At least the beetle engine would still be running.

 

Yeah, really. Ok treceb, I'll give them a call, if I can find their number. Anyone recommend KD Rotary? How easy is it to rebuild yourself with a kit? Is it worth the savings in cash?

 

Are you sure the plug wires are connected right? Because if you have both trailing leads connected to the rear rotor that is wrong and would probably cause the problems you're describing.

The numbers 1 and 2 refer to the front and rear rotors respectively. The trailing plugs are the top ones and the leading are on the bottom. Just look at the diagram.


T1 T2


L1 L2

 

If you do find a good mechanic in Northern Nj let me know,and good luck with your car. hudson county here.

 

13b turbo that's all I have to say Seriously hope you get it back on the road soon. Without you in the parking lot at school I'm the only FB left!

 

OK. The plugs are fine and the wires are hooked up correctly. Just so you know, it ran fine for 4 months without a problem and I hadn't touched the plugs. So that problem is out of the question. I'm convinced that it is an internal engine problem (apex seals). I called KD Rotary and they want anywhere between $2800-3500 to rebuild the engine. WTF!? I understand that the rebuild is time consuming for the mechanic, but that's more than the car is worth! I mean, how long am I going to have to wait around for the car to be worth more than the cost that I put into it? And I certainly don't have the time to rebuild it myself, nor do I have the space or special tools needed. I've got about one month before my insurance is due on the car to decide what to do with it, i.e. - fix it or sell it. I'm tempted to sell it because for the $3000 or so that I may put into it to get the engine rebuilt, I could just go out and buy another car! Any suggestions?

 

Oh yeah, I started it up the other day and it vibrated a tad bit less. Could the old rusty exhaust aide to the power loss that I'm having?

 

If your think your cats might be clogged, try unbolting your exhaust and running the car.

Personally I think you should do a compression test before you start pricing rebuilds. It's better to approach things systematically than jump to conclusions based on guesses.

 

You need to do a compression test.
The trailing plugs will not radically affect the engine. They are mostly used for a scavenging process.
Rebuilds will run right around $1700.00 to $1800.00. Check atkinsrotaries, pineappleracing, mazdatrix, revolutionary rotary, mazda, etc. You will have to do the labor though. It is pretty straight forward.
just my opinion,
hanman

 

Update - When cranking the engine it makes a 'new' sound, it makes the normal cranking sound at first, but then makes a higher pitched noise the second time and then continues on with the same pattern. I've called Atkins Rotary and they want around $1550 with me doing the labor. I've also called Sun Auto near York, PA and they want $2750 for the engine and they'll do the labor. It sure sounds alot better to me than what KD Rotary wanted. I'm going to try calling a few other places. Maybe I can purchase a rebuild from AtkinsRotary and then have my local mechanic install it to cut down on the travelling. Any thoughts? Would an 'average' mechanic need any special tools to swap a rotary engine? Thanks for trying to work with me - I really don't want to junk this car.

As for the compression test, how can I do this with a piston engine compression tester without purchasing any specific rotary tools or compression tester?

 

A simple YES/NO test can be done by removing the spark plugs and cranking the engine. (Probably should pull the low voltage lines off the ignition coils.)

Listen for the three puffs.

If you use a boinger tester, remove the schrader valve (Looks like the valve in your tire stem... Save the valve you remove, you can not just get valve stems and use the valve out of those. I learned that the hard way and owe the Head technician at my shop a new Mac tools compression tester for that.)

Normal compression should be around 100-120 PSI.

 

Yeah seriosuly if you have a bad rotor, you can just pull the plug outta the top or bottom and crank it over. If you have a bad rotor you will be able to tell the difference between how loud one rotor is and the other is... (By the way besure you disconnect the trailing and leading coil wires going to the dist. or esle you will get a nice suprise, them spark wires make you see all kinds of cool spots when they shock the **** out of you)

If compression turns out OK or seems OK, Id move on to maybe a stopped up cat they will do that and trust me I went through that once with a friend of mine, i worked on this car about 7 hours before I found out it was the cat making it not wanna start, MAN did i feel like a dummass! Just unbolt the exhaust manifold from the motor and try to start with some nice earplugs and if it starts Congrats its time for a Racing beat exhaust

By the way, heres www.revolutionrotary.com price $1,450

 

If you want a relatively accurate compression test you can use a conventional compression tester. Heres the process.
Disable the fuel system, pull the fusible link, plug the fuel lines whatever. You don't want fuel into the chambers when you are turning the engine over.

Pull all of the plug wires.
Pull the trailing (top) plugs from both rotors.
Screw in the compression tester in the top hole of the front rotor. Hold the release "pin" in on the tester, this will allow the pressure to immediately release on each compression "stroke".
Have someone hold the gas pedal to the floor and turn the car over while you watch the gauge. You should see the needle on the gauge start "bumping" up and down. After watching you can see the three compression cycles. They should all be fairly consistent and not too low.
Repeat the process with the rear rotor.
Also, the car needs a fully charged battery and good starter. It needs to rotate around 250 rpm to get a decent reading.
Somebody on this forum uses a video camera to tape the "bumps" so he can look and see what each individual compression reading is, makes good sense.
Hope this helps,
hanman