Some of you may have been following some of my recent threads... If you have, then you know I am about to tackle my first Rotary Engine Rebuild.

I have attached a picture of my garage layout. I am buying a Engine Hoist (w/Balancer), Engine Stand, and Part Washer/Utility Sink this week.

If anyone has experience with rebuilds and would like to comment on anything I am missing or about the layout (all the 'furniture' is on wheels), I would appreciate your input.

 

There's a lawn mower in there... I need to go ahead and get a second building for all of my crap that doesn't "belong" in a garage. Lawn mowers belong in sheds.

 

funny, 'cause many Americans use their garages for everything BUT cars...

make sure you use some sort of parking aide to get your cars close to 6" from the door :P

 

Replace lawnmower with 'fridge full o' beer'.

 

+ infinity, FTW!!!

 

Why pay for a shed when I can get 4 cars and a LM into the garage?

 

Sorry, didn't quite get it. Get the car close to six inches from the door?

 

the large garage door. your layout gave 6 inches between the cars and the garage door.

 

Oh, I see. When I have the cars stacked two deep, I generally leave just enough clearance for the garage door handle to clear the bumper of the front car. This gives me plenty of room to pass between the two cars if I need to get something from a tool table.

Just by eyeballing it as I drive in, I can usually stop the car within two inches of the lowering door. And if I am off, I just release the brake and roll it forward or back an inch or so.

 

hey the pic won't work anymore.... but the reason I wanted to look again was I assumed the garage door is on the left end of the drawing

 

pic works fine for me

 

Yes, left side.

 

Yeah that's what I was thinking. I see no place for a refrigerator full of beer.

 

Thanks, I cant think of anything else I need.

 

I can. Air compressor, bead blasting cabinet, rolling Mig/Tig welder, roll-around tool cart, cabinet-style tool box, fireproof chemical storage cabinet, pressure sprayer, more bench space, heat and /or air conditioning, naked girl calendars and a beer fridge. That's about it for the rudimentary items.

 

wish i had a 2 car garage... im not gonna have a place for the rx8 to sleep once i finally bring the 7 home... damn 1.5 car garage!

 

get a real nice car cover. Thats what i'm doing for my 8. The 7 stays in the garage.

 

shelves, lots and lots of shelves.

for engines I like to have a clean table and a dirty table, pieces come off the shelf onto the dirty table, get cleaned and prepped for assembly and moved to the clean table. you look good on the table/bench front.

what is the black thing that is not the 6' bench ?

shelves beside the lawnmower ?

 

Two walls (top and right in the pic) are concrete. I am thinking about bonding nailers to the concrete so I can then hang shelves from them for light weight items. That will keep the floor clear so I can still park two deep when I want/need to.

The 6' benches will have top surface and two shelves below. I bought the lumber yesterday and will build them this weekend.

The black thing is my table saw. It will sit between the two tables (and is also on wheels). It's surface will sit even with the bench tops.

The sink (parts washer) is just a sink. I plan to use a gated valve under it so that when I use it for water, it will drain into the sewer. But if I use it for parts cleaning, I can flip the valve and instead of having the fluid go into the sewer, it will flow instead to a five gallon water bottle under the sink. I can then take the bottle to the local recycle center. I'm thinking stainless steel for the sink so that it can be cleaned.

 

Forgot to mention, I am also building a wall-mounted enclosue that will let me mount a laptop flat on the wall (its face is plexi to protect the computer and the enclosure is ventilated with a fan), so I can play the DIY Videos there in the garage as I do the step-by-step rebuild.

(I wonder if I can scotch-guard a track-ball mouse enclosure?)

 

Garage is important, and yours looks good. What's really important though, are things like checking your e-shaft play!

I'm in the middle of my first rebuild, and have a bit less in my garage than you. I do have air tools in the garage, and a bead blast cabinet in the basement, but no parts cleaning sink. I still sent most of my stuff out to be cleaned, especially the stuff I was having ported/machined. I did that mostly because I hate media blasting and my blaster sucks (the cabinet is alright, but the "gun" or "check valve" lol sucks).

Just remember to take your time, watch some videos/read some manuals and rebuild threads.

 

I would like to get some air tools, but I don't see that as critical. I may go get a compressor on a whim later this week, but how much did you really 'need' air tools (aside from getting the 300# nut loose)?

 

Honestly I have a few shitty guns and an IR thundergun. I was unable to remove either the E-shaft or flywheel bolt with them on 120psi. It was still nice to have to back out the E-shaft bolt as it stayed tight until it was almost out.

I used a 3/4 drive breaker bar with the right sockets (the 2 1/8 can be a bear to find at most stores... I bummed one from my diesel mechanic uncle). If that won't do it (I'm a pretty scrawny guy) I used a big piece of iron walled pipe to extend my breaker bar.

On the E-shaft bolt I got about 25+ degrees of bend on my breaker bar, and it's no cheap piece of crap.

I mostly used the air tools to keep my arms from wearing out on the R&R process from the number of bolts that need turned.

Honestly though the hardest part wasn't getting the flywheel nut off, but getting the flywheel off. Mine was on there like a mother (I've pulled a few other 13b flywheels now... it was SERIOUSLY on there). I had to take a bench grinder to my flywheel puller afterwards because I had flattened the top where you turn it down, and had completely destroyed the "tip" that is designed to keep the puller from slipping off its mark. It went from a 3/8" tip of hardened steel to completely flat...

 

After having a compressor for a while, I don't know how I ever got along without one. Air compressor and table vice are two things I believe every garage should have. Million and one uses for both.

 

I can understand and believe that... But I'm building up my garage and buying a few tools to do this job. If there is no real need to buy the compressor, my money will be happier sitting in a nice cozy stock - rather than a garage.

Is there any true NEED for a compressor?