Single Turbo RX-7's Questions about all aspects of single turbo setups.

broken RA super seal . anyone else?

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Old 08-05-14, 05:32 AM
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Just like it says I recently chipped a ra super seal . they had 10k + miles on them seen detonation . this last detonation I guess finished it took out a corner seal too but no marks on housing at all? Car made 386whp that night with ignition problems after 6k rpms . full s4 motor s6 rotors and counter weights . s5 thick rear iron . master power t70 . this was the 2nd time the seals were used . I have new ra classics now . I was low on gas doing a pull and guess caught a lean spot

broken RA super seal . anyone else?-forumrunner_20140805_063125.jpg
Old 08-05-14, 08:05 AM
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That's the First set of rotary aviation Super seals that I've seen chipped. Well at least the housings weren't damaged. I've had them bent before but the motor had balance issues.
Old 08-05-14, 08:46 AM
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Looks like you've got a pretty legit gouge in that iron though.... I don't think I'd reuse that one.
Old 08-05-14, 09:23 AM
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Lol that's the old hylomar everything else was fine . I already have motor back in car
Old 08-05-14, 10:09 AM
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Originally Posted by bmwrx7man
Lol that's the old hylomar everything else was fine . I already have motor back in car
Ah, right on! I was gunna say that'd be a shame too, because the iron looked good otherwise

I'm just leery of anything that looks like gouges in the irons after pulling apart a motor I paid a "professional" shop like $5,000 to build me, and found two gouges in one of the irons. Was pretty disgraceful to be honest...
Old 08-05-14, 08:35 PM
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why did it detonate? what does your timing map look like?
Old 08-05-14, 10:11 PM
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You have to try pretty hard to break those. Especially at your power level. I assume there are some pretty major issues taking place. Rotor faces dented?
Old 08-06-14, 02:36 AM
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Yea small dent on rotor . I was low on gas doing a pull and ignition problems . figured stock Fc coils could at least handle 400whp + guess not . only think I can think of is bad plug wires or I just need a ignition box for that . we just left the dyno but I think those seals just had enough from my previous motor 2 years ago that was ****
Old 08-06-14, 11:36 AM
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Were you tuning on the dyno?
Old 08-06-14, 04:20 PM
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13B turbo, 500hp E85. Blocked injector at a track day.
The seals are still perfectly straight.
Did not dent rotor at all.
Attached Thumbnails broken RA super seal . anyone else?-photo.jpg  
Old 08-06-14, 04:32 PM
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Originally Posted by PDF
13B turbo, 500hp E85. Blocked injector at a track day.
The seals are still perfectly straight.
Did not dent rotor at all.
If you don't mind, just wondering how your injector became blocked/how you realized this?
Old 08-06-14, 04:44 PM
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The engine began misfiring. Main fuel filter was not fine enough and allowing too much debris to reach the injectors. The injector filter baskets were all blocked to a degree, and the front prim injector basket was blocked considerably more. What's more, the front prim injector now appears to be internally blocked or faulty, as flow rate did not come back up to an acceptable level after removing the baskets and cleaning.
Both prim injectors have now been replaced with larger items anyway (so boost can be raised).
Old 08-06-14, 04:50 PM
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Originally Posted by PDF
13B turbo, 500hp E85. Blocked injector at a track day.
The seals are still perfectly straight.
Did not dent rotor at all.
I find that E85 is very forgiving. I was in a customers 600rwhp FD that had fuel starvation issues at the track( not enough baffling, and at 1/2 tank). Even with OEM apex seals the engine survived.
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Old 08-06-14, 05:48 PM
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Originally Posted by Turblown
I find that E85 is very forgiving. I was in a customers 600rwhp FD that had fuel starvation issues at the track( not enough baffling, and at 1/2 tank). Even with OEM apex seals the engine survived.
The driver kept at it for the rest of the day - with misfire. This possibly had something to do with the broken parts lol. Apparently it didn't lose power until the end of the day though. I'm guessing it broke all the corner seals, then eventually the apex seals.
Old 08-06-14, 10:01 PM
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Mine happend later on after leaving dyno . who knows wat really happend
Old 08-07-14, 01:12 AM
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Only time I have ever chipped an RA apex seal is when a water injection kit failed on a 13B RX7 we setup.

It was making 630rwhp on 32psi.

Water stopped working and it rattled very badly.
Whole in rotor, chipped one corner of an apex seal. All slots were heavily flared/dimpled.

Very very TUFF seal.
Old 08-07-14, 09:29 AM
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Originally Posted by bmwrx7man
Yea small dent on rotor . I was low on gas doing a pull and ignition problems . figured stock Fc coils could at least handle 400whp + guess not . only think I can think of is bad plug wires or I just need a ignition box for that . we just left the dyno but I think those seals just had enough from my previous motor 2 years ago that was ****
yes youcan do more than 400 on stock fc coils
Old 08-07-14, 10:09 AM
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I need to buy these seals when I get my motor rebuilt!
Old 08-07-14, 04:13 PM
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I'm gonna put a ignition box and new secondary injectors and filter . just got her running again with ra classics
Old 08-07-14, 05:44 PM
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Yes, I have broken RA Classics and RA Super Seals in 2mm and 3mm both- also at the 380rwhp level.

It is usually the long piece breaks the sharp edge off or a crack right in the middle of the seal(s)

It also breaks corner seals and side housings when the 3mm RA (or 3mm stock) seals go, not just broken apex seals like 2mm seals.

Pump gas is a bad gamble where I live. Most of the time I blow an engine it is right after I have gotten a fresh tank of gas.

Current engine is living on 10psi on pump to get me to the track and race gas above WG boost.

I use 3mm stock seals now as the RA seals wear out rotor housings and don't appear any stronger against detonation than stock 3mm.
Old 08-10-14, 07:34 AM
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Damm huh . that's what I'm doing now turning boost all the way down don't wanna chance it anymore runs beautiful now
Old 10-12-14, 10:43 PM
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Originally Posted by bmwrx7man
Just like it says I recently chipped a ra super seal . they had 10k + miles on them seen detonation . this last detonation I guess finished it took out a corner seal too but no marks on housing at all? Car made 386whp that night with ignition problems after 6k rpms . full s4 motor s6 rotors and counter weights . s5 thick rear iron . master power t70 . this was the 2nd time the seals were used . I have new ra classics now . I was low on gas doing a pull and guess caught a lean spot

Attachment 539642
Just lost one. The seal looks exactly as yours, broken at the tip, and like you, also lost a corner seal and had two dents on one face of the rotor. I had at least three flattened corner springs on that rotor. Been running 26 - 27 psi for the past 2 years on this setup. The last adjustments made to my map just before this failure was reducing split from 12 to 11 and leaned afr from 10.7 to 11.0.This may have caused it to pop.
Old 10-13-14, 12:31 PM
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Looking at my old seals that sat in WD40/carbon for years, I noted a common cause of breakage with the RA seals.

The RA seals have a huge amount of very fine cracks propagating from the sealing surface and crack through the seal at the weakest point (usually the shorter path of the long sections triangular tip).

I did not see evidence of this cracking on my old broken stock Mazda seals.

It would be nice if someone could dye test some used RA seals that came out of a running engine to see if the cracking occurs in normal use with RA seals or was part of the heat of detonation that ended up breaking the seals.
Old 10-26-14, 06:20 PM
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if you are breaking apex seals, especially super seals either tuning or setup/configuration is not right.. RA seals are very forgiving and hard to break...
Old 10-26-14, 10:22 PM
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I broke 2 irons after this too..both s5 so it was deff detonation somewhere . so I'm starting fresh first by ditching the power fc



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