Can anyone hook me up with a 3rd gen mechanic in the Kansas City area?

 

PM the screen name Matt Hey, he came to our Rotary meet at shawneed mission park and is the only one i know of with a third gen, hopefully he can hook you up

 

Thanks.

 

Unfortunately, I don't know of any good K.C. rotary mechanics. There are some FD owners that have been helping others for a long time though. Mahjik (Kyle I believe) is very active on this forum and has helped a lot of folks. Art (who Kyle knows) has also been a huge help to others. They, like me, are very busy people but very helpful if just to give a little advice or point you in the right direction. My brothers and I have done most of our own work on our 7's but I am out in the boonies of Baldwin City which is just south of Lawrence. There is a place that does rotary rebuilds near Topeka called Prather or something like that. There are a couple of places that do some 1st gen stuff in the K.C. area but I wouldn't let them touch my sequential twin turbo setup. The search feature of the forum here is a great resource and Malloy Mazda is invaluable if you have a little mechanical ability. So what is your FD's problem?

Prather Racing in Wakarusa, KS...

http://www.pratherracing.com/

Sante Fe Garage in Independence does some suspension work...

http://www.santafegarage.com/src/index.aspx

K.C. Raceware but again 1st gen race stuff...

http://www.kcraceware.com/

 

I feel like a fraud :P I don't have a FD, my friend does. several months ago he discovered a oil, rear seal idk. anyway it overheated and he doesn't know if the motor is shot or not. he wants to find out and get a estimate on work.

 

best rotary shops in kc area are prather racing and K.C. Raceware imo.

 

It's not that hard to determine if a rotary engine is shot. First you fix any known coolant/oil/vacuum leaks and top off the fluids. Then take it for a easy test drive. If it doesn't overheat/smoke/run rough or die then you are probably fine. It's nice to have a boost gauge that should read at least 15" vacuum at idle with no fluctuations too. Really, if he did do damage by overheating the engine then the damage is already done and most of the engine parts are toast. If the engine is just overheated a "little bit" then the coolant o-rings are usually the first to suffer and will cause smoke (steam) out the exhaust and/or overheating. Do a search for champagne test in the 3rd gen section for another way to test the coolant o-rings. If he did do damage from overheating then normally I would recommend a Mazda reman as the cheapest route because most of the parts would be unusable. It was just recently announced in the 3rd gen section of this forum that there were no more Mazda remans at the moment though.

 

FWIW IF you need a rebuild....
I spoke with Jesse Prather last year about a rebuild. Seemed like a very nice guy...and honest. He assured me that they were quite capable of doing a shortblock rebuild on a 13bREW, but since they specialized in 1st and 2nd gens., they had no expeience with the longblock. You'd be responsible for that yourself.

 

Anderson automotive in olathe is rotary friendly.

 

I'd go to prather, their a very trustworthy family. Good guys with a lot of race experience.

 

I would guess Prather racing could do a rebuild without any trouble. When it comes to the most tedious portion of the rebuild, a 13B is a 13B.