Ok I'm buyin and FC from some guy that claims that this rotary has 12k miles on it, the car hadent been started in a while but once he fired it up it sounded real nice, no miss at all and he has a straight pipe so it would be pretty easy to tell. the engine looks ok but the amount of oil near the filter shows its been several oil changes on that engine and the front engine mount has a nice layer of oil also, under the car has no drips so I dont think it leaks but its not new either. The clutch acording to him is kevlar and has some miles on it, now why would you do an engine sway and not replace the cluth so I'm, calling BS on the milage of the engine, I think its a rebuild the car has 160k on it so that engine isnt the first one but is there a way to find out if that is the orig. engine like a vin stamp somewhere? Any thing else I should look for besides the usual?
This is my first post and my first thread BTW yay

-keys

 

Well you wont be able to find out how many miles are on a rebuilt motor, and there are no stamping on them. So, i would use your imperical data youve collected and assume he is full of it. that is a large amount of oil to be accumulated in only 12,000 miles. I think he was streching that number to make the sale sound more appealing to you.

 

the fc reman engines dont have a stamp on them like the fd? mine has a date in which it was build from mazda......just my .02

 

Most any rebuild/reman will have some paint on it. IF you dont see any paint or any stampings on the rotorhousings near the "mazda 13b" (some builders stamp codes here like AR354 or similar) then it is probably an original engine.

 

well my bet is he rebuilt it, it sounds to nice to be a rotary with 160k on it. I was looking for spray paint on the engine but saw none when I went down there, cause like you said they spray paint the intake mani. or something to show it was salvaged or rebuilt but no, no paint. they didn't even vin stamp the engine *sigh* any one knw how fast a kevlar clutch wears? when I test drive it I plan to feel out the clutch to see how old it really is, he says it still grips good. hmmmz any other ideas?

-Keys

 

A rebuild generally consists of the block only...not the manifolds and external stuff, so dont look on the intake manifolds for paint. Mazda remans do include the flywheel, oilpan, and waterpump/housing too. You can spot mazda remans by silver paint flaking off of the front cover and waterpump housing, and rotorhousings...and by a red dye put onto the heads of the tension bolts in the back of the motor, and sometimes the front cover fasteners.

I have never heard of a kevlar clutch. Most are normal organic discs, or metal discs in 6, 4, or 3 puck configurations. With any clutch, it mainly depends on how it is driven as to how long it lasts.

 

respeed sells several kevlar clutch's, even for first gens
sorry if a lil off topic

 

ooo lots of good info right there thanks rotaryresurrection good lookin', I was planning to look at the bolts on the covers to see if there is any damage, like that of an impact wrench or a stubborn bolt that might have been slightly rounded. tension bolts on the back eh. ill try to see I'm going to go buy it/her later today ill look. I thought a kevlar clutch was kinda weird too, I had asked him wat kind and thats what he told me, I looked online, they do exist.