Nice.

 

Just have to pick up a fitting today and we've got everything we need to start our pre-trials!
We'll get on it next week and see how everything works out.
Will update again soon

 

I'm very much looking forward to seeing progress on this.

I would be a buyer for sure at $250 per housing as this is in line with normal machining costs for rebuilding a typical piston engine. Until this point, rotary rebuilds always seemed like a bargain because there was virtually no machining costs in an average rebuild.

By my estimations, if you were to continue to offer this service at $250 per housing, the average builder would be able to put together a 13B with machined housings, lapped irons and all internal seals replaced at around the $2500 mark (cost, not retail price). This may seem high to the people that have been around, but for a rebuilt engine that is properly machined that price is equal to what it would cost to machine and rebuild your average performance piston engine, and in some cases less.

I'll be following your progress as I am interested in being an early adoptor of this. This really has the potential to save the hobby from housing scarcity.

 

^^ We will not be selling them at $250, that was a special price to get some out there if anyone wanted them immediately. I was offering them at a loss but guess what.......no one was serious and took me up on it.
As I have said before we are aiming at half of new but there is no guarantee of that

 

Ooof, that's going to be a tough sell.

If we're talking $800-$900 a pair, then spending the extra $900 to just get brand new Mazda OEM housings becomes a much more attractive prospect.

So, from a cost perspective as a builder here's what I'm seeing for actual engine build costs assuming irons are within spec and can be machined:

Rebuilt 13B, used housings ~$2000
Rebuilt 13B, re-chromed housings $~3000
Rebuilt 13B, New Mazda Housings $~4000

While I can see where there is some value in this product, at that price point the fact is that using new OEM housings only represents a ~20% increase in total build cost over the re-chromed housings. For customers spending that kind of money the extra ~$900 to go Mazda OEM is negligible in the overall price of the rebuild. When you take into the account the uncertainty of this new product compared to the known quality of OEM housings I'm not really seeing the marketability. I think to see any sort of volume sales you're going to have to come in at 33% of Mazda's pricing at most.

This is all of course just my opinion as a small volume builder. At $450-$500 a piece for this service it wouldn't even be worth my time to offer it to customers or even use it in my own rebuilds once you factor in the extra time and shipping costs involved compared to just buying new housings.

I still wish you the best of luck and will watch this thread for updates!

Fine print: $900 per housing is high estimate used. Some models such as S4 Turbos have housings as low as $700 new where S6 Housings run into the $900 range.

 

Yah, i think at half price of new most people will just say well get new then. Plus there is shipping costs to be concerned about. But hey, its his product, he can sell it at whatever he wants haha.

thewird

 

offcourse not all housings can be sourced new =)

 

Half the price is half the price no matter how you slice it and I think is very reasonable as a refurbished item. Saving $1000 per build is nothing to scoff at that's for sure.

It won't be long until Mazda's stock is depleted. Then what do I charge?

 

Thanks, my thoughts exactly.

Not to mention the time saved in porting exhaust or even PP intakes. What's that worth? How about saving MFR PP housings?

 

I think this will be a valuable service, much preferable to the current 'resurfacing' services offered out there

 

Housings for 1988 Turbo II's list 1200 a piece. Ridiculous. I myself hope this technology works.

 

Im interested in this service. I think it will be a valuable asset when the NOS is depleted. I have a bunch of housings that id like to get done.
As well as my 20b housings if this is going to last.

 

As much as you want. No one else offers this service.

 

im ok with 1/2 the prices of new ones remenber if you have housing that have some machine done that add up.

 

There will come a time that this service will be invaluable and you would be able to charge whatever you see fit once the stock of housings runs out. Right now there are still housings lurking at reasonable prices for every series engine. While Mazda has stopped producing some, they remain available for sale from various retailers. I think it's fair to say there will be housings available for another 5.. maybe 10 years. These things don't exactly fly off the shelf as demand is quite low aside from S6 housings.

As of right now I'm still able to get any series OEM housing brand new and have purchased S6 housings as recent as May of this year.

From the pricing standpoint, for 50% the cost of an OEM housing, your product needs to be at least 50% as good (durable, etc) as an OEM housing. Is it? I don't know. Maybe we will know after we get some housings in a car for a few years of use. I truly hope it happens for you as I do want to see this product succeed.

Keep in mind you also do have competition as J.H.B performance is doing refurbishing with Cermet products starting at $350 each which is rougly 40% cost of new OEM.

 

The JHB housings for that price are clear out with blemishes or one off with problems. If you wanted a cermet x housing you'd be lucky to get it for $850 wholesale. If you could even get it

We have 2 re-chromed housings in 2 different vehicles for 5+ years. Neither have been back to Rob for any reason.

 

Rob will do a compression test on Chris' engine and we'll report on that.

 

Chris's engine is running superb.i just talked to him a couple of days ago.i think he has a few thousand miles on it now.he drives it for work every day.i would guess 100 or so miles a day.

 

That would provide some much needed data that might sway me afterall!

Do you have different customers running different types of seals? It's entirely possible that in some situations with your new coating non Mazda seals may perform better or worse so it would be great to get all the data on which seals work best with your specific chroming under real world conditions.

I just picked up a Turbo II shell for a personal build ... I think I might be willing to take you up on giving these a try in the near future. Perhaps I'll use one "resurfaced" and one "rechromed" housing and see how they compare. Now I have to begin the hunt for a decent core as I'm fresh out of good T2 rotors and short a rear housing. I'd love to talk in more detail once I can source a cheap core that I don't mind destroying and see the results of compression tests over long term use that you have so far.

 

I'm in for a set. I have a set of p-port housings that could use a sprucing up.

 

So since its half of new housings and 12a housings are NLA... what are we looking at for those? Lol

 

^^ we'll figure that out once we have an idea of what is involved from start to finish.

 

I'm extremely happy to report that we are finished!

I'll be taking the 2 FD housings SFD01 and SFD02 on Monday to get chromed next week.

Of course pics will be posted as soon as they are done.
Happy Trails!

 

Well, we discovered a couple of minor tweaks we need to do and I will try to get that done this week. Will report as soon as we have something

 

2 out of 3 tweaks finished, just 1 more to go