Hi all,

I think my engine may have busted one of its apex seals. When I downshifted to overtake someone all of a sudden the engine started to lose a whole lot of power and started running very rough (shaking). Please tell me it's not the seals, as this is my daily driver and I'll need to get another car asap to get me to work on monday...
Could it be anything other than a seal??

Thanks

 

Remove one of the top spark plugs and disable the ignition by disconnecting the igniters and coils, then have somebody crank the engine over while you listen for a consistent series of puffs coming out of the spark plug hole. This will tell you if each of the "chambers" have compression. Repeat this with the other trailing plug to check the other rotor.

 

If the engine has a busted seal, is it possible to rebuild the engine without new housing(s), or should I start looking for a different engine altogether??

 

You won't know what you need for parts until you tear it down. Be prepared for a housing, rotor, possibly irons, If you don't need them, then you will be ahead.

 

Sorry to edit your post but open sparks in a fuel vapor environment could be very dangerous.

 

Doh! Forgot to mention that whole blowing yourself up bit (hangs head in shame)...

 

Yeah well I know enough about engines to know that a combination of fuel air mixture and sparks is not a very safe one, so i'll be careful.

Thanks for the advice

 

This is why i believe everyone should have two cars. You can also pull a plug on each rotor and turn the motor by hand by the main pulley using a ratchet, it's really easy to do on Rotary engines.

 

Yea but not everyone does. We wouldnt want someone comming across this thread in the future who didnt know. And we all make mistakes, wouldnt want that to happen accidentally either. Saftey first! Always.

 

Okay, it's definitely taken out one of the seals on the front rotor, damn, I already put my MGA in winter storage, so that's me off buying another car... That makes it four cars with 50% operational...
Oh well at least it beats the mission capability rate of our F-16s...

 

Do you have a 12a or 13b? If you have a 12a, they're real cheap, and i've heard pretty damn easy to swap into your car. Instead of dropping 1k on a beater, hunt around junkyards/see if there is anyone on the forum near you that will be willing to sell you a 12a. I've seen good, albeit stock, 12a's go for ~250 on the forum.

 

Yeah, she's a 12A.
Problem is that I live in the Netherlands, where the 7 never made it too big (something to do with the fuel prices i guess), so I'll have to start scrounging around to find another engine.
At least it might get me some time to tinker with her (stainless exhaust, upgraded ignition, electric fan and such) this winter...

 

Who has the a good rebuild kit? I plan on getting rid my my 12A but would like to advertise it as a rebuild instead of an aged 25 year old engine. Ran fine when I pulled it out.

 

racintang: you'll spend $700+ rebuilding it to make it into a $500 engine instead of a $250 engine...

 

Got one with a manual tranny still atached, anyone?