Paul,

I arrive Friday at on NW 002 at 09:30.    I believe you are quite far
from LAX and don't want to put you to the trouble.  I would probably
want to catch a few hours of sleep and in the afternoon try to get some
engine related things out of the way.  Presently my plane is having a
new battery and new shoes installed  and it won't be ready until late
Monday at Tracy Muni.


I will need your cell phone number again in case you changed it.  I
believe your original plan was to pick me  up on the way to Steven
Stocks.

I can make up some  card from GM but it might be more believable if I
said Toyota:)  Surely there must be someone in Socal that can consult on
turbos for us.

Here is the answer I sent to Randy on his RX-8 sale.  He mentioned that
he now realizes he will need many of the parts himself.

The parts I need new I can buy from Mazdatrix retail for under $1400.  Do
you get a discount or know of a member who does.  If so  my offer to
Randy might be high.   It all depends what shape the bearings and apex
seals are in.  I will wait for your opinion before sending this to him.

---------
Randy,

First of all where do you live?

Here is the situation as I see it and why I hesitated to buy an engine
from Rubert even though delivered in Japan it was going to cost me about
$2,400.  Without dissassembling the engine there is no way to determine
what conditions and wear is on the rotor seals, and side housings.  It
was  risky as I only needed some of the parts. At best the engine is
slightly used and at at worst all the rotor seals need replacing or the
iron housings are rusty.  Sea freight (twice) is hard on unsealed
engines.  Brisbane is a wet area as well.  If there was water in the
engine there may be freeze damage.   These are worst case sceanerios and
may not apply to the engine you have.

Having the engine rebuilt would be a further investment of questionable
expense with rotor seals alone over $1400. Ordering the Renesis rebuilt
by Bruce was a wise call.  And yes you still need some quite a few
parts. Parts is the value of your engine and people that buy one from
Rubert treat it as a base engine for rebuilding.

Consider parting out what you don't need.  Like you said you still need
some parts like the oil and water sensors, injectors and fuel rails,
flex-plate / starter gear combi, alternator, belts, pulleys and other
parts of the lower intake manifold and perhaps that beautiful electronic
large butterfly throttle etc..  All of these parts which will cost you
over $1000 new but should be fine and in good shape to use 'as is' on
your engine.

I will be interested in the drive train and front housing.

The  front housing is not absolutely essential but I think I could
possible modify the water pump so the outlets better  fit my rear
mounted radiator. This housing contain the timing gear and sensors
(unless you need them) built-in water pump and oil pump.  I will
probably replace the oil pump innards.  Pulleys are not needed but might
be useful as a pattern to make alumunium ones if you don't need them.

The drive train includes  the front and rear rotors,  their stationary
gears, assorted bearings and spacers etc. and front and rear counter
weights.  It is possible that I can use the corner seals, but apex seals
will be questionable. Because the side iron housings are 13B housings I
need all new side seals to make the rotors fit well. My rotor housing
are custom 13B housings with enough alterations in them to  rival Swiss
cheese.   These parts are for the turbo compound test engine which Paul
and I have been discussing and researching parts for years.

I am going to Steven Stocks in a few days I was going to speak with
Mazdatrix. about buying many of these parts. You can go to their web
site and verify the prices.  Click RX-8 and scroll down to engine parts.

I can buy all these parts NEW retail for just about  $1,390.   I am
prepared to offer you $1000 for these  parts delivered to Paul's place
in southern Ca. but I need an answer in the next few days as I leave
Thursday to USA and then to Steven Stocks rotary festival.  Our  gain
would be  finding the apex and corner seals usable for  few hundred
hours of testing.  Our risk is finding rust on the e-shaft and rotors.

You don't sound like you want to touch taking this engine apart so for
$100 and a day of either or a local mechanic there or one at Mazdatrix
on the  West Coast  could strip the engine down to its base parts.

I believe you can remove a lot of the little things yourself however.

I assume you can sell the oil pan and other housings on e-bay if they are
in good shape for a good price.  The rotor housings alone new are $500.


Let me know as soon as possible as my time is limited in USA.


Best Regards

Doug

Doug, Friday is the 26th. Seven stock is the 27th on Saturday.
Yes I can pick you up on the way to Seven Stock early Saturday morning.
There are a lot of hotels around LAX. Let me know which one you choose.

Paul Lamar