Working on carbon locked motor - motor pulled
 

I have a carbon locked gslse and the motor has been pulled. Should it be reinstalled to work on or would it being out of the car make it easier?

I've seen this thread for what I need to do so I'm just thinking if it would be easier one way or the other.
https://www.rx7club.com/1st-gen-arch...7/#post2385473

Thanks

usually its best to loosen it by spinning it backwards. it is easy to do this, either with the factory tool, or a prybar through the round hole in the bellhousing. out of the car, you might use the 54mm e shaft nut?

How do you know its carbon? It could be a chipped seal. If you try to spin it you could do more damage internally. Its best to just break it down and rebuild it.

My plan is to take it slow and not force anything. Soaking with MMMO and trying to turn by hand (not forcing). Also I'll inspect the what I can through the intake/exhaust ports as well as the spark plug holes.

I'm not in a hurry, I just want to get it right and not cause further damage. If I can save it without a rebuild, I'd be OK with that.

turn it backwards. if it is carbon lock, it wants to go backwards. if its something else it doesn't matter

Exactly!

OK I'll try the reversing. I was able to go see the car this weekend and found out the story of how it became seized. He was out of town for a month and came back to start it. It started and ran normally and let it idle for a while. He turned it off and went back inside and the next day it wouldn't start.

he tried to push start and it still was locked, but like you are saying trying in reverse would have been a better idea. The motor looked pretty dirty on the intake manifold so I'm hoping a good cleaning will do the trick. I'm picking it up on the 28th so I'll post some updates once I get it home. Thanks for the help.

! i hate the 21st century, when i was a kid. we called the guy, and we'd go look at the car that day, and pick it up that day. this 10 wait, is just annoying!

if i bought it, i'd pour a bunch of lube* down the carb, wait a bit, and then use a pry bar to spin the engine backwards. when it pops free, spin it over a few time, start it, and beat the snot out of it for a while, and it should be fine.


*MMO isn't a mystery, we have the MSDS, its not really a lubricant. you might as well mix a little motor oil with a little gas

I am friends with the guy who is selling it so he's been very gracious to let me wait to pick it up till I had time. Needed to get my ducks in a row before I could pick it up. It's also been for sale for over 6 months so I think he's happy to see it sold

Update: i am picking up the car this Sunday (22nd) so I will be able to get the process started a week earlier than I thought!

I got the car home and pulled the exhaust manifold off. The front rotor looked fairly clean. The rear rotor was caked in carbon and oil so I think it might have a bad oil seal?

Would anyone suggest using diesel to soak the internals or would the MMMO be a better suit in this situation?

Here is the best picture I could get of inside the housing:

Soak that in MMO or WD-40. Most likely the rear oil control rings are hosed.

I would get a can of GUNK engine decreaser The stuff you detail your engine with. I use it to clean rotors when I rebuild. Works great. Spray liberally and let soak for a day periodically recoating and spinning the engine over. Then rinse with carb cleaner. Massage the seals with your finger. You can stick a tooth brush in there to clean as well.

I am torn now because should I still attempt to get the motor running knowing the oil seal is likely bad or just save the effort and just start the process of rebuilding it.

I would just rebuild it. It can be done for $500 and youll know its all new inside. Youll have to clean it either way.

When you say for $500 - what all do you mean? Apex seals alone are $350 without shipping from Goopy. Just curious for my own build.

get it running now, thats the fun part. if it needs a rebuild it needs a rebuild...

I use Atkins seals. $200. The cheapest basic seal kit,new apex springs, corner plugs,fd corner springs,viton o rings. I went crazy and bought new control ring springs on this last one... so $500-600 roughly.

Yeah if I am going to have it all apart, I will replace all of the seals. I'd rather do it right than cheap.

Out of curiosity - how many miles are on that engine? My 13b (-SE) made it to 222k miles and it's out of the car right now being replaced with a lower miles uncracked engine, plus Exedy Stage 1 clutch and a RB aluminum flywheel.

My rear rotor on the original engine looked very similar and the white deposits on the surfaces of the exhaust manifold could also indicate coolant being burned. Did you pull the plugs - and what did they look like? That could tell you something about which rotor is to blame, but either way - a rebuild is in your future,

No the plugs were already pulled when I got the car. It has 177k and it is the original motor. I bought it from the 2nd owner. With the rebuild comes major overhaul of pretty much everything.

Well I snapped two breaker bars trying to get the flywheel nut off. Might have to take it down to the local tire shop to try to get it loose. Any suggestions before I get down there? It was suggested I used heat to help free it up. Two 1/2" drive breaker bars down and Id rather not buy a 3/4" just for this.

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8642/...a47ed54a_c.jpg20150301_162707 by tallbozo, on Flickr
https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8602/...41373ab0_c.jpg20150301_163930 by tallbozo, on Flickr

An impact works wonders. Or you could use a chisel. I had to use one once. It worked but I didn't like the cuts it makes in the nut. Ever since then the impact is what I use.

I have an electric (Corded) Impact gun that's available to me but its only 350 ft/lbs max. Would that do the trick?

Should work - the torque spec from FSM is from 268ft/lbs - 340ft/bls, and I used the Racing Beat tool designed for the job to remove the stock flywheel nut and install the new lite flywheel. I was somewhat surprised that the removal force wasn't too bad with my full weight on the 3' arm, but that equates to 170lbsx3ft = 510ft/lbs of available torque.

Once you get the right tool, it will go quickly. Also, the hammer effect tends to magnify torque using the mass of the object against it - on that note, you are using some kind of flywheel stopper, right?