Worth Rebuilding?

[BLKTOPTRVL]

I started removing my engine prior to accepting a six month contract away from home. In one month the contract will be finished and I will be headed back home to finish the rebuild.

I have 200K on my vert and it was running fine (but smoked heavily when first started after not being driven for three or more days) when I decided to do the rebuild.

Why! (Skip if you are interested in a long read).I made this decision because I did not want to wait until it has hand grenaded and also because a year before I had a shop put a clutch in. Unfortunately, with only 1K miles on the clutch since install, it is acting goofy. So, instead of bitching to the shop and such, I decided I might as well go ahead and pull the clutch myself to check it out. And since I was willing to do that, I might as well go ahead and rebuild the engine.

So, a few minutes ago, I was reading the Rotary Response and Racing website, and they seem to be of the opinion that a 19 year old engine may not have very many reusable parts in it. The reason I wanted to rebuild prior to pop.

Now mind you, this engine has never even sneezed or burped, let-alone been opened, or had any kind of problem other than the smoking mentioned above.

So, here are the questions...

(1) What do you think the chances are that RRR is right and there is not much that is reusable?

If the consensus is 'not much', then I might as well get a reman from Mazda and hope that it has a lot of new (or at least a lot less than 19 year old) parts in it.

(2) If I decide to go with a Mazda Reman, will they accept a core that has been dis- and re-assembled?

[blwnrtr93]

save your money and either rebuild it yourself or have someone reputable rebuild or build you a new one.

[fikren]

save your money and either rebuild it yourself or have someone reputable rebuild or build you a new one.
+1 use it for a core to someone like Kevin for a rebuild. You'll be much happier with that route than a reman from mazda. At least with kevin you will also have some options like porting if you wanted.

[J-Rat]

Rotary Response and Racing

#1. Jay is a TOOL. He doesnt even CARE about 2nd gen cars and he is NOT an asset to the rotary community in any way.
#2. If the part from the used engine specs out, then there is no reason NOT to reuse it unless your horsepower goals dictate a sturdier build.

[classicauto]

Go with a reputable rebuild, which doesn't happen to be a Mazda re-man.

Your best option like you've laid out, is to rebuild it before it pops. That will minimize the chance of having trash parts for the rebuild.........

[WE3RX7]

It sounds like with that many miles it was probably well taken care of and thus shouldn't have much internal damage that would dictate needing to go w/ a reman.

Check out the parts, make sure the housings arent' flaking, the rotor tips are still straight and solid, replace the rotor bearings even if they dont look bad, check the step wear on the irons and all should be well. Even if there is some level of wear on the irons, you can usually send them off to be lapped and it'll be perfect again - you can always make the adjustment on lapped irons when you spec out the end play at the end of the rebuild.

I say go for it - also, using a guy like Kevin is a plus as others mentioned since he'd know exactly how to measure the wear and whats reusable and whats not (plus a mild port would be a bonus).

[BLKTOPTRVL]

I left a thread on the other site about this rebuild, I will post it here in a continuation when I get back home.