So this week I'll be taking on not only my first rotary engine rebuild, but my first engine rebuild of any kind ever. I've taken a lot of time to prepare and learn, I've done a mild streetport to the intake and exhaust ports. What I want to know from everyone here is:

What tips would you give a first time engine builder?

Be it common mistakes, advice, personal experiences, etc. I want to hear them!

 

Label your connections Take lots of pics and take your time and use a how to video as a guide

 

The Factory Service Manual is your friend...but here's a few notes I jotted down when I started building short blocks:
Triple-R: Engine Rebuild - A First Attempt

Regards,
Crispy

 

welcome to the board.

- make sure you have ALL your materials (tools, parts, lubricants, glue, vaseline, sealants, etc.)
- organize your seals
- use actual Krazy Glue to glue the apex seals
- be VERY meticulous and follow your reference material
- just take your time

for what it's worth, if i recall, it took me about 4 hours to build my first engine.

 

Great stuff everyone

Seems like I'll be in good hands on this board haha.

Can't wait to get started!

 

Crispy's site is great. Without reading completely through it this may be a little redundant but....

*Have a CLEAN and WELL LIGHTED workspace. If you anticipate spreading the work out over a couple weekends...or longer, then space should be insulated from having to move things around or re-organize in the mean-time. And secure from small children, curious neighbors etc.
*Invest in some of the specialty tools, especially an engine stand and a rotary engine adapter. There are other ways to do it, but generally speaking the extra cost is worth it IMO. Along these lines a pick set, bench wire wheel are handy. Micrometers for checking parts for spec and a decent torque wrench set and a box of latex gloves.
*If you don't have air tools...and even if you do, the FW nut and front hub nut can be bastards. At least on the FD. For many it just might be easier to take the short block to a local shop, pay them $20 or so for 5 minutes of their time and use of their 1000 ft/lb impact to back those two nuts off. Though you may need to bring your own 2 1/8" (54mm) socket for the FW nut.
*A utility sink is handy. For cleaning and de-carboning the rotors I glove up with eye protection and used EASYOFF oven cleaner, a nylon scrubber and then rinse in the utility sink followed by copious spaying of WD-40. Keep the old hard seals for cleaning their associated grooves of carbon. Repeat as necessary.
*Assembly lube, hylomar, low-temp and hi-temp anti-seize, Vasaline, quality gasket maker like "The Right Stuff" or "Hondabond", WD-40, silicone hi-temp sealant and thread-locker.
*Great time to do a continuity check on the engine harness and re-wrap if necessary.
*If you have a good used set of plugs, use them for initial start-up and after the smoke clears and you burn off all the anti-seize and assembly lube, install the new ones.
*As Misterstyx mentioned, digital photos were God's gift for the first timer. So is masking tape or a "Sharpie" to label things.
*Beer is good. Pizza better. For me, an occasional cigar was written into the pages of the Factory Service Manual.

 

after about 30 i've found that i:
no longer glue the apex seals, there is two ways i know of installing them,
one: using a rubber band to keep them in the rotor until you slide the housing over(preferred)
two: install them into the rotor from the side, with the rotor housing already installed
no longer use hylomar, or Vaseline, using small dabs of grey rtv to hold the coolant seals, and wheel bearing grease to lube the gears/make the apex/side/corner seals stick to each other
no longer use gaskets for the oil pan, or water pump, cut it out of thin carb board for the water pump. i have pulled an oil pan cleaned the oil off the rim, and slapped some new rtv on top of the old and slapped it together... 3 or 4 times in a row before removing all the rtv and starting with clean surfaces... no leaks.


my point is as a noobie you'll like be over cautious on little things, but could miss some of the biggest ones. those are
don't pinch the coolant seals, it's helpful to stretch them in your hands a tiny bit at a time until they fit without trying to roll out.
don't let the apex triangle piece go flying, if you press it down into it's position it's under spring pressure and bumping the motor can send it flying several feet or down inside the motor somewhere.
when you get it all done, make sure you have gas to keep it running for a good hour, a few of mine have started right up, but then died a few minutes later and flooding out on the next attempt, this is because of low compression of a rebuild, it needs a run a bit before you'll notice the engine running alot better. this as been as little as 45 miles, to almost 400. but usually within a few hours of driving. good luck.

 

Did you start yet?

 

Crispy, Did you use the Oil and Coolant seal rebuild kits? Or the Master rebuild kit? (Looks like the oil/coolant seals from the pics)


If so, how has the engine held up so far?

Torn between whether to get the master or just the Oil/Coolant kits and RA Apex seals

 

In the link I sent I used the master kit for that motor. It was my first so I wanted to be sure I had everything. Since then I've learned a lot and some of the gaskets aren't needed for a straight up shortblock build so I've since just bought the soft seal kits and bought apex and corners separately. The gas and water seals are the same as OEM if you buy them from Atkins. I've always used the OEM seals here. The oil seals are different. I've used both OEM and the Viton O-rings and haven't seen an engine last long enough to wear either out. Usually something else lets go first. So I can't give you an honest answer here.
As for that specific engine it was sold along with the racecar so who knows. To date, knock on wood, I've not heard of any issues with my rebuilds due to seal problems.
FWIW,
crispy

 

These videos will help you in the process of rebuild a 13B or 12A engine. While they deal with an older 13B from an RX-5 Cosmo, the engine internals are basically the same for any 12A or 13B. The only real difference is that on engines newer than '85, the coolant O-rings are in the irons instead of the housings as shown in this video.

The first video is engine removal. While it is an RX-5 Cosmo, an car that few will ever see let alone work on, the process will give you the general idea of an engine removal. Steps are similar for most rotary vehicles, it's the details that differ.


The next video is engine disassembly and some cleaning. This is an old carbureted 13B so the accessories bolted to the engine are different than newer engines. However the process of externally disassembling any rotary is about the same. Covered here is also flywheel removal (same for any rotary) and engine parts cleaning.


Cleaning of all engine parts continues in this video. Provided here are examples of how this is accomplished with a minimum of tools and supplies. It's a lot of labor to clean old parts until they are looking new again. At the same time, parts should be inspected.


Finally, here is the engine assembly. This video includes clearancing side seals, assembling all the seals onto the rotor, then assembling all the parts into a 13B short block.

 

that's how I did my first gen over YouTube and help from friends pretty fun stuff

it's not juice! it's a protein shake!

 

Inalkii,

Have you done this yet? Very interested to see how it went.

 

Im about to start a rebuild too and I'll post here as well