Hi all!

I am wondering what do most people do for housings and irons when they do a rebuild. The options I am aware of:

1- Reuse the housings and irons as is (assuming they are not too worn or damaged) - free.
2- Resurface the housings and irons (assuming there is enough chrome/nitride coating left) - $100 to $200 ?
3- Buy new Mazda housings and irons - $500 to $700 ?
4- Buy ceramic coated housings and irons (good core trade in), JHB rotary, etc - $300 to $400.
5- Buy used housings and irons with low mileage - $100 ?

Prices are per housing or iron.

When I rebuilt my s4 6port a few years ago (coolant seal failure) I reused the irons and bought JHB Cermet A TII housings, reused the side and corner seals but replaced everything else. It was recommended that I reuse the side seals if I'm reusing the irons because apparently new side seals should be used with fresh irons.

Can you use new side seals on used irons or should you only use new seals on fresh surface irons? Is it possible to just freshen up the irons and housings with some sandpaper buffing (similar to deglazing a cylinder in a piston engine - removing score marks or scratches). Obviously just sanding won't remove the steps from corner seal wear, but maybe reduces them a bit. Personally I'm a really big fan of the Cermet housings since he machines them down and builds it back up with ceramic so you have much more coating thickness than stock, plus the other benefits of ceramic coatings (less friction, harder, better oil retention, better heat insulation). But I don't hear about many people using them so it makes me wonder what DO people use?

Discuss.

Devan

 

okay ... why not?

so far, i have done whatever my pocket dictates at the time. i have reused the housings as is, i have bought used and i have resurfaced. i HAVE NOT bought new yet, but i'm also not dead yet.

ideally, new seals should go on new or resurfaced/lapped housings, but you kinda have to do what you must if the situation requires it. on the last engine i built, i had Goopy resurface the rotor housings. for the side housings, i usually do them myself with different grades of emory cloth and wet/dry sandpaper - using anything from machine oil to WD40.

 

Reuse side housings if not horrible step-worn. If horribly step-worn, find another set.

I have never found side housings "in the field" that were unusable. Destroying side housings is a service that I do for myself

Rotor housings, I hit with a brown Roloc to clean the carbon up and bring back the shine. Rotor housings with light ridging (only really seen on FC N/A) I clean up with a process that I developed myself that looks for all the world like what Goopy does. I do it by hand, I see a way of making a fixture to do it. Doing it by hand is extremely labor intensive and Goopy is far cheaper. I still plan on making a fixture to do it

I also plan on making a fixture to lap my own side housings. I THINK I can make something useful with an old eccentric shaft and a drill press.

Option #5 is not nearly $100. Closer to $1000. Used rotor housings seem to be going for $250-300 each and side housings are also pretty hard to find unless you want S4 N/A or RX-8 4-port.

 

yes. i had actually meant to comment on that, too, but for some reason i forgot in the time it took for me to type my response. short-term memory issues, i guess.

anyway, rotor housings seem to have doubled in price from ... say ... 2006-07. i swear i recently "watched" a set of SE housings that were priced like they were REW housings. in the seller's defense, they did look pristine and i understand they are pretty much the backbone of bringing any old-school 13B back to life.

i still see good deals on S4 and S5 (mostly S4 though) side housings - both 4 and 6 ports, but they're definitely fewer and farther between. REW prices are just out of control. period. but again, i understand.

i usually look for complete MSP engines, so i can't say i've really noted what individual housings go for.

on a sidenote, i kinda hate myself for bitching about how "expensive" NEW housings were when i was much younger and old-school housings were still available. they were about the price of used REW housings today. the shortsightedness and ignorance of youth, i guess.

 

And prices are going to continue to go up for good used parts, I do see lots of junk housings being sold and members are happy because they were cheap!

Then you have the unrealistic buyers for example, There was a local guy looking for a used good running 12A wanting the history, compression numbers, I invited him over to do a compression test over 2 weeks ago. He might of got bothered when I told him I couldn't give warranties on 30+year used engine.

 

Yeah its been a while since I've looked up what good, used housings were going for. Also I said prices were per housing or iron and not for the whole thing, so it wasn't THAT far off...anyways.

But that certainly makes sense as older housings get, well...older, and the mileage on them isn't getting any lower. It makes me wonder if new housings will even be around for much longer. Is Mazda even still making them or is it just old stock that people are buying?

 

On the flip side, Mazdatrix shows -SE rotor housings for $500 a pop. So there's that.

I remember bitching about the prices too... back when I was making less than half of what I'm making now. And when everything else was cheaper too

 

i remember buying GSL-SE housings for like $300 each... in fact with all the seals, and two rotor housings the bill was $1200ish, in about 98-99