Here are a few pics I have, the one pic of the Iron pretty much explains how all for faces look like. They do not appear to be damaged, maybe showing alittle wear were the corner seals travel, but as you can see in the picture there is carbon/rust/gunk build up from where the rotors were sitting.

My question is how can I clean/remove the build up on the irons? Do I need to get them lapped? On a side note, how do you determine if you need to lap an iron, or if there is enough material to do so? What are some good places to get this done?

Now onto the rotor housings as you can see each rotor housing has some scarring, to me I think these are trash am I right? Can they be used or even fixed?

Any help would be appreciated!

 

Damn how long did that engine sit up? You may be able to use a wire wheel on a die grinder to clean up the rust on the side plates. If there is pitting just get them lapped. Mazdatrix, Racing Beat, Yaw Power ect offer this service. Housings look ok. How many miles on the engine?

 

A wire wheel? are you sure?

I am not sure how long the engine sat, I guess long enough for that to happen....

 

Have you cleaned everything using a Parts Cleaner yet? Do that first, and see if it cleans most of the gunk off. Then resort to more intense measures.

-Rob

 

No I did not, I am kinda new to this, rebuilding engines that is. I can pick parts cleaner up at any auto parts store? Don't I need a parts washer though? I assume its safe to put the irons, rotors, rotor housings, etc in the parts cleaner?

 

Not any store, but most auto parts place carry something. I picked mine up at Advanced Auto (about $45 per 20gal container).

Unless you have something else to soak the parts in, the parts washer would be a best bet.

Yes, just make sure to remove any rubber seals from the parts before soaking (i.e. the rotor oil control seals).

 

If your going on the cheap, just get yourself a coolant container like you use to drain the motor in. Grab some kerosene and a soft metal brush. Let the parts soak a little and then scrub. That is the way I used to do it in my garage.

 

Spray it with rust cleaner, let sit a few minutes and use a fine grit sandpaper to get it off.

If you have deep grooves you will need to have it resurfaced. I took mine to Racing Beat.

The way you know if they can be resurfaced is to mic the surface and determine the steps, the amount that may need to be removed in order to make the surface flat, and measure the depth of the o-ring grooves. If the o-ring groove depth minus the amount needed to be removed from the surface is greater than the minimum depth of the o-ring groove, then you can resurface them.

 

I used some diesel, close enough to kerosene and pretty much did jack, although I did not use a metal brush, what kind of soft metal brush do you recommend?



Atihun, what grit sandpaper did you use?



Mahjik, Does the parts washer fluid need to be in a metal conatiner? Or will plastic (large oil catch pan) work?

 

That stuff will eat plastic after a little while so I wouldn't recommend it.

As far as lapping, I had Mazdatrix port and lap my side housings. They do lapping for about $70 per side (looks like their prices went up a bit as it was $60 at the beginning of the year):

http://www.mazdatrix.com/getprice.asp?partnum=SV-LAP

 

does anyone know what this minimum o-ring groove depth is? my plates look like they would need about .003" to clean them up. are these trashed or usable?

thanks

justin

 

Use Rust Eater and 1000 grit. Make sure to scrape out the o-ring grooves. I found that a small precision flat head screwdriver worded the best.

Here's a housing that I sold:



As for the o-ring grooves, I looked in the manual and Mazda Motorsports and apparently there is no set number that I could find. You may want to call Racing Beat.

The wear limit on the irons are about 0.0039in (0.10mm), so if you have to take most of it off I would say it's close to the limit on the o-ring grooves. There is space for the o-rings to expand when they are "smooshed" by the housings.

Here's the housings done after they resurface them:

 

Well I bought some parts cleaner, worked a bit but not as I would have liked. Any tricks to using this stuff? Or is there only some much it can do?

Atihun, does RB clean up the housings to look like new?

Would it be better to port the housings before or after they are resurfaced?

 

Generally, you let the parts soak in the parts cleaner solution for a day or two before scrubbing. Then repeat.

Clean? They aren't going the paint them up all nice. If you have them lapped, they'll look like atihun's picture above when you get them back on the rotor facing surfaces (same if you have them done by anyone else). The other non-rotor facing surfaces will look as ugly as when you sent them in.

The lapping doesn't resurface, it basically "removes" minute layers to even the surface. However, as atihun mentioned, you can only take off so much.

Have you watch any of the rebuild videos?

 

They used to do a sonic cleaning but don't anymore, so the condition you take them in is how you will get them back, except for the resurfacing. I think that Mazdatrix still does the cleaning before resurfacing.

If you are going to port them yourself, I would port them, send them in and when you get it back, add in the chamfer afterwards. That way if you 'slip' with the grinder, it won't be on a newly ground surface.

 

Soft metal brush would be the one with the gold bristles.

Your also right about rust remover I have used PB before as well and it works very well at times.

 

Gold as in brass? I will gve that a shot as well as PB blaster, if not they will need to get lapped, I think I will see if Mazdatrix still does the sonic cleaning. BTW what is sonic cleaning?

Whats a good rebuild video to get?

What is the consensous on the rotor housings? Trash? What about rusty rotors? I think this block got sumberged in water.....

 

One last thing, how is paint thinner for cleaning? I am talking about the pre-painting (cleaning kind) is is safe for the entire engine?

Boiling in water, and industrial cleaner/degreaser is bad for the bearings right?

 

Yep.

They don't. I tried to get mine done earlier this year when they ported and lapped mine.

http://www.rotaryaviation.com/overhaul_video.htm

 

Yes.

And those are some of the best camouflaged rotors I have ever seen. They really blend into their surroundings.

 

If the rotors and irons sat in coolant for a long time, they will erode. If the rust marks on the rotor are superficial then it's okay. But the picture looks like the rotors have pot marks, holes eaten into them, so they're no good either; at least I wouldn't use them.

 

get them ceramic coated

 

LOL, yea I didn't realize it until I loaded them up.

I have the rotors saking a bit more, and I am going to take a brush to them to clean them up and see if they are still showing rust. I have been thinking of getting them coated, just my concern is what the current condition of them is and if it would matter.

 

i want to send my side housing out for resurfacing but a friend says there coated and they wont last much longer then 10k-15k miles if i do this.

i im asking because if searched and havent seen anything come up to go with whats hes saying.

 

YEAAAAAAAH!!!!!!! I love this thread! lol I've been hoping for someone to post something up like this and I found it! Eyecandy... you're kool for posting... everyone else is kool for helping him out!

Jeremy