Eric, what an amazing video. Those little edits you did make the video way more enjoyable for everyone. A major difference between Rob and you is that all of YOUR viewers know what you're talking about 90% of the time. We'll still be watching you even with a shaky camera and 360p just for the knowledge you give. Not the case with Rob's channel. The little edits and cinematic shots he does, make it enjoyable for even more casual viewers. Watch the comments on his videos and you it will prove my point about the people watching him. My point is, if you keep it up, you will attract more casual viewers.
My only issue with the Rob video and him giving advice on longevity is he hasn't built a rotary that's lasted 10's of thousands of miles in his experiments to know how long ANYTHING will last. He's a HP guy! Also, the problem with all these aftermarket apex seals is no one knows how long they will TRULY last inside these engines. One of my own 13b engines went 55k in an NA 91 Vert with crappy used housings using RA seals. The only reason that engine blew was because of the tephlon coolant seals failed I was experimenting with at the time. I also didn't beat on the engine either. Back in 2007, I worked at a Mazda dealer and as the only rotary mechanic that rebuilt engines in house. Back then, Ra seals were about the only thing we had that was unbreakable. Anyways, I had an FD come in that was putting down 300+ rwhp with the factory twin turbos sequentially, and the engine was running perfect. That car was a beast and had unbelievable bottom end and was running FC coils. It was a car built by Rotary Performance in Garland Tx. Car had about 190k on it so I naturally reached out to the owner to ask how many miles were on the rebuild. He told me that engine had 80k on it. I was like 😮. I then asked if he was running any of the aftermarket apex seals and he said no. He was running FACTORY 3mm no doweling or anything. Just a simple build with a perfect tune. See, these are the types of results I love to hear about and yet so many popular YTbers think these after-market options are the ONLY options.
Bottom line here is not to detonate, any apex seal should last if treated right, properly oiled, no carbon build up, a safe tune. He said it wasn't the tuning fault, so what caused the detonation? He wasn't running super high boost, so I can't see heat being a problem. Maybe a fuel issue? But he shouldn't drive the motor until he finds out what caused it.
@RedBatRacing I always get the fuel injectors cleaned and flow tested on rebuilds. Gotta cover all your bases. On that 190k fd, I wish I had monitored the A/F back them to see what it was tuned for. Mazda ran the Fd at 10.0 for a reason under boost. Something that rich gives you some lea way if you have to put 87 in the tank or get a bad batch of gas.
@@rotaryperfection I suspect Mazda ran them so rich because the twin turbos were thermonuclear reactors and the stock IC was small. So they took whatever safety precautions they could. I blew my first stock motor on a track day. We pulled the engine apart and found the rotors thick with carbon. Now it's a 450hp dedicated track car with single turbo, large IC, water injection and I run around 12:1 afr
I really want to get with Rob and you to build my 79 rx7 engine. It was my 1st car I bought. Brother blow up the engine in 2008 right before I married and joined the army. I am so glad you guys are out here putting information out. So exciting for the potential of these engines.
Try impregnating the rotor faces with a catalyst (platinum). Should significantly improve complete combustion of fuel all the way to the sharp corners of the rotor, and prevent carbon build up.
I have a 375+ whp fc that i have done many engine builds/car revisions on trying to find a combonation that will last. Its been about 9000 miles on my current setup but i have had very good experience with RA classic apex seals. I tested stockers, e and j and the RAs can take the heat and just need some extra premix. I would love to discuss with you what my experiences have been working towards achieving a reliable high hp rotary even in 90°f ambient temps and long road trips
I just built my first keg..it is a mild ported semi pp with 2x extra dowels ..1 dowel is next to the oil feed dowel ..then the 2nd extra dowel is on the bottom of the combustion side..I used power seal oring kit with gasket kit and apex seals only the best product for me …Australian made …🇦🇺👍🏼
Been watching your content for years. I can really tell you've stepped up your content. The music and your lighting is next level. Only other suggestion I would make it to get a mic, your camera picks up a lot of the large room auditorium sound, so a lapel mic would help a ton. Keep up the good work Erich. Saw your collab with the gears and gasoline guys and I'm super stoked for that too. Channel should be exploding soon!
At a time when parts for these already fairly rare engines are more expensive than ever, we dont need competition. We need enthusiasts to help each other to keep these things going. The companies trying to get top dollar for anything related to these engines are exactly what's going to kill the rotary platform altogether. Eventually, it won't make sense to even consider them anymore over any other engine, and that thought makes me pretty sad.
