themadninja

@Reutter, I'm not sure what caused that. Most likely that it wasn't redlined enough, and I never used a premix. I don't know how much of that was on me, and how much was on previous owners; it was already at 120,000 miles before I saw it. Additionally, it had coolant seal breakage in BOTH rotors, so that could have caused it as well. I'm not sure.

The biggest roadblock I've been hitting has been my inexperience with these engines when it comes to determining component condition. I've posted a new thread here with some pictures and a description of what I'm seeing. I'm not comfortable with moving forward on the rebuild (either buying new housings or working on my current ones) until I'm more sure about what the best option is. Any help is hugely appreciated! Thanks a lot, guys.

Reutter

I don't have rebuilding experience but economics seems to dictate that you need to buy a replacement engine on ebay or other. Replacing 2 rotor housings, 1 rotor, and 2 end plates is $2500 plus the rebuild kit plus possibly more damaged parts. I don't think the rotor housings are repairable or would then be marginal. If you have to spend $1000(rebuild kit) and your time, you want to end with a spec engine that you can be proud of. The FSM has inspection standards so spec the parts that are good and consider selling. A used motor is $1000.

Reutter

I wondered if the gummed-up rotor might have caused the failure. I guess it depends on which happened first. I have a motor with 150K miles so wonder whether I should rebuild before something breaks and trashes everything. I have good compression so I guess I will watch for when the compression starts to go away. Coolant failure in one housing probably could have caused the rest of the damage.

themadninja

If its semi-easy and affordable for you to rebuild, I'd definitely think about it. Housings are expensive, and if you can avoid a catastrophic failure by rebuilding now that's definitely a plus. I've heard that these engines don't generally last much longer than 150,000 miles, but that depends 100% on how they're treated. Mine failed at 120,000 miles, but I did something stupid (engine cold peel out), the coolant was in terrible shape, and I have no idea how the previous owners treated her.

I'll think about trying to order a full keg, any suggestions for where to start looking? eBay? I've seen 'JDM' engines with good compression quoted at $1500+, not sure how much I'd be saving by going that route. Plus it seems questionable because I really don't know what is going on inside. I think that unless something changes or a really good deal comes up, I'm most comfortable ordering from an established rebuilder like rotary resurrection, just because they'll know what they have better than I could ever tell.

Thanks for all the questions and help, guys. Keeping my feet moving on this build!

MrGoodnight

iTrader: (1)

I would honestly just try to find the parts you need on the classifieds here on the forum.

I see people selling the 3 s4 NA irons for $100 bucks and same for a pair of s4 NA rotors.
Shouldn't be too hard to find some good housings either.
Or send your old housings to goopy to get "resurfaced".
Cheaper than, what is is, $500? for a brand new housing.

themadninja

I'll give it a look! Thanks.

psyaddict

got my used housings for 91$ from ebay, unfortunately shipping to estonia is like 175$ and i have to wait 4-6 weeks.
nice thread btw. i can see now what waits me. hope my engine is in better shape than this one.

Reutter

Here is a site that shows some of the visual inspection standards for rotor housings:
Bad Rotor Housings

themadninja

Ok!

The rebuild has been moving more sluggishly lately as I've realized how serious the knowledge gap between the things I need to know and the things I actually know is. Basically, having never rebuilt a rotary engine (or any engine) before, I have quickly gotten myself to the point where it is time to make decisions which I should probably not be allowed to make. However, there is no one else around volunteering to make them for me, so I have been doing my best to educate myself. This has included reading about half of , as well as emailing Kevin over at Rotary Resurrection, and posting multiple threads here. I'm still not anywhere close to really understanding much of what's going on with my car, but I'm at least more sure of the condition of my housings. I'm going to try to replace my rotor housings, end housings, and one rotor. The next step is finding good condition + affordable replacements. I may find myself revising my definition of 'affordable'.

While I try to acquire new engine parts, I've been spending some of my in-shop time tearing down the transmission. It was giving me a lot of grinding especially in 3rd gear, including completely 'locking up' on me and not allowing me to shift into 3rd, 4th, 5th, or reverse. I was able to get past the problem by jiggling the shifter desperately, but only after paying for a couple of tow truck rides and recieving a frightening quote from a shop.

