Coming to CT, you'll be much closer to all of us Rotary Addicts up here in NY/NJ :nod:

Yes!!!!!:icon_tup:

Updates!! this was my favorite build!!!

This deserves a bump :)

Are we there yet?

WOW Dream engine bay right there....WELL DONE!!!

Who's there?

Rotary of Forum's Past
 

After more than a decade of life-imposed exile...

A rotary of Forums' Past arises again!
<and it's not pretty>

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...e10b2a97ba.jpg

Looking good my man! Any immediate plans?

Dale

I like where this is going!

You know me: Go Big or Go Home (including being a dumbass)!

1. Tear the (6 year old) new motors to parade rest and rebuild. Myriad of minor tweeks.
2. Tear out the Motec M4 and replace with an M84; add more sensors and controls.
3. Tear out stock fuel tank and replace with a fuel cell.
4. Mortgage the house to have Shane T come out to tune it.
5. Eventually repaint after mechanically shipshape.

Nice! You sticking with the same turbo setup or going to one of the new EFRs?

How is the paint? From a distance it looks pretty good.

Dale

Objective is to simply getting it on the track.... SAFELY!

Sticking with the same turbo, especially since I have a bran spankin new one that's been in the box for ages.

Only swapping out the M4 because it's so limiting vice the M84. Want to fully support the E85 setup. Timing with a real high-count trigger wheel is also a primary concern. Finally, a 3/4 rotor future is not beyond the pale... the M4 would run out of mojo in those cases.

Paint is a " C- " up close. I can live with it in the near term but it will drive me bonkers once the car is fully up and running. It'll never be show quality, but I do have pride of workmanship driving it's future.

M84 is a good upgrade. You might want to look at a used M800 for maybe $3000 or so.

Welcome back.

Gordon, while the upfront prices of an M800 is about $3K, it would easily require at least another $1500 in upgrades to get the right package. That's to say nothing about the harne$$. Alas, even if I could find cheaper, the Benjamins have been spent on the M84 and accoutrements already.

Ihor, gracias. It's good to be back... especially since I have not yet been caught in the Black Hole of Benjamin's event horizon.

Never thought I'd see the day. Bout time! 🤣
Crispy

OMEN!

1) Drain coolant; ~2 quarts of coolant come out.
2) Drain Oil; ~2 gallons of coolant come out, and some oil.
3) Acorn in bellhousing.

"Life hard, but it's harder when you're stupid"

Oof, thats a kick in the nuts... :(

Not sure, but that sounds backwards to me. :)

An excuse to go through the motor and make it EVEN BETTER.

Has it been a while since the motor ran?

Dale

Motor, I-Rotary seals, EWP, bra-less, and foolish optimism
 

Better Lucky than Good.

Motor teardown is disarmingly uneventful. Back rotor/housing looked new (as it effectively is). Front rotor probably had a water seal compromise, though nothing obvious in TES inner seal nor any cracking in the side plates. At this point I'm caulking it up to 100% distilled water with WaterWetter that was foolishly left outside in the CT winter tundras when temps spent a week or two south of -10F. Thankfully, all looked good with the only noticeable damage being a 2mm long pit barely a "fingernail deep" in the intake sweep. There is also some "ghost prints" from the rotor sitting for years in one position; I could not measure it off the surface of the plates. I plan to run all side plates as they are. One positive, is that I got to re-work the sideseal that was only giving 105psi. A slight binding due to no clearance was fixed. Hoping to have all chambers in the mid-125psi on startup.


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...e27556bc35.jpg





"Objective is to simply getting it on the track"... my arse!

After this many years out of the hobby, I figured some information had improve. (Bad Idea #1) Running Mazda 2mm, 2-piece with E85, I started checking on seal development. Well lo and behold, Mr. Ianetti has been busy doing the Lord's Work: I-Rotary apex seals. Talked to Mazda Comp and Mazmart... and I've got new seals. Life on the bleeding edge as always. Just call me a Rotary Hemophiliac!!

With as little info as is out there (Mazda Comp was waiting on shipment), here's some facts (single seal data set):

1. I couldn't find a dimension variance on the I-Rotary seals as measure at multiple dimensional points across spans: IMPRESSIVE QC!
2. I-Rotary seals are .015mm thinner than the Mazda seals
3. I-Rotary seals are taller at the three "steps" (tallest to slimmest) by .7mm/.7mm/.5mm than the Mazda seals. I think you can see it in the picture.
4. I-Rotary seals do not have the bevel at the base 2mm of the seal like the Mazda seals
5. I-Rotary seals a 7x loupe reveal that ALL edge are radius... AMAZING workmanship!! All Mazda are straight cut.
6. I-Rotary and Mazda are magnetic.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...9ca41e98cd.jpg

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...8c301d84a2.jpg
I-Rotary vs Mazda apex seals (close-up)

I also decided to remove the front bumper and fix some shoddy wiring I did back in the '03 when I built up the car. This will also facilitate all the new wiring and routing for the Motec M84 swap, while giving me a chance to clean out all the ducts, oil cooler plumbing and clean out all the crevices. Man, it's amazing where critters will build nest!!


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...3f94266951.jpg
Bra-less Rotary Beast

Also been wanting to improve my confidence in the reliability of the water pump. Due to the the crazy elegant plumbing Mark originally designed for the car, I didn't want to relocate it. Luckily, Davies Craig now has an all-metal drop-in (EWP130) that has ~60% greater flow. A no brainer. only decision now is whether I want to leave it controlled by the DC controller or incorporate into the M84 output (requires a Motec solid-state half-bridge relay).

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...0cd1cac91e.jpg
Davis Craig EWP130 EWP80 & plumbing


Like a dumbass, I missed ordering the outer coolant seals or else the motor would have been built. I'll get the order in and finish it next weekend. Already started tearing out the ECU and harness. So left to do so far:
- M84: New harness, including 4 new input/outputs
- replace injectors (ID1600 and ID850's) surely pickled in E85; expect ID1050x/ID1700x setup unless...
- replace 3 fuel pumps? (Supra in-tank feed to surge tank & 2 parallel -044 pressure)
- rewire HID's to Spic Racing (i.e. motorsports-ish) standards
- reinstall engine
- begin tuning fun

More to fun...

Paul Walker from Mazmart talked about the I-Rotary seals at DGRR at our round table discussion this year. From what he was saying there is a LOT of science in those seals and (as you saw) top notch quality control.

At this point I wouldn't run stock apex seals on anything but a stock car. Modern seals (RX-Parts also) are SO much better on modified cars, the whole "I broke another apex seal" is a thing of the past.

Sounds like you're well on your way!

Dale

Dale, as they say in the middle east: "From your lips to god's ear"!!

I agree, the distilled water/water wetter sitting killed it. I'd do either Evans or a more conventional distilled water/green coolant mix. Looking forward to seeing it back together,

Ah, my old nemesis... Project Creep...

• Chip MS Steering Rack
• new SRM Flywheel Friction surface
• ACT sprung 6-punk and Xtreme PP

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...212b9498ce.jpg

And finally, Spic Racing keg vers 4.5
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...a4a9b4a776.jpg
Spic Racing keg (vers. 4.5)