This is the next chapter in my 'n00b vs. TII' saga.

I left off last week after coming to the conclusion that my motor was blown, after getting compression results of *90 front* and *0-30 rear*.

Anyways, after a nice, smooth and relaxing engine removal/teardown (seriously). I finally got my first look at the aftermath of my 'no compression disaster'...

I removed the engine externals and tension bolts and began by seperating the rear end-plate from the rear rotor housing. After carefully removing it, I glanced at the rear housing, expecting a gnarly disaster, but there was nothing! It was frikkin' blingin' and perfect looking!

Confused, I slowly worked the rear rotor out of the housing (pausing several times to wrap rubber-bands around it, so the apex seals wouldn't lose their places). First off, all the apex seals were in place and appeared to be in normal condition. All of the apex seal "tips" (part of the two piece design) were there and were fine looking too.

Upon close inspection of the housing and end-plates, there was nothing wrong at all!?! Remember, this is the 'rotor' that got compression readings between 0-30!

So, shaking off my bewilderment, I continued on.

I lifted off the rotor housing and started slowly lifting/prying up on the center-iron. I got it off and looked into the front rotor housing. It looked fine too!?! Everything was intact and looking good. I pulled out the E-shaft and the rotor and laid them aside.

The housing was perfect, and all the apex seals looked good (as did everything else).

Now, here's the mystery... On the front 'end-plate' there was a HEALTHY gouging that looked like someone took a sharp nail and forcefully traced a path with it. Judging by where it traveled (kind of like 'half of a figure 8), I assume it had something to do with the corner seal, or the tip of the apex seal.

Either way, it was frikkin' weird. One, because it was only a short, half-figure eight gouge. Probably about.............

OK, JUST GOT BACK FROM RE-CHECKING:

Oops, the weird gouging is actually found on ALL THE IRONS (lol)

Does this sound like a symptom of detonation? How the apex seal tips freaked out and gouged the irons? (or whatever)

Now that the damage has been uncovered, WHAT SHOULD I REPLACE?

I'm going to re-use the housings, because they're just fine.

I'm thinking that I could re-use ALL of my SPRINGS for ALL the seals... Anyone?

Should I FULLY replace my apex seals? Or JUST the tips?

I'm definitely getting new side and corner-seals. I had one suspect corner-seal and at least one suspect side-seal (on the last rebuild), which I believe were responsible for my compression never bumping past 90psi after the break-in period.

I'm going to Atkins tomorrow (today, I guess) and I need to have a shopping list.

So far I'm getting:

-ALL irons
-side-seals
-corner-seals
-apex-seal 'tips'
-ALL water-jacket/coolant seals

Any imput? I'm kind of wondering if they even sell just the apex seal "tips"....

Hmmmm....

Off topic: I think I found a buyer for my s5 vert (oww!)

Thanks guys,

 

hey tell how much that **** cost, im in the same boat

 

Shiiiiiiiiiittttt...

On CLOSER inspection of the housings, I notice that the very edges seem to be a wee bit messed up (like gouged/jacked up)...

ahhhhhhhh... I'll probably have to replace them too...

I guess my main question still is; should I simply fully replace the apex seals? Even if the "main" part looks OK?

 

Maybe talk over your situation with the folks at Atkins.

 

it would probably be cheaper to buy a low mileage jspec engine and rebuild that sucker than to get new housings and irons etc..

 

^ word.

The only reason I say *new*, is because I might be able to talk my buddy (13bpower on these boards) into selling me a motor he was intending to drop into his Repu project...

It's got NEW housings and good irons and everything's already street-ported and ready to go.

I know new housings are hard to come-by, so hopefully, in this case, money will talk and he'll be willing to part with them...

 

I don't know... You mean like try and get them to cut me a deal?

They're pretty cool, so I'll ask 'em. I highly doubt I'll be able to get much sympathy (in the form of less money, lol) but it won't hurt to explain my situation.

If they have the housings and irons that I need, maybe I can convince them to give me everything for $1000... We'll see.

 

Sorry to hear that.My motor just died also.

 

yeah your buddies engine sounds like the way to go I don't know if atkins will give you anything cheaper but I'm thinking they may know what could have caused your ill fated rotary popedge

 

Hum, just guessing since you think the side piece of the apex seal gouged your irons....

Maybe the apex seal groves were out of spec and there was to much blow by....and that pushed the corner piece into the irons?

Also, new housings are not hard to come by. In fact they are still producing them. The only thing that makes it hard to come by is people's budgets

James

 

Good theory on the apex seal grooves. I want to think they were OK though, because when these housings and rotors were in their ORIGINAL motor, (60k mi) it compression tested consistently at above 100psi all around, both rotors... It died of coolant seal failure.... I WANT to blame bad side-seals for the low compression, just because I re-used them and I never checked their specs before installing them in my TII's 'new' motor.

Oh well, I'll tell you guys what I find out at Atkins.

 

Well, bad news... lol.

My rotor's are MESSED UP too... There's the infamous "gouging" cutting across the faces...

Atkins only has NEW stuff... They want $580 for each housing And they didn't have any used irons. New irons would be around $400-500 a piece.

Hondahater; your idea about getting a J-spec is sounding pretty tempting... lol.

I think I'm going to post a WTB for a set of irons, and my homie said he'd sell me HIS new housings (oww!) for $500 for both and his rotors for $150 for both.

I spent around $580 today at Atkins buying new Apex seals, side seals and springs, corner-seals and all the water-jacket/coolant seals. That 'ish is EXPENSIVE.

Whatever, I'm going to have the pimpest motor when I'm done.