Northwest Auto, in association with Steve Gambone, has put together a course to teach you how to rebuild RX7 rotary engines. You will be instructed on how to rebuild your own engine.

Mr. Gambone holds a current ASE certification and is also a factory trained Mazda Technician with over twenty years experience rebuilding rotary engines.

This is a 12 hour course.

The course will consist of four laboratory sessions with each session lasting three hours.

This is a custom course and we will work with you to find a class schedule that meets your needs. The class is designed to meet your schedule, so let us know what days work best for you.

Class is normally held evenings from 6:00 pm until 9:00 pm but weekend classes are also possible. Let us know what works best for your schedule.

Enrolment is limited and is first-come first-served.

Course Agenda

Session One – Engine disassembly and determination of needed parts.

Session Two, Three, Four – Engine re-assembly.

Students will need to furnish their own engine and parts.

Tools will be available, you do not need to bring any tools of your own.

Price: $400
Location: Salem, Oregon
To enroll: Contact Bob Putman, Northwest Auto, (503) 588-1716.

 

We can also teach you how to port you rotary engine.

 

Question:
I know that the question of how much is a rebuild, is like the "how long is a piece of string" question. My main concern was that if there was a catastrophic must replace part, would that be available in the short time that the class takes place? I could always throw a couple of engines in the back of the truck, but none of them are any better than the others, to my knowledge....

Answer:
I'm afraid I can't give you an average price of a rebuild, because it varies so much with what is needed and what is wanted.

But I'll try to give you some idea of what one may expect.

One should get new bearings for the eshaft/rotor. The dealerships are about the only place one can find these; except for places like Atkins or Pineapple. If one wants to go high rpm, then cryo dipped bearing that have been windowed are recommended. I got mine from Pineapple several years ago, and can't remember what they cost, but they were more expensive than stock ones.

The soft seals are necessary and these are available at many places, in kits. Depending on where one buys them, they can range from a hundred+ up to $400+. Most kits do not have the oil seals, I think these run about $40 each, but one should check the dealership for their cost.

I have side irons at the shop that are usable. Gambone likes to have these lapped, but it's hard to find someone with a lapping machine; so he built a tool that can do this, but it's very labor intensive.

I will do some more research on the cost and availability of parts, and let you know.

Sorry I can't be more specific about parts prices, but I will do my best to find those answers for you. Just let me know specifically what you need.

These are the Pineapple prices I got for some of the parts…

Cryo rotor bearing - $28 ea.
Cryo main bearing - $16 ea.
Cryo 3 window main bearing - $58 ea.

The dealership prices…
Rotor bearing - $24 ea.
Main bearing - $14.85 ea.

I’m still looking for soft seal prices.
My guess is that the oil seal is about $20.

McMaster has soft seals but one must know which ones to order. I'm still trying to find out which are the appropriate ones to order from them but from second hand info, it looks like about a hundred bucks for the soft seals (excluding the oil seals).



Bob

 

Since you brought it up, we can send out plates for lapping and re-nitriding (optional). Here is what the plates look like when we get them back. One of the cool things is that if you port the plates or do any other work on them (drilling, tapping, oil mods, etc.) the nitride coating goes over that, so you don't get oxidation and everything is hardened. We use a very good lapper who is familiar with the flatness and parallelism required for a rotary engine (much more demanding that piston engines). If anyone is interested, I can work up the pricing and timetable.



We can also supply any Mazda parts you need, or even Mazdaspeed competition parts. And, we can cryo bearings and oil control rings.

--
Blake Qualley
Pineapple Racing
(503) 233-3878

 

wowo great ideas guys.

 

that plate is friggin' beautiful!

 

Blake,

What are your prices for lapping; re-nitriding; and for cryo oil control rings?

 

Lapping is $240 for a set of plates (4-surfaces). Up to '78 (all non-RX-7s) are not nitrided from the factory, so you can lap to any practical depth. '78-'85 (RX-7s) can be taken down about 0.004 before you take off too much factory nitriding. '86+ are limited to about 0.003 before you run into problems with the coolant o-ring groove depth.

Re-nitriding we offer for $350 for a set of plates (2-rotor motors only, of course).

Bob listed our prices for cryo'd bearings already. To make it clear, that is for a new, factory bearing that we cryo and sell; not a used bearing that you provide.

