hey everyone,
my car starts up and drives, but not very well.

today i did the compression test, and on the front it sounded like WOOOOSH WOOOOSH WOOOOOSH, on the rear rotor it sounded like fart, burp, woosh.

going to try the seafom treatment tonight, but i am not too hopeful.

does anyone have any clever ideas short of a rebuild?

thanks in advance!

 

Is's either carbon-locked an apex, in which case the seafoam treatment might free it, or it's blown an apex seal, and it's rebuild time. You can pull the exhaust manifold and visually inspect the apexes with a flashlight and mirror to make the call.

What was the car's history just before this happened? Was it running OK then this suddenly happened, or had it been sitting for an extended period of time?

 

the car has been sitting for ages...hasn't been registered in ten years. picked it up as a project.

not too keen on trying to remove the exhaust manifold, the exhaust has seriously welded itself together. tried removing the a cat today and broke the stud.

figured i have nothing to lose by trying seafoam.

 

If its been sitting its probably just a stuck apex seal. Especially if you still have compression off one side of the rotor. If you had blown an apex you would have pretty easily blown all three and lost compression all together.

Rebuilds arent all that bad. I just finished mine, now im just having a problem firing it but the rebuild itself went fine. Took about a month (with working full time on the side). All you gotta do is find a buddy with an engine hoist you can borrow, 4 jack stand, a jack, and a tool kit. Buy the overhaul kit and away you go. Even if its not blown a rebuild isnt a bad idea to do when you have a month to burn lol. Blowing a seal in a 12a is bad news since itll trash your housing more than likely and they aren't manufactured anymore.