I'm rebuilding my engine, and there is no wear limit in my manual for corner seals. I will be replacing the springs, but i'd rather not replace the corner seals if i didn't have to, just the rubber inserts. the new height is 0.276 inches and mine measure at 0.270. To me .006 seems like ver yslight wear especially over the 170,000 kms it has been through. Can I reuse these corners?

 

Yeah, you can reuse them, just clean the carbon off the backs. I'd recommend using the 3rd gen springs and skipping the rubber inserts.

 

The rubber things are optional. I've only seen one engine so far which still had them, and some were missing.

The third gen springs are actually cheaper than the old wire type. Mazdatrix recommends them as a performance alternative to the wire type. I've used them in all my rebuilds.

 

Definately use the 3rd gen springs.

I used solid corners in my rebuild. Will have to wait and see what the results are.

 

Corner seals are cheap and worn ones can bring compression figures down quickly. 3rd gen springs and solid corner seals works for me.

 

I read somewhere that the rubber insert was designed less for better sealing but rather vibration absortion, ect.

 

While they may serve that function, i don't know, but as Jeff20B said, they are often gone. I have yet to tear down an engine where they are all still in place.

 

I've torn down 3 engines in which they were all still there, although they were hard and brittle. I don't see where they would could go

 

i also used 3rd gen corner seal springs in my rebuild.

 

Some of the engine I've torn down were pretty bad. I have noticed on some of them where some of the seals were gone and some were still there, the ones still present were hard as you stated. They also were starting to mushroomon the outside edge, being slightly raised above the face of the corner seal. These corner seals were hard enough, and protruded enough that they could prevent metal corner seal face from making full sealing contact with the side irons. That's when I dedcided to go with solid corner seals.

I have no idea where they go, or I should say how they go. One corner might have a nearly full length hardened seal, the one next to it would be gone without a trace.