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Login to post Forums » Grassroots Motorsports » Engine resting on flywheel

Dec. 16, 2011 3:22 p.m. RexSeven SuperDork

I'm back from my road trip to St. Louis. I scored pretty big: 2 JDM S5 Turbo II engines (one with 12,000-ish miles and the whole wiring harness), three Turbo II transmissions, a Turbo II driveshaft and diff. housing, and a bunch of interior and exterior parts. $250 for the whole shebang. Even the money I spent on the trip could be made up for by selling some of this stuff.

Anyway, that nice engine tipped over onto its flywheel during the drive back in the Budget truck (one of the tiedown straps snapped). I didn't see any external damage. Do you know if there could be any internal damage?
Dec. 16, 2011 3:55 p.m. Don49 Reader

Unless the thing was bouncing heavily, there shouldn't be any damage. Over the years I have transported a number of engines resting on the flywheel with no problem.
Dec. 16, 2011 3:56 p.m. MrJoshua SuperDork

Storing a rotary on its flywheel makes it easy to turn them over every once in awhile-grab the engine and spin!
Dec. 16, 2011 4:06 p.m. RexSeven SuperDork

Don49 wrote:

Unless the thing was bouncing heavily, there shouldn't be any damage. Over the years I have transported a number of engines resting on the flywheel with no problem.

It was. It seems I didn't drive over one smooth patch of pavement until I reached Mass. And Budget stuck me with an ancient 16' truck that rode as smoothly as a nuclear-powered mechanical bull
Dec. 16, 2011 4:10 p.m. imirk Reader

RexSeven wrote:

It was. It seems I didn't drive over one smooth patch of pavement until I reached Mass. And Budget stuck me with an ancient 16' truck that rode as smoothly as a nuclear-powered mechanical bull

well... what's the worst that could happen?
Dec. 16, 2011 5:20 p.m. McTinkerson New Reader

Unpleasant forces acting on the bearings? Check the E-Shaft fore/aft play?
Dec. 16, 2011 5:35 p.m. peter Reader

what is the force on the e-shaft from bouncing vs ignition? that's actually an interesting one, considering the non-piston nature of the engine. if you're really worried, measure the play in all directions. bet it's no worse than it was before the ride. my best guess about "worst case" is some damage to the flywheel.
Dec. 16, 2011 5:47 p.m. RexSeven SuperDork

I'll be mindful of the bearing play. I was kind of considering rebuilding the lower-mileage engine, since my plan is to make it the race engine, while swapping the higher-mileage engine as-is for the severely overheating engine currently in my turbo FC. A new flywheel is definitely in the works for the low-mileage engine, damaged or not.

Crap, I forgot to check the engine harness. I hope none of the wiring got crushed, simply because wiring is a PITA and I already have to swap the harness from the overheating engine to the high-mileage engine.
Dec. 17, 2011 7:19 a.m. Knurled Dork

The worst that could happen is the thrust bearing/plate might be damaged.

On the other hand, it's probably no worse than the vigorous beating it gets with the typical flywheel removal attempt.

On that note: When putting an engine together, I assemble the base keg, then put the flywheel on, then tip the engine up onto the flywheel. Makes assembling the thrust portion of the front stationary gear easier, and you know it's not going to go anywhere while you put the rest of the front together. Including the ever-cursed oil pump drive.

PS - Envious of your find!
Dec. 17, 2011 5:14 p.m. RexSeven SuperDork

In reply to Knurled:

Thanks. A friend on a Mazda3 forum had all of this stuff from his aborted FC project (as well as a few miscellaneous Mazda3 parts he didn't need). He tried selling it but everyone was lowballing him or trying to get him to pay for shipping. He had given up and was going to scrap it all when I stepped in. After all of the effort it took to get the damn parts into the ginormous 16' truck Budget saddled us with, I sure hope it was worth it! I won't be able to tell until I sell some of the stuff and/or get one of the engines swapped into the yellow FC. I'll try to get pictures of the big ticket items tomorrow when I offload them into my storage unit.
Dec. 17, 2011 8:15 p.m. DILYSI Dave SuperDork

Put a dial indicator on it and check runout in the crank. If it's straight, I wouldn't sweat it.
Dec. 17, 2011 8:30 p.m. Aeromoto Reader

Best way to find out is to bolt it up and run it. You'll be the first to know if there's a problem
Dec. 18, 2011 4:20 p.m. RexSeven SuperDork

A few pictures of the loot:

Engine one. Supposedly has only 12K-ish miles on it. I didn't feel any e-shaft play, nor did the harness look damaged.

Engine two. Typical JDM wreckers engine with 50-60K on the clock. It has some minor mods like blue vaccum hoses and an ARC TMIC. ARC went out of business recently and was renowned for their intercoolers.

Also included three Turbo II transmissions, a TII diff housing, a bunch of ECUs, a desirable black dash, and a bunch of miscellaneous FC and Mazda3 parts. This isn't even all of it.

Good thing rotaries are compact!

The Turbo car gets to soak in a little sun before it goes back into hibernation.

It's a tight fit...
Dec. 18, 2011 4:52 p.m. Brett_Murphy Dork

One thing to keep in mind is that JDM engine harnesses are backwards/inverted/whatever from US market engine harnesses. The clips are the same, and, as you probably know, are worth holding on to.
Dec. 18, 2011 6:43 p.m. RexSeven SuperDork

The yellow RX-7 already has a JDM S5 TII engine in it. However, the cooling system was never upgraded along with the rest of the engine so it overheats after about 5 minutes of running - just enough time for short moves. I'll be using it as a guide for wiring and, once it's out, cannibalize it for parts. It has a lot of decent performance parts on it, some of which I can use on one of my good engines and some I can sell off.
Dec. 18, 2011 8:33 p.m. a401cj Reader

wood floor in the truck?! You're safe.
Dec. 18, 2011 9:03 p.m. Curmudgeon SuperDork

Very doubtful any damage was done, the needle bearings they use are tough as nails and its 'race' plate is THICK. If you want to check it, a rotary should have between .001 and .003 eccentric shaft end play, you pretty much have to use a dial indicator to check it.

PS SCORE!!!
Dec. 18, 2011 9:22 p.m. 92CelicaHalfTrac SuperDork

Arc is back in business, and that's an awesome score!

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