Should be fixed, I reorganized my PhotoBucket and apparently is screws everything up

 

very nice!!

 

pretty bad-*** work ! good job ,
definitely need some skills to weld in between those runner...there is not much space
did you have them weld before you put them on the flange ?

that lip,its a beauty,it really change the front-end on 99bumpers

 

Thank you. I actually had the flanges welded to the pipe prior to giving it to my guy to weld. The only pipe I did not have tack welded was the waste gate tubes so he could get access all the way around the runners (Green taped area).

The lip looks great, I just need to get a nice side skirt and rear diffuser to set it off. But that will be after tuning!

 

So I am going to try to keep this short.

I took the car back up to Beyond Redline Performance for what I thought was going to be an awesome day on the the dyno, and finally break that 500rwhp mark... I was told to be happy to leave with 400.

I went backwards. Even with my newly rebuild Coleman Precision 13b and new exhaust manifold, it did not want to break 400. Needless to say I brought the car home with my tail between my legs and said screw it, 400 is fun and my baby (human one) is due early Nov, this will work for a couple years.

Then the **** started rolling down hill.

While getting tuned Luke turned the car off and for some reason it would not start back up, just cranked and cranked and cranked (Was not the case for the 150 miles prior to taking it to get tuned). After some time I was told I had a bad battery and that I should change it out... I figured this could be likely because the battery was pretty old.

I got the car home, bought a brand new battery and it STILL had the issue. I was then told (by BRP) that I should change the power wire from the battery as it could be holding it back. I did that (Likely may have helped the issue, whoever did the relocation used some crap "4ga" wire that was more like 8ga with a 4ga coating... changed to 0ga wire). I was also told (by BRP) that my starter may be tired at the same time, so I did the RX8 upgrade to get some extra power. None of this fixed my problem.

Fast forward to yesterday. Still does not want to hot start... Mind you during the entire time the car runs and drives perfectly and pulls like crazy. I am out with some friends and do a pull, all of a sudden it sounds like I have 2-step and BOOM... No power. Really the car sounds like a Subaru now and does not want to move. I limp it back to my cousins shop, and after a series of test, find that the rear rotor only has one "puff" while the front still has 3.

So needless to say, after about 500 miles, my engine is blown AGAIN! Howard has obviously been great and wants me to bring my engine back to him to diag the issue and see what went wrong. It has over-sized 2mm Goopy seals and runs E85 so he highly doubts its an apex seal.

Now I am left with a decision. Do I put the 13b back in and triple cross my fingers that i wont look at it wrong and it wont blow again in 500 miles... or go to the dark side and put something reliable in it like a LS or 2jz?! This could be pissed off me looking at the situation, and the thousands of dollars I have dumped into this thing in the last 5 month, negatively... but I cant keep dumping money into this thing with a baby on the way.


Thank about sums up my last 3 weeks. Now time to start pricing my options inc a full part out of my rotary parts.

 

Try a different engine builder. Unless hc is wanting to do the work for free or under warranty, I don't think I would be going back that way ever again. Between your tuner and the engine builder, someone needs to figure out what the did wrong.

 

This is why I rebuild my own engines. That way I don't feel so bad if it blows lol.

You should open It yourself and inspect it.

As far as the engine swap goes I think you need to figure what you want to use it for. 2jz is super heavy. I think for a 1/4 mile it would be fine.

I've never owned an LS and known nothing about it so I cannot speak to that.

Sorry for your loss and good luck with the future of the 7!

-Nick

 

I fully agree. Howard has been great this entire time and offering a lot of different advise along the way... but I just spent 3,500.00 on the engine build and another 1400.00 on tuning sessions... I expect not to pick up the tab for anything.

I suspect I will be looking for a new tuner.

 

Small update:

I got the engine pulled back out of the car and found another clue to what may have happened, the rear exhaust runner had a pool of oil in it when I took it off...


Other than that I am taking my time and going slow with this. My baby is due in 5 weeks so most of my attention is on getting my house ready and on my wife.

I will be taking my engine back up to Howard (thank god he only lives an hour and a half away) to have him pull it all back apart. I will keep the thread updated.

As far as future plans, I have gone between LS swap and a 2JZ... but have decided to keep it rotary. I will put the motor back in, upgrade to a Borg Warner S363 and AEM coils as well as switch back to 91 octane (93 very hard to find in WI) from E85. There is many reasons for this but really I just want the ease of filling up where ever I want and not have to worry about failing injectors after the car sits for a winter.

More to come.

 

i really wonder could of happen there ?an oil control ring faillure maybe ?
did you have oem or vitton there
did you change the oilcontrol rings last ime you opened her up?

