Turblown

Factory set of plugs too?

Jedi54

iTrader: (7)

omg, that plug looks terrible

nycgps

iTrader: (1)

Whoa !

wow ... that plug ... hmm ... Im surprised that it still fires ...

swoope

iTrader: (5)

if that plug came out of the 100k motor that is the focus of this thread..

all bets are off..

car was not maintained at all.. simple..

i hope not. what you have started might be a learning tool...

but really.. that plug does not hunt.

beers

9krpmrx8

iTrader: (46)

Wow, that plug is F.U.B.A.R.

Turblown

In addition to the bad spark plugs, we found two bad oil injectors. We will be starting this soon, and we are very curious to see if the coils are bad. We doubt they have been replaced.

As usual the rotor housings needed to be replaced with new ones, in addition to new soft/hard seals. Stationary gear bearings also needed to be replaced. Surprisingly the front thrust assembly was all toast. One needle bearing fell apart while cleaning, never seen that before. The thrust plate had a lot of wear. We failed to check end play before taking the engine apart, I suspect it was out of spec. We also had to replace the oil pickup tube, a lot of junk inside it on the other side of the screen. We've seen this on a few MSP(s) lately.

Turblown

Car is finished. Recalled K&N intake threw us through a loop for a while...

9krpmrx8

iTrader: (46)

Looks good, what is the thrust assembly?

sauceyI986

That's almost what my spark plugs looked like on my first motor that had about 30,000 miles on

Grungepup

iTrader: (2)

damn and i thought my plugs looked back after 20k

nycgps

iTrader: (1)

Your plugs look back what ?

Another rebuild hmm ...

imop45

so... I'm not going to have to worry about engine replacements if I keep the maintenance up right...?

what's the average life if taken care of with the Renesis?

Turblown

You will be far better off if you replace the plugs every 20k, and do wires/coils every 30K. On-top of that I would run straight premix, at least a supplement. If running stock omp change the oil every 2500. After all you are injecting used engine oil into the combustion chamber. I would think a cobb accessport might help too, lean out certain richer areas of the map to deter carbon buildup.

Even all of the above cannot prevent the engine loosing compression over time from too much sideseal to corner seal gap during engine assembly.

imop45

there's upgraded coils that last a little bit longer right?

sorry for all the Q's.. I just wanna know as much as I can.

what's the average fail age in your experience? B4 100k miles? (so still in warranty). Supossedly the motor gets better over time...

I wanna buy a car that'll last...and I love the rx8.. I'm not a 2 year buy a new car kinda guy.

bse50

Nice photos. Any in depth pictures of the e-shaft and rotor bearings?

BigTurbo74

Here is a pic from the FC FSM. It consists of thrust bearings, washers, and spacer used to adjust end play. It's all located behind the front cover.

olddragger

iTrader: (3)

all this did not happen in the last 25K---so it is a testenemt to the rotary to be running at all in that kind of condition.
No wonder airplane guys like it,

Is everyone SURE premix is helping this engine?
OD

JGR4444

ragger! havent heard from you in a while!

luv4eternity

im approaching 100k ..this is worrying me!

Rotary Inspired

iTrader: (1)

Have you seen the outter control rings cracking and splitting allowing blow by? Basically you have 2 C's when removing the oil control rings. I have seen this now in the renesis I have torn down that were smoking. Nice sharing the port work in the photo.

Turblown

We haven't seen that yet. We've seen chipping and pitting, but never a split.

HiFlite999

iTrader: (2)

Huh, not really. Of the 10,000 planes that show up in August to the EAA gathering including 1,500 or so homebuilts, you're lucky if you see a dozen powered by rotaries. The only applications from the autoworld seen in any numbers are VW conversions in the 50-80 hp range and Subaru's for 100-200 hp. The Jabiru started as a Subaru conversion, but has developed into a custom-made engine and has a good reputation in aircraft. Click on the "engines" tab of their website to get a feel of what it takes to make a good airplane engine.

http://www.jabiru.net.au/

There is nothing even remotely similar for Wankel rotaries.

olddragger

iTrader: (3)

Sorry --should have clarified a little more---its the homemade small sport planes owners that are saying they like the rotory engine because of its small size and light weight. They do also mention that the engine never just quits--it may loose power but it doesnt just quit like recips do when they drop a valve, etc.
Sorry for the highjack--back to the original topic.

ASH8

Great Pics..thanks..and great assembly.

Sure looks like a Carbon Lock engine, the removed Apex Seals don't look that bad, I have seen worse at half the mileage.

As we know the Apex Springs just cant keep the Apex Seals contacted to the Rotor Housings because of all the carbon build up.

That spark plug is disgusting.

Turblown

When an engine is running the majority of the apex seal force is from combustion pressure; just like a piston rings. This is why its also critical to have correct apex seal to groove clearances...

Put a few hundred miles on car, runs great. It was delivered this morning.

And we had a few more roll into today, next build will be much more performance orientated..