mikeric

iTrader: (20)

Fellow rotor heads, I need some advice...

I am in the process of mounting a S4 TII in my FB. This car will be used almost exclusively as a track vehicle on road racing courses. I will be mounting a Microtech, 1000cc secondaries, and a FMIC. The hybrid stock/T04 turbo that came with the engine/ECU/Intercooler purchase went out to BNR for a rebuild this week and I have just started tearing into the engine.

The guy I bought it from is on this forum and had purchased it in order to pu it in his FB and that is why it is almost swap ready. He lost the motivation and has to move so he sold everything to me at a decent price.

The engine was a recent rebuild/porting job done by an unknown shop. So, the price I paid reflected a working engine even though I could not verify this as it was sitting when I picked it up. It does spin easily and have a nice "swoosh" as the apex seals pass the exhaust.

I'm pretty sure the rebuild was decent. I also know it was recent as the paint is still fresh on housings and there is no overspray. In other words, the housings were painted when it was apart and not when the engine was assembled. However, when removing the manifolds, there are some things that worry me about the general intellect/financial capability to properly maintain a rotary engine of whomever was running it on their car prior to me.

For example:the injectors were crimped into the harness instead of soddered (one wire had come out), there are a variety of vacuum hoses looping back on themselves or sealed with a bolt in the hose, the intake manifold was very cheaply painted, the previous owner had a vacuum leak that he could not get rid of, so the entire manifold was very sloppily seald with red RTV upon removal, the gaskets were split, why not just replace them and do it correctly? The most troublesome was the OMP lines: Two had split and instead of repairing them properly, they were spliced with vacuum hose and zipties. WTF?

Anyway, I am a little concerned about the health of this engine and I will not be happy if I prep everything, wire in the ECU, install my new turbo, rent a engine lift, get eveything pulled and installed, just to have a blown engine. I do not mind if the engine is tired as I will probably rebuild in a year or two, but I do want it to run so I can get back to the track.

I figure a decent rebuild will run me at least $2k. I do not particularly want to spend that right now, but at the same time, I do not want to intall my engine just to pull it again. Suggestions or thoughts?

mikeric

iTrader: (20)

Any one else?

Opinions?

scrip7

iTrader: (6)

You can do a compression test with the engine/tranny laying on the ground, using a battery and jumper cables. Obviously the trans needs to be bolted up to the engine to do this. Might save some aggravation. Then do the external work on the intake and omp lines if the compression numbers are good. If you had added that as a poll option, I would have clicked on it. If the numbers look good and it ends up running the way you like, put that $2k into mods or rims or whatever.

mikeric

iTrader: (20)

Yeah, currently working on getting the intake right and removing the OMP system since it is a track-only car. I should have mentioned that I live in the city and I'm doing all the prep work on an engine stand on my porch in my apartment so I really do not have space to bolt the tranny into the engine.