 

I had Howard Coleman rebuild the engine for me and if I recall correctly, he said the oil control rings were still good and reused the OEM ones. The engine only had about 6500 miles on it when I had it rebuild (OE Reman) so I didnt think anything of it. It is just weird to me because there is still one face of the rotor that has compression, I would think with the oil control ring being bad none of the faces would have compression.

 

Man this sucks. I'm happy to hear youre sticking it out with the rotary. I bet it will be more satisfying in the end. Keep it up!

 

If you lost compression in two faces, you have an apex seal issue. Oil control rings will make you smoke black and consume oil like crazy. They have nothing to do with compression. A little oil should be fine unless you deleted your OMP and are premixing or something. Otherwise your turbo could be at fault as well. Proper restriction and return sizing is important here. Sounds like your tuner isn't too sharp. If it cranks and cranks but doesn't fire and he's shooting down your battery? Go somewhere else. Read up on some aftermarket seals that lose compression after they warm up. Another reason for something cranking but not starting could be fuel compensation on hot starting. Over fueling or under fueling. Unless of course this is all boiling down to an underlying issue, like bad ignition (or not enough ignition power) or insufficient fueling (what's your pump set up and supply line sizing?) that hasn't been fixed since the first time the motor popped?

 

Thank you for all of your advise. I agree with most of what you are saying but if you lose an oil control ring you will lose compression... just not enough to cause the issue I have.

I do not have an OMP and run Redline Premix with E85. So the excessive oil is due to control rings. The car never blew any smoke on startup nor while driving so I think this happened at the same time the main failure did. I did also have excessive oil in the secondary runner of the LIM.

I highly doubt its an apex seal issue, I am running over sized 2mm Goopy seals. My thought would be more of a side seal or corner seal issue. If its an apex seal I would be VERY surprised... I have never heard of someone breaking one.

The first time the motor "popped" was due to a water seal, and nothing to do with fueling or mechanically inside the engine. I have more than enough fuel to support well over 600hp.

I will be going to Howard's next weekend to tear the engine down again, this will tell all. Fingers crossed not plates or housings will be needed!

 

UPDATE:

I dropped my engine back off at Howard's and stuck around while he tore it down. We found the issue but I would like to hold off on posting it until he gets a chance to verify and really hone in on the cause of the issue.
Back in the trunk of the Altima again:





In other news, while the car is apart I decided to pretty up the engine a bit. I powder coated a bunch of parts and started to sell of some things to upgrade to the Skatebomb AEM coils and a Borg Warner S363. (My Garrett will be for sale shortly).

 

I also installed the ducts from my 99 spec front bumper to my OEM dual oil coolers.

Before:


After:

 

After all of this, my son decided to make a dramatic entrance into this world 3 weeks early. My wife and my son are both healthy and home so that's all I can really ask for. The RX7 will be taking a back seat for some time as my wife's work does not offer maternity leave (gotta love corporate america!) so we will be on my income only for 12 weeks.

I will post an update on why my engine failed once I work things out with Howard.

 

Congratulations on the new addition to the family. I'm working with the same thing. Trying to put a dent in my build before the baby arrives.

 

Thank you! I get that for sure. I had the engine fully rebuilt and tuned at a modest 400 rwhp so I could keep the car dependable for the next few years while my son grew up... and then it let go 900 miles later. Life of a rotary owner I guess!

 

Congrats my dude.

Rx7 related question. Did you fab the ducts for the oil coolers yourself or are those r magic ones?

 

They are the R-Magic ones. They fit the bumper and the oil cooler great! The only thing you will have to modify is the bumper impact bar if you do not have the 99 spec bar.

 

Another small step in the right direction.

I bought a Borg Warner S363 from Howard that was barley used. I also bought the Skatebomb AEM Ign kit from another forum member.

Stereo typical soda next to turbo photo (to show my brother the size). Then I powder coated it right away.

 

Finally time for a small update:

I bought some Z06 wheels from another forum member. I ended up painting them to make them look way better. I custom mixed some paint and made an awesome color for these wheels... any maybe my entire car some day.

Etch Primer:

Paint:





I also installed a B&M short shifter that I cut about an inch out of and added a RE weighted shift ****.
Before:

After:

 

I also heard from Howard that I should be getting my engine back next week! Details to follow on what caused it to fail 900 miles after rebuild. Just need to sort out the "warranty" with Howard first.

 

Uh oh. Maybe you weren't vague enough about when you would be getting your engine back, and fate intervened.
Are you all put back together? How is it working out?