My car had an O ring failure, they do happen in Japan. Overheating and not changing the coolant are the major killers of the O rings. Mine was overheated by the previous owner! Warped the rear housing/plate, creating the problem.

I seriously believe in nothing but Mazda genuine parts. I have used after market seals for other reasons, for reasons that sometimes does not allow me to use original seals. Like apex seals for example. I need it a 1974 Rx4 13B engine for a customers car. The original 13B was in such bad shape that, I could not rebuild it or find parts for it. I had a company build a 1974 13B to original specs for my customers Rx4. I know that this company uses VITON OIL SEALS, I was not to happy about that. Well not to my surprise the Viton oil seals are not doing there job and the stock spec 13B is eating up oil and smoking at idle. At this point I have to take the engine out ship it back or try to get some money back from the company and tear it apart myself and replace every engine seal all over including the oil seals with Mazda OEM parts. I hope this has helped you a little..

I think I know which company you're talking about. I've only purchased one set of Viton oil O rings. They're going into an R5 4 port 13B in about two weeks. After reading your post, however, I'm thinking twice about using them.



Also, I recently rebuilt a different R5 13B with Viton O rings (he purchased everything and I put it together) and it's still in the break-in phase, but so far there's no smoke at idle. I'll let you know if it ever starts smokin'.

https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...IR#>/wacko.png I thought the O-Rings were for water/coolant and not oil? https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...1047683561.gif

I tend to call them water seals. They're more like large rubber bands than O rings, so it made sense to me at the time. O rings tend to be round. The water seals are square shaped, kinda like rubber bands. I knew I had to start calling them somthing to keep from confusing myself. https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...IR#>/wacko.png

Which oil control O ring is better between the original MAZDA and th Atkins?. I know that the Mazda is silicone coated with viton and the Atkins is pure viton , but which would really be better for use on my motor?.:confused:

I don't like the ones Atkins sells. They're too fat; the Mazda's work better comparatively.



V

Actually, I was recently trying to figure out what I could buy from a local industrial supply place and put together an upgraded viton soft seal kit.

The viton stuff they sell here is waaay cheaper than racing beat or mazda's. For example, the small water o-rings on the intake are like $.75 and RB wants $3.30. Might be cheaper online someplace. Problem is, some of them aren't the right thickness, like the rotor oil o-rings. Metric vs ASE, I believe. The rotor o-rings I got were way thick to fit into the ring groove, but the water seal, and the smaller oil o-ring seals fit perfect and cost about $.75 each. I'm also lookin at getting custom cut viton outer water jacket seals.

Anyways, not to get off subject, I wonder if that's why Atkin's rotor oring seals are thicker, because they're ASE... Their pricing is decent on them, though.

mazda's R&D budget > *



that's what i live by

Buy Mazda for the soft parts. Too much ****** around with aftermarket that don't quite fit properly. Just my 5 cents... https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...IR#>/bigok.gif