Clearanced my side seals: opinions wanted
 

The engine is S5 JDM 13B that I'm rebuilding. It's my first rebuild so all opinions are appreciated.

I'm checking wear on my side seals to decide whether to reuse or replace them. Using a micrometer I have some numbers.

Haynes manual has specs on height wear to be between .1122 - .1240
All of mine measure between .1205 - .1198

I didn't do percentages but that has me with about .0035-.0042 worn and .0076-.0083 left to still be within spec. or about 1/3 worn and 2/3 left.

Opinions on whether to use or replace would be greatly appreciated.

Some sidenotes and questions.

I started to check width but found they were wider than spec...then I realized that whats throwing that off is probably carbon build-up. If I use them should I clean that carbon off before assembly or leave it be?

Also if it matters I"ll be prepping the irons using a method I learned about on "another" forum. I'll be using an orbital sander, fine grit paper and kerosene to prep the irons. Is this method appropriate for used side seals or primarily to help with break-in of new side seals?

I haven't finished testing the irons to make sure they are all useable, but so far they all look good.

IMO its not really the height wear that is important, its more like the side to corner seal clearance that's critical.

I was planning on replacing the corner seals because they were out of spec on the diameters but height seemed fine. Am I correct in thinking out of spec corner seals will make it hard to have correctly clearanced side to corner seal? I was planning on checking that clearance on reassembly and had assumed that the length of the side seals won't change much.

check it, that's the part that seems to wear the most

Thanks for the heads up. Atkins dvd shows clearancing those with a feeler gauge on assembly, or maybe i'ts pineapple's online vid. Guess I'll find out if I'm buying new ones when I'm putting the rotors back together.

Update:

I just clearanced one side seal with a pair of old corner seals, just to kinda see what I had. They were between .003-.005 IIRC I didn't write down the numbers and my brain was starting to boil from the heat. I'm planning to clearance all the side seals to all the corner seals once the sun and heat are gone.

But this has me thinking of keeping my old corner seals and getting oem plugs for them.

I always replace corner seals just because. They're cheap.

This may not be the answer you are looking for, but I also clearance side seals until they just fit between the corner seals and move with only a slight drag. Never bothered to measure what that clearance actually is. :)

that's what the factory does, when you do that all day.... its actually really hard to measure, 002" is looser, but its measureable