Surprises don't stop there. Now I have all I need to prove the long block build was rushed big time, but wait, the ginshu knives have yet to show up.

I grab my vacuum pump, and no surprises. The fuel pressure regulator doesn't hold vacuum. Rotary Resurrection said that was checked. Checked again, doesn't hold vacuum. Various components of the air control valve actually hold vacuum, that's a surprise for how crappy the air control valve looks. Checked the turbo vacuum components, work excellently. As I am doing all this, the filth gets cleaned up in the areas I am working. The filth was so bad, I couldn't tell vacuum lines from the rats nest. Test the egr valve, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle, the egr works. Wow, that’s a huge surprise and relief. Clean up the egr, make a new gasket, she’s ready for reinstall. What? You were expecting the egr to be clean? In reality, I didn’t either. It’s not an area that needs to be cleaned when putting the manifold back on if the area isn’t all that filthy. That’s what I consider to be a nicety and not counted against rotary resurrection. Looked at the vacuum diaphragm by the oil filler neck, blown. Dirty, and doesn’t properly hold vacuum. But, never expected rotary resurrection to get that detailed. Besides, I have a piled\ of these I bought as five fingered discounts at local junk yards.

I decided to pull the upper intake manifold. What do I find? Intake manifolds that are sealed with an oem looking gasket and silicon used to help seal the manifolds. Whoa, wait a minute, silicon? To seal manifolds? Oh snap, the fuel injector grommets are torn apart as well. Now I am getting worried about the condition of the engine block itself, and keep in mind the engine already has 25 hours of run time, making me really worried about the apex seals. So far I am seeing very little to desire about rotary resurrection's less than handy work. Now I'm up for a fpr, intake gasket, all grommets and o rings for the fuel injectors, and tons and tons of brake cleaner. At this point, all the water lines look good. Yet another relief, and some hope for rotary resurrection.

Get the vacuum rats nest off and start testing the solenoids. One is shot, no surprise or big deal. Yup, more five fingered discounts at the local junk yard. However, most of the vacuum lines are so old, they crack with the slightest touch. Things are getting worse and worse. But, still not so bad that I am thoroughly pissed. Vacuum lines are more of a nuisance than anything else, got new ones anyway. A good installation always uses new rubber, seals, and clean parts.

Then it hit me like a ton of bricks, the turbo. The turbo is going to be crap. Pull the heat shield, and look at both ends of the turbo. Luckily, no play, no cracks, looks to be in good shape. Only, very very dirty. Maybe I can keep from having to pull the turbo and lower intake manifold, but doubt it.

Now to the injectors. With a quick glance, I saw the secondaries had bad grommets. Now I’m loosing faith. Pulled all the injectors. Damn it, doesn't this guy have a clue about rotary engines? One is missing the end cap, and none have any kind of sealing ability at all either on the fuel rail, engine block, or intake manifold. Essentially massive vacuum leaks. Oh yeah, these are filthy all around too, even interiors where the fuel enters and exits the injectors. They're off to be cleaned and tested. Bet at least one will be bad. But, probably something I would end up taking care of anyway.

Time to look at the water pump. At least rotary resurrection can't be dumb enough to mess that up. Wanna bet? Looked at the water exit pipe. Lined with orange rust crap. Not only that, the gaskets are installed wrong, no high tack sealant visible anywhere. Massive water leaks waiting to just happen. Gotta pull the water pump and housing. When I did, oh the mess. The water pump is rusted on the inside and has some hard crap on the outside. The impeller, housing, everything has rust. Not a coloring from using red coolant, but actual rust. Luckily I have a new water pump coming off my na block. Looked into the water ways on the rebuilt engine, loaded with crap. Rotary resurrection took no care to keep the newly rebuilt engine internals clean. Now I have to flush the crap out of a newly rebuilt engine block or risk breaking the water jacket or overheating the block. Should not have to do that. Given the condition of everything else, I am definitely not surprised anymore.

