it was probably rebuilt many years ago before mazda went to the 2 piece seals in around 2004-ish, after the remaining stock of 3 piece seals was depleted. no original FC engine ever came with the FD type corner seal springs.

Good to know. I've decided that instead of selling these irons with the exception of the rear iron, I'm going to use them in my rebuild... may have the engine studded... though I cant fathom how I'd reassemble it; I'd have to look at the process... I haven't gotten that far yet.

Just waiting on a dial indicator to get here to check the step wear (though I strongly doubt it'll even be measurable). Then its the Atkins kit for me... and Ben, I'll likely be ordering a set of the goopy seals. :cheers2:

I cant imagine that the plates and housings that are in the car now are i better shape than these... but we'll see!

since you got the thick iron you should be fine, studding is more for the weak thin cast rear iron blocks. the front iron can also crack in the same spot but it is a rather rare occurrence. if you ever want to push over 450whp i would suggest then thinking about studding it for future goals.

Just spec'd out the irons... .002 is the biggest step on them, so I'm good to go as far as irons are concerned!

I also picked up a cherry picker and engine stand yesterday, adapter plate is on the way...

So since the last post... I've moved to CA, set up the garage... and...

She's strong!

I'm just going to copy and paste my post from FB so I dont have to type it out again:

The crack in the rear iron is VERY visible in the pictures, which is funny because its fairly had to see in person. Anyway, the teardown went well, and ALL of the internals are immaculate with the obvious exception of the rear iron. They're in better shape than the ones I just got... there is absolutely NO step wear on any of the irons. The rotors are almost completely free of carbon build up, which I attribute to premixing for about the last 500 miles. All apex seals are in great shape too. But I've decided to get the master rebuild kit, and replace everything. Cleaning this should be a breeze! Picked up a gallon of that super purple crap and a 5 gallon bucket.

Gotta figure out colors for the housings and irons. Black and silver are NOT options, BTW. Suggest away!

Hmmm.... how about black and silver? OR maybe silver and black?

i say put it together and throw some mud on it, rotaries like the abuse and if you baby them too much they just shit on your face.

not like the engine can be seen anyways once it is installed, i paint them more for aesthetic pleasure so the owner's are happy with seeing a nice clean freshly painted engine, which usually doesn't last long anyways.

Relatively small amount of progress in the last few months while I had been building my ruckus... But...

My kit got here today!!

I taped up my irons today to get them painted black, and while I'm watching the paint dry tomorrow... Ill tape up the housings and spray them afterwards. I think ill build the engine next Friday... 4 day weekend! It'll give me some time to go over the rotors/bearings again and clean up the garage before getting started.

Getting close!!

I'll be dropping the engine in next Friday when my leave starts! Should be running by Sunday!

This story came to an end a few hours ago...

About 2 seconds after turning the key to start, the megasquirt starting making shit happen, and the engine was idling... Perfectly!

damn. i was hoping for some explosions, fireballs and ground shaking destruction!

I'm sure you weren't the only one... The troll would have come in here hoping for actual explosions :)

I guess the point was that I was happy that it actually started... Never built a 13bt before... Just 12as and na 13bs. Not really any huge differences. I remember back in '10 being fairly intimidated by doing any complex work on the 13bts... I had n/a's from 16 to 26 years old... No problem there.