13b rebuild tips
 

Hey guys it's my first time building any sort of rotary motor. What I have is two 13b's with no compression in the front rotors. I am not building it for racing application but I am planning on supercharging it. Any sort of tips, advice, recommendations are welcomed and appreciated. Trying to go as cheap as possible. I know that sounds bad. But on a college budget it's what I have to do.

Step: 1

Dissasemble both short blocks, THOROUGHLY clean and spec all parts to determine what is and is not usable and thus let you know what you need to buy.

my advice...

turbo > supercharger
if you are in school and on a budget...buy a civic. forced induction rotaries are expensive. wether you plan on it or not.

"Trying to go as cheap as possible" is the last thing you want to do with a rotary.

+1

tight budget with a rotary, dont do anything but a basic rebuild and put it back together. take it apart and make sure you have space to lay everything out. at the very minimum you are going to need a rebuild kit, theyre 100 bucks from auto zone. when you take it apart, use the coolant seal as a band to hold the apex seals in the rotors. try not to mix and match seals and their springs. also keep track of which rotor goes in which housing and which plates they were associated with. non turbo running an omp, you are going to be doing a lot of cleaning, take off the oil control rings and keep track of which rotor they belong to. get some dental picks and a good movie and a 24 pack and start scraping. you have to get all of the carbon out and its going to be a bitch, the side seals are going to be a whore to get out and if you are not careful you are going to need a lot of new ones. the springs under the side seals are even more of a bitch. the best thing to start the side seal groove cleaning process is a...... side seal thats already broken. soaking the rotors in chemicals that are known to break down carbon and deposits will make your life a lot easier. during cleaning you will be paying attention for things that automatically make it junk. by doing so you avoid cleaning a part for an hour and then realizing its junk. look for grooves that are to close, if its a bitch to pull and apex seal, clean that groove first and look at it, check for tolerance, if its pinched its most likely junk, look for denting or detonation marks on the rotor faces. i cant go into every detail because it would take all damn night. there are a lot of videos on you tube of engine stacking and inspection, all of the rotor tolerances are available on the internet. just take your time, unstack one at a time, stay organized, zip lock bags, a sharpie, dont mix shit up. if you stay organized you have a much better chance of making this project work again. good luck bro, search, do research, unstack, clean, and go back together. oh yeah, fd side seals and side seal springs, try and find a set of apex seals and springs if you can afford it, i like rotary aviation, if you have two motors and ones an s5, use the s5 rotating assembly, it has higher compression so more power.

if non of that makes sense, find a mentor in your area.

This may help...

Aaron Cake's 13B Engine Rebuild Video

So far the plan is to replace the side seals and apes and all the gaskets and bearings. No race application stuff. And both are s5 motors we are planning on using the one that is in the car currently as the main motor. Any recommendations on chemicals for the carbon. So far the front rotor looks kinda iffy the rear just needs new side seal to replace and apexs to be safe.

By cheap as possible I mean me not goin and buying ceramic apex seals and racing grade parts. Stock is what I'm planning if the supercharger is not possible with stock parts then oh well.

Do you guys recommend an Atkins rebuild kit?

^ Yes. For what you'll be doing with your car, an Atkins rebuild kit will be more than adequate.

i use the autozone gaskets and they work well, if you have a little extra cash now is a good time to do fd corner seals and corner seal springs. oh and find a good unbreakable seal, rotary aviation is good.

Rebuilding on a College Budget
 

I'm in college as well and still trying to figure out what to do with my rebuild as well. I have the engine out but now I'm trying to decide where to put my money. I have worked on cars a lot but never rebuilt an engine. I have a Mazdatrix dvd on how to rebuild it but I was thinking it maybe safer to ship it to Banazi Racing to rebuild it. So my question is it a better idea to rebuild the engine my self which may cost less but risk not having a working engine after it all(then again I could spend a lot investing in all the specialty tools required for the rebuild). Or do I ship it to Banazi Racing for more money and have them rebuild it. Any recommendations? And has anyone had an engine rebuilt by Banazi and know the quality of their work? I'm not sure if Banazi's rebuild would be as through of inspecting and rebuild as I would be. For how much it costs it doesn't seem they replace a lot.

i think... watch the rebuild dvd like 8 times then take on the project yourself, they're easier than a piston engine but needs slightly more attention to detail. a small streetport is always a nice idea you can do yourself pretty easily, with a template from racingbeat. its gonna cost a shiny penny either way but doing it yourself would be cheaper, also that will give you a little more knowledge on the engine. and don't beat on it for like 1000 miles. let it break in. also, keep in mind that stock rotary engines arent good at handling constant abuse.