Hey!,

I bought a j-spec engine relatively recently and it turns out that it has a <very> stuck apex seal in the front rotor. i've ATF'd it while standing and while running, tried the 'water' trick (sucked it into the manifold while it was running at ~4k rpm), pushed, pulled, WD-40, marvel mystery oil, etc. etc. etc... (you get the picture)... nothing has worked, so...
I know that the top part of the seal is OK, and that the bottom one is stuck, so i'm in the process of taking off my turbo and exhaust manifold, at which point i'm going to .....

Jam a brass rod onto it and whack it as hard as i can <well, maybe not quite...> (i'll make sure the seal's lined up perfectly, etc...)

anyway, sound like a reasonable thing to try? i've driven the **** out of it trying to get it to free up (after idling for a LONG LONG LONG time <~6-7 hours> to 'break it in' / free stuff up again), and nothing happened except i achieved 3 miles per gallon (goody).

Tell me if that's a ridiculously bad idea... i'm going to try it tomorrow

cya,
Manolis

-in apex seal hell...

 

Manolis. THe best way is to check it thru the exaust ports..dont do the "Jam a brass rod onto it and whack it as hard as i can" trick, you can break a seal. Good luck dude..

 

ATF while standing? For how long?

Keep in mind that ATF must sit there for a long time to do anything. Overnight won't do it. Try a week or more. ATF while the engine is running does nothing except make a smoke screen and cause MORE carboning.

 

Let me get this straight...
You've concluded one apex seal is stuck with the engine still intact?&nbsp How did you surmise that???


-Ted

 

Yes i was wondering how you figured out it is stuck...

 

Also if you stick anything in there you can do severe damage to the rotor itself. Rotors are very soft compared to even a brass rod. I have bent the corners of them by sitting them down on my workbench too hard on a corner. You're gonna have to take that thing apart adn rebuild it more than likely, sorry.

 

I bought a Jspec once and when i looked thru the exaust ports all rear apex seals were missing...

 

OK...

I first concluded that the seal was stuck by taking out the spark plugs and looking down there with a flashlight and a dentist's mirror,then poking at it with a screwdriver (very carefully). I figured that i should take the turbo off to get a better view of everything and hopefully some better access at things. When i took the turbo off yesterday, the 'front end' of one of the seals on the front rotor wasn't 'springy', but the back end was OK. there was also about a 1cm gouge on the rotor face near that seal. I figured that it must be something wrong with one of the corner seals (?), and in talking with Mr. Gibson (www.fc3s.org) he agreed that that was a reasonable conclusion to draw from the situation...

The ATF had sat in the motor (a J-Spec) for a couple of months in my driveway, then i ran it for awhile (about 15 miles of hard driving after >5 hours of idling) -- still 'stuck' then. After that I put ATF in there for a couple of days, but nothing freed up. It was at this point that i took the turbo off.

Anyway, I talked to Mr. Gibson and he's going to get back to me with some options on what I want to do. fc3s.org is going to start rebuilding motors,so i'll probably end up going with one of those.

hope that answers all the questions

Manolis

PS... That motor is almost out after 2 hours of work... that's weeks faster than the first time