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Couple of things ...............check for wear at sides of housings where the apex assist piece runs .... put straight edge across face to check no gaps . If it's not too bad ...you may get away with a hone . On the irons check the area that the corner seal passes over besides the exhaust ports isn't stepped . if you can feel it with your thumbnail .... no good.
Looks good. I know some people will say you need all new housings etc., but I would just verify everything is in spec and not damaged, buy a new closing kit and get it back together. Chances are something else will blow well before anything else is truly unusable... If your are iffy on that, you may look into resurfacing those housings. I got mine done at Freelance and they came back looking brand new for like $300.
SC95GT, Appreciated it. 100%... housings h/b sent to Goopy for refurbishing. Need to decide on closing kit...obviously w/HD water seals... ,leaning Pineapple but open to other suggestions; and a few other hardening bits. Check clearances & specs on all components. If all good, ... back together again.
Couple of things ...............check for wear at sides of housings where the apex assist piece runs .... put straight edge across face to check no gaps . If it's not too bad ...you may get away with a hone . On the irons check the area that the corner seal passes over besides the exhaust ports isn't stepped . if you can feel it with your thumbnail .... no good.
Brett, Thanks for the guidance.
I checked housing inner surfaces w/a straight edge, and found no issue. Sent the housings to Goopy where they will also eval for refurbishing suitability for a successful re-build.
Irons appear good as well, i.e. mirror smooth, no step anywhere.
While, of course, w/it cracked open I'll replace anything deemed questionable, but I also consider that the engine was running fine..., well actually, until the water seal failed.
I checked housing inner surfaces w/a straight edge, and found no issue. Sent the housings to Goopy where they will also eval for refurbishing suitability for a successful re-build.
Irons appear good as well, i.e. mirror smooth, no step anywhere.
While, of course, w/it cracked open I'll replace anything deemed questionable, but I also consider that the engine was running fine..., well actually, until the water seal failed.
Good move on the refurbishment. I am currently using the pineapple closing kit with the HD water seals and have had no issues. I used Vaseline to install my water seal though a lot of people use a type of sealant.
For those shiny irons, you may want to look into the Lynn Hanover hand lapping method (posted somewhere over on nopistons). You essentially scuff up the surface of the iron using a kerosene or other lubricant and orbital hand sander and some light grit sandpaper. It dulls the finish without removing too much material (leaving the nitride layer). Supposed to help with the motor break-in and help retain lubrication on the side seals which is probably most important on a rx8 engine where the side seal goes over the exhaust port. Here is a picture of before and after of my irons if you are interested. I spent under $100 on this process which was better than $1500 for new irons.
Last edited by strokercharged95gt; Nov 30, 2018 at 06:37 AM.
Good move on the refurbishment. I am currently using the pineapple closing kit with the HD water seals and have had no issues. I used Vaseline to install my water seal though a lot of people use a type of sealant.
For those shiny irons, you may want to look into the Lynn Hanover hand lapping method...
SC95GT, Thanks. I plan to use Hylomar for the water seal installation, and Royal Purple Assembly Lube, and Vaseline for general assembly. Thanks for the suggestion...I'll look into the Hanover hand lapping
edit: Good to hear the vote of confidence on the Pineapple close kit & HD seals.
Progress update...porting
- To open exhaust port flow and avoid potential carbon build up shown in the first pic...I ported the mid-iron exhaust ports w/ the RB Street Port template. Then enlarged the template a bit and ported the end irons ~ 5% larger ...w/ attention to runner transition on all.
Edit: ***It's imperative to avoid the coolant cavities w/in the irons. The Racing Beat porting template instructions provides some detail as to how to avoid them.*** Carboned exhaust port...
. RB template over OEM exhaust port
Very poor OEM casting corners and transitions. Paid particular attention to upper narrow area, lower lip, and hidden transition into the runner.
Was surprised to see how much larger the runner interface to the back of the exhaust port is.
Mid-iron nearly finished product
Enlarging the RB template to port the end-iron exhausts ~5% larger than the mid-iron exhausts. Objective here is twofold: 1) to further increase exhaust flow capacity, and 2) to bias a higher % of exhaust flow to the end iron exhausts ... and by default away from the Siamese port.
Everything is looking real good. The studs are a bit overkill, but overkill isn't a bad thing.
SC95GT, Thanks. Yeah, the studs m/b a bit overkill, but justifiable based on savings from rebuilding the engine myself as compared to the likely conservative quotes received from professional engine builders. Also read that MNAO determined that studs / tension bolts on a FI engine s/b torqued higher than the NA OEM spec. So, the studs will help there w/ increased tensile strength & torquing precision.
This build thread is great. I’m considering going the same route you are with a rebuild with a street port and overbuilding the **** out of the engine and then throwing turblowns 7670 kit on there. So this has def helped me out a lot. Keep the pics and build coming!
Love this build. Out of curiosity, why are you using the Pineapple water jacket seals instead of the Atkins seals?
TomD, Thanks. First time rebuild... and since my failure was d/t a failed water seal, wanted HD seals on my rebuild. I'd read and heard good feedback re: the Pineapple seals, so bought them. Now that I have them both, and the Atkins look equally good, I'll inspect and select which I'll actually use.
E-shaft, intermediate iron, and Pineapple one piece dowel installations...
E-shaft installed...
Intermediate iron assembly was pretty easy w/ an engine stand. Tilted the stand untlil the rear end of e-shaft was just above horizontal. Pulled the e-shaft out ~1" ...and d/t the stand angle it will stay out. Added the mid-iron, then rotated the engine stand vertical again (rear of engine assembly up), and everything seated up.
intermediate iron installed w/ OEM 1/2 height dowels (hidden)
Half height dowels extracted, and one piece dowels installed via clamping the assembly, extracting the OEM 1/2 height dowels (w/out disturbing the assembly positioning), and inserting the full length dowels...bottom position first (which appears to be a hair tighter)...then the top dowel position.
Rear housing, rotor, and apex seal installation...
Note: Take care to align corner seals beforehand AND not to disturb them when placing the rotor on the assembly.
If by Murphy's law a bottom corner seal is disturbed / turns slightly as it did on me, there's a fix. Rather than removing the rotor, etc I ground the edge of an old apex seal to a wedge, inserted it into the offending apex seal groove to realign the bottom corner seal. Then was able to install & fully seat the new springs and seal.
rear rotor & housing installation
rear rotor apex spring & seal installation
rear rotor installation complete
Note: Forgot to snap a pic of the rear rotor housing w/ water seals installed w/ hylomar and lower legs Permatex grey sealed. (Similar to first pic in post #123)
...torqued to 46 ft lbs. EDIT: Returned later and retorqued the studs to 42#. See post #185.
Note: Pleased w/the stud kit. Obvious quality and torquing precision improvement over OEM tension bolts.
If your are iffy on that, you may look into resurfacing those housings. I got mine done at Freelance and they came back looking brand new for like $300.
shown in the first pic...I ported the mid-iron exhaust ports w/ the RB Street Port template. Then enlarged the template a bit and ported the end irons ~ 5% larger ...w/ attention to runner transition on all.
That feeling when the apex seal fully slides down and seats. 
That feeling when it doesn't...
