Thought some of you Rotary owners would like to see this...
 

Ok first this is coming from a Z person, I own a 280z and a 300zx but I am currently working for Mazda making remanufactured Rotary motors. I have had the pleasure of being trained the last few months on rebuilding the motor under the master builder(I call him TT or Yoshii for short) from mazda. They flew him in from the hiroshima plant to train us on how to build it and gave us the specialty tools to do so. Anyways I have a new respect for the rotary, its flawed but only becuase most owners dont know they really want you to drive it fast(high rpms). Here are a few pics I thought I would share with you.....
Sorry for the quality, I used TT's camera.
http://www.photodump.org/stored23/SANY0354.JPG

http://www.photodump.org/stored23/SANY0356.JPG

http://www.photodump.org/stored23/SANY0357.JPG

http://www.photodump.org/stored23/SANY0359.JPG

http://www.photodump.org/stored23/SANY0360.JPG
TT(Yoshi), he has been bulding the rx-7/8 motors for 15 years now, I made him pose and hold a rotor for me :p
http://www.photodump.org/stored23/SANY0361.JPG

Very cool. Thanks for sharing.

Anyone holding a rotor giving a thumbs up while smiling is always sexy no matter what the gender. :)

Awesome. Pure awesome.

Cool, thanks. I'm happy to hear Mazda is training you guys well!

Yeah they are training us very well, they used to outsource the rebulds to a company in SC but they didn't like there consistancy or product and decided to try there hands at it. After a year or two we will also rebuild transmission but for now we are focusing on 13B's. BTW some advice to all you owners, premium gas is a must and dont be afraid to high rev it at all, theruild upe is a lot of carbon build up on the side seals(no compression) and the corner seals are also a bitch to get out of the cores due to the carbon build up which is more then likely due to slow city cruising....open her up, she likes it. I figure most of the owners that are causing those issues are probably not familiar with the rotary unlike a rx8 forum by just fyi.

Thanks a lot. I hope you stick around and share what you're learning. Most everyone here knows to rev the shit out of these engines but we're true rotorheads and love learning more and more about these engines. There's also a few genuine rotory experts here that you might enjoy reading. Thanks again.

Thanks for the info! It would be nice to see some pics of the carbon buildup.

So what is the verdict on synthetic oil?! Sorry, just had to ask :lol: :lol: :lol:

whats so special ab that car ..? we have one exactly like it at charlie obaugh in stanton.

nothing special about that car, although for the first few weeks we had a rx8 there for the employees to test drive, it actually had no vin# at all on that one and I found that pretty cool. They borrowed that rx8 in the photo from a dealer nearby for a press confrence the other day there and a group photo its nothing special. I just made the guy(tt) take a photo next to it since he made the motor inside it, kinda cool imo. As for synthetic, I dont know, I just tear down and rebuild, personally I would just go with non synthetic since carbon is you major problem, seriously we have rotors that are solid black and there is no compression on any of the side/apex springs just about. Also I would not recommend using any engine cleaner in the way of putting it in the oil/gas like seafoam, there opinion on that stuff is the carbon just breaks off and gets lodged elsewhere which can end up being worse.

btw sorry for the huge pics normally I resize them but I used TT's camera for these and forgot to resize

Np. I'm sure most of us have broadband :p:

Glad to hear Mazda is putting more effort into the rebuild quality. I had a replacement and the first one was bad. You probably got my engine to rebuild - replaced in March 08. My engine failure was catastrophic - sounded like a rotor came or something inside came apart when it failed. Have you run into any failures like that yet?

They have us starting on the 6 spd AT motors first, so far mostly compression failures from what I here. They sorta dumped the housing/rotor assembly prior to main assembly section on me and another person so I dont see too much from disassemble but I peak my head in every now and then on them to see what I got coming later on in the day.

That is so cool!

yeah this is awesome! That is cool to see it from the heart of the "plant"

Glad to have you one here. It is also nice to see that you have taken a real interest in our car. It also seems that you take a lot of pride in what you do. Maybe you will be a convert.

thanks for popping in here . we've been hearing about your new plant since it was announced earlier this year and just in the last day when they announced it was open. We here are WAYYYY happy that mazda has taken this on themselves and are not using that other company any more. Cool that you met Yoshii too.

I hear they are going to use that space as Tech Training for the East coast as well so people dont have to go all the way to irvine.


Thanks again for the pics and keep in touch.

oh - one question- are you only seeing RX-8 motors or will you be doing older rotaries and other non-rotary engines there?

- charlie

Hmmm, that's interesting. You should read this service bulletin:
http://www.finishlineperformance.com...14-08-1924.pdf

This is very good to hear. I was very worried if my engine blew it was gonna be by some prisoner in SC.

great thread..

Great to hear from an insider.

Sweet pics. I really like the first one,

I really like that first pic

Awesome! Thank you!

Yeah I dont know a lot of technical behind using cleaners in it at all I was just going off of personal opinion, personally I would just take it apart and clean it up now that I found out how to build one, its so easy now to me. And we will be rebuilding rx7 engines down the road also. I can build the short block in about 45mins, thats all the housings(front housing/rotor housings/intermediate/rear) and new everything on the rotors add another 45mn-1hr for the complete motor but thats with my notes. All in all its a fun motor to play with.

And yes, there is also a technical training center for the mid-atlantic region being added there, the hotline for the east coast mechanics is now centered there also. From what I understand they may allow the mechanics who visit to come out and view the assembly line for the 13B rebuilds since they dont allow them to touch them, just a small tour. The local news came out the other day and I managed a few minutes of camera time:)

Ya know if you guys/girls wanted to put a meet together within the next month in Richmond/chesterfield VA I can probably get Yoshii to come out. He speaks a little english but I honestly have been meaning to buy him lunch or dinner sometime for all the training he did for us, if you come up with something let me know. I am actually new to the area from northern california so I dont know how many owners are running around here anyways. Shoot me a PM whenever.

Those of us with engines installed in the cars have a little more difficulty taking apart the engines to clean them.

great to see you here.

where in the richmond area are you???

and cant wait to hear the other answers!!

beers :beer:

i will fly or drive in for that..

send me a pm on where in richmond the plant is. i have an idea or two for you..

beers :beer:

Thanks

Plant is in colonial heights, as of now we are in the start up still, the technical training for mechanics isn't even up yet. For now there are no tours or anything so bother making a trip there, you wont see anything special or be allowed in right now. I see a few rx8s on my commute and was wondering if its anyone on here. Either way I will probably end up with a rx7 one day, junk yard one that I could rebuild, I loved that car but never understood the motor as a youngster.

Extremely nice, thanks for sharing! I'm glad to see that Mazda is taking pride in everything they do, and ensuring that all parts put out with their name on them, used or new, are up to only the highest standards. You can't do everything perfect the first time, but they sure are trying hard, and that's the reason I will always drive Mazda! :)

very cool..

LOL...so true

Great thread, great pics.

I really appreciate the pics of the facility. Very nice color on that new 8, too.

I am surprised that nobody has yet asked if they are hiring at your plant!

Hey, maybe I could retire from the NJ rat race and do that as a hobby. What a great idea! I hate my job anyway.

Ha, believe me people walk in everyday and ask. When I applied they didn't say what it was for and had 400 applicants for it, they picked 11 people for it, honestly I think I got in since I had a parts background and that I was from california like 2 of my boss's who came from the luguna beach offices but when they taught us the steps to building the block I did very well to the point that they wanted me on the line. They will probably hire next year for sure when it goes to transmissions, slight chance of them hiring someone in the next few months to assist but no promises there and I still think they will pull me out to keep parts organized, maybe make me a alternate for when people are on vacation or something.

Sorry guys I am rambling on your board, just figured I would share a little bit of info for you and let you see who built that motor in your car, he is a awesome guy to learn from.
BTW small note, for some odd reason they wont convert the tools to ft/lbs, we were trained to use Nm(nueton meters), kinda sad that I know the torque for every bolt in Nm.

Don't apologize, just buy that 7 and when you have a family get an 8 and stick around.

The whole auto industry is in Newtons. More accurate.
Have they taught you Kaizen yet? If not, PM me and we can discuss it.

Cool of you to post this. Do you guys take visitors? :)

He said not yet, but I'd be interested in touring the place too if/when they start allowing tours. Richmond's just a hair over an hour from where I live, so I'd definitely be up for a road trip!

Very cool and Welcome. Hope you are able to stay around. Once you get everything up and running, I'd be in for a tour as well......even though it may be small. Would really like to see you share the knowledge on carbon build up as you learn more and more and as you see more engines. :)

If your a mechanic for a mazda dealer and they send to tech school for mazda then you have a shot for a tour when you come in for training, other then that I doubt they would allow it for insurance reasons, ya know thank lawyers for that.

Most factories are media/public-friendly and they tend to have tours available. If your doesn't now, it may in the near future. Public access areas will be limited, though.

Nice to hear from someone behind the scenes. The reman plants have always been a kind of mystery, glad to hear that they are restructuring how things are done with the new one! :)

True but the only catch is they had to go through the top of mazda japan just to video tape the assembly line there to show us how they do it. Bosses said it was the first video ever allowed in the rotary section of mazda japan so I was surprised that they did let the media come in last week when they showed it on local news. Who knows, this is mazda north america not japans plant.

The accessibility has a little to do with the public but a LOT to do with asshole politicians and other local "suits" who like to take credit for the fact that the plant is located in their own jurisdictions. Politicians like to play Big Wheel with their financial backers and all that nonsense. I saw hundreds of tours in the three plants I worked in over an 8-year career with Ford.

Damn Ray.....................you just hit 5k posts! :lol:


Yeah.....most of it is politics.........could be cool to see the reman plant, but can understand somewhat why they would limit access.