Noticing how bad the water pump and water ways are in the engine block, gotta check out the lower intake manifold. To no surprise, loaded with crap as well. Lower intake manifold has to come out and the internal air paths have to be cleaned out. Just staring at the manifold, crap falls off the walls of the pathways into the engine. Anyone wanna tell rotary resurrection why that is bad? A messy irritation is now becoming a massive pissed off rebuild a rebuilt engine session. The lower manifold comes off on Friday, bet the gasket sitting against the engine block is sealed wrong too! That means the turbo has to come off. Oh the wasted expenses mounting.

By now I am scared shitless of the apex seals. Take off 3, that's 3, not a typo for 2, trailing spark plugs and 1 lead spark plug. Um, gee, how come there's 3 trailing plugs? Hopefully the engine wasn't run like that either. If you’re going to fool someone, at least have the decency to put the proper numbers of each spark plug. My brother turned the flywheel while I looked at the apex seals. Thank god rotary resurrection had the sense to put apex seals on the rotors. All clean inside, mostly, with mostly clean apex seals. What comes out of the spark plug holes and sits on the apex seals? All the crap that is lining the air paths of the intake manifolds. The front spark plug holes actually have gas and oil coming out of, fairly clean too. There's hope yet. But, the rear rotary only oozes out crap from the intake manifolds. At least one fuel injector works. Will the apex seals blow? Yeah surie bob they will. Just a matter of when after seeing all the crap going on externally. They would have blown sooner if I didn’t decide to clean up the manifolds.

A little side note for those who don’t know: crap in the intake manifold will sure as heck blow the engine. Case in point: my brother went through two engines in his stealth within two weeks before listening to my dad and I concerning cleaning the intake manifold. There was so much solid crap being sucked into the engine, the engine would keep blowing unless cleaned. Now everyone can see why the manifolds should be cleaned.

Now that I have almost everything off the so called ready to install long block, I can see the actual engine block. Clean, very clean. Why didn't the long block stuff get cleaned? Again, no excuses possible, just a lot of evidence pointing to a rushed engine build. Paint, of which I could care less about and would rather not have, looks well done. Thanks to the original buyer for a good looking combination. If it wasn't for the dirty water paths and dirt on the apex seals, I would say the engine rebuild looks great. But, I can't. Just good. If I am lucky, the crap in the water paths hasn't already messed up the water jacket (highly highly doubt it, but you never know), and the apex seals won't blow during the break in from all the crap sitting on them. I definitely don’t want that crap floating around in my brand new radiator. If I wasn't already pissed off at the rest of the stupid mistakes made by a supposedly seasoned rotary buff, I would be happy with the engine block rebuild. The warranty is the only thing convincing me not convincing me to train that engine right back to rotary resurrection for a proper rebuild.

Enough of the engine block. On to the other pieces of the conversion kit. The transmission. Goes into gear in all gears, the input shaft freely turns the output shaft in all gears, and the internal shifter spring is in good shape. Extremely filthy, but in no way did I expect the transmission to be clean. However, the supplied throw out bearing is beyond usable. Yup, the bearing is trash. Also, the slave cylinder is sooooo rusted, I can't trust the slave cylinder. Not too worried about the throw out bearing, my new clutch came with one. Yup, even got a new master and slave cylinder. For the price, couldn't refuse anyway. Besides, I was intending on buying a new slave cylinder anyway. No biggie on any of that. Replaced the rear seal and the sensors, cleaned up the transmission, and is now a good looking component ready for installation. Point #2.

But the clutch and flywheel. Well, I already decided the clutch would be replaced and flywheel would be resurfaced regardless of their condition upon arrival. However, the clutch and flywheel aren't bad at all. They're actually in good shape. But, they're easy to get to now, get them taken care of. Third point towards rotary resurrection. By the way, the flywheel wasn’t tightened to 300 foot pounds torque, barely 100. I put that against the engine rebuild.

Now to the driveshaft. Not too dirty, but in great shape. A quick cleaning and she's ready to be installed. Point # 4.

Ah, the t2 lsd. A big pumpkin worthy of the conversion kit. The input shaft turns both output shafts very easily. When loaded with lucas gear oil, the rear diff turns even easier. No leaking, yuppie. Swapped the lsd tag to the one on my lsd, mine looked better. Just a nit picky thing, but satisfying to me anyways. To make the rear diff even better, she installed in less than an hour with no help, compared to 5 hours of tearing the old one out. Point #5.

