Ok.. I'm more of a lurker here than a poster, but a little over a month ago, Chris (building a Velocity SE FG) and I made a run to Ocean Springs, Mississippi to acquire 3 (three) 2nd Gen Turbo Rotary cores that were on Ebay as a batch.. Chris and I had been contemplating a minor partnership role in this aircraft since he took initial delivery over 2 years ago. Much of my involvement until this Sept had been as a sounding board, lifting help and 2nd set of hands for sanding/frosting..

  Well.. his project is still in his garage, and it was full of airplane. I had made minor purchases up until now, but the engine purchase was my baby (we decided on engine type quite a while ago). After a marathon road trip, we deposited the engines into my garage, along the wall. Keep in mind I did NOT have a workshop to speak of. I did have a pretty good collection of tools (air, electric and cordless) some I had acquired and some from my late father's garage, but no workbench. So first few days were spent building a workbench, in the meantime running around creation getting varsol, containers to use as a parts washer basin, etc. Then after having watched "the video" a few times, I started into what I now call engine #1.

  All the peripherals came off readily, but when it was time to take the rear eccentric shaft nut (otherwise known as the "big nut") I hit a wall. Mind you, I was working alone (and odd hours, apart from Chris), with a breaker bar and impact wrench only, no stand.. no PROPER device to lock the flywheel.. and no cheater pipe. I ended up using a pry bar wedged against the flywheel, and after much cussing, stomping, jerking and torquing.. I think a final application of butane torch heat, followed by soaking in WD 40 then another go with the impact wrench did the trick, and I was able to make progress. The rest of the engine came apart quite easily (too easily, and the case separated where I didnt plan on it, spilling seals out. I was always told to be religious about putting things back where I got them from, and this event pretty much screwed that idea.  I have since concluded ALL the parts in question WILL be replaced using a "master rebuild kit" and quit obsessing over that detail this time.

Over the next week did the cleaning with brush and solvent, but came to the realization that the outside was cleaning up Semi ok.. the interior water passages on this old engine were moderately rusted and there was a coating of rust on the aluminum parts.  So at this point, Chris (and his good friend Russel, who listens to both of us dream of planes) figured I went over the deep end, as I decided to abrasive blast the engine parts. Never done such a thing before.. and didnt have a booth.. Another week to ten days and that problem is solved - booth built from scratch and for half the cost of a commercial freestanding booth (dont worry, it looks it tooo). I couldn't get too carried away with the small compressor I have, but I eventually got the job done. I covered the chrome surfaces with duct tape to prevent abrading them, then went after the outsides and the water jacket channels. Using Max Oxide media, I was able to 1) clean off the rust 2) get all the grime off our of the casting imperfections on the steel housings and all in all did a bang up job on things. The aluminum end housings were left a little rough on the mating surfaces by the blasting, which I polished with a wire cup.

At this point, I am waiting for some outside micrometers to arrive. I ordered, and recieved the wrong part from Harbor Freight. Turns out the manufacturer sent them a batch of "depth micrometers" instead of the "outside micrometers". HF simply slapped a part number on the unopened boxes and sent me the wrong thing. THEN, when we figured it out, they were back ordered. 10 days of back order and I was fed up, so I ordered a "buy it now" micromneter set from KC International via Ebay. Called em the other day, after over a week, and found out that THEY had been backordered too, and it had "just arrived today". So, at this point, I have some very clean, very nice looking mazda rotary parts that I really cant tell yet if they are useable. I do have a dial gauge and base and so far the flat housing surfaces appear within tolerance, but nothing else is measureable. I tried doing it with a caliper, and lets just say the answers didnt add up, so there was too much error in my technique using them.

Last night, faced with another night of nothing to do (and no funds to do it with, for the moment), I decided to play with the engine parts and did a test run on reassembly (sans gaskets). I mated the housing to an engine stand that I had obtained from Chris, and started putting parts together (after a solvent bath to get all the mag ox out of holes) to get the "big picture" on a clean engine.

So far, my questions are as follows:

1)    On the intake side, there are several holes that appear to be water jacket holes for the intake manifold. I want to say I was told these are for warming the intake manifold with hot water for emissions purposes. I have yet to see an aviation intake that uses these holes. Plug with JB weld or epoxy putty?

2)   On the water pump housing where the thermostat is installed, there is a tubular bypass channel that returns to the water pump intake. I have read that if you remove the thermostat, this channel needs to be plugged. Best method? JB?

3)    On the oil injection pump setup, at the present time I have the pump drive shaft removed, and plan on NOT using oil injection (and mix in the fuel tank instead) at this point but may add it later. I have heard folks say that you need to plug the oil passage, and NOT at the point it exits at the injector pump flange. Is it not somehow acceptable to cover this whole spot with a plate of metal and a sealant/gasket material to prevent leakage but still leave the port intact for future use?

4)    On the oil injection setup, those who are using it, are you constructing a linkage to connect the throttle to the injection pump for proportional metering or is the recommended practice to go simple and wire it in the full open position?

5)      Anyone running a higher oil pressure relief valve on the rear end housing, and any benefit to this over stock. I have read that the higher pressure ones can contribute to oil burning and smoking... Same question for the Racing Beat catalogue parts for the enhanced oil pump they sell.

  I tried to post a few pics of what I have so far with labels. Part of this is to see if I have it right, and what needs to be corrected with regards to my thinking. Unfortunately, the pics are too big for the listserv. I am playing with my photo editors to see if I can scale down the resolution of the pictures so that they are manageable.

   Hopefully I will be nearing the point I can reassemble this thing with the purpose of running it.

Dave
2nd Gen 13B Turbo rebuild. for
Velocity N17011 (reserved)