Greg

Anyone using these?What are your results with these? Only problem I see with these is damage when apex seal goes.

WackyRotary

For 1200bucks, you could buy many other parts. Anyone who can afford these housings are probably professional racers or are loaded finaically. I wonder how many of these they sell a month.

Anyway, if used these with ceramic apex seals and MFR perpheral housings with a big turbo for each housing, your probably looking at A **** load of power for not much weight.

94touring

Would it be possible to use these lighter housings in a 3rotor conversion and keep the motor in the stock position without having the cost of moving everything back?

Greg

They have them for the 20b engine
http://racingbeat.com/resultset.asp?PartNumber=11072

RETed

They don't make one for the front/center 20B housing.

I didn't want to put in the first word; I know Greg would've jumped all over me.

They are a waste of money.&nbsp You're paying big bucks for saving maybe about 20lbs. per housing.&nbsp On a 13B, that's not even 100lbs.&nbsp Most racing sanctions require minimum weight requirements, so why are you looking at a lighter engine for?&nbsp The engine sits pretty low as it is.&nbsp It doesn't lower "reciprocating mass".&nbsp I guess RB has enough serious inquiries to go ahead an make them.&nbsp I think they threw out the ~$1,000 price tag for each housing and got buyers so went ahead with full production.&nbsp Lost wax castings shouldn't be that bad for these things.&nbsp Scrap aluminum is relatively cheap.&nbsp You're looking at a $100-$200 production cost for just the casting.&nbsp The machining the probably the biggest cost, as precision is required.&nbsp Even with the flame coating and hardening processes, they are probably making a 100% profit on these things - nice.



-Ted

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

its probably something they made for the bonneville car, and decided to sell them. the aviation guys wont even blink at the extra cost to save that much weight

mike

peejay

Very good point!

Also, one other advantage to the RB stuff is since they are making them, they can make them without the side ports at all, which is great for PP engines... no chance of compression bleed-thru around the Devcon'ed ports.

Greg

so the verdict is not worth it. Just curious. I dont think 60 lbs is worth a G! It would be nice if they were in the $500 a piece area. Thanks Ted but I only jump on you when you are jumping on others so we get get a house of pain thing going on. No hard feelings

Evil Aviator

Not even - more 15 lbs per housing.

They wear much better than the stock housings, but IMO they are going to have to last an awfully long time to warrant that price tag, especially if you need some type of porting other than PP.

I wonder if there is an advantage in the aluminum side housings expanding at the same rate as the rotor housings? Maybe less stress on the dowels?

Greg

Or possibly more cracking in the dowl area due to the softer material? I would hate to puck up some of these side housings and have less reliability that with the stockers

magnus

Thi is the first I ever heard of them. Before you jump in and say stock is good enough.

I would buy them, and try them out. All things considered that is not very expensive for a set of housings especially because they are in aluminum.

One benefit I see is they may or may not crack as easy around the front housing, but porting is easier and the casting may be different to allow for different ports.

also that 60 lbs of the front oan rx7 will make it weight transfer a hell of alot better!

where do I sign.

Greg

The dowl area on the housings actually look bigger than the FC and the FDs. Still I am wonder how much stress the aluminum can take on it with the heat that the engine makes. The weight loss is definately a plue in drag racing but im trying to see if the pros outweigh the cons

TYSON

This may be an advantage. If I'm thinking correctly, this was one of the big problems with using aluminum heads on cast iron blocks in V-8's. They wanted to do it long ago, but had to wait for the gaskets to be developed that would seal properly. The different expansion rates between the aluminum and cast iron allowed leaking.

relvinnian

This is ASE_Joe:
Another problem with Aluminium heads on a cast block is elctrolysis of the cooling system due to the different materials. I hear that it actually eats the cooling ysytem slowly, and the lost material can clog the smaller cooling jackets and radiator.

Dragon

Pros and Cons I can think of...

Pros: I build my engines in my 2nd floor apartment, it'd be much easier to carry them down stairs to put them in the car...

Aluminum will disipate heat much faster than cast iron
possibly helping to releive hot spots in the engine...

If they can stick the secondary ports on the intermediat housing you could build a cheaper 26B and they would be easy to machine for the extra stationary gears.


Cons: I'll bet the first time you overheat the engine, via radiator hose breaking etc.. they'll warp and be junk

corner seal wear into the housing will be much faster

more engine vibration due to less engine mass, with the same mass spinning inside it..

Kiwi NZ

It seems to me you could save around 36 lb's/ 16 Kg's on the weight of your engine(13B), as a percentage that is around 15/20%(bear block weight). All that weight is sitting on the front axle.

Now if you are a street light racer it would seem a little extreme to fork out the gold for these housings. If your a serious racer with a car that you have spent considerable time and money lightening,it is very hard to find amother 16Kg's to rip out!!

It would be nice if they were a little cheaper

WackyRotary

I wonder how quickly they will start whipping out performance port housings for renesis engines? Seems like the next logical step, I'm sure porting the exhuast on those sideplates will be VERY limited by Mazda's attempt to prevent modification to the ports. Ofcourse, I'm sure a popular mod will be to go to a exhuast port on the rotor housings later on. Maybe they will make up rotor housings too? Thats what they should do to compete with Mazdas new rotor housings to get a price a little less then $359 for say a 12a rotor housing...

magnus

I called them to order and I found out they only had the rear and intermediate housing, they come closed up with no port.

apparently they've been sitting on those castings for many many years.

Anyway there is no front housing so I'm out.


and BTW they're 1300 EACH!

fdracer

These are cast? I though they were billet aluminum. If they are cast they're a rip off.

Greg

1300 each is out of the question anyways, That would be $3900 is side housings!!! Id rather have a 3 rotor with porting And why in gods name didnt they make the front? Maybe they wanted your to have a weird lookin engine

SPEED_NYC

iTrader: (3)

greg, i think mangus means that they just dont have any front plates left.
it looks as if these plates have just been sitting in storage somewhere for years. I think it's a 'while supplies last' kinda situation.

magnus

Apparently they never made a front one. They were made for one of their 'price is no object' demo cars.

Damn, a mazda sponsorship would be nice!

RICE RACING

So for $1300 US you also get a rear end plate with no where to bolt up your oil pressure regulator !

They are **** !

RB can suck my ***** ! $1300 what a joke