Ouch, had a bad day! My '87 N/A went down last night. It lost power suddenly and barely ran, now won't start. I did a compression test, and it looks to be a side-seal on the front rotor (one small blip on the compression gauge). So, here's my question..... I have heard replacment parts are pretty pricey. I can do the work myself, but is it worth opening up the engine? Can you just replace one set of seals or do you need to do a complete rebuild if you bother to open it up? I can get my hands on an '86 in a junkyard but don't know condition of engine except outside is clean.

The car is not in great shape, but I would kinda like to keep it as a daily driver. It now has 124000 miles. Should I shoot it or is it worth savin?

 

You could just replace that seal...
You're engine is obviously wearing out. As long as you've got the block apart, do a full rebuild, or you'll kick yourself in 3 months.
But first off, try the ATF trick...
Sean

 

Hmmmm, good idea. When I bought the car it barely ran. I found that the secondary injectors were leaking so that at low RPM it was running too rich. I did the ATF trick to clean out the engine from running rich after I had the injectors cleaned. I'm only reading about 10 PSI on one chamber when I compression test. Do you think the ATF thing could possible help it once it is that bad???
Thanks.

 

if the side seal is stuck, compression would be that low.
Only one way to find out.
Sean

 

Well, there is more to this..... I just switched oil in it about 3 or 4 weeks ago. I went to a Citgo oil, yeah I know now, probably not a good choice. Anyway, after the side seal went, I pulled the plugs and the ends were all coated with a "soot" about 1/16 inch thick. I am now starting to wonder if that oil is leaving ash as it burns off and that may have been enough to destroy or "hang-up" my side seal?????

Thanks for the ideas, I've only been into rotories for a few months. The network of guys out there with experience is great!

 

That's definitely a huge possibility.
ATF trick for sure now.
Sean