New ones cost around $450 but the price will normally depend on the quality of the housing. Decent re-usable housings can be got for 100-150 if you get lucky. If you want a really good condition one, normally they are 200-250. It depends on how much you want to spend.

Before you buy anything, make sure you get some QUALITY pictures of the housings, and send them to me. I will tell you what they are worth (if anything).

 

can s5 rotor housings be used?

 

You can use s5 housings, you just can't use one s5 and one s4. The spark plug locations are different and you will never get the timing set correctly.

 

Good to know, I have an offer for 2 s5 housings for $200 shipped, though I'm still waiting on pictures, but if they turn out to be good, then I'll probably do that. Or is there a lot else I would need to change since the timing is different?

 

It will be a little different, it would be best if you were to find just 1 s4 housing. Then you wouldn't have to fuss with timing at all, just line up the stock marks. But we could find out what the timing differences between the s4 and s5 NA is and just adjust the timing accordingly. Luckily the front pulley on the FC engines is 360 mm around, so each 1 mm is 1 degree of timing. So if the s5 housings need to be 2 degrees advanced or something, you can just set timing good for s4, and then advance it 2 mm.

 

That is handy. So I'll keep my options open and see what else pops up.

Going back to what other parts I'm going to need; I've got down that I should get the Pineapple Racing water seals, but what about all the gaskets that are needed, and springs for all the seals?

 

here ya go.
http://mazdamotorsports.com/pages/qu...t/869213b.html

Should help ya a little, kinda says everything you can get/need. You need to get a rebuild video though. It would clear everything up.

 

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.php?t=753640

Thoughts on these housings?

 

You need many more, much more detailed pictures before you make a purchase. Those pictures show almost nothing. You need to see pictures of the whole inside of the housing. Maybe you trust people but I have been burnt a few times trusting what the seller calls "usable" when it comes to a housing. Ask for more pictures.

I just remembered that I have a couple good s4 NA housings left, I will go check my inventory and see how they look. I will let cha know tomorrow.

The wear is normally shown on the bottom of the housings, anywhere between the spark plug location and the exhaust port. The wear will be on the very outside of the housings where the apexes ride. Normally the worst of the wear is from the bottom of the housing to the exhaust port. He isn't showing that side in the picture, and I doubt he will, I'm quite sure those housings are beat up and he took those pictures for a reason. Also check for signs of too high of reving, basically looks like washboard waves on the housing.

Also the rule of thumb, I think its mazda's rule also, is that the chrome flaking on the sides of the housing should be no more than 2mm thick. So if it's much wider than an apex seal, pass on it.

How does your "good" housing look? There is a chance that although that rotor was fine, that it could be really warn down and making it not a good idea to put back into the engine. Wana post up some pictures of it for me to critique?

 

Thanks for the tips, I've asked for more pics. And thanks for lookin at your own housings for me

I haven't gotten to take the engine fully apart yet, been busy with sister's district track meets. Pretty much I have it stripped down to the bare block and tomorrow is when I'll be removing the flywheel nut and fly wheel (hopefully) and then taking it the rest of the way apart, I'll get pics up as soon as I can.

 

Ok, cool cool. With some help from my friend Rob (mort on the forum) today we pulled my 13b-re out of my latest car today, de-accessorised it, and took the core apart in 6 hours. If we wanted too we could have got it done in less than 4 hours but every once in a while we would be like, "WOW what's this?" and stare at it for a good 5 mins haha.

Good news, the 13b-re had the least amount of wear I have ever seen from any engine I have ever taken apart. It is a j-spec engine obviously, and I would have to say it is VERY low miles. The housings were almost perfect with 2 little .3 inch strips of chrome flaking on each. When I pulled the rotors out all the apex, corner seals, and side seals fell out, was great. I COULD have just left the engine like it was and it would have lasted for ever, but the RE has VERY VERY small exhaust port sleeves, (you would laugh if you saw them), so I had to open it up anyways. Had a couple surprises, including a VERY lightened flywheel, and a 6 puck NON-SPRUNG clutch. O.o wtf haha. Not sure what I am going to do about that, confused me. I am very excited to get this engine boosted, it's going to be one fun car!

Good luck with your tear down, take your time, it's no race. Be careful with the e-shaft when you get 1/2 way through the engine, it's a lot heavier than you would think!

 

Wow, sounds pretty exciting. I find it interesting that the RE has the bigger intakes (20% did you say?) and yet the exhausts are smaller. I look forward to hearing how your build goes.

I'm quite enjoying my tear down, though I would say it would probably go faster like yours if I had all the parts readily available, but I'm constantly digging around my garage for tools that haven't been used in forever, lol. And the experience I'm gaining in this project will definitely make things go faster next time I have to tear the engine out. Plus I'm having a blast, and that's the important thing, right?

 

Yeup, it's definitely fun at least the first 9 times. I haven't got to 10 yet, but I'm pretty sure that will be fun too!

Well the RE was in the mazda cosmo car, it was not a rx7 engine. Here is a picture of the cosmo.


Not the most pretty car in the world, but pretty classy in its time. I don't know ALL the info on the car, but I know that some years and models of the cosmo came with 20b engines. (a 3 rotor engine)

The car is what at that time would be considered a luxury car. In that respect I think that exhaust ports are small for multiple reasons. The stock twin turbos that are normally attached to it are also smaller than the stock FD twins. The reason for the two I think is so that the engine would have power WAY down low, and not have to rev it out to get the heavy car going. Also the very small exhaust ports and huge intake ports helped it have tons more torque. I'm not for sure but the small exhaust port has a weird diffuser setup in there that if does anything like the NA would make the noise a lot less loud. So, quiet, low RPM power, turbo when you need it, a nice little luxury car. So for what it was for, I think it worked great.

It has been said that the stock RE engine at 10 psi made about 230 PS, or 221ish hp, while making 215 torque. Compared to my s4 6 port turbo engine made 185 rwhp with 159 torque semi stock. Tomorrow I will post up some pictures comparing all the ports and such. Will be fun.

 

Well I guess that explains it. lol.

Also explains where some of the 20B engines were coming from. I always wondered where the 20B engines came from because I knew they were never in any of the rx series, but i didn't think the cosmo had them. And that engine in a luxury car, lol, thing must have had some pretty damn good power.

 

Ok, so the engine is completely apart
Once the flywheel and nut came off, the rest was pretty dang easy. Let me tell you the front rotor and housing are pretty fucked up, lol. I've attached pictures for your viewing pleasure. I'm also attaching pics of the rear housing, so you can tell me if it's good.

While the housings and the irons look to be in good shape (rather clean anyways), the rotors look to be very very cruddy. Significant amounts of carbon build up everywhere. The apex seals came out fairly easily, but everything else was a pain, especially the corner seals (removing the corner springs involved first unburying then from amounts of carbon) which were not moving much at all. And that's on the rear rotor, I haven't even attempted the front. But in removing, one of the outer oil control rings broke >_< So that'll need to be replaced. And i pretty much want to replace all side, corner and apex seals, and their respective springs. _Maybe_ I can salvage the corner seals if i can get them free of the rotor and get them cleaned.

But anyways, I'll keep you posted with anything else

 

And the pics from the "good" rotor housing....

 

Sorry to break the bad news, but that "good housing" is not good. I would definitely not put that back into an engine. No wonder you were getting such low compression readings. Looks like your engine died just from extreme normal wear. I would NOT be surprised, if your rotor's, front stationary gear's, and rears stationary gear's bearings were toast. Do you see more than 25% copper color inside the rotor (on the bearings)? That engine did NOT look like it was having a fun end of its life to say the least. Be VERY careful when reusing any of the parts in this engine, clearance and check everything.

Again sorry.

~Tweak

 

Thank you for letting me know. I'll add it to the paperweight pile. Did you ever find out if you had a couple of decent s4 housings?

Oh, and the rotor weight is C, fyi

 

I forgot to look, I will definitely do that tomorrow. Just so you know, S4 engine parts were the only that were not hardened from the factory. Theoretically, this means that the bearings and such will wear down faster. That is the most chrome flaking I have seen that wasn't from a blown motor. I wouldn't be surprised if that was also on its way out.

 

Is it just going to be easier for me to get a new engine from somewhere? That's almost what it's looking like at this point....

 

Well, most likely, you have nothing reusable there. The plans we talked about in Pullman were 1/2 of your engine was reusable are now kinda useless. Now that nothing is usable, there are other options, obviously not as good as before.

A. Find a running NA car, maybe with bad body damage, or for what ever reason is super cheap, take the motor out and put it in your car. (I personally HAVE done this with great success. Find the right motor with some good compression and it can last you quite a while, or until you save up for a full turbo swap)

B. Find all the parts required to build the engine, rebuild it yourself or have a friend help/do it for you, and install that engine. This option will cost a little more than option A, BUT you know what is inside, and you know the condition of the motor. (Most likely the engine will last longer if for what ever reason your turbo swap plans get delayed.)

C. Get a j-spec engine, roll the dice and hope everything turns out ok. Although all j-spec engines are turbo, you can either, 1. Run them NA by taking off the turbo and attaching the stock NA intake, 2. Keep the turbo on and run it turbo but use the NA clutch, transmission, and so on, or 3. Keep it turbo, and get all the turbo requirements to run it turbo. (Personally, I used to hate j-spec engines. I hated the idea of getting j-specs, but recently I took my 13b-re engine apart and it was the cleanest low mileage engine I have ever seen. I could have ran it for years stock without worry. I think that like getting your car tuned, it depends who you get the engine from. A person on the forum called Japan2LA is VERY good, and has a very good record of quality products. If I was to get one, I would get it through him. He is in CA, and shipping to WA isn't bad.)

That is about all your options as of now, from cheapest to most expensive. I hope that helps.

~Tweak

(p.s. Do not go to the junk yard and pull and engine hoping it will work. It is a waste of time and money.)

 

Thanks for all the options
I'm not really sure what it is i'll be doing just yet, but i'll get it figured out eventually.

And I took a look at the irons, and I can easily find the vertical stripes you were talking about. I'm assuming that means they're dead too, which we pretty much knew anyways, lol.

 

I have access to a s4 na motor that is out of a car already, that was known to run and have decent compression. I will check it out and get back to you, most likely, later tonight. I am going to go to his house and "do work" on an FD engine there and see what's inside.

 

So i found a parts car for me and I am strongly considering buying it. Link is below. Thoughts?

http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/car/681877520.html

 

Parts car, as in, for the turbo transmission and everything needed to do a turbo swap? The main thing I am seeing is "everything is there except the engine". Making sure you saw that. Right now, it doesn't matter how many cars you have, you have 0 engines. Are you planning on going strait to t2 engine?

Personally I think that is way too much for that car, in the shape it is in. Not much "good" about it actually.