Hi, do you prefer to use OEM Mazda corner seals or aftermarket solid corner seals? I have to rebuild my 13B soon so I'm trying to learn everything I can about these.
If your really want to keep the torsion twisting down look into the Mazda factory race motors they had a steel plate across the top of the engine front to rear on the MFR pp motors nobody has ever noticed that and nobody has as much R&D as Mazda some old racing beat catalog had pictures of it
It still amazes me that the apex seal get that bad rap.back in the early 2000's there was a shop here in the NW that made 740whp on factory apex seals.engine was built locally and tuned by the shop owner on an ancient PowerFC but it was state of the art back then.so please stop saying how unreliable these engines are.there are just poor builders and tuners
hey Rob and RAD. i´m building up an outparted 1985 12A FB3S GSL with GSL-SE Axles (dont know why they done this but hey i have SE-Axles) so can i use that extra dowel thing on the 12A too? expecting yes but better i ask 1 time more than doing an failure in thinking about before i start that whole project
What did the spark plugs look like? Are they peppered with metal fragments, or cracked porcelain insulation, like people might see on piston engines that detonate?
It's what worries me about my vehicle some days... I don't push on it too hard and it only comes out on nice sunny weather. But I know eventually that engine will give up... I hope when that happens, I'll convert it to EV.. 🙂 Thanks for the engine stack.
@@xshawn801x Correct.. but I think it's an early type of build because the range is very limited. And I'm not sure if it'll accept supercharging. I think there's a build getting done by another known UK shop but they haven't revealed it yet.. Same shop that did Testarossa EV kits.. 🙂
This is sort of an unralated question but does anyone know where i can buy the 3 vacuum hoses that come off the intake of an RX8? Ive had a hard time finding them and im chasing a lose of power issue and the engine runing rough at around 7-9k RMP after putting on an AEM cold air intake which i think is a vacuum leak.
Get them from Mazda. If you take your car to HPDE or autocross you can join the Mazda Motorsports support program, which gets factory mazda parts for great prices.
I had my first 12a turbo built with power seals nearly 20yr ago …so plenty of R&R on power seals products…Australia has the biggest Rotary shops with big reputations an Nz is the best for exotic 4x rotary engines - e-shafts in the world FYI- The car made 360hp atw ran a 11.2@124mph
Hi i am new subscriber and at around 11 you say that if you put the assembled rotor on the back of the engine something bad will happen to the control ring ? I dont understand that part because you can assemble each rotor front and back and as long as you put the control ring curved round edge in the correct slot just how you say and facing the correct position it shouldnt matter if you put the front rotor in the rear ? Because your rings are in the correct spots right ? Or am i wrong somehow ?
You have already assembled the front rotor ? Control rings and all and lets say you assemble rear rotor as well , it wouldnt matter where they go rear or front would it ? And i do understand each rotor faces oppsite side please help me
@@bryansautoandmotorcyclerepairs it doesn’t necessarily matter but you should have labeled them when you did the teardown. As long as the oil control rings are correctly aligned then you should be fine. If one of the rotors is new you should be certain that the casting batches match. That will be designated by a letter near the corner seals. C’s are the most common. Get on RX7 club and look this stuff up. Its much more efficient than commenting on a youtube video. Im sure Mr. Rad is a busy guy and he probably cant get to every comment.
@@Alwayscorrect12 well thanks for your reply and yes i have already learned you need to have matching rotors. And that little part just threw me off completely on his video and scared me because i dont want to make mistake.
What caused the detonation? Solve that before you put this engine under any load. Otherwise you'll be right back here again! Also that dowel is not ideal where it is. You are removing material from near the plugs and could cause the housings to crack. Either put the dowel further down from the plugs, or better yet put in a stud kit that removes less material from the housings and is far more rigid. But you dont need any strengthening on an FD engine if you are targeting around 400-450hp
I don't know enough about engines to comment on dowel location, but I agree that unless there are ECU datalogs showing that all the readings were good then I'm suspecting fuel system problems, or overboost, or ECU calibration problems like not compensating for unusually hot or cold temperatures. Each time I hear about a hurt engine, I wonder what could have been done to prevent it. I can't imagine any brand of apex seals causing failures on a 350whp setup, they are just the canary in the coal mine telling you that something else was wrong.
@@Sparkling.Fresca great point, I assumed they would be running NGK 9's or colder. I don't remember hearing that mentioned in the video, hope they weren't running stock heat range.
