Pettit Built Engines

In the past 20 years Pettit Racing has produced more than a thousand race and street rotary engines earning a worldwide reputation for unsurpassed quality, top performance and outstanding reliability. A reputation earned by having passion for quality, superior attention to details and Racing Championships to back it up.

Top Quality:

So what makes Pettit Built Engines the best and how is that done for over 1000 engines?

 It all starts with the careful inspection of all the selected components that make up every Pettit Built Engine, # 1 even brand new parts are carefully inspected, measured and approved for each and every engine we build, then all modifications, porting, machining and blueprinting are completed, next the parts receive a hi temperature detergent bath and hi pressure rinse by a 10hp cleaning machine, after this inspection #2

At the pre assembly stage, more inspections are performed, #3 to pass the pre assembly stage a surface finish of12-18 micron is required on all critical surfaces. To consistently achieve these high standards, Pettit has developed several proprietary methods for machine and hand finishing of these critical surfaces, just one more reason Pettit Built Engines are considered by many to be the best. Next is Inspection #4, during this inspection oil galleys and internal passages are inspected and a final cleaning is performed. Last stop is the engine room and inspection #5, then and all critical openings are sealed and receive caps & plugs.

During the final assembly process we perform 2 more for a total of 7 quality control inspections.

On top of paying close attention to every detail we also use only genuine Mazda Parts, then every engine is personally assembled by Cam Worth, that’s right for over 20 years he personally assembled every engine ever sold by Pettit Racing as well as countless engines for numerous race teams as well as all the R&D and race engines for Pettit projects and many special engines for magazines, project cars, boats and marine use, prototype diesel and one rotor engines, the new Diasio rotary powered sports racers, the new 20b Rx8 Rolex GT Car engines the new X Board prototype rotary powered surf board and most recently AXIO 1 rotor kart engines.

Horse Power:

Our standard street port improves efficiency and flow with out major changes in port timing, benefits are better fuel economy as well as more power delivered through all the rpm ranges and boost levels. Our standard 13btt street port engine, when properly tuned maintaining a charge temperature <125F @ 16‑20 psi/boost with a 1:1 ‑ 1:1.25 backpressure ratio is capable of producing 200 hp / rotor. On a two-rotor engine this is 400 hp, sure these engines will make more power but then other factors like material strength and management errors become more critical and these variables can lead to unexpected failures.

Engine Longevity:

Engine Life is totally dependent on proper care.  The best longevity is achieved by following our recommendations page @ www.pettitracing.com, basically warm it up easy, keep the oil clean, use Protek-R  fuel lube, and good quality fuel are the basics, many of our engines are still running over 10 years and performing well. 

Monster Ports

Extra large and monster ports (common with older naturally aspirated and drag race engines) can compromise reliability. Since the seals, both apex and side, pass over larger openings, this allows more seal flex to occur resulting in accelerated seal wear as well as greater possibility for catastrophic failures.  All this should be especially evident when most conversations about turbo rotary engines include mention of seal failures.

Build your Engine:

Due to a shortage of engine core parts the best and most cost effective method for obtaining a Pettit Built Engine is to ship us your old engine, once here we dissemble it, inspect it and call you with our findings and pricing. In most cases the old parts tell a story and can help us understand what caused your engine to fail, this can help you to avoid that in the future.

OTS Pettit Built Engines:

The other method, we ship you a Pettit built OTS engine (off the shelf) these engines all come with new rotor housings and rotors which use the latest apex seal technology from Mazda, 2 piece dual sprung 2mm apex seals, due to all the new parts these engines cost $4850 plus the refundable core charge of $1000 when we receive a usable core. 

Pricing:

Engine part prices for parts from Mazda have doubled since our last price change in 1996, at that time our 13btt 3mm street port engine price of $2995 increased to $3195.   New pricing effective 01‑01‑06 for a Pettit Built 13btt street port engine is $3495 and $580/ new rotor housing when required.

Most engines that arrive here for building need at least 1 new rotor housing, which puts the average final cost at $3495 plus the housing $580 for a total of $4075