rotary gurus! input appreciated

fidelity101 wrote: I did luckily find on CL locally a "blown" s5 engine, that needs "apex seals" and they are putting in a 3.8L GM for a chump car. Spoke with the guy, doesn't know much about rotaries, thinks they're neat but I'm going to scope it out. Everyone sells blown engines saying that they have bad apex seals, but they just assume that because its a rotary, so we shall see...

I occasionally wish I'd had the money and the space to have kept and rebuilt the half-blown S5 T2 that my vert's wheels and suspension were pulled off of, but I needed the room and money to finish fixing the 'vert. Would have LOVED to have kept the engine and swapped it into the 'vert, but it was an S4 'vert and I didn't want to deal with wiring issues. I look forward to when I have the time and money (and space) to get another one- though it will likely be a wrecked RX-8 to pull the engine & harness out of to use to power something else.

Wow, derpers gonna derp.

He "only" has S5 rotors. What he probably means is that he only took them out of S5 bodies. There is no telling what kind of rotors were in there unless it was the original engine. And, last I checked, very few RX-7s remain 100% stock at this point in their lives. Heck, I built an S4 turbo car with an S5 shortblock and turbo years ago.

Yeah any rotary business that ONLY works with a 3 year model range doesn't sound right. I'm dropping off the package at lunch today and wiping my hands free of this mess. Not sure exactly when paypal will refund my money but we will see.

well to provide closure to the story: I shipped all 3 rotors back (at a 50 dollar loss now) and paypal refunded my money.

Around the same time I find on CL someone parting out some bits on a 91 because its a lemons car, they claimed "blown" apex seals which was why it wasnt running. Not entirely sure on that so I came home with this:

came with rear counterweight, lightweight steel non turbo flywheel, injectors, rail, intake manifold, extra alternator with dual belt pulley, water pump assembly stuff all for 250. Rotors don't look too bad. It had been overhauled before:

http://www.banzai-racing.com/2011_customers/burford_installation.htm

Banzai is good? bad? I've heard both. Not very easy to work with but I got some fun to do later today!

Also, I think this is about the10th rotay engine i've purchased

Banzai Racing is good folks

Yeah, Banzai Racing has a pretty good rep in the Rotard world from what I remember from my time spent there.

I have one of their stickers on my MX6, so they've gotta be good.

I have heard mixed reviews from them, mostly difficult to deal with but they seem to make good results but I have no experience with them. I will open the "failed" engine tonite and see whats wrong.

Honestly, I've never heard consistently favorable reviews of ANY rotary specialist. Show me one person who says they're the best and I'll show you another person who says they got screwed.

banzaitoyota wrote: Banzai Racing is good folks

Was wondering when you'd show up

1988RedT2 wrote: Honestly, I've never heard consistently favorable reviews of ANY rotary specialist. Show me one person who says they're the best and I'll show you another person who says they got screwed.

Yeah thats the problem, everyone has something wrong with everyone else when it comes to rotary shops.

anyways, the saga continues. more bad luck....

for what I wanted out of this engine, its borked. Spun a rotor bearing. Each rotor has a side seal seized in there from moisture and the non spun bearing rotor bearing shows lots of copper

HOWEVER, the irons are in great shape, when banzai rebuilt it they used rotary aviation apex seals and o-ring kit (what I use in my current engine) and hopefully the misc parts I dont need I can re-sell and make up for the loss. And some a few decent backup spare parts

on the plus side, I now have decent candidate for making my interactive rotary table and yes there will be a build thread for that!

Ahh you will get a good set with time!

Is the rotor damaged?

I made a little fixture to replace my own rotor bearings instead of buying the tool. I also grind the keyway off of the bearing so in the event that it does spin a little, the keyway won't bend and turn the bearing clearance into a negative value. The press fit is so tight that the little bent-over tab isn't anywhere near strong enough to deal with the kind of forces that could spin the bearing in the first place.

Now the tricky part... are you sure that it was moisture that stuck the side seals, or are the sides of the rotor damaged from hitting the side housings after the guy's buddy's older brother told him that he read somewhere that rotaries are good for like 13,000rpm? Which coincidentally is also a good way to spin rotor bearings.

No the rotor is damaged. The one just needs a bearing and I may be able to get the stuck side seal. The property that i was stored in was in the middle of a thicket, its been very rainy and humid recently. sure the garage was sealed but the intake manifold and exhaust manifold were not blocked, I found a leaf on the inside. This motor only had a few hours on the rebuild from what he said (I spoke with him about the motor after i found what I did, sub story - he makes shocks so I might have a replacement front set with more travel comimg my way soon :) )

its def moisture, I've seen it worse when it lost a coolant seal and sat around, everything pitted together...

it was low hours on the rebuild, possibly no breakin (possibly replaced rotor bearin) and with no supported oiling mods (just stock NA regulator/pump) it was revved the E36 M3 out of during a lemons race and pop goes the weasel.

Irons are good, housings are so so condition (but no cracks around the spark plug and more flaking than what I would use for a build but ive seen worse being used). e-shaft and 1 rotor are toast, as well as a front cover (dont ask)

I'm still running the 12A oil pump, which is small by tiny but can make 80psi by 4000rpm... and there's no need for lots of oil pressure below about 8000rpm anyway, so why go for the huge pump? Bigger pumps just cavitate more because the added size comes from depth, not diameter. (FC oil pumps are larger in diameter than the older stuff, too)

The reason I brought up the mention of overrev is that the sides of that rotor look "shiny" like they were polished by rubbing them against hardened iron at a high rate of speed, if you know what I mean.