@@RADPotential Look into R7240-10 for leading and R7420-11 for trailing, should have at least the IGN1A smart coils for these to not foul up under normal driving. The trailing plugs can act like glow plugs and cause preignition, and the colder plugs will reduce the apex seals chattering over the plug holes. Will also help protect the water jacket around the plugs compared to the hotter stock ones.
@@RADPotential around 0:06 is where it starts, its not very loud but a bit distracting to me. There is a chance its an issue on my side, but I don't have it on other channels.
I hate that it comes across that way at times. If you knew me in person you would see that there’s no ego just excitement. I’m only able to do what I do because of people watching so I never forget that
@@RobDahmi agree, I don't see any ego in you at all Rob. You've come a long way and have learned so much more than most people realize by actually putting in the work and understanding all the complex concepts to get these bizarre engines to run smoothly and efficiently.
lol i met you a couple years ago at dgrr, at the damn dam. i was standing on the sidewalk, you were standing on the asphalt. and i think i still wasn't eye to eye with you
I watched that whole video and I am inspired. Not sure I'd want to do it myself though. How much would you charge for a Rob Dham style rebuild assuming good irons?
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Hell yeah! Just came across this. Exciting seeing your channel growing!
You're an inspiration!!! Ill be out there for 7 stock this year! Hope to see you there!!
Yo rob and dad potential in the comments that’s awesome I love watching both of you guys.
Rob and Rad. How cool that is if you guys ever makes a collab.
🦾👏🏽
I am just so excited to see the rotary love spread.
Eric, what an amazing video. Those little edits you did make the video way more enjoyable for everyone. A major difference between Rob and you is that all of YOUR viewers know what you're talking about 90% of the time. We'll still be watching you even with a shaky camera and 360p just for the knowledge you give. Not the case with Rob's channel. The little edits and cinematic shots he does, make it enjoyable for even more casual viewers. Watch the comments on his videos and you it will prove my point about the people watching him.
My point is, if you keep it up, you will attract more casual viewers.
Man, your videos are getting better and better!
My only issue with the Rob video and him giving advice on longevity is he hasn't built a rotary that's lasted 10's of thousands of miles in his experiments to know how long ANYTHING will last. He's a HP guy! Also, the problem with all these aftermarket apex seals is no one knows how long they will TRULY last inside these engines. One of my own 13b engines went 55k in an NA 91 Vert with crappy used housings using RA seals. The only reason that engine blew was because of the tephlon coolant seals failed I was experimenting with at the time. I also didn't beat on the engine either.
Back in 2007, I worked at a Mazda dealer and as the only rotary mechanic that rebuilt engines in house. Back then, Ra seals were about the only thing we had that was unbreakable. Anyways, I had an FD come in that was putting down 300+ rwhp with the factory twin turbos sequentially, and the engine was running perfect. That car was a beast and had unbelievable bottom end and was running FC coils. It was a car built by Rotary Performance in Garland Tx. Car had about 190k on it so I naturally reached out to the owner to ask how many miles were on the rebuild. He told me that engine had 80k on it. I was like 😮. I then asked if he was running any of the aftermarket apex seals and he said no. He was running FACTORY 3mm no doweling or anything. Just a simple build with a perfect tune. See, these are the types of results I love to hear about and yet so many popular YTbers think these after-market options are the ONLY options.
Bottom line here is not to detonate, any apex seal should last if treated right, properly oiled, no carbon build up, a safe tune. He said it wasn't the tuning fault, so what caused the detonation? He wasn't running super high boost, so I can't see heat being a problem. Maybe a fuel issue? But he shouldn't drive the motor until he finds out what caused it.
agreed. he isnt like many other shops who have been building rotaries for years. nothing like how the kiwis do it
@RedBatRacing I always get the fuel injectors cleaned and flow tested on rebuilds. Gotta cover all your bases. On that 190k fd, I wish I had monitored the A/F back them to see what it was tuned for. Mazda ran the Fd at 10.0 for a reason under boost. Something that rich gives you some lea way if you have to put 87 in the tank or get a bad batch of gas.
@@rotaryperfection I suspect Mazda ran them so rich because the twin turbos were thermonuclear reactors and the stock IC was small. So they took whatever safety precautions they could. I blew my first stock motor on a track day. We pulled the engine apart and found the rotors thick with carbon. Now it's a 450hp dedicated track car with single turbo, large IC, water injection and I run around 12:1 afr
Well he was only running around 300 wheel, so isnt it obvious that stock seals would last at that range? Dont see your point there.
I really want to get with Rob and you to build my 79 rx7 engine. It was my 1st car I bought. Brother blow up the engine in 2008 right before I married and joined the army. I am so glad you guys are out here putting information out. So exciting for the potential of these engines.
