Boom Shaka Laka: The Presentation

We promised you an engine break down, so here it is!

Ze motor

Front Cover Damage

What happened?

Usually it is the rear rotor that breaks, but this one is intact with all the seals.

Rear Rotor

However, once we laid the rear iron aside, we saw this:

Rear Iron Step Wear

Wear on the rear iron, extreme wear. This wear was caused by the rotating assembly shifting during operation and digging into the irons. This engine had about 700 miles on it before it was taken apart. This Renesis has unknown/unproven "n/a stage 2 racing beat expansion" ports. Also, RX-8 rotors have an extra oil control ring and side seals which are pushed out further than in RX-7 rotors.

The point failure was violent in this motor:

Front Rotor Failure Point

The rear rotor was completely fine. After minor cleaning it can definitely be reused with its housing. However the rear iron did show extraordinary wear; something forced the rotor to DIG into the into the iron.

Rear Iron Wear

Interestingly, the wear on the center plate (front rotor side) was not bad at all ....

Center Plate

Rear housing is in decent shape - pretty much what you would expect a housing with 700 miles to have, it will be reused.

Rear Housing

However, on the side of the front rotor, there was intense wear, but more chaotic than the rear plate.

Center Iron - Front Rotor Side

The front iron had a lot of chaotic wear as well, albeit, not as much as on the rear iron.

Front Iron

I think we can all agree that there was a balancing issue here.

Sabotage

Sabotage 2

We believe that this was an act of sabotage. Not only was the engine vibrating and damaging seals, but the wall between oil and the combustion chamber was broken, so we were getting gas mixing with the oil, which is horrible for the internal bearings.

Front Iron Wear

Front Iron Wear - Port-side View