Well, thank you for that.

 

Let me make a subject more clear.

 There are sources for after market 4130 steel corner seals. Typically used in boosted drag racing engines. I have no data on such equipment, and have never failed the early Mazda solid corner seals. So the steel seals were of no interest to me. The stock solid seals are strong enough to race on in a normally aspirated engine.

And even those are powdered metal. Mazda makes really good pieces. All other engine parts must be proven superior to Mazda parts before I would use them.

 

The Racing Beat catalogue/manual is a free download from their site. Full of solid data and suggestions from people who have incinerated more dyno engines than you or they  could count. They know more about rotaries than anyone, and its free.

 

Rotor bearings that show off shiny spots should be discarded. You can buy oversized bearings to get more clearance which is good. If you have a hint of copper showing and shiny spots the overlay (the gray stuff) has moved under high heat. The bearing now has too little clearance in the shiny spots and a bit too much in the copper spots. Throw that bearing away. Press in new bearings. Grind off the indexing tab first. No index to any holes is needed in the rotors. Mazda used to install 3 set screws that engaged the bearing and the rotor. This made a lost bearing into a massive failure with a sudden stoppage when the screws acted like a roller clamping system when the bearing tried to rotate in the rotor during a lubrication failure. No such screws have been used in years.

For main bearings the indexing tab must be maintained to be sure lubrication holes in the bearing shell align with holes in the stationary gear.

 

Lynn E. Hanover

 

 

Great post as always Lynn, Thanks!

 

Dave Leonard