Try impregnating the rotor faces with a catalyst (platinum). Should significantly improve complete combustion of fuel all the way to the sharp corners of the rotor, and prevent carbon build up.
love Rob Dahm's videos
I'm about to rebuild my 13b for the first time, your videos along with Rob Dahm's are so helpful
Thank you legend . Bringing the best info , knowing what needs to be shown.
Best rotor build video I've watched to date ..
Any Informative 13b build video I’ll watch every time
Stoked to see the collab video
That Moto IQ vid is amazing!
so much info on rotary's!
I have a 375+ whp fc that i have done many engine builds/car revisions on trying to find a combonation that will last. Its been about 9000 miles on my current setup but i have had very good experience with RA classic apex seals. I tested stockers, e and j and the RAs can take the heat and just need some extra premix. I would love to discuss with you what my experiences have been working towards achieving a reliable high hp rotary even in 90°f ambient temps and long road trips
I just built my first keg..it is a mild ported semi pp with 2x extra dowels ..1 dowel is next to the oil feed dowel ..then the 2nd extra dowel is on the bottom of the combustion side..I used power seal oring kit with gasket kit and apex seals only the best product for me …Australian made …🇦🇺👍🏼
Been watching your content for years. I can really tell you've stepped up your content. The music and your lighting is next level. Only other suggestion I would make it to get a mic, your camera picks up a lot of the large room auditorium sound, so a lapel mic would help a ton. Keep up the good work Erich. Saw your collab with the gears and gasoline guys and I'm super stoked for that too. Channel should be exploding soon!
You should try colder plugs if you haven't specced them out already
At a time when parts for these already fairly rare engines are more expensive than ever, we dont need competition. We need enthusiasts to help each other to keep these things going. The companies trying to get top dollar for anything related to these engines are exactly what's going to kill the rotary platform altogether. Eventually, it won't make sense to even consider them anymore over any other engine, and that thought makes me pretty sad.
Hi, do you prefer to use OEM Mazda corner seals or aftermarket solid corner seals? I have to rebuild my 13B soon so I'm trying to learn everything I can about these.
I've read and heard on videos that the solid corner seals put more wear on the housings and the best way to go on those are oem
Good video! Interested in getting a s5 turbo motor dowel pinned, we'll see if any machine shops near me feel up to it.
I see those rx8 lights in the back 👀 when are you putting them on?
If your really want to keep the torsion twisting down look into the Mazda factory race motors they had a steel plate across the top of the engine front to rear on the MFR pp motors nobody has ever noticed that and nobody has as much R&D as Mazda some old racing beat catalog had pictures of it
Will you use the same principle on the renesis? Curious to see how a turbo renesis would hold up with those modifications.
It still amazes me that the apex seal get that bad rap.back in the early 2000's there was a shop here in the NW that made 740whp on factory apex seals.engine was built locally and tuned by the shop owner on an ancient PowerFC but it was state of the art back then.so please stop saying how unreliable these engines are.there are just poor builders and tuners
hey Rob and RAD. i´m building up an outparted 1985 12A FB3S GSL with GSL-SE Axles (dont know why they done this but hey i have SE-Axles) so can i use that extra dowel thing on the 12A too? expecting yes but better i ask 1 time more than doing an failure in thinking about before i start that whole project
What did the spark plugs look like? Are they peppered with metal fragments, or cracked porcelain insulation, like people might see on piston engines that detonate?
Any advice where can I place an order for a built N/A 13B for a carbureted swap I want to do on my bug I’ve had for over 25 years? 🙏🏽
Where'd you get that front/rear seal holder?
Nice work bro
It's what worries me about my vehicle some days... I don't push on it too hard and it only comes out on nice sunny weather. But I know eventually that engine will give up... I hope when that happens, I'll convert it to EV.. 🙂
Thanks for the engine stack.
Id love to see an EV rx7 lol.
There’s one for sale on rx7 club right now.
@@xshawn801x Correct.. but I think it's an early type of build because the range is very limited. And I'm not sure if it'll accept supercharging. I think there's a build getting done by another known UK shop but they haven't revealed it yet..
Same shop that did Testarossa EV kits.. 🙂
An EV Rx8 exist.
Are solid dowels still thing for longevity with hp ?
Yea for no paint. I'm an originalist. I tend to keep my vehicles very stock.
