Rebuild advice

[terribleturner]

Hi everyone, this is my first post on here and im after a little info before purchasing my first RX7 (gen 3).

Engine rebuilds i understand are gonna be expensive, but what sort of money would i be looking at??

Im tempted to pick up one within the next month or so and quite fancy having a go at a rebuild myself. Are the parts readily available?? Im thinking of trying to get it up and running by summer, giving me plenty of time so as not to rush anything.

Prestige Motorsports. Has anyone imported with them before??

Im sure there\'s loads more i wanna ask, but i can\'t think right now.

Many thanks in advance:)

[bnaellis]

Really depends whats gone wrong with the engine as to how much it will cost. A stock engine in general is around £2,500 mark + upwards depends what has to be replaced. Also depends what you want from the engine. Best bet is to call someone like Tim at rxmotors and ask away. Atleast then you get info from the horses mouth rather than the donkey\'s mouth if you get my drift.

rgds

[terribleturner]

thanks for that Brian.

[yonner]

im rebuilding mines. its a simple but fidgity engine to rebuild its all the crap that goes onto the block thats the problem but a bare block is no maze

[terribleturner]

I took a look at Wavs\' rebuild (with Pictures) and it didn\'t look at daunting as i first thought. If i can get one imported for the right price then im gonna tke over the garage completlly this winter. Hope it\'ll be a long one.

[Davegtt]

So what does the 2.5K + include? just some rotor tips, and a load of seals and gaskets? seems alot?

I have rebuilt piston engines before for a fraction of the cost and thats including pistons etc?

Are you actually just paying for the expertise to have it rebuild? surely if everyone had rotarys the cost of a rebuild would be alot less?

Dave

[Brett]

Ok, I rebuilt a 13B awhile ago (2nd gen 13b n/a)

 Price breakdown on parts was this:-

 Housings £500
 Apex Seals £180
 Corner seals and side seals £320aprx
 Oil seals £110
 Gaskets etc £50+/-
 
 Total for just the internals (and I\'m sure I missed something)
  £1060

 Ancillaries and other bits and bobs that needed doing at the same time. (I can almost guarrantee that you will need extras as its quite often something else wearing that leads to engine failure)

 2x Wax control pellets  Â£55
 4x Oil injectors (decent 2nd hand parts) £75
 4x Reconditioned injectors £160

 Total for bits & bobs £290

 Total for all parts £1350

 Now your thinking, hang on they cant be charging £1000 for labour!

 I had to regrind all the engine plates, plates that are too worn will need to be replaced and that is really expensive!
 My rotors were ok, gave them a 4 day bath in decarbonising fluid and they came up fine.  In the turbo lumps the rotors can take a battering when the apex seal fail, so you can add on new or reconditioned rotors, or reground apex slots and bigger seals to fill them.
 Add best part of a day to remove the engine (about 6-7 hours the first time)
 Half a day to carefully strip the engine.
 At least a day to clean all the parts that will be reused.
 Half a day to reassemble the engine.
 Another day to fit the engine again.

 Now my time was free, but I reckon theres a fair labour cost there, I dont know what the specialists charge p/h for labour but I think £2500 seems almost right.  

 Not intended as a rant btw!!!  
 :wave

[ro284]

Dave,
            I bought my RX7 knowing it would need a rebuild, having built many ordinary engines in the past i thought i would give it a go, i took the engine out ready, Then decided to to get Chris Philip, to do mine, and i was fortunate enough to watch an expert rebuild it at my house! fascinating to watch and i really was happy at seeing what goes on with my own engine! and believe me i avoided so much hassle by not knowing what i would have been doing, This guy is an expert, and very quick! there would have been so many things i would have missed, i would have regretted it later, i will do a write up inc pics of where the seals went and why, i\'m now running it in this year instead of next!worth every penny! hence one rebuild video for sale,
good luck Bob

[Davegtt]

Originally posted by 20B_boy
That would probably include removal and refitting, stripping and rebuilding, new seals thoughout and new rotor housings.

What piston engines have you rebuilt for a fraction of that? Any that make 250hp, rev to 9 grand and propell an RX7 to 60 in 5 seconds and onto 170mph?

Compare the price to a rebuild for some thing else with similar performance and its really cheap as chips. You\'d probably get a head gasket and an Abbey sticker for a Skyline for e.g. :rollin

Removel and stipping is similar to any other engine, i guess the rotor housings would be and thing that bumps it up especially if they are arounf 600 quid for the pair!!

I have always been involved in R5\'s and recently built one that produced near 200bhp and ran 14sec SQm (bad driver) which i was chuffed with

So are we sure the 2.5K includes new rotor housings ?

Not having a go just trying to get my head round the price

Dave

[Davegtt]

Originally posted by ro284
Dave,
            I bought my RX7 knowing it would need a rebuild, having built many ordinary engines in the past i thought i would give it a go, i took the engine out ready, Then decided to to get Chris Philip, to do mine, and i was fortunate enough to watch an expert rebuild it at my house! fascinating to watch and i really was happy at seeing what goes on with my own engine! and believe me i avoided so much hassle by not knowing what i would have been doing, This guy is an expert, and very quick! there would have been so many things i would have missed, i would have regretted it later, i will do a write up inc pics of where the seals went and why, i\'m now running it in this year instead of next!worth every penny! hence one rebuild video for sale,
good luck Bob

How much do you want for the rebuild vid mate?

Dave

[Brett]

For £2500 I\'d hope it included new housings! (As has been said though, most companies will use new housings.  After all whats the point of saving £660 now, only to have to spend another £1500 later on due to housing wear?)

[Wav]

Carl is right, the rebuild thread only really gives a basic idea of how to do the rebuild and to give people an idea of what the inside of a rotary looked like and in no way was it meant to be an actual guide. It was just to give people an idea really:D.

The cleaning and measuring process can take a long time, a lot of patience and luckily I had the Universities engine workshop facilities, space and tooling to help me on my way.

However if you\'re mechanically minded, have the patience of a saint, are really systematic,have plenty of space and time on your hands ( I would estimate that I spent more than 50hours in total on rebuilding that FD3S engine:eek: however if i were to do it again I would imagine that I could cut that time down to about 30hours, due to the fairly steep learning curve).

Anyway good luck with anyone wishing to give it a go, will be worth it just for the buzz of when it starts up for the first time,

Paul:bandit