Given the engine is full of surprises, the half shafts should be ready for the scrap heap. Nope. Quite the opposite. In great shape. The boots are in awesome condition. The shafts even came with hub bolts, how nice. And yup, one was used. I lost one of mine killing one of 3 black widows under the car. The shafts installed in 30 minutes, again no help. Point # 6.

The wiring harness. Such a waste of wiring in any condition. A quick look at the wiring and I definitely have to tear down the harness. Was planning on tearing the harness down anyway. Sections of electrical tape are missing. No big deal anyway. Ah, but there is good justice for looking over the harness: one of the secondary fuel injector connectors has been replaced. Well, more like crimped in place. Not a good way to replace a connector. I’m willing to bet rotary resurrection didn’t do that, but he could have. Wouldn’t have mattered anyway.

When considering everything that’s wrong, I should NOT have under any circumstances when buying a rebuilt engine assembled as a long block:
1. Clean the long block stuff.
2. Replace the water pump and gaskets.
3. Already flush the engine block coolant path ways. The engine block was just rebuilt.
4. Replace ANY of the intake seals. With proper use of high tack sealant, the gaskets will survive dozens of intake manifold removals. My na block is a testament to that.
5. Clean the intake pathways.

If I was buying all that stuff separately, I expect all of that to be filthy and need extreme cleaning. But on a recently assembled long block? Hell no. If you’re taking pride in what you do, you do the job right the first time not, not let the customer redo the job themselves.

I should have asked about the vacuum lines, would have been nice to have an engine show up with new vacuum lines. But, I already have new vacuum lines. That’s definitely not counted against rotary resurrection. Would have been nice to have an offer to have the vacuum lines freshly replaced, heck I would have paid. Well, until I saw how dirty everything was. Not all of the vacuum lines were bad either. The really bad lines were around the solenoids. Rotary Resurrection said he didn’t want to touch those in case he broke a solenoid or two. Hey, that’s cool. Looks good for customer service. That is way more than an acceptable reason. I have broken plenty of solenoids in my time.

Oh yeah, the fuel lines. I replaced them only because I was that far down. Otherwise, the fuel lines were in great shape, but half the thickness of what I bought. I bought some expensive **** that goes beyond eom standards. Used different clamps. I don’t like or trust screw clamps. They always always always fail on me. Rotary resurrection did pretty good here too.

While I am on the fuel subject: pulsation dampener. Although rotary resurrection put what looks like a good one on the engine, I put my 800 mile one on anyway. I could eliminate the pulsation dampener, but after a lengthy talk in person with mazda trix, I decided to go with my new one anyway. Simple logic: After 15 years they start to go out. Replace the pd, get another 15 years, and save on screwing up the injectors. Let’s see, $800 for injectors, or $260 for a pd every 10 years or so. Hmmmm….

That’s the saga.

Note to webmaster: why is this site soooo blasted slow? Drained my laptop battery trying to post after I hit the post button.

topspeed7

Is this suposed to be a rebuilt engine? wow

in other notes, yes the site is super slow.

charlies7

iTrader: (4)

I just read the entire thing, and all i have to say is "wow"...

"wow" for 2 reasons...you having the time to type this out and the other wow is obvious.

rx7goomba

At least he's thorough on his explaination. A+ in that regard.

ryderX

iTrader: (1)

have any pics of the engine before you tore it down?

mar3

iTrader: (8)

The first question that popped into my mind after reading it was....how much did you pay for the engine and ancillary components?...and it's losing faith, not "loosing faith"...

Mireck 12A

I have no clue about what kind of deal you made with Kevin about the longblock, but it looks like you expected a Pettit/Racing Beat engine....... clean like a hospital and new like out of the factory................

No offense intended, but that's what i read between the lines, repeat, what i read between the lines.

mar3

iTrader: (8)

Just to play Devil's advocate, though...just how hard is it to get out the pressure washer and hose down a 12A or 13B, REW "keg" when you first get it out of the car??

