Strip down of dead FD Engine

[SmbFD3S]

Not sure if this is in the right section so mods please feel free to relocate if necessary
 
Some of the comments you may think "well thats obvious" but for those that didn\'t know/don\'t know i thought i\'d explain a bit of what i\'m doing so apologies if it seems tedious/boring/obvious at times....
 
Well firstly i acquired a non running engine to play with from a dead RX7 so i could get used to the procedure for when i rebuild mine

So after waiting for a 54mm flywheel socket from the net i took all the ancillary bits off and it looked like this:-



So now i have the flywheel socket (which was £33 by the way!!!) i had to take the front pulley bolt off (19mm) and the Flywheel nut (54mm).  Got the front bolt out no problem with an old welded 3/4" rachet (broke it a while ago lol), but the flywheel nut was obviously pretty tight lol, so with a 2 metre piece of pipe and bolting the engine to the garage wall (as you do!, No engine stand you see) i managed to get the nut off
Which left the engine looking like this:-


Next i had to take off the oil pump which was no problem (4 10mm bolts) and then remove the bolts holding the engine together (which there were 18 off 19mm)
So i removed all the bolts in sequence of tightning but reversed just to protect the plates really incase anything was salvageable) and obviously there was still coolant in the bottom of it which obv went everywhere !!!
Next i split the engine, which came apart very very easily actually. Working from the flywheel end (rear as i\'ll call it) this is the rear plate:-

Which actually looks in pretty good condition and the water seal channel is ok and not blistered or cracked and the side seal face should clean up ok.
This revealed the rear housing and the rear rotor.  From here it goes a bit ( a LOT) downhill. At least 2 of the apex seals were damaged or missing and left HUGE scores in both the housing and the rotor, so these are now scrap.  The side seals i might be able to recover for spares.
These are views of the rear rotor:-


Removing the rotor left this view:-

As you can see from the following photos the housing dont look to clever and is not reusable, there are scores all around it basically!!



Next was the centre plate.  Which like the rear plate actually looks pretty good and would seem ok, again with the water seal channels ok.


Removing this plate revealed the front rotor, and again this has by the looks of it suffered detonation at some point but not to the extent of the first rotor but is still scrap.

 
Front these photos you can see the extent of the damage again to to the rotor and again the side seals seem to be ok and may be able to be re-used as spares after checking tolerances.



So on we go to the front housing. As you can see again, the Apex seals have embedded themselves into the rotor housing and this would not be scrap, but nowhere near as bad as the other housing.



The front plate is the last in the sequence of bit, and once again seems to be ok.


This is a view of the separated parts laid out.


From the looks of it and the severity of the rotors and housings, i\'m guessing something must have been wrong with the fuel/air mixture or not mapped correctly, possible running too high boost etc etc..
It would appear that the engine did not suffer the usual water seal failure as the seals look to be in fairly good condition as do the channels they sit in, however there is a large build up of solids inside the water jackets and this would not be good for cooling.
Oil pump after a quick check is within tolerance but these do not usually fail anyway.
Other things such as front and rear seals have not leaked and the oil pump chain is in tact and within specified limits also.
 
Comments appreciated or if anyone disagrees with what i\'ve said or can give reasons why it went this way thats fine, or what you think is salvagable
Cheers
Scott

[ro284]

No help from me, but Brilliant at last a pic of the OMP lines and where they go into the housings, would you remember where the black rubber tube from the top of the omp connector banjo goes to Please, Good luck with it,
Cheers

[SmbFD3S]

No help from me, but Brilliant at last a pic of the OMP lines and where they go into the housings, would you remember where the black rubber tube from the top of the omp connector banjo goes to Please, Good luck with it,
Cheers

Lol, yeah the pipe, well i couldn\'t get it off easily enough (i\'m impatient lol) so i just cut it off....
 
I wont be rebuilding this one anyway as there are too many scrap bits, so just using it for the spares that are usuable

[logicalChimp]

Should make good practice for porting too, if you get tempted

[hairyhoover]

hi Scott, you wouldnt be interested in floggin me your front plate would you?

[Jit]

Bob, the vac hoses (i assume u are reffering to those) from the OMP Banjo are on the vac diagram.
http://www.rx7club.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=292164&d=1208733251

If you see on that diagram where it says "empty pipe" - just above that, there are 2 pipes coloured in dark blue

Scott - got ur message. Cheers for letting me know That engines pretty shagged lol. Hopefully the plates are still in spec as well! You checked em out with the dial gauge?

[ro284]

Jit, Many thanks for your help, i thought the omp lines went into the banjo on the housings and that was it! i didnt know those vac hoses even existed!
cheers Bob, Thanks again Scott, very helpfull pics,

[Jin Kazama]

Very good clear and understandable write up. My housing and rotors looked the same when a tip broke! Are you going to do a similar write up when you  rebuild?

[SmbFD3S]

Darren - as discussed on phone the other night i really need to check out my plates first to be honest, as you know these are rare, sorry mate, but will look out for one for you....
 
Jit - Haven\'t had the time to check them out against specs yet to be honest but they do look ok to be fair and btw pipes polished up a treat after a quick going over with some 1500 wet and dry
 
Oh and yeah the engine does look pretty shagged dont it lol, however i may have found somewhere that can ceramic coat the rotor housings, but it all depends on cost i guess, think it\'s gonna be close to cost of a new housing, but the ceramic may last longer, am currently checking it all out...
 
Jin - I hope to do a FAR more detailed write-up when i do the rebuild
 
I\'m also currently trying to mock up some OMP lines from stainless steel brake pipe as the OEM ones do look ****e and brittle to be honest, it\'s just finding the time....
 
Cheers for the comments