flyrotary@lancaironline.net Mailing List Archive

daveleonard@cox.net wrote:

David, sounds like you are having a great experience (read: lots of learning) rebuilding the engine ;-)

Here is my $.02 on some of your issues:

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?

I'm not sure which holes you are taking about.  The water feed to the manifold is a large hole in the outside of the rotor housing.  I am actually using it in mine to feed water to the tubo but it is not otherwise needed.  Those holes are far too large to plug with JB.  The intake manifold fits over them and will seal them off, or you can get a plug designed to fit in one.

Ok, on the 4 port block, there are square holes underneath the intake ports located in the end and middle "side" housings. Now that I think about it, none of these ports had any rust or rust dust on them so perhaps they are not water after all, but as someone else had said, tied to the exhaust. I probably need to trace the ports to truly know what is going on there. On the aluminum rotor housings themselves, there are two round ports that did have clear evidence of water jacket circulation, located above the exhaust ports where a "peripheral intake port" would be located (if the engine was peripherally ported).

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?

Yes, you need to close off that bypass, but possibly leave a small hole in the uppermost part to let any pocket of air out.  I really don't recommend JB Weld for long term fixes like that.  I welded mine over with an aluminum plate, but some guys have been able to tap it and install a plug.

The consensus seems to be to tap and plug, so I will pursue that option.

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?

That's what I did, just put a plate over the hole left when the pump was removed, seems to work OK.

The "cover plate" approach seems to be the most reversible and simplest approach so far, and nobody is saying "not to"

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'm using the stock oil pressure regulators.  I just didn't feel that I was smarter than Mazda there.

Are you going to use the old turbo?  I am looking for a used stock '91/92 turbo that I can rebuild.

These engines came pretty much stripped. No turbo, no alternators, no oil injection pumps, Some had the oil injectors on them, and some had the fuel injectors on them, but really all I have is the engine and some manifold hardware. I am looking at a custom setup using a Turbosmart Eboost, an external wastegate and a turbo that is matched for the application. My plans are for no more than 8 psi/15-16"hg boost and in all likelyhood will actually run it "normalized". This will help improve some of the reliability. I am also waiting to see how John Slade does with his turbo setup. A couple of us were crunching numbers on the Canard Aviation forum a while back with regards to this, and I am wondering how the turbo he chose is going to turn out (once he's flying again).


Hope that helped some.

Dave Leonard

It helped, as did everyone elses reply's. More to follow later when I figure out how to make some pictures at lower res.. I may just have to re-take them with the lower settings, since I cant seem to find software I thought I had that would make them of a lesser quality. The pics I tried to send were too big for the listserver.

Dave Staten