I recently bought a T2 engine with a pretty rough front rotor. The housing and irons cleaned up really nice and everything is ready for the rebuild except for one thing. I can't get the side seals out of the rotor. I have sprayed it down with PB and let it sit, I've hot tanked it, and I've dunked it in an ultrasonic cleaner. Every time I feel like the seal gets close to popping out, it just snaps. I do not want to snap any more side seals, so I am just looking for some tips if anyone has some. I have searched through this website and a couple others and haven't found any tips that I haven't already tried

Pic below is how my rotor sits now on my desk. Yellow liquid is PB blaster, there is some corrosion, which I am going to knock off in a parts washer after the seals are removed. Managed to get one seal out of one side and that's all

Thanks!

 

Do the seals move in any direction? Vertically, or end to end? You could try pushing one end of the side seal to slide it along the groove to the corner and back using one of the broken pieces as a tool. It will loosen them up a little if you can break the corrosion. That will also show you where the tight spots are.

With this picture, don't bother with those side seals. With the amount of corrosion shown, and the amount of effort you have had to invest in so far, start with a new set of side seals and re-clearance the rotors (see FSM for specifications). If you don't, this will come back to bite you pretty darn fast.

 

I can't get them to move at all. I'm tapping each end with a broken piece of seal or a super-thin screwdriver and it won't budge at all. I am going to take it into my buddys shop tomorrow and dunk it in the hot tank again and leave it for a few hours to hopefully break up some more of the rust and get the metals to separate. Im gonna clean up that rotor in the parts washer after the seals are out and take measurements for clearance once that's all done. thanks man, also would you recommend I double stack the side seal springs for the rotors? someone told me that since I'm going with higher than stock turbo pressure, I should consider doing that

 

no don't do that, it will just break stuff

 

no offense man, but your talking about throwing a bunch of old parts in there and going with more boost. if it even runs it will not be for long.

might want to sandblast them.

I blew a motor on my last 2nd gen.....had another sitting around and decided to do what your are talking about doing. slapped it together with old parts to sell the car as it was a beautiful vert.......wouldn't start. 60 and 80 on compression readings. lesson learned. had to sell the car for like 1k because I was done.

 

I would clean the rotors and let them dry, then use a torch to heat along the seal. Don't get it hot enough to turn red, just good and hot. If it starts smoking you've gone far enough because that means any oil stuck in there is burning. That alone may work, but just in case I'd spray some PB blaster on it and then let it cool for a few hours. The PB blaster will cool the seal and hopefully get sucked in through capillary action.

Also, echoing what others said, don't reuse seals. That's a recipe for having to open the engine again and spend the money you thought you were saving on the second rebuild, plus paying for supplies all over again.

And definitely don't double up on springs (or anything else). Any power gain from better sealing (doubtful) will easily be negated when you need to rebuild the engine and replace all the irons due to grooving. Mazda put one spring there, do what Mazda did and you'll be okay.

 

if the heat doesn't work, then try cold. i had a rotor like that once - side seals seemed to be brittle. they were stuck down and would break with the least provocation. i tried putting the rotor in the oven and it didn't work. i ended up putting it in the freezer overnight. i was able to get them out after that idea. if other ideas don't work, then try it. for me, i had a knife (on the edge where i started), then a piece of broken seal and copious amounts of machine oil for the rest of the way through the slot. if you haven't figured it out yet, be very careful. those seals are very sharp and will mutilate your fingers.

before rebuilding, your most important task is to make sure your get the slots cleaned thoroughly.

if you are able to get any of them out whole, as far as using those seals in your rebuild goes, i definitely understand being on tight budget, but i have a regret story or two when it comes to that. so i concur with everyone else above me. don't do it - and the same goes for your idea of doubling up on springs.