Heisenberg

iTrader: (3)

Oh its coming. Its only a matter of time.

7dust

iTrader: (14)

Jean Luc Picard is going to be very VERY angry.

13b4me

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. This thread is about to hit the proverbial fan.

The Wankler

iTrader: (14)

If you paid several, 4-5k for a long block that was supposed to be rebuilt, and cleaned, I understand your gripe. Then. all vacume hoses, injectors ect should be in great shape.

On the pther hand, I do not know of one dealer out there that sells USED engines and cleanes them for you. It realrey happens. You have to deal with the mess.

Now, was this a budget engine, or a rebulit one?

impactwrench

You are not the only one waiting. This should be good.

socalrotor

iTrader: (1)

When Kevin responds, I would like to know if he is taking business at the end of the month, S5, ported rebuild. I heard/seen GREAT things from RR from the wankler on rebuilds and plan on being a future customer.

13b4me

Sucks that Dave isn't around anymore and you west coasters gotta ship stuff all the way to the east coast for decent affordable rebuilds.

twilight slide

IBTshithitsthefan. I thought this was another joke thread at first but mabe not.

djseven

iTrader: (56)

Ive got to drop off a motor and pick one up tonight from his house. I will let him know about this thread so he can address the issue. Kevin(rotaryresurrection) is one of the reasons I am still buying/selling fds. He is a big part in keeping the cars affordable for the buyer and makes my life a whole lot easier that is for sure. Im sure there is a mix up here and Kevin will step in and clear things up.

Unholy FD3S

amazing post OP

this is the first negative review I hear about them, they are always great IMO.

hope they work it out with you.

88rxn/a

iTrader: (6)

im still gonna send my block to him to get rebuilt.

The Wankler

iTrader: (14)

Maybe the poster realizes now that he jumped the gun. Kevin is not the ussual suspect of, "you get what you pay for". Kevin is realiable and gives you more than you pay for. If this guy bought one of those Na/ to Turbo swaps Kevin was selling, then he got a budget swap. To think it should be cleaned up and such is nieve.

danec020

I have been seeing a lot of RR threads poping up lately. I think you were expecting a little much. Reread his thread and it is clear that the motor is rebuilt but all other accessories are old parts that stil work, maybe not 100% perfectly. https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...Turbo+Swap+Kit . This line right here states what you are complaining about and in no way did he claim he was going to clean, or use new items.

From his post:
"IT would not be a bad idea to go over a few key areas of the engine later on. These include fuel injectors (cleaning and new rubber), water pump, thermostat, etc. These parts will be in good, useable condition when they leave here, however they are original with 100+k miles on them."

At the same time I can understand your problems with some of the issues you discussed, but Kevin usually seems to set things straight, so give him a chance before going all post happy. The biggest worry I would have is the amount of stuff that has gotten into the engine. Good luck, and hope your issues get resolved.

Dane

wizzbangca

Before covering some concerns, here's some more after a little thought:

The missing fuel injector end cap: MIGHT be in the rotor housing waiting screw an apex seal, stuff up the turbo, or stuff up my new cat. I'll assume rotary resurrection is not that dumb to put a fuel injector without the end cap. In that case, the cap is either in the block or stuck in the grommet. Hope it's stuck in the grommet, otherwise a whole new can of worms has been opened up. There's no way for anyone to prove the end cap didn't end up in the rotor housing without tearing down the engine. I really hope that's not the case. Will check tonight. Been so frustrated haven't considered that.

The filth: the kind of filth in the water ways, intake manifold, and external stuff is inexcusable. Yeah, some dirt and dust is expected on the external stuff. But yup, a power wash before tearing down the engine before rebuilding would have gone a very very very long way. Sparkling clean? I'm only that hard on myself. To paint a picture of the externals: the timing "distributor" deal on the front of the block (sorry, so tired from work today, the name escapes me) is so dirty, there is no more silver metal or any difference between the housing or cap, just grime. A 2 minute cleaning, what world of difference. A 10 second power was before tearing about the original block would have done real nice.

