Best way to unstick a side seal?
 

Hey guys, I'm tired of low compression and I don't want to dick around with a rebuild as I don't have the resources/money so I was wondering, any way around this? I've used a can of seafoam in oil and gas, but no vac line. Have yet to try ATF and water, but how reliable are those methods? Should I bother with another can of seafoam?

I wouldn't bother.

What makes you think its just one seal? How many miles are on the engine? Your seals may just as well be worn out and not stuck.

Give us some details.

I usually would include some detail but most of the time I get people not reading it because there's so much.

Car is one owner (babied it's passed 19 years of it's life) T2 with HKS intake and full RB exhaust. 150000km's (90k'ish miles). I was doing about 130mph and after that run came to a stop and the car stalled because it couldn't hold idle (low compression) and it wouldn't start for the next half hour (has hot start issues anyways). Compression test done in metric read 5.5 on all three front rotor faces 5.5 on 2/3 of rear faces and 2.5 on one face.

Well, I hate the be the bearer of bad news, but that 5.5 metric compression number equals roughly 65 psi. The seals are all worn out anyway. You may have slung a piece of carbon off of a rotor face and stuck a side seal, but that doesn't change the fact that you are running at about half of the motors volumetric efficiency with worn out seals anyway.

I have the same 5.5-6.5 numbers too, thus why I am getting a new motor next week.

Yeah, I remember reading the FSM that factory specs were 9 I think. Guess it's time to start saving.