Cryo'd oil control rings are $30 a set, but for this is just the cryo'ing service and we can do it effectively on good, used parts you provide. The factory oil control rings are *very* expensive and good cryo'd used ones will actually outlast new ones. However, if the oil control rings are too worn, there is a danger of them cracking during cryo treatment. We can't be responsible in that event.

As I said, we can supply just about any factory parts you need. Just call or email and give us a shopping list. Gasket kits, o-rings, bearings, seals, rotor housings, etc.

--
Blake Qualley
Pineapple Racing
(503) 233-3878

 

BTW, if you look at the picture of the ported, lapped and re-nitrided plate below, you may notice is looks painted too...it's not. Our nitride process is a bath, so it is also applied to the external surfaces, which come out a nice gray/black. Obviously, this is a good thing for corrosion control as well as appearance, but you can certainly paint over it too. I only mention this because Mazda's process is sprayed on, so only the wear surfaces are protected.



--
Blake

 

it looks really nice

 

Blake,what kind of time frame is involved with lapping and nitriding? How would this work in conjunction with bob's class? Tear down day one, send out parts for lapping/nitriding. take a break- start up when parts are done? that nitriding plus your aluminum oil pan and laser cut baffle would make it hard to put the engine back into the bay!

 

Presumably, you would dissasemble the engine well before attending the class to send in the parts. Dissasembly is very simple, provided you have a means of loosening the flywheel nut and front pulley hub bolt. While dssasembly might be part of the class, I'm sure the real purpose of that segment of the class is diagnosis and parts inspection. Besides, even if you show up with your engine parts piled in a box, I'm sure you could lend a hand to another student and learn just as much.

 

how long will you be doing the classes i'm trying to get my buddy in yakima to attend it he loves rotory cars but knows nothing more about the engine than it only has 3 moving parts lol

we are looking for a spring/summer class

 

Question:
I'm concerned that I may need parts that may take days (or longer) to get. What happens if I start the class then determin that it will take time to get the parts? Is there flexibility in the classes?

Answer:
Yes there is flex time between classes so that one may order/get needed parts. We will work around your schedule. If it's weekends, it makes it even more flexible. Steve Gambone is the only variable. He and his wife bought a motor home and have been utilizing it on the weekends. I'm reasonable certain that, given enough lead time, Steve will be able to sync up with whatever schedule/time-table you may require. Just let me know asap when you have picked dates that work best for you.

 

Blake, how badly does your nitriding process gum up the threaded holes? Do they merely need to be chased with a tap?

 

Gum up the threads? Nitriding is a surface hardening that penetrates the metal by several thousandths of an inch. It does not gum anything up. What you do have to make sure of is that all the drilling, tapping and porting is done first, or you will have a hell of a time cutting into the hardened metal! The only thing that would potentially gum up holes would be the chemical that they use to remove the excess Nitride, but that's just a matter of rinsing the plates well and is something we do before returning the plates to you.

 

I wish the guy would offer his building class up in Washington, I would really be interested in learning how to do a rebuild myself.

 

We can do that but there are logistical problems and there are greater expenses for us to do that. If we had a place to do the course, that would solve one problem.

We really want to spread the knowledge base of how to rebuild a rotary, so if you have ideas of "where" and "when" the class could be offered in WA, please let me know.

We would be constrained to doing the classes on Weekends, because Steve and I both have "regular" jobs (that pay real wages).



Bob

 

.

 

Im interested in taking the class. But if one cant be offered in Washington, i would drive to salem.

-Dane

 

I'd be interested, more so if this was later in the year like around november or so after the company gives out the bonus

 

Whats the ballpark figure for nitriding a full set of plates? Ideally, I would like to have this done if it is not cost prohibitave.

 

Ah, I see. Thanks for the info.

 

hey blake what kind of package deal can you work for those of us that would like lapping if needed and nitriding after either we port our housings are self or have you port them, and a complete "rebuild kit" apex seals, complete gasket set, oil control rings and water seals, as well as rotor bearings, pilot bearing and seal, everything to get a nice motor thats as good as new with a good streetport?

 

Right now, we are at a stand for surface grinding and lapping. Our old place was bought out and turned corporate, then our last set of plates cost us THREE TIMES as much as usual. We would be better off sending the plates to Racing Beat, unless we find another lapping place capable of the specs we require. We may just end up lapping plate in-house if we can get a deal on the equipment.

If you want a rebuild that is "good as new", spend the money on new rotor housings and forget the lapping unless it is truly out of spec. Rebuild kits are on our web site. If you want porting, we can quote you a price.