Attention 12a racers

T

TimBuck

New member
Here's some not-so-great news. 12a rotor housings have been discontinued. I don't frequent this forum, some I'm not sure if this has been covered. Just thought I'd pass that info on.
 
This has been coming for some time. I haven't owned an RX7 in 2 years & I knew it was coming.

Looks like 12a guys need to start lobbying for rotory only coatings. There are options out there that replicate the factory nitrate coating, just not legal due to our ruleset. Since the rotary has it's own engine rule section, seems like there could be a rotary only allowance -even 12a only to keep the ITS cars from using it.

I guess those 5 spare 12a's I have just jumped in price! :D
 
Damn! And I was going to rebuild one of my engines this winter. I'll have to see what my cores look like and go from there.
 
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Speed Raycer said:
This has been coming for some time. I haven't owned an RX7 in 2 years & I knew it was coming.

Looks like 12a guys need to start lobbying for rotory only coatings. There are options out there that replicate the factory nitrate coating, just not legal due to our ruleset. Since the rotary has it's own engine rule section, seems like there could be a rotary only allowance -even 12a only to keep the ITS cars from using it.

I guess those 5 spare 12a's I have just jumped in price! :D
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I have wondered about that. When I looked at coated housings on the web a while back there were various levels. Could you legally recoat a housing if it was the same material as OEM.
 
dickita15 said:
I have wondered about that. When I looked at coated housings on the web a while back there were various levels. Could you legally recoat a housing if it was the same material as OEM.
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I would think so! The replacement parts rule should cover that.
 
lateapex911 said:
I would think so! The replacement parts rule should cover that.
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I agree. I was trying to think of a way to legally "repair" them to the ITCS/FSM (I know that repair is not in the FSM), but I forgot about the alternate parts rule. If you repair them to specs the same as stock, I'd say you could call them a legal alternate part. - GA
 
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Speed Raycer said:
Well, there's the problem. The nitrate impregnating was the issue both in process and in cost. Nobody (last time I checked) was doing anything with the nitrate coatings.

Last I researched there was a coating available that was completely repairable for well under what new housings cost and less than 100.00 to repair when a seal got eaten.

http://www.rx7club.com/showthread.php?t=111142&highlight=housing+repair

http://www.jhbperformance.com/services.php
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The original rotor housing surface is hard chrome applied to the iron liner. Not nitride. Nitride is the process applied to the side irons.

Scalliwag on rx7club, of the first link, has pretty much gone MIA. So the process he was working on is gone with it.

JHB, of the second link, offers two services. One is a cermet (no, not cement ;) ) coating of worn housings. They grind down the hard chrome finish and into the iron liner of the rotor housings. They then apply the cermet material to build the surface back up. Finally, they grind the cermet to a finished surface, dimensionally identical to an original housing. They offer three different materials that range in price and properties. In theory cermet offers some real advantages over chrome in wear and friction. The R26 engine of the 787B used cermet coated rotor housings. The problem in SCCA terms is that the cermet coating is probably not going to be considered legal. Though I wish a tech guy all the luck in determining if it's cermet or chrome once the engine has been run. The problem in real world terms is that there have been mixed results with the JHB products. I personally used a pair of the B housings in a 500 whp drag race engine with great results. Others are said to of had flaking issues. In speaking with JHB they've said there were early issues...aren't there always? The banter of bad housings has died down over the last year or so so maybe they have the process right now? In the end with the 13B housings it's still cheap enough to just buy new and not mess with the JHB stuff. But now with the 12A you're kind of forced into a corner.

The other process JHB does is grinding mildly damaged housings. I've spoken with them about the process but it's been a while. Seems like they said they could take several thousandths off the surface to remove imperfections or damage and to resquare the surface. Basically if you have a mildly worn or damaged housing and want to recondition it they can. But if you have a typical 12A housing and the original chrome is flaking and in generally bad shape then this procress will do you no good.

Finally, NRS is supposed to be working on a re-chrome process. NRS produces ceramic apex seals that are probably outselling Ianetti at this point. Their engineering and prove out process has been solid since they started in the business several years ago. They're said to be working on the process (it's not in production yet) but they also have other irons in the fire, most notably ceramic corner seals. This process sounds like it's going to be the best bet for legally reconditioned housings.
 
i guess my 3 12a engines increased in value,, i knew if i kept them long enough it would turn into gold lol,,, but i still need to sell my ita rx7....
 
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