This is my 1st time going with Atkins apex seals. I am experiencing a misfire. This is a brand new engine with low mileage. I was told by someone in the rotary business that it is common for Atkins apex seals to cause a misfire because they are cheap. Just wondering if this has happened to anyone else who has used these apex seals?

 

Obviously your "expert" knows what they are talking about since they don't design or sell apex seals. Sorry I am not ragging on you but on someone who should not call something crap without knowledge. I am not an expert but I own more Mazdas than your expert and that is a fact, I have reapeatedly used Atkins seals and I have had my share of problems however they were NEVER related to the Apex seals.

Apex seals no matter who makes them are the first thing "experts" claim are the problem and they get blamed for everything and are not usually the problem. The "broken" apex was actually caused by detonation due to a leaned out engine. The stuck apex seal was due to excessive carbon build up caused by too rich of a mixture and running the engine only to 4k rpms. The "tossed" apex seal was caused by my stupid a$$ taking the engine repeatedly to 10k rpms

You have to understand a few things and I am not trying to talk down to you but help you to understand something. Your car had a bad engine, why was the engine bad? It really doesn't matter but what does matter is that as an engine ages and becomes less efficent we tend adjust things like mixture and timing to make the engine run a little better. When one loses compression we tend to richen up the mixture to try to make it run better, we also tend to richen up the mixture to make it run faster as well. Then we put in a Fresh rebuild with good compression and all of our previous adjustments are way off, it is not uncommon for it to have problems. You also have not said what year the car is, what kind of ignition when the misfire is, there are lots of things you are leaving out.

Please if you think you have a problem, post the problem all of the symptoms all of the needed information, and ask for ideas. For example in your case it would have been nice to know who built the engine, what all was done to the engine ie porting new housings side seals etc... what ignition you are using, are the parts new, semi new or old, what plugs are you using, what caused your old engine to go bad, and when do your symptoms happen.

We get too wrapped up in just stating this part is crap and that vendor is crap, if they really were crap I think that they would not be in business any longer. Last thing and I will get off my soapbox,

IF WE AS A ROTARY COMMUNITY CONTINUE TO BASH THE FEW VENDORS WE HAVE THEY WILL GO SOMEWHERE ELSE AND DO SOMETHING ELSE AND WE WON'T HAVE THEM, HOW ABOUT IF WE TRY TO HELP THEM MAKE BETTER MORE EFFECTIVE PRODUCTS..... PLEASE

 

Atkins apex seals are fine. Try checking the timing.

 

What mods have you done to the car???

The most common problems in miss firing is crossed plug wires, 1\2 if the ignition is NOT working, wrong spark plugs timing is off just enough, Vacuum leaks, Ect Ect..

Post up the answers that rotarydude & I have asked you and I will watch this thread and I will post up when I can...

Dan

 

So far. the only real "evidence" of any of the after market guy products not being good quality has been purely, "friend told me so."

Atkins, RE-Speed, Pinapple, Banzai, and the rest of the men and women who work hard to provide us with parts for our unique cars have shown nothing but care and concern for quality in selling us parts to repair and upgrade our vehicles.

If you're having problems, then please post them, after all that's what this fourm is here for.

 

It is all stock.I just put in a rebuilt engine with everything brand new in it. Wires are not crossed. Before closing engine I checked everything. I been working with these engines for over 13 years..so I double & triple checked everything before closing it.It's not the timing and no vaccuum leake. Compression is on point.Spark plugs,cap & rotor wires are all new. Just need to replace radiator.

 

You've been working with these engines for 13 years and the first thing you blame is apex seals? curious.

Re-check your timing for good measure.

I did brand new engine with ALOT of new parts, all seals etc from atkins. Started up and ran like ****, turned out my timing was off either 90 (IIRC) degrees because the pulley was on wrong.

 

Had that happen to me, except it was a lil different...

Was trying to check my timing but it was like 270 degrees off... pulley got installed wrong by previous owner.

 

When was the last time the carb was rebuilt?

Is the misfire constant regardless of load, or only at idle, or only when under wide throttle?

Is it rythmic (like the same rotor face misfiring every rotation) or arrythmic (no pattern?)

What shape is the distributor gear and its shaft bushings in? What gap di you measure between pickup coils and reluctor?

Ignition grounds clean?

Having spent the last month chasing an intermittent misfire around my '80 (which has Mazda seals throughout) I can attest that there's a lot more that can cause a misfire than issues with apex seals.

If your comprssion is good, by what operational theory could the apex seals (which function chiefly to provide for compression between chambers) be causing a misfire?

 

I'm not blaming it on the apex seals. It was something that somebody else said. I'm asking if this has happened to anyone else.

 

Before blaming anything internal to the engine, what is your compression; rotor face to rotor face, front to rear, total compression? This will tell us more about what is going on and will isolate the issue to side, corner, apex seals or something else.

If the compression looks good, could be timing, carb, etc.

RXDad

 

JoeyMazda

as someone all said in this thread all ready, please check the main pulley as all the 85 and older Rotary cars {or Trucks} you can install the the pulley on in 4 different directions and only me right in 2 places..
That right thee could be your Miss fire right there...

I had this happen to me on my 1st engine install about 10 years {I was about 16-17@ the time} on a 77 Cosmo I could not figure it out for a week, and of course I asked Dad {David Atkins} for help as this was an easy job Car to work on {3Vacuum lines in the whole car} I was ready to throw in the towel over it
it took Dad 5min to see what i did wrong and he told me what I needed to turn the main pulley.. as confuses as I was over it I did it with out question and problem was fixed....

Dan

 

LOL at this thread. I run Atkins apex seals in my 450 rwhp FD with no problems. They aren't your problem, listen to what others are saying to you in this thread. Fuel, spark, or vacuum leaks are going to be the culprit.

EDIT...if you've been working with these engines for 13 years then you should know better than blame apex seals for a misfire if you have good compression across all rotor faces - just an observation.

 

Thanks for the info guys

 

Your welcome hope this info helps you out..

Dan

 

what about on an SE. when i'm not driving it, i.e. idle, the car has horrible misfires. and if you rev it up and let off. it pings like hell and misfires... but once i drive the car everything is fine...

last time i checked, the compression was well within spec, like right around 100? i'll check it tmw. also i will be installing an msd box that i bought over a year ago lol...................

 

what about the timing

 

it's barely off... should it be spot on?

 

Timing or maybe the imfamous e-shaft pully phasing problem (pulley on wrong.)

 

but would that apply to when its only not in gear?

i mean its a lot more of a missfire than yours was.

 

where are your RPMs at? I had a misfire before & was due to the timing. I brought them down to 750 and that took care of the problem. At 1100 it felt like a misfire but wasn't.

 

Just thinking the advance may be compensating... but now I'm not sure if I was thinking straight. Caffeine shortage.

Timing & idle speed/mix adjust is the place to start, though.