Is it just me? I have been reading a lot of threads of bad rebuilds, blown motors, and hearing about engines packing up way before their time. I know rotaries can last forever if taken care of. One of my second gen’s is proof of that. Has anyone got a good rebuild story, something uplifting? I want to hear about the street ported rebuild that’s 3 years old and has 70k miles and still going strong! What can I expect after all this work? I just seems that rebuild don’t seem to get 1/10th the mileage the original engine gets. Is this do to the Mods? Poor rebuild? Or is this just to be expected?

Please make me sleep better knowing this is not all for not.

 

My street ported 12A lasted 23k miles before I overrevved it and caused an apex seal to shatter. Excepting the damage from the exiting chunks (thankfully limited to the rotor and rotor housing, no side housing damage) it looks to be in good shape.

The only reason it needed "rebuilt" was because it leaked oil like a sieve (common problem with that year engine). It ran like a champ until the day I overrevved it, and have no doubts it'd still be running strong today.

 

well thats depressing. noone has got a good sucsess story to give a little light at the end of this expensive tunnel

 

I currently have my eyes on an 80k N/A. It runs great, but I think some gunk was left in the rotary from the previous owner.


Restoration:
When I purchased the car, I would run the ATF trick twice, clean throttle body, flush engine with STP engine flush, fill oil with high quality non synthetic oil, put in a bottle of compression restorer, add K&N oil filter. Upgrade puny air filter with aftermarket unit. THis way, I think the compression will go back up. New plugs and wires will be in placed to smooth things out.

After the engine is in its top shape, I will use silicon oil to smooth out the 5th and 6th port. Check cable tension, TSP adjustments, and reset computer!

Some bonuses the engine will see are new coolant, hose technique vacuum lines, new fuel filter, 3 bottles of injectgor cleaners and 91 octane fuel. Fuel system treatment to clean fuel pump, rail, and valves.

After the engine is being "restored", I will change all fluids in the clutch/brake pumps and tranny.

After that, I will change the shifter bushing. By then, my car's drive train will be basically like new!

I will start modding once I am confirmed the compression is close to stock spec; which is around 7 in Mazda's test.

WISH ME LUCK GUYS!

 

Rule 1 of racing is that you will break stuff.

Especially when you put too much trust on a leading-ignition-only rev limiter