Another thread I'm bringing back from the dead...
A rotary engine can be very far from being a cheap rebuild. The rebuild kit alone (seals and gaskets) for the 13b REW can be anywhere from 1200-2000+ depending on where it's sourced from. so without any sort of labour you can be easily into mid 2k range for a completely stock rebuild. Thats not including taking the engine out, unassembling, reassembling and installing.
Other factors to consider are whats the cause for the rebuild. If you broke an apex seal, there is a good chance that it could have scraped a housing (which would need replacing) and it also could have shot out your turbo on the way out, which in turn means needing that replaced. If your running a large single like myself, thats easily 1500+ right there to replace the turbo. From the factory the irons are not hardened (or at least they are not hardened enough) this can cause some serious wear between the rotor and the iron. Thats some serious money to replace irons, housing and rotors. Bearings are a good thing to replace as well when rebuilding. These are only a couple hundred bucks, but in the end it all adds up.
If your like me, there is no way something is going to be rebuilt back to stock form. So things like emissions removal should be done, as all that does is creates more unwanted heat in the engine bay. Block off plates are needed when this goes down..so theres another couple hundred. Porting, depending on how aggressive can be in the hundreds to the thousands.
An FD at the shop where I had my car built had a rebuild, but needed pretty much all new parts. There was no porting done, but emissions stuff was removed. The bill for the engine was over 6000. Far from cheap for sure.
Buying an rx7 with a rebuilt engine (in my opinion) is a very bad idea as well. There are so many shady shops out there these days, and I believe a rebuild should be handled by a rotary specialist. You are never certain what kind of parts were used, unless you were there, or at least oversee things every step of the way.
M
'07 Porsche 997 TT
'05 Honda S2000 GPW AP2