So while I had the engine out anyway, I'll be trying to refurbish the transmission. I've got it down to bare gears now, though I understand that that is where the job actually starts. Here are some pictures of that project starting, and one of my car sitting alone and engineless for the winter in its storage spot
At least it's staying dry.

yanman61

nice job man GL.

Montanrchy

Good luck with the buuild, cant wait to see what it turns out like.

Jose Villanueva

good luck with your build

Leonel95

Whats up man just happened to come across this post today.
And i saw myself in the same situation in 2005. I had someone do the engine block for me. Then in July 2008 i decided to tackle the job on my own. S5 91 N/a and its still running today. The best investment you need to do is a Factory Service Manual for the Car the one the dealers use. A set of Calipers, feeler gauges and Indicator Dial.
Unfortunately in your situation the distance to parts is bad.

See exactly what can be reused if its in spec. And either visit ebay and the forum Sellers for individual parts. Theres a reason why the 13B is in slices.LMAO.
If you got questions there's alot of folks here who will help you out.

With gaskets and a few parts that i needed replaced on the N/A back then i probably didnt spend more than 800 bucks. And that included a brand new 300 dollar clutch kit


Currently i am getting parts to build a T2 s5 engine.

racerzedge77

iTrader: (2)

I just started a tear down myself for the first time. Good luck with the build.

notFSTenuff

def keeping an eye on this one

notFSTenuff

try and write up how you did everything and what kind of problems you ran into along the way. (:

69Camaro302

I will be starting a build soon. Thanks for the helpful info and pics.

wthdidusay82

iTrader: (15)

I'm going to rebuilding a turbo engine but I won't be porting it .

Can smoothing the ports and polishing them help performance?

Rotary >Pistons

themadninja

Thanks for the interest, everyone! I'm still working on getting all the parts together, I've decided to go with like-new condition for all housings, from rotaryengine.com. I've also ordered a transmission rebuild kit from this website. It hasn't come in yet, but once it does I should be good to start on swapping bearings and synchros, should fix my grinding/poor shifting problem I've had.

Because I made the decision to go with 'like-new' housings, my main roadblock at this point is saving the money to get all the parts necessary to keep moving. I'm estimating that I'll have made the necessary money by late January, and then with luck I'll be able to update this space with my progress on that. I'll also post any progress on the transmission rebuild here.


My understanding of that is that you will see some power gains, nothing major; but the nice thing about doing that and not porting is that you won't be messing with your timing and so your idle will stay good. If you're taking your engine apart anyway, it's not a bad idea.

wthdidusay82

iTrader: (15)

I've got two engines to take apart, hopefully I'll get a decent amount of usable parts.

I figure the more time you put into research the better you'll do when you build it, no sense in rushing it unless you need the car to drive to work.

Rotary >Pistons

themadninja

Absolutely. I highly recommend getting in contact with an established builder such as rotary resurrection or rotaryengine.com to get information that you can be completely sure is correct. Also it's not a bad idea to post a thread with pictures of any parts you're unsure of the condition.

wthdidusay82

iTrader: (15)

I actually had my last engine rebuilt by Kevin at rotary resurrection, I had it in the car for 6 years (only 25,000 miles) before the coolant seals went for unknown reasons.

I don't know if he'd help me or that other site would if I asked.

I do plan on making posts/threads on my build, getting an fsm, as well as an instructional video on how to rebuild the engine.

I think the reason my seals went were from age, thinning out over time, the engine had previously blown the coolant seal passage in an iron, which I had replaced.

Rotary >Pistons

tinytyrant

iTrader: (3)

nice one.

with very limited mechanical experience and a 'how to' manual, i built a 13b from two engines using the best parts from each.

i re-used a lot of seals (apex etc) but i replaced the oil control rings and the springs which sit under the seals. essentially, economics drove my replacement decisions. if they were relatively cheap, i replaced. chipped, bent, failed: replace.

good luck. it's easy if you want to do it, you'll be surprised about how much you know by the end of the process.

beeohwhydee

good luck, enjoy the learning experience!

87'ls1FC

Hey not sure if anyone has put this up or not, but a good trick to hold the seals in while your assembling, use vasoline or assembly grease to hold the seals in place, works wonders!