Questions about rotary
 

First off, im obviously a newbie. I have a simple question about rotary engines. A guy I know who had a Rx7 had to replace his engine when it was at 80k for about $5000.

Do you have to replace the engine so early, or can you rebuild the engine slightly will it last much longer?

how do you slightly rebuild an engine? If your talking about re-using parts and trying to make it work, but not a full kick ass rebuild, ya It may last, but its not worth the money you just put into it. Just wait save, ride the engine tills its dead, then overhaul it...

Well I dont know how you keep up with rotary engines.. I dont know much about them. On average, how much is it to rebuild the engine?

$2000-$3000 if you pull the engine yourself and drop it off is a good range i think. just the seals and all are over $1k, and you really can't reuse any.

with most wankels ive found the main concern is the apex seals. At mazdamotorsports.com you can pick the stock's up for 30 bucks, but the racing ones are like a grand. If u have ur race records, u get a big discount from em.

I know a guy who pushed his rotory to 250k miles just replacing the apex's with new stock ones

sounds like poop...Im not the master at engine overhaul, but I was told after you pull an engine
apart, due to how its put together, you have to
replace other seals, gaskets.. im I wrong on this
guys? Plus even with new seals, the housings
should be so out of wack, the seals wont even
touch much anymore, no compression in other
words, im I wrong again?
Jason

The rotary engine has an ass load of seals, but only three basic moving parts inside. The two rotors and the shaft. All the external stuff like the starter, alternator, water pump, that stuff is all the same as on a piston engine. If you get all the seals and know where they go, (and a haynes manual) you could do all the work yourself granted you don't have a cracked rotor housing. And if you did, once you had the engine apart, you could get a good used one on ebay or by going to www.thepartstrader.com and seeing if someone has one. Basically, the more you can do yourself, the less you have to pay a shop that will charge $60/hr labor, $600 for all the seals and gaskets, $21.95 for filling the engine up with oil when they are done, and $15.00 for an oil filter.

A guy i know who races a 90 in the SCCA gets rebuits from mazda for 2 grand