It looks like I am on the expensive road toward needing a new motor. First off. my front cover is leaking/pouring out. I took it to a shop(C2) and they said that since it so inaccessible, they have to remove all sorts of ****. It's gonna require 12-14 hours worth of work. They said it only takes 16-18 hours to swap motors!

Second, my car is spewing out coolant via the overflow after shut off. I don't know if it is related to a front cover seal or if my coolant seals are shot.

Lastly, my compression is low 6.2 psi. Although, the compression check showed even compression across all three chambers, overall it's still low. A new/healthy motor has 7+psi compression.

So now what? I am trying to decide where to get a motor.

~Mazda Reman? I hear that its a crap shoot with these.
BTW, mine is a mazda reman with 45k miles on it

~Atkins? C2 Automotive uses these.

~Pinapple Racing? I hear these guys are good and warranty their motors, too.

~Rick's rotory?

~SR Motorsports

I'm also thinking about getting a street port. But that is going to add to the cost by forcing me to buy a PFC, and injectors & porting costs...Not sure.

Where would you guys go for a well built motor that has fair pricing???

 

Pinapple Racing

They are the best!

 

For a rebuild? I'd go with Pettit.

However, I would just go for a reman personally...

 

i just installed my mazda reman. it runs fine. i think those rumors are just that...rumors. the quality of my engine is fine. if you want to swap it out yourself i can give you a hand. the engine should only be $2200 shipped now from malloy to here. pm for more details.

 

I'll be getting mine through Steve Kan @ Gotham Racing. Gonna do a Mazda reman, and port that.

 

So you trust the remanufactured motors? I read somewhere that for 600-900 another company will take it apart and inspect it then warranty it for like 5 years

 

I've been running one for over 3 years.

 

Sorry don't mean to beat this to death but do you feel that most of the horror stories are just rumors then? I can't imagine a reputable shop would remanufactor engines that would fail within a few thousand miles unless something else contributed to the failure.

 

Rotary Reliability and Racing....they built my motor and many of the other cali guys... 7148398018 ask for nick if you want to check on pricing and such. they have been building motors for race for twenty years.


j

 

btw....it is a crapshoot on the remans....i had another pal lose his this past week.

rotary reliability and racing wont even deal with them anymore because they used to install them for people and they would warrantee the labor...but after more than half of the remans failed prematurely they only install their own motors...at least as far as the motors they will warrantee.

ask them...they will tell you the same thing.

 

Question: Are the horror stories are just rumors?

Answer: No, they are not rumors. When someones says their engine was destroyed, I believe them. Why wouldn't you?

But to elaborate a little further; typically all of these horror stories are not concerning the engine just failing 'just because'. What you would find out if you were to dig deeper into each of these 'rumor cases', is that the premature engine failure is caused by ANOTHER FAILURE outside of the actual engine itself!

For example:

- Driver (owner). Get a new person who doesn't know anything who wants to modify his car, and that is an engine time-bomb waiting to happen. Lack of maintenance, care, etc.

- Overheating due to 'not-the-best' design cooling system, thus allowing for warped housings, bad o-rings, etc.

- Breaking an Apex seal due to lean AFR mixtures. Typically, this is due to a 'lack of' tuning, in combination to people running higher boost, or adding 'breathing' modification without compensating for the fuel mixtures. Many circumstances can cause this: Bad fuel, bad tuning, lack of tuning, incorrect modifications, uncontrollable boost, etc.

These engines rarely just go "Yup, time to die because of the XX thousand mile rumor!".

Think cause and effect.

Mike

 

Red-Rx7:
Sorry I didn't mean to say I don't belive pople. I agree with what you say, that's what I meant when I said "ngines that would fail within a few thousand miles unless something else contributed to the failure." I think that most of the engine failures are because of the problem(s) you mentioned. So most people would agree that if everything else is tuned/maintained properly the reman engine are a good deal correct?

 

Since you went to C2, I assume you're local to the SF Bay Area. If so, I highly recommend Rick's Rotary Performance, especially if you want added work like porting done. (BTW, I spoke with Rick, M2, PR Motorsports about porting. In their opinion, porting not necessary unless you go beyond 15 psi boost. Stock ports are fine.) Rick rebuilt my engine at 78K miles with 3 mm seals. I am now at 116K miles, and have been running 13+ psi all along. If you aren't going to port or put bigger seals in, get a reman, IMO.

 

Pettit is my choice

 

Another fine post that is 100% correct..

 

I hear that Pineapple warrantys their motors. Does anyone else?

 

KDR (in PA) will warranty their motors for 12 months or 12k miles whichever comes first. They take a Mazda Reman and rip it apart to rebuild it with all new seals etc.

They don't warranty any ported motors however.

If you're looking for prices, I'm paying ~$4500 for a Malloy Mazda reman, ripped apart, rebuilt, street ported, and installed by KDR.

 

I went Malloy Mazda Reman, and had Ray Crowe send the motor to Dave Barninger (KDR) for tear down and rebuild for performance and reliability mods. Money well spent, as the motor runs strong! See sig for my mods list. BTW, Dave tells me the Malloy reman was 90% new parts. The motor now has 3000 miles, since the install in Jan...

 

the only person that i ever had any work done that actually did what he said he would and did a perfect job is Jose Hernandez from PNC Autoworks in miami, his number is 305-979-7731 his 3rd gen has won countless trophies and also got a spot in the new fast and the furious 2 movie and an extra with his car the custom work done to the cars he works on when you open the hood you would think that that is how the car came from the factory everything done the right way.

 

Gotta say Pineapple. 5yr, 60k mile warrenty sounds pretty good to me. Not to mention, he'll even warrenty a ported motor. CJ

I'd stay far away from atkins...my .02.

 

Dave assured me 12 months 12000 miles on the labor they did to the reman...

 

I need to call Pineapple...

 

I bought an atkins through rx7store.

I know lots of you don't like atkins but I must say my engine Is very nice.

$2,800 for a mild streetport and brand new rotor housings. The streetport was done very well.

interesting note: getting the same engine directly from atkins cost more than from the rx7store.....

 

They charge extra to warranty a motor. And then they inspect the motor to see if it was failure due to excessive boost, leaning out etc. They will find a problem not related to the work. Any motor that is put together correctly will not go bad before 60,000 miles..except leaning out, boost etc. Read the fine print.

 

How much did that cost you?