Results from last night's work:
The exhaust manifold: cracked. Noticeably cracked. As soon as the turbo came off, the crack was laughing right at me not even a nanosecond later. That's really aggravating. Rotary resurrection wouldn't sell a cracked exhaust manifold on the boards, why pawn one off on the block? No one in their right mind would buy a cracked manifold. Not only that, the exhaust gaskets look very used. Why weren't new ones used? Or at least let me know used one were used? I sure as hell wouldn't have bought the engine knowing that. Aged used seals of unknown use and condition is just asking for trouble.

The lower intake manifold: yup, the seal is installed wrong. Same silicon crap on the seal. The crap in the water ways ruined the gasket in those areas.

The water pathways: The intake manifold and turbo are lined with some kind of jelly stuff. Never seen that in a rebuilt engine before. I have seen enough rebuilt rotaries to know that jelly stuff doesn't belong. I'm definitely up for having to flush out the block and turbo. No choice. Don't know what rotary resurrection was doing to get that stuff in there, but definitely not anything good. Gotta pay to do that, guess that will have to be refunded.

Turbo: I can relax on that. No cracks, in good shape. Just clean and flush the water paths, then all good. Which begs the question: why put a cracked exhaust manifold on the block?

wizzbangca

Yeah, just keeping me logged in. Not saving passwords on any computer. Spyware and viruses just don't play well.

Now on to some of the comments:
The reaction show exactly why I expected good work. Too many of you highly of him. His website shows the kind of knowledge he has. So yeah, I do expect properly installed gaskets, and properly inspected components. Mainly being the water pump, exhaust manifold, turbo. i definitely expected flawless installation of all the components. Who is going to warranty en engine with all that main stuff wrong? No one. Which now leads me to believe the engine is set up to fail. He knows the stuff put on is filthy, he knows what happens when filth get into the rotor housing and water passages. No one can convince me otherwise. As soon as I would have fired that engine up, blow the apex seal, then tried to get the engine repaired under warranty, I would have have been sol. Rotary resurrection's reaction: should have cleaned all that up and checked everything first. Ah, but that backfired.

The fuel injectors were going to be cleaned and tested anyway. Not complaining about anything except why (possibly) put on an injector without an end cap and why put leave noticeably bad grommets on the injectors? May as well leave the grommets off, put the intake manifold gasket aside and say the grommets need replacing. I would have respected rotary resurrection for that.

However, as I thought I mentioned before, I am not counting the egr, acv, vacuum hoses, water hoses, fpr. I expected all that to be trash and had all that on order anyway. Yup, I wrongly gave rotary resurrection crap over the vacuum lines. Apologize for that. I was pretty pissed off at the lack of an attempt to clean the parts off and pay attention to some of the fine details that effect the core engine.

What kind of remedy am I looking for?
Lower intake manifold gasket for one. I should never have had to take that off to clean the intake paths. 5 minutes with a wire brush and simple green and they're clean now. If rotary resurrection wasn't going to clean up the paths, why install the manifold?

An exhaust manifold. Used is fine, but cracked is not good customer service, and not usable for any circumstances. Definitely not and never was expecting new.

Replacement exhaust manifold gaskets. Should have used new. The ones installed on the block look old and definitely don't lead me to believe they will seal right. They feel like they've already live their useful life.

Not worried about the water pump, already have a new one, free too. But the nerve of putting something rusted on the block is poor, and doesn't go with the usability portion of the sale.

The oil pan: the cost of silicon sealant. I'm willing to bet the gasket came with the rebuilt kit. In reality, no gasket is needed.

Now I have to figure out if the block is worth building onto or needs tearing down to check. The injector end cap will give me a good idea of what I may end up having to do.

Well, pictures to come tomorrow. I'm sure everyone wants to see if I am full of bull.

fc3s91

iTrader: (23)

Well If the pintle cap is broken, it should stay in the fuel air bleeder plates.
Thanks Robert
http://mazdatrix.com/c-6.htm

wizzbangca

Yeah, should be. In fact, I would hope so. With my luck, the bleeder plates are broken. Tomorrow everyone will know the outcome of that.