wangel

Hey all; Hopefully I am in the right place? :D

I have a 2004 RX8 that had a coolant seal leak --- looks like it's the front rotor, heh. My father and I where going to rebuild it together, he was a mechanic for years in the 70s and 80s and wanted to look at the engine itself, however he passed away unexpediately a few years ago.
I was going to have the engine rebuilt --- but never did, but for whatever reason, something got to bugging me and I've decided to attempt to rebuild it myself.

Back in Feb. a friend of mine and myself pulled the engine. Took us ... 2 days I think, but we pulled it ... getting the bolt broken loose from the top of the bellhousing was a PITA, but we got it.
Now I've finally got the engine apart, and deciding on my next steps.

I want "to do it right" --- but I also am going to take my time. The front rotor, to me, looks to be in bad shape. Is it possible to clean it and get it back to good health, or should I look at buying another rotor? The rear rotor isn't that bad (I don't think), it's mostly got a bunch of carbon on it, which I assume I can clean up too. Regardless, both rotors need to be brought back into spec. As for the housings, they also look ok to me, but need to be cleaned and polished.

Is there some place I should ship the rotors too and the housings? I'd like to get them street ported and painted as well ... but have been told I can get the templates off ebay and port them myself?

I'm looking for advice etc. I'm not a complete noob, but this is my first rotary rebuild. The way I look at it, it's already broke --- can't make it worse. But now I want to fix it and make it better :D

Thanks everyone. Attached are a bunch of pics.

Rear

Rear

Front rotor

Front Rotor

Front Rotor

Front Rotor


Front

Front

Front

200.mph

iTrader: (9)

you are gonna need pics after everything is cleaned up but man that looks like crap. btw a street port isnt recommended

wangel

Street port isn't recommended? I thought it was ok as it's not as aggressive and hard on the idle?

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

because it’s not an REW, it’s a Renesis. So this isn’t the correct area for posting it.

WRT porting, other than cleaning up the edges some, porting it is likely to do little or make it worse even.

It’s also not the best rotary engine to do your first rebuild on either. You can actually make it worse. Much worse.
.

200.mph

iTrader: (9)

i was waiting for you to drop by team

wangel

I mean, it's already pretty bad.

So I should just put it back together, and get a reman and use it as a core?

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

worse would be investing time and money into it with a mediocre or bad outcome, but it’s your time and money

kind thanks to the moderator who moved the thread they even retitled it correctly for you.

dcfc3s

There's a learning curve to building an engine. That curve has gotten better with the wealth of resources out there, but it's still not an easy job.

When I built my first engine ('88 Turbo) I screwed up a bunch of stuff. I also only had a shop manual, a buddy who was good with a wrench, and the RX-7 mailing list (this was '97 or so) to help. But, I learned, fixed what I screwed up, and moved forward.

If you can accept that it's possible you can screw things up and possibly ruin parts that are currently good and you'll have to spend time and money to deal with that, go for it. You may do everything right and build a motor that will last a very long time, but you have to be ready to accept the consequences.

Dale