<< mike h wrote:

Spent lunch with the marketing department's Mavica, thought you'd all be
interested to see a common failure mode in high mileage rotaries.
This one is a 160,000 mile 1990 turbo engine.
This is the front housing, BTW
Mike Harrington

That is common around 1988 1989 as I recall. It is a core shift or casting
defect. It happened right after they moved the O-ring groove
from the rotor housing to the end housings. Not enough meat around there.
I think Mazda changed the patterns later to fix this problem.
Bruce Turrentine says even some new end housings have this
problem right from the get go.
 >>

Hi:
Paul, I got the pictures this time just fine, don't know why I didn't get
them before. On this housing problem listed below is there certain casting
numbers on them we should watch out for? I just bought a 90 RX7, 88,000 miles
that has a new motor from Mazda, with about 15,000 miles on it. It was used
as an in town work car by an older lady and has a stuck Apex seal. It also
doesn't want to stay running at idle, you have to keep it up to about 1100
RPM. I think it's set way to low or has a vacuum leak some where, maybe dirty
fuel injectors. It has been setting for a while. They were using syn. oil in
it also. Still working to solve these problems. Figured it may be a good
candidate for a rebuild. Only paid $500 for the whole car.
Rich Gillen

Not that I know of. If it is a turbo take it apart and check for 
a crack in this rubber elbow.

Paul Lamar
 
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