Zero R

I use a 6ft bar with a welded on 19mm impact socket. It works easy everytime.



Chase said it best. It can be a numbers game. I have had tons of pineapple motors go through our shop, supplied by customers. No problems strong motors. Banzai had a bad experience. I know of a few local cars that had motors and cars built by others named on here that come highly recommended with multiple rebuilds due to quality issues. No-one shop is perfect all the time. How they step up after they make a mistake is just as important as the quality of work they do. I will not reuse housings or seals on the motors I build. Some builders do, I feel it only hurts their reputation by letting a customer dictate what they can and can't use due to cost , and of coarse it will be the builders fault the motor went, not the owners fault for not wanting to pay for new parts. In the end re-using parts only winds up leading to earlier rebuilds and headaches for both builder and customer. Those types of rebuilds I let other shops handle.

ColinRX7

I had to cut an eccentric shaft because the bolt was siezed











When a 1000 ft/lb impact gun and a set of professional torches won't break it free, it's time to break out the zipwheel and salvage whats good inside the bastard

l8t apex

I had some pics posted from a couple their motors last year from a member named Trout. It was scary.

No reasoning on what was in the motor when he cracked it open.

rotarygod

I am currently fixing an Atkins streetport. The poor guy paid for housings to be ported by them. One end housing had several cracks in the coolant castings yet no one at Atkins said anything about them. They were not hard to miss. If you're close enough to port them, there is no reason why these could have been missed. Luckily this was caught before the engine was assembled and a new housing was purchased. I am currently porting it out but have to fix Atkins incomplete port job and then match it to mine. The housings are still a little dirty as well. When I port an engine, everything gets cleaned several times at multiple stages. I don't even start porting unless it's clean enough to eat and then I'll clean it again several times later in the process. I don't want to risk damage from dirt or debris. Apparently they aren't as careful. I believe in overkill though.



The port shape itself isn't bad. I had to revise it slightly. The closing edge needed alot of work inside the runner as the top is laid back more than it needs to be and not enough material is taken off insdie the runner to make the transition good enough to satisfy me. It's not bad though, just a little bit of work there. The worst part of the whole port is the backcut. It is horrible. It is obvious that only 1 kind of die grinder bit was used. Due to available space, this bit that was used can't make the backcut the full distance of the port window so they just didn't backcut the bottom quarter of the port because of this. Even the spots that were backcut weren't done well. There was no smoothing of the edges of it. Instead of having the stock short turn radius be a 90 degree turn, It is now an angle with 2 sharp edges. I had to go back in and blend this all nicely so it flows smoothly. This is in addition to having to add the backcut to part of the port. There was no small type of grinding tool used to finish the job on their part. I go back into the smaler areas with a Dremel and an extension that makes it like handling a pencil so you can get those hard to reach areas. Yes it takes awhile to cut away at some areas because of this but it gets done nicely. Many others do the same thing and it's how the port should have been done. The porting that they did I could duplicate in about 15 minutes. It didn't take any effort. It just made the port larger and if that's all they think porting does, they're sadly mistaken. Getting the port initially hogged out to it's size is a short job. It's the finishing inside that takes time. I spent around 2 1/2 hours just fixing Atkin's portjob and that's before I even started trying to copy it on the other housing.



I've met the Atkins and think they are nice people with good intentions. Unfortunately good intentions don't require the knowledge necessary to doing something properly. Take a look their intake manifolds as a good example. Horrible castings. No personal issues with the people there aside, they will never touch my car.

rotarygod

Make that "eat off of" not "eat". Big difference!

Midnightdriver

You beat me to it... Dave is outstanding with rotaries..Mine is going to him as soon as my friend get it ready to go..He did do the formula D rx-7 engine, that thing is taking a pounding and just keeps going and going.

mazdaspeed7

Thats exactly how my experience with atkins porting goes. I tore down an 8k mile rebuild of an atkins stage 2 street port for a friend of mine to reseal. After I tore it apart, I told my friend I wouldnt put it back together without him letting me fix the porting. Just like you said, it was sloppy and unfinished. I redid the porting, and the motor is running like a champ. My friend ran a 13.4@106 in an 87 TII with intake, exhaust, walbro, and 850cc secondaries, with no tuning whatsoever.

Badog

Pineapple. Rob built my engine, 1.5K breakin and over 5K miles of 20psi.



Next to Rob, there is a certain someone located out in Va. that I would trust.

BDC

I also do this same kind of work. Regarding the comments made about re-using parts ... that's one thing that I have a tough time doing. I have a policy that I tell people in-passing: "I won't build junk". I won't build an engine and have it fall apart because it was shoddy in the first place while having my name all over it. I just won't do it. I've turned down cheap jobs just because of that. I typically replace most everything except the side seals and oil control ring casings. Otherwise, all of the springs, o-rings, and seals are replaced; even the oil pump chain, crank bearings, and thrust bearings if the engine has no known history and is evidently aged.



Have a peek at my work: http://bdc.cyberosity.com/main.php



B