NoPistons -Mazda Rx7 & Rx8 Rotary Forum - Half bridge apex seal failure, only 500kms

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So I had a customer bring me his motor he just installed in his car.

I ported and built the motor a while back and just recently he got it running. He's using a Haltech to control everything.

He ran the car for about 500kms while he messed around with the tuning to get things right.

Heres a quick vid of it running:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ozpit8NtGE

So he was driving it down the road real nicely and then BAM, it looses power and started to idle real funny.

He checked compression and the front rotor read about 75psi and the rear around 90psi.

We tore apart the motor tonight to find that a small piece of apex seal in the front rotor broke off right at the corner seal, just a little triangle piece missing. It damaged the rotor and scored the housing as well.

The apex seals were from Atkins.

What do you guys think? He told me he babied the car, never beat on it, the tune was conserative. Could it be just the apex seal? Detenation?

Quote:

Originally Posted by R.P.M.' post='872754' date='May 22 2007, 09:30 PM

A corner of the seal broke? A piece maybe the size of a pinky fingernail?

Does the seal have any discolouration?

It's a heat-related failure. He was driving it hard.

B

I sent all the seals from the motor back to Atkins to see what Dan thinks of them.

Dan agrees, driving too hard and detination.