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Haven't had a lot of garage time recently, but did squeeze some time & got one of the rotors torn down & cleaned up.
Unfortunately, all 3 apex seals & some of the side seals were broken. apex seals were split lengthwise on all 3. Side seals, a couple broke upon trying to remove them.

Hoping to find some time to start on the other rotor & the 'block' on a few nights this week.

We've been crazy busy. All my girls have birthdays within 6 weeks of each other. We're halfway through 4 weeks of busy, 2 of the girls' parties the prior 2 weekends, a wedding this weekend, the the other birthday the weekend after.
Hopefully a break in the heat/humidity will follow & we can get some welding done on the frame. Once it's welded & painted, I can start some reassembly.

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Not sure if it would help, but I have, someplace, a (I think) full set of OEM 3 piece used apex seals and springs from my teardown/rebuild on the 13B-DEI.
I could vac-pack what I find and send them off in a standard envelope if you wanted them, they're superfluous now that I've got a fleet of 13B-MSP's...

If you go with new seals, Rotary Aviation Classic Seals are a nice affordable two piece option, with a good reputation.

I'd be mighty grateful for those, assuming they're within OE spec, they should be usable. I'm almost certain mine is a S4 13B, so they should be a match.


I've got a slew of bookmarks for 13B parts suppliers. Some of the apex seal kits come with a dose of sticker shock.

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I'll hunt them down and keep you in the loop.

Much appreciated!

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Well, found em all jumbled in the plastic food container.
No clue which goes with which set.

6 lowers, 6 uppers, 5 corner pieces, 6 small springs, and 5 large springs.

I'll measure them once I find the page in the FSM where it gives specs.

Interesting, thought the OE apex seals were 2-piece, not 3.
Mine look the same, so had assumed they have fractured lengthwise.

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Ah! I can see where that would be confusing.

OE were 2 piece up till a point, then went to 3 for NA applications, then back to 2, then 3 again, now they're 2 still I think?
Seems there were a few switchovers.

I went with 2 piece because I'll be pushing some boost through this one, but the 3 piece ones work well in NA and seal slightly better.

When you go to install, use the superglue trick to hold the seals together, makes it so much easier.

Thanks, that makes some sense. I'll have to go over them & see if they're damaged anywhere.

No plans to add boost on this one & will probably leave it pretty stock.

Long term, may do a mild street port, but possibly on a 2nd engine, if I decide stock in a <2,000lb car needs a bit more power.

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As much as the renesis gets a bad rap with stock porting a 6 port will do well over 230hp and still keep the low end you lose with porting an older engine. Even the 4 ports make 200hp in stock form. Those can be had all day for under $1k.

Just my 2 cents on the renesis(I may be biased because that is what I'm using) the majority of the problems with that motor are the stock oil metering system not putting in enough oil for emissions reasons. The secondary factor is engine bay heat. For what ever reasons I will never understand the stock radiator is 2/3's blocked with the intake and battery. It basically cooks everything in the engine bay. On my first rx-8 the engine bay would get so hot the ac would shut off and you couldn't even touch the hood. Run premix and open up the engine bay(aftermarket intake & move battery to the trunk) and they live a long and happy life. I had two go well over 100k miles and I sold them off still running great.

On the RX-8's I premix a pint of Interceptor per tank, tweaked the fan turn-on temp down by 10° for the main and sub fans, and set the cold-engine rev limit to 5250.
So far, so good.

If a Renesis was compatible with the rest of the FC drivetrain, that could be an option. But, not sure if my older Haltech could tune it.

I plan on running premix as well, current 13B does not have an OMP (or oil pan [dry sump], or intake mani assy [need to source])

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Renesis will bolt up to any rotary transmission. The pilot bearing and bell housing pattern are the same for all rotaries from 1970 what ever til now. I'm actually running a 91 turbo clutch on my car.

Well then, maybe I'll keep that in mind.

Plan is to assess the feasibility of rebuilding this S4 & maybe building a 2nd for a down the road upgrade.
Renesis could be an option there, may just need to rework the engine 'mounts' on the chassis.

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Mounts should be very close, It think it's only the brackets to the engine are different to accommodate the exhaust in the center iron.
I can check sometime next week.

The MSP will bolt to the older transmissions, and the older engines will bolt to the new 6 speed boxes too.

The stock 04-08 MSP PCM is pretty good as of the last calibration, and mazdaEdit is surprisingly affordable for tuning.
Forscan can "marry" the PCM to the immobilizer and key coil module, so standalone operation and getting spare keys programmed is possible without a dealership visit.