i talked briefly with Rob Golden of Pineapple Racing this past saturday. i mentioned to him that we are seeing some engines break and told him the mazda line about oil metering pumps, side seals etc. it's his opinion that oil metering pump failure would not cause side seal failure or bearing seize. he said that oil metering pump failure should not cause the motor to break but would cause heating problems that could cause warping of apex seals and a loss of power but not full breakage.

he said heat is going to be the thing to watch with this engine. with everyone running it around at high rpm all the time that he is really looking at the heat issue. he said that one of the people who came to the portland auto show rode down from seattle(i think - somewhere in washington state anyway)in someones rx-8 and the driver wwas over 6k rpm the whole time.

another thing he is pondering is an apparent difference in the weight of the rotors between JDM renesis engines and US engines. he has a mag article which has a pic of the rotors being weighed in which you can clearly see the weight. when he compared that to ones he weighed himself, the US ones were heavier. it's not a conversion thing as they were both weighed in grams. don't know what to make of that.

they are working on a piggy back ecu, will be out in a month. check the aftermarket performance section for my short post about that.

 

rotarygod? anyone?

 

All I know about Pineapple is in some RX-7 forums they have gotten a bad rap for some engine rebuilds.

If your asking about the failure opinion, I aint smart enough yet :D

 

Makes sense that they did that, you think we have the occasional problem with blown motors? From what I understand JDM's were worse, their engine that first shipped was closer to the prototype than what we got....

 

just out of curiosity would lighter rotors reduce the torque as well as freeing up ponies.

 

another thing he is pondering is an apparent difference in the weight of the rotors between JDM renesis engines and US engines. he has a mag article which has a pic of the rotors being weighed in which you can clearly see the weight. when he compared that to ones he weighed himself, the US ones were heavier. it's not a conversion thing as they were both weighed in grams. don't know what to make of that.

Rotors are the same between USA & Japan engines (I really hate the term "JDM"). There are weight categories, A-E, which determine which rotors can be combined when assembling.

Example:

A, B & C rotors can be used without a balance or vibration issue.

C, D & E combos are OK.

Not OK- A & D, A & E etc.....

C weights are ok for all combos.

Its the same system they have used for years.

 

you would think that a guy who is supposed to be an expert builder of rotaries, who has been doing it for many years would know that. care to explain how you do?

 

Anyone with extensive rotary engine knowledge should know this. If you ordered a new engine rotor from Mazda, they are marked with a "C", because it can be used with all combinations.

I'd rather not explain how I know, but others can verify this is the truth.

 

thanks that says enough for me. i'll see if i can email him that info and see what he says.

 

Example of Rotor with the "B" weight stamp

 

that a renesis rotor?

 

No....I figured I'll leave those where they belong....:D

Its one of my 12A rotors I have in my shop.....they are also good paperweights.