This is sort of an unralated question but does anyone know where i can buy the 3 vacuum hoses that come off the intake of an RX8? Ive had a hard time finding them and im chasing a lose of power issue and the engine runing rough at around 7-9k RMP after putting on an AEM cold air intake which i think is a vacuum leak.
Get them from Mazda. If you take your car to HPDE or autocross you can join the Mazda Motorsports support program, which gets factory mazda parts for great prices.
watched the motoiq video aswell and saw rob recommended power seals apex seals wondering what the difference is to rxparts apex seals
I had my first 12a turbo built with power seals nearly 20yr ago …so plenty of R&R on power seals products…Australia has the biggest Rotary shops with big reputations an Nz is the best for exotic 4x rotary engines - e-shafts in the world
FYI- The car made 360hp atw ran a 11.2@124mph
How much is the build?
Hi i am new subscriber and at around 11 you say that if you put the assembled rotor on the back of the engine something bad will happen to the control ring ? I dont understand that part because you can assemble each rotor front and back and as long as you put the control ring curved round edge in the correct slot just how you say and facing the correct position it shouldnt matter if you put the front rotor in the rear ? Because your rings are in the correct spots right ? Or am i wrong somehow ?
You have already assembled the front rotor ? Control rings and all and lets say you assemble rear rotor as well , it wouldnt matter where they go rear or front would it ? And i do understand each rotor faces oppsite side please help me
@@bryansautoandmotorcyclerepairs it doesn’t necessarily matter but you should have labeled them when you did the teardown. As long as the oil control rings are correctly aligned then you should be fine. If one of the rotors is new you should be certain that the casting batches match. That will be designated by a letter near the corner seals. C’s are the most common. Get on RX7 club and look this stuff up. Its much more efficient than commenting on a youtube video. Im sure Mr. Rad is a busy guy and he probably cant get to every comment.
@@Alwayscorrect12 well thanks for your reply and yes i have already learned you need to have matching rotors. And that little part just threw me off completely on his video and scared me because i dont want to make mistake.
What caused the detonation? Solve that before you put this engine under any load. Otherwise you'll be right back here again! Also that dowel is not ideal where it is. You are removing material from near the plugs and could cause the housings to crack. Either put the dowel further down from the plugs, or better yet put in a stud kit that removes less material from the housings and is far more rigid. But you dont need any strengthening on an FD engine if you are targeting around 400-450hp
I don't know enough about engines to comment on dowel location, but I agree that unless there are ECU datalogs showing that all the readings were good then I'm suspecting fuel system problems, or overboost, or ECU calibration problems like not compensating for unusually hot or cold temperatures. Each time I hear about a hurt engine, I wonder what could have been done to prevent it. I can't imagine any brand of apex seals causing failures on a 350whp setup, they are just the canary in the coal mine telling you that something else was wrong.
Colder plugs will help with detonation, it's well documented on the rx7 forum how effectively it helps to reduce this
@@Sparkling.Fresca great point, I assumed they would be running NGK 9's or colder. I don't remember hearing that mentioned in the video, hope they weren't running stock heat range.
We have 9s in the car.
@@RADPotential Look into R7240-10 for leading and R7420-11 for trailing, should have at least the IGN1A smart coils for these to not foul up under normal driving. The trailing plugs can act like glow plugs and cause preignition, and the colder plugs will reduce the apex seals chattering over the plug holes. Will also help protect the water jacket around the plugs compared to the hotter stock ones.
anyone else have some clicking noise in the background for some parts of the video?
I didn't notice anything. Do you have a time stamp?
@@RADPotential around 0:06 is where it starts, its not very loud but a bit distracting to me. There is a chance its an issue on my side, but I don't have it on other channels.
I didn’t hear it
No such thing as a strong rotary jus put a piston engine in :)
Billet
First! LOL PS: Can’t stand Dahm and his ginormous ego.
I hate that it comes across that way at times. If you knew me in person you would see that there’s no ego just excitement. I’m only able to do what I do because of people watching so I never forget that
@@RobDahmi agree, I don't see any ego in you at all Rob. You've come a long way and have learned so much more than most people realize by actually putting in the work and understanding all the complex concepts to get these bizarre engines to run smoothly and efficiently.
lol i met you a couple years ago at dgrr, at the damn dam. i was standing on the sidewalk, you were standing on the asphalt. and i think i still wasn't eye to eye with you
You should get ahold of @smeedia with his current build
Couldn't you freeze the dowels over night to make them go in easier?
I watched that whole video and I am inspired. Not sure I'd want to do it myself though. How much would you charge for a Rob Dham style rebuild assuming good irons?