CaymanRotary

It's really on there good! Typical they get stuck but I've never heard of one that couldnt have been gotten off by blowtorch and breaker bar. Would recommend getting a new eshaft if you go with your press. The drill press technique will work but its inherently destructive.

NotAPreppie

Rent a big impact with a 3/4" or 1" anvil and pony up for the matching socket.
That or just take the whole motor to a repair shop and pay them for 30-60 minutes of book time to remove the nut for you.

Loki

iTrader: (1)

2500 ft lbs? Nice. Is this an original Mazda engine or one that has been rebuilt previously?

CaymanRotary

A big *** impact should zip that right off I agree.

This bad boy would do the trick. Can buy for $200. Have to also buy the socket set but a tool like this worth it to have around. Might order one myself haha.

AMDguy

I actually found an impact on Amazon that claims to put out 3750 lb-ft of torque, and it is only about $350, but I can't justify spending that when I don't even have the supporting air system to run it (we only have 1/2 inch lines at our place), and a brand new E-shaft is only about $200... I know it would be a tool that I could use again, and I will have to replace thrust bearings etc. if I drill out, but i will be replacing those anyways...

I already did bring it to a shop, and they tried everything they had... the best shop in our area. no dice.

and yes, this is an original Mazda engine. Never been rebuilt before (at least I don't see any indications it was rebuilt, on engine or elsewhere (carfax)

CaymanRotary

I figured you had an air compressor. I mean it's a lot but not a bad investment. Especially since you are dead set on owning an RX8 .

See if you can rent it.

AMDguy

the compressor is not a problem. saying we have an air compressor is an understatement. We have a 750 lb beast that draws 40+ amps on surge, and dims the lights in our house. It will do 30 CFM at 170 psi. It is bigger than me (no joke). The limitation is in the air hose, we only have 1/2 inch air lines... I will look into renting a big impact...

GregSki

What happened? Any updates? I'm in the same boat, except I was able to get my bolts out and open the motor(s). If you need an e-shaft, I will give you one. The trick that worked for me was fire. I set up a blowtorch on some blocks and pointed it at the bolt. Then I made coffee, booted up my laptop, and changed into my garage clothes. By the time I took my first sip of coffee I was ready to try the bolt. 1/2" breaker-bar with an 18" handle and a 4-foot fence post slipped over the end. They DID make a loud 'pop' when they started to move.

I bought an RX8 that came with an extra engine - previous owner said the old motor had a compression issue. When I opened it, BOTH housings had a nice, big groove cut out of one side. One rotor was missing the small corner piece of one of the apex seals. The other rotor had one apex seal corner piece worn down halfway and it was barely recognizable. So, both of THOSE housings are crap and one is going to be used by my son to practice football throwing accuracy.

The motor that was in the car I was told was a low-mileage used motor. Both of THOSE housings had chrome flaking, so I CAN'T USE THOSE EITHER!

Recommendations for S1 housings?

AMDguy

It has been a while since I have been on here... so much has happened... very long story... if you don't feel like reading it, the summary is that I finished, it started and ran great aside from the fact that it would not idle at all or start hot (compression). It then blew up again after 67 miles due to a royal screw up I made, so I fixed that, rebuilt it agian (only took a couple weeks this time... had everything down pretty good (you know you have done it a few to many times when you memorized the tension bolt tightening pattern), and it is running great. I have a little over 5k miles on it now... I dont think it will last too long, as I can tell the compression is not great (it does not start right up, hot or cold), but it never fails to start and pulls pretty darn hard.

before I go into the story, you asked about S1 housings. I got them from Adam at RX7 specialties (https://www.rotaryengine.com/), and while they were not great quality (significant edge wear for a "resurfaced" housing), he sold me 2 resurfaced housings shipped to my door for about half the price of ONE new housing. They also resurface the housings you have for basically nothing, and if you want, you could try to get some used housings off ebay and have those resurfaced (I almost did this).

about my e shaft bolt? no luck with heat here... I started a thread where I discussed what I did, but I am too lazy to search for it now... (sorry


What happened:

While I was in the process of the first rebuild, I decided to clean the engine parts (irons and rotors) by putting them in a blast cabinet and blasting them with walnut shells. worked perfectly... course enough to get most of the gunk off, and not harsh enough to damage the parts. When I pulled them out of the blast cabinet, instead of cleaning them properly, I simply blew them off with compressed air and called it a day. "The oil filter will catch the shells," or so I thought... I'm sure you can see where this is going...

got the engine all back together, was a nightmare to start it up, but I eventually got it running, and it would not idle or start hot, even a little hot... I drove it for a while, and after 67 miles, i was driving (only about 5 miles from home), and suddenly the car lost all power. It was very obvious pretty much instantly that it was down a rotor, ie. one rotor was not firing on any faces, at all. I barely made it home... I then towed it to our shop, and took it apart (its amazing how fast it comes apart when you have everything down). When I drained the oil, it was black, I mean dark, dark black... not like oil should look at 67 miles... and it had lots of sparkles in it; not good. I dropped the oil pan and found it covered in walnut shells, and small pieces of bearing. I took the engine apart and I found that every single bearing was destroyed, thanks to my walnut shells. Like I said, a pretty royal screw up. The front rotor was tost. Here is what I think happened: a piece of walnut shell made its way past the oil rings to the cutoff seal (the big oil seal on the outside...), and the cutoff seal has the thin part of one end that sits on the little pin to prevent it from rotating in place. the walnut shell must have hit that, and it broke off, and took a chunk out of one of the apexes (the apex seal itself was fine, just stuck pretty good), and lodged 2 or 3 (can't remember off the top of my head) of the 6 side seals all the way down in their groove. Another thing that probably contributed to the side seal failure, is that I clearanced the seals myself. I had no clue what I was doing and I basically just winged it. for the second try I got new rotors, and I then wisely got the Mazda pre-clearanced side seals. aside from one little electrical issue with the ABS unit (ended up needing a new unit... reprogrammed it with FORscan, an invaluable tool, it is free, and you can change literally anything), everything worked great... I used 10w-40 NAPA oil for break in (did the 600 mile break in), and I am now using Mobil-1 0w-40 oil with an M1-110 filter (the mobil 1 filter for the S2, its just bigger).

as for other things I did while I was at it, I installed a S2 radiator (thicker), and Flex-a-Lite 420 fans (2500cfm... they are great, but power hungry); keeps it ice cold on all but the hotest days (~90+ degrees and it starts to struggle with the A/c going full blast. turn it down and no problem. I am one who likes cold).

I also did the oil cooler lines. I choked when I found out that the $400 dollar plus oil cooler line kits are literally nothing more then a bunch of presorted fittings and braided stainless hose. I got the cheapest braided stainless hose off Amazon (it is PTFE... ery stiff, but rated for 500+ deg. and 2000+ PSI) with a bunch of fittings included, and then I got the banjo fittings off ebay (very strange size, I can send you the link... kind of hard to find), and with a little bit of elbow grease (yea, it was kinda a pain, but even $300 is a ripoff), I had oil cooler lines that will last probably forever for less then $200. I also installed low temp oil thermostats.

I installed a OBDII water temp gauge (great because it reads the temp before the t-stat, so you can see a failed t-stat. I also installed a new OEM t-stat, as I found out from my water temp gauge that the reason why my engine blew up in the first place was a mishimoto low temp thermostat that I had installed less then 50 miles ago... brand new part, and it failed and killed my engine.



as for what now... engine is great, but probably wont go much beyond 10 or 15k miles, which is fine, I didnt put all that much money into it, and the 3rd gear syncro is grinding, but not very bad, and I probably wont fix it anytime soon... I just go easy on the upshifts and double clutch the down, and never notice it... car runs and drives like a dream, butt dyno tells me its making plenty of power, and fun factor is 10/10.

GregSki

Wow! Much information here - thanks! I ended up sending my housings to Freelance Motorsports in upstate NY, just because they are close enough to me to complain in person if they come back crappy. Still awaiting their return, so I can't give any opinion on their work. Hell, at the time of this post they have not even gotten them yet.

So, after reading this post, I am left with just one question.


Do you still enjoy eating walnuts?

Greg.

AMDguy

I never liked them in the first place