Heya people.

I'm coming across small questions I need answered, all will be reguarding rebuilding the engine so if I have more than one I'll post it in here instead of making a new thread.

Anyway, right now I'm putting the coolant seals in... and hylomar is a total bitch to work with.

Do I need to razor blade this off ALL mating surfaces, or just the housing faces so that it doesn't catch the sideseals like the Atkin's video says.

Will it help/hurt the sealing to have too much in the grooves? (No gun for the tube, so I've been getting this crap ALL OVER THE PLACE and it's hard to clean up... so I'd rather not)

--Gary

 

As far as i know (assisted on a friends rebuild) we cleaned up all mating services with a razor blade... Use a chemical brush for the hylomar, it makes it much easier..

We got a little bit of hylomar in places we really didn't want it, but as far as i know, it will get burned off when you crank it anyways..

-Justin

 

get a medium thistle paint brush and some scissors and chop that sucker so you only have about 4mm of bristles on the brush, squeeze the hylomar onto the brush and squeeze it into the groves in the iron housings and use a razor blade to get the excess off, cutting the head off the brush helps TONS and also if you can work in a warm room, hylomar is much easier to work with as temperature increases. paint a light coat onto the rotor housings mating surface avoiding getting any on the chrome surface and reassemble the engine.

to answer your real question, yes, try to avoid using too much and/or getting any into the combustion chamber while reassembling because it will smear on the rotor housing surface and it doesn't wipe off easily so it could affect how the seals wear into place.

 

I used a razor blade to get it off the surfaces of the iron, worked well. After that anything left over I used a damp rag to get the little bits that were left over.

 

It was a serious pain in the ***, but it's nice that you can reuse them if you happen to need to split the block again because it doesn't make them expand (like vasoline does). I just cut a very tiny slit on the plastic and used some serious squeezing to get it into the grooves, then I just went and used a tiny peice of balsa wood to try to smooth it out in the groove, it took me almost 10 minutes for each seal though.

 

Razor blades...coolant seals...
You guys scare me!


-Ted

 

Hylomar cleans up easily with a cloth dampened with lacquer thinner. I started using Hylormar on Continental aircraft engines 30 years ago. It only takes a VERY thin coat to seal perfectly. It will clean up with thinner the next time you take the engine apart as well because it doesn't dry out completely.

 

I thoroughly coat the seals in Hylomar, push them into the grooves, and then cover the mating surface on the rotor housing as well. Any Hylomar that squeezes out will be burned by the engine as soon as it starts. I wouldn't worry too much about excess hylomar.

Take a look at this thread for an example: https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-generation-specific-1986-1992-17/pics-status-my-turbo-na-brigeport-engine-build-335077/

 

Thats what Aaron and I did on my Engine Gary. I had no problems with the Coolant Seals. Than again, I do remember many nights sitting down, with the Irons on my lap, and cleaning all the channels gunk-free. Perhaps yours aren't clean enough causing the Seals not to seat right?

Also, don't worry If the the channels still have space after the Seals have been seated . The Seals end up expanding and filling In the space. Just make sure to lay It according to the colour scheme (Orange/Black), but I don't need to tell you that.

 

Thanks for the alll the responses, helped me figure it out heh. I didn't use Hylomar all over like Aaron did (BTW, WTF is with that thread NOT being in the archives? I swear... so much effort to write that up and no one archived it!