Rebuild Companies

[r0t4ry]

Hi,
 
I\'m pretty new and here and haven\'t posted anything before, but was hoping I might be able to benefit from the mass amount of knowledge on here.
 
As with most FD owners i\'m at the point where my car needs a new rebuild, which I am no where near skilled/knowledgable enough to do on my own. So i\'ve been looking at companies, but from reading other threads I know some people have had horror stories, and there are companies out there to avoid.
 
The closest to me is Rotechniks. Has anyone dealt with them before and can tell me what the experience with them was like.
 
If not is there a company that you guys would recommend.
 
Also! I\'m not too sure what the compression the engine is giving out, but would it be a bad idea to drive there? since finding out the engine needed a rebuild I\'ve disconnected the battery and the car has remained parked at home.
 
Final question, what is the general cost of transporting a car on a flat bed trailer?
 
All the advice I can get would be great! as I can\'t really afford to stuff this up and end up re-spending.

[Nik da Greek]

My engine was rebuilt by Rotechniks. Very, very high quality work BUT very, very not cheap! I guess you pay for quality, but I\'m sure other firms work to just as high a standard, if you know what I mean

[r0t4ry]

My engine was rebuilt by Rotechniks. Very, very high quality work BUT very, very not cheap! I guess you pay for quality, but I\'m sure other firms work to just as high a standard, if you know what I mean

how very not cheap? =)
their website shows 2750 (£1995 +£750 fitting) but I\'m assuming there\'ll be other hidden costs as well? or is that generally it (fingers crossed there\'s no major screw ups with my engine)

[Nik da Greek]

I\'d better make it clear that I didn\'t own the car when they rebuilt it, it belonged to a mate at work, so I can\'t be totally accurate on what precisely needed doing. He knows nothing about cars, so wasn\'t able to give a very exact account of what blew up, but from translating his witterings, it sounded like it broke up one or more tips and spat them out through the turbos, w*nkering them into the bargain.
 
The bill came to £5,800. Which I think is a lot! This was the end of 2002, and the engine was simply replaced with a remanufactured one presumably on an exchange arrangement, as were the turbos. However, I know rebuild prices would vary depending on how many parts were needed anyway, and this bill was for other stuff such as brakes and so on, so is not necessarily an accurate reflection of the price you\'d always pay.
 
I\'d also say that i have never had any trouble whatsoever with the engine or turbos in any way and would not have any qualms letting Rotechniks work on it again. I just would make sure I had plenty of cash lined up before I booked it in!

[Brett]

The actual cost of a rebuild is normally more than the fitting and rebuild costs show, this is normally due to wear and tear on other ancillaries and parts that should be replaced whilst the engine is out etc.

[r0t4ry]

great...and here i thought once i get 2.5-3k together i\'ll give rotechniks a call and book my car in.
 
what about driving my car? i live about 35 miles from rotechniks, and well before i parked it up i could still drive the car, was just using a sh*t load of petrol.

[Timmy]

I\'m guessing thats 2750 + VAT + any housings/end plates + maybe a turbo rebuild + fixing what caused the engine to fail.

[Nik da Greek]

Right, dug out the invoice from the Rotechniks rebuild. It included £130 labour and £480 parts (plus VAT) just on chassis parts and brakes that my mate had done at the same time and were nothing to do with the engine rebuild. The fitment of the remanufactured engine was £750 and the engine itself was £1995. The bill also includes £500 for "Rotor housing surcharges" which is the only bit I don\'t get, if they were just putting in a remanufactured engine, I don\'t know why they\'d need to remachine housings or whatever. Maybe it just means they had to extract and re-coil stripped threads in the housing or something, I dunno.
 
What makes up the numbers is all the extra gubbins you may (or may not) need as part of the rebuild. For example, there was £50 in belts, £125 on coolant hoses, £50 on silicone joiners for the I/C pipes and so on. All these are things that you may be able to get away with re-using, depending on their condition and how willing the garage doing the work are to faff about re-using old parts. You just need to bear in mind that re-fitting chewed up manky old parts may be a false economy. Like Brett said, a lot of parts like that are very easy to refit when the engines out but almost impossible when it\'s all back together. To re-use an old drive belt and then have it snap 50 miles later would be a nightmare, which is why garages tend to want to use new parts, they don\'t want you coming back shouting the odds cos of something like that.
 
You can make some sensible buys to keep costs down; for example, it was £400 for a good used primary turbo from them, but you could probably pick up an entire used turbo pack with actuators and everything for less than £150 off eBay.
 
The thing to do is talk to their workshop. Let them know your budget, and see if they\'ll be willing to help out by letting you supply parts if necessary to keep costs down, or to re-use old parts off the previous engine. They\'ll propbably be happy to help, 3k is more use to them than nothing if you take your business elsewhere

[r0t4ry]

Thanks Nik, that helps alot.
and thanks everyone else too. will have the money in a couple weeks and will give them a call, anything extra will have to go on a credit card or something for a while.
either way has to be done (missus keeps telling me to get rid of the 7...silly silly person)

[Brett]

The housing charge will be for replacement housings if the old ones were not salvageable.

[Nik da Greek]

No probs, dude, good luck with it all. If it were me, I\'d probably cane the ol\' credit card too, I think it\'s the kind of thing it probably is a false economy to try and save on in the long run. But then I\'m paranoid!
 
Missuses (if that\'s a word) are like that, mine certainly is! I think the final straw for her will be when I find I can\'t fit a child seat in the back of an FD after all, which means the nipper\'ll have to go in the front and the wife in the back. Mmmm, won\'t she just love that!

[elford_tim]

Both my RX-7s have engines that were rebuilt by RoTechniks (I bought the cars from them with a fresh rebuild) and I\'d be happy to recommend them if you\'re looking for someone to do your engine.

[interloper393]

6k for a rebuild? wow thats dear, i had a full rebuild with new everything apart from rotors fae reworx, came in at £3200.. but i just sent them the engine..

[interloper393]

Missuses (if that\'s a word) are like that, mine certainly is! I think the final straw for her will be when I find I can\'t fit a child seat in the back of an FD after all, which means the nipper\'ll have to go in the front and the wife in the back. Mmmm, won\'t she just love that!

so we`ll see the car up for sale next week then

[fil_auto]

I\'ve heard only good reports about Rotechniks.... I have not dealt with them myself but if I lived close I wouldn\'t hesitate....

To give you an idea - I\'ve recently picked mine up from a rebuild - and I can tell you I have a new engine ( just engine ) and the total bill came to £3,700 - however that did include a new power steering pump, engine mount and battery..... and I feel for what I\'ve had done, that is v reasonable. I\'m in my running in process of 500 miles before an oil n filter change, then another 500 / 1000 miles before taking her back for a checkover, service etc an \'apparently\' ( really keeping my fingers crossed that all stays plain sailing from now till then ).... I will then get my stamp and 2year / 24,000 mile warranty......

anyways, just my input for your consideration.... #;o)

Phil