i met this guy at our local swap meet, he had a 1st gen oil cooler and i asked him if he had any other rotary parts. so i guess back at his shop he's got a 1,000 mile all original 1974 12a. he said he bought it back in the 70's, some kid rolled his parents brand new car and he wound up with it. twin dizzy motor and has been stored with atf all this time. i figure if i tear it down and put in new soft seals i may have a nice classic rotary. what should i pay and what would the motor be worth?

 

Twin dizzy? I would pass. There is no way in hell that you can tell if there is only 1,000 miles on it.

 

he said that besides the dust it looks brand new.

 

No matter what. I'd say it's worth what he said he'd take for it.


That swap meet sucked

 

The engine is not worth much, except maybe to someone who is going for the completely stock restore.

Also, don't forget the older engine 6MM apex seals were crap, with engines rarely making it past 50K miles.

If I was looking for one to drop into my 2, I would be looking to spend about $200, to $300 TOPS.

 

thanks, that was the answer i was looking for.

 

Make an offer of $100.00

 

I so my old twin dizzy 12a with 120 compression on both chambers, with tranny for $50.

Those engines are really heavy, I'd say almost double of a S5 13B. And I sure wouldn't be droping that into my rx-2 unless your going for the 100% orginal thing.

And I also think it would be a 73 or older engine for the fact that 74+ 12a's were single dizzy.

 

i agree some with what is being said and i have to disagree also, it is a heavier engine they are not as reliable as newer engines, if it is a twin dizzy motor it has to be prior to 1974, if it is from an Rx3 and you want to go Rx2 you will still need to change the oil pan and pickup. It does use 6mm apex seals that are a Carbon 1 piece seal(they also use 2 side seals for a total of 12 per rotor), I think that they are NLA. but as far as value goes if it is complete and that new it could be sold for 600-700 pretty easy. You do see them come up on ebay as cores and typically go for $100 as a core. Also they are strange in that if it was a good motor when taken out it should still be a good motor something that is not always the case with the newer motors.

as far as reliability i have 3 running ones right now 2 of them are original with over 60k but i also have about 30 that could be used as cores. If i build one of these motors now i typically have them built using later model parts that are lighter, with better seals and fewer seals.

just my opinion