Ok he pulls up with a real bad lopping idle... I notice his tach isnt working so instantly I think igniter/coils etc. He says the tach has never worked in the car and has good power...I dont have a timing light here so checking the trailing/leading etc is out of the question for now

So we pull the rear spark plug, I hear Choo ... ..... It had a real nice loud pulse but seem like it was missing maybe 1 or 2 pulses per rev. Pull the front one out, same loudness of sound, but I hear CHOO CHOO CHOO... So looks like bad rear rotor...

But anyways all the rotaries I have seen would not idle NO WAY IN HELL with a bad rotor.. What you guys think on this? I thought if you had a seal break it would just snap and lodge itself inside the housing and destroying the housing rotor and all other apex's.. ?

By the way its really really hard to start, but once it starts it will idle roughly...

Well anyones thoughts on this, sorry for the long post. BTW: If its motor hes going 302 V8 So lets hope its not the poor ole 12A wanting to RIP...

 

Its blown. I've seen quite a few idle with fucked up seals. One or two of them may just be cracked.

My friend Stephen drove his FD around with a fucked rear rotor for a week. Idled like a bridgeport, just had no power. Pulled the motor, and all three of the rear apex seals plus the rotor were shot.

 

I guess I just got lucky or unlucky as the case may be... Neither of mine would idle for ****. So maybe its a cracked apex.. Thank god the other day when he came by I didnt have time to put some parts on it I would have surely been blamed for this

 

Try to rev it up. When my 12A blew, it would cough and sputter when you hit the gas and the engine would vibrate like mad. I also had half the power. This was all due to a cracked rear apex seal.

 

Yeah it revs up kinda like my others did and cars I have worked on that were blown. But what amazes me is its still running

 

it's blown!
i've seen cars idle on one rotor. hell, i've seen cars drive on one rotor! they just feel down on power.

you only need to lose one apex seal in order to lose two chambers. it probably broke and got spit out the exhaust ...

tough break for your friend

 

Well its probally getting a 302 stuffed down in it...

His idea not mine, but I bet i will play a hand in it. Money is money LOL

 

Have you thought that maybe one apex seal is suffering from carbon lock? Giv'n it the 'ol ATF treatment might loosen up the offending seal. What do ya think?

Also, perhaps you should take the rear leading plug out and peak in the hole while spinning the engine by hand. I mirror comes in handy for that. Maybe you will or maybe you won't see damage to an apex seal but it's easy to do and might yield an answer for ya.

 

I thought carbon lock instantly, but he said while driving it just started it. Usually carbon lock rears its ugly head after turning the car off and then starting it after it cools. I bet its either a cracked apex or somethingl ike that. Cause usually when you got a broken apex it destorys everything and you get no compression in the housing...

The leading hole? Man thats a very small opening. I always remove the exhasut manifold, then you can see everything ....

 

we had one that would start and idle fine, but it had zero power. it turns out one of the front apex seals timed it right and fell out of the exhaust port.

mike

 

WOW, talk about the law of averages. It just exited stage right huh

 

My car drove all the way home from a friend's house running on one rotor.... Someone disconnected the rear rotor's plug wires while we were troubleshooting, and didn't mention it to me, so they never got hooked up again. Started fine, idled at about 3500rpm, and drove like a hyundai pony ready to be put out of it's misery, but it still drove and idled fine

Jeff