I need advice from someone unfortunate enough to have experienced a broken apex seal. Is there any way besides a compression test to determine if a seal is broken (unusual noises, etc.). My Rx seems doggy under wide open throttle conditions. It starts up easy, idles well, runs under part throttle well, and gets decent gas mileage on the highway. Please respond

To explain further it makes most power from 3-5K rpm, not from 4-7K like i think it should. After 5K it falls on it's face.

 

mirror and flashlight. You can take the leading plugs out and peer into the rotor housing.

 

I have driven this car like 4000 miles, is it possible i have done so without realizing i had a bad seal? It accelerates fine at partial throttle, but doesn't accelerate any harder floored.

 

clogged cats? It doesn't sound like you have a bad seal if it's idleing.

 

I have concluded it is a minor problem and have tried eliminating all possible causes of poor performance. thanks for your input

 

Does anyone else have any ideas of what could lead to the problem i describe?

 

It could be clogged cats (take them off and look into it) or it could be a clogged fule line or filter (they are getting kinda old)

 

like was already said cats, fuel filter, air filter, check for leading AND trailing spark.

 

make sure your vacuum secondaries are opening up on the carb.

 

Change the Fuel Filter and see if it fixes it.

 

Broken seal is usually pretty obvious, and not the symptoms that you are describing. Keep in mind that the Epitrochoidal rotor shape has three sides and three seals per rotor. If you lose an apex seal, then it is the barrier between two of the three combustion chambers on a rotor. It will make terrible power, be hard to keep running, and sound like helicopter. Take out the plugs and turn over a motor with a popped apex seal and the affected rotor will go "pop-huh-huh-pop-huh-huh". Once you've heard it you will be able to identify it just from listening to it turn over without removing the plugs. And yes, I have learned this from breaking seals and being tutored by someone witha ton of rotary knowledge. It's just some of the stuff you accumulate if you hang around rotariees long enough!

 

Trust me, You would know

 

Ditto on the fuel filter...perhaps the secondaries on the carb aren't opening. With those symptoms i seriously doubt you have a blown seal.

Marques