I wanna work in a plant like that, so I can train my rotary building skills (while getting paid lol)

 

Awesome...awesome!

You said you were from Cali, did you work for Mazda back there? Sorry if I missed it, I was mesmerized by the pictures of the plant

Total job security as well. If mazda ever has to let you go, you'll have a priceless skill that you can take anywhere. Well done good sir!

Have fun and get a rotary!

P.S. Can you see what the general consensus is at the mazda factory in regards to using premix in the rotary? i.e. does it help in compression but mask larger problems? it is a pretty hot topic and of great interest to me and many others on the forum.

 

LOL, would also love to see the results of those engine dynos.

 

Is anyone else not seeing the pictures in the first post? They're not showing up for me. Can someone repost them?

 

Just checked. Seeing them just fine. Must be a problem on your end.

Change all your security/privacy setting to default and see if that corrects the problem. If it does, add the URL (www.photodump.org) for the photo link to your Sites list under Tools>Internet Options>Privacy>Sites and make sure it is set to Allow. Then change your security/privacy settings back to what they were.

 

Hey Sleepy-z,
Can you get some side seal clearance specs of motors that come in. I know you don't work that part of the line, just really curious.

thanks

 

Thanks, just realized that our corporate filter is blocking photodump, that's what is slowing me down. I'll just have to look at home.

 

So many questions, to start as of right now all the rebuilds are getting new rotors until we get the inspections room finished so I dont have any specs yet, they sent in another guy from japan to gather information on the rotors/housings and send it to japan for research. I did not work with mazda before, my wife got into mcv(virginia commonwealth medical school) so I quit my job out there and moved here, turned down a few great jobs for the work schedule/job itself with mazda. As for the dyno's they only are for monitoring oil pressure, temperature and engine speed, we run the motors 30 min at 3k rpms before they are sent out.

Hopefully later on tonight I will be able to post a few pics I got today, they had the vinless rx8 in the shop and I took a few pics on my break with yoshii's camera again and also a neat little article he has(its in japanese though but a cool pic of the original master of building the rotary.

 

Man, you are really cool to post for us rotor heads. You should see if they will send you to Sevenstock XI this fall in California!

 

Not sure if this has been mentioned nor asked. Apparently the new 09 RX8s will get an updated 13b with extra injectors. Will these rebuilds have the updated mod as well?

 

Not that I know but for the right price you can do anything I suppose. We just rebuild the block, we strap on the manifolds/injectors so on to run leak tests and the dyno then strip it to the block for shipment.

 

Keep in mind I am a production line guy, I am at the bottom. I will be going to california next year but chances are my z club friends will steal me away for the day. I am a rotor builder but a Z guy at heart still, sorta got me away from the import car scene and more into the sports car country road drive life which is safer and funner.

 

OK everyone quit making jokes at the Z, or risk getting a sabotaged reman engine!

 

Man this is such cool info. Still plans on perhaps having a meet with TT present? I would be making a day trip out of that for sure.

 

Like I said, if you guys want to do a meet for lunch or dinner on a weekend I would see if he wants to go(I am sure he would since he sits in a hotel everyday) but I wont set it up since I dont actually know any of you out here. I would hate to set something up and have nobody show up. He has maybe a month left at the most, its not the end of the world if nothing goes down, honestly he barely understands english so it would be hello and not much else out of him.

 

Well you guys are always welcome down at the weekly Starbucks meet, if i know your coming I can definitely make sure there are some rotaries there. There also way more people showing up now that the weathers is nicer.
Also speaking of " sports car country road drive life" have you or TT been out to the Blue Ridge Parkway?

 

For me it would be honor just to shake his hand! I am not local to the area, but anyone else have any thoughts of meeting? I would think perhaps a Saturday in June? Or even May 31. I am more than willing to make it a day trip. Perhaps meeting around lunch time.

 

Well I honestly wanted to get him to a hooters, ha, seriously and there is one near the plant, the first week of june my wife is aways so I can do something then more then likely. Then again I am from cali, the girls at hooters out here might not be worth the bad food, ha.

 

Would love to get together with fellow rotary people and the engine builder from Japan, even though it would be a 3+ hr drive each way for me. If it comes off, someone should attempt to find an interpreter to come along for the meeting. I would try, but don't have any particular connections for that. I think TT would appreciate seeing a gaggle of rotary cars assembled in one place. Hooters would be OK, but perhaps an additional location a bit quieter might be in order?

 

Thanks for sharing! Cheers!

 

Ya mean you might actually run into some REAL pretty girls with some sweet Southern accents rather than...well, you know. You my friend are in a lot of trouble!

 

Nice thread and pics..thank you.

It is not the first time Mazda Japan has shown video on the assembly of the RENESIS, there was video available on the Japanese website showing the assembly of rotors and "short" block when the RX-8 was first released.

As far as a tour of the US facility, IMO I can't see why not as it is only a re-manufacturing facility for rotary engines and later transmissions.
What is there to hide, when the product you are touching/working on has already been out in the market place for over 35 years.
After all its not as if you will be assembling any brand new engines
(16X) for any new Mazda car body production line...
What are the secrets, design or technical .

In the 1970's I used to supply our mechanics with all the parts for rebuilds.. (We were a dealer), back then we must of done 100's of 10A's, 12A's and not as many 13B's.
We always replace of course with genuine new Mazda parts as Mazda had an extended engine warranty as almost all failures were "coolant entry" between rotor housing and Iron Intermediates.

So the normal new parts were always, Rotor Housings, apex seals and springs, corner seals and springs, side seal springs and sometimes side seals, oil control rings and springs and O rings, Engine gasket kit, timing cover and rear mail oil seals (eccentric shaft).
The Rotors almost always were reused..just cleaned off carbon etc.
Iron Intermediate housings were sent out for re-face machining.

The factory tools we had were very few really, a genuine engine stand with a handle to turn engine 360 degrees for assembly, a few thickness gauge tools for corner seals, a rotor holding device for reaming out the corner seals as back then you could also buy Over Sized corner seals, that is basically it.
Oh, we also had a factory compression gauge specifically for rotaries.
It was certainly fun back then to see dealer mechanics learning rebuilds.

Today dealers in Australia hardly touch any rotary engines for rebuilds because of wage costs.
Here a new factory crated engine is used for the RENESIS if under warranty.

 

http://www.chesterfieldobserver.com/.../news/014.html

article about the plant

 

zoom pm about this topic.

beers

 

Well the good news is the boss's listen to the employees so far, there are little things to replace here and there and I have to always say "hey why are we reusing this?" and they take the time to look it over and decide. One major issue has been the use of sylicone for the rotor housings/oil pans, they originally were told by the previous oustide company what they were using, we used it and when TT tore the first one built apart he said stop and now we have the correct stuff coming in. We are still working out a few kinks on everything now. BTW TT went back to japan for a week, I didn't know about this but he said he is coming back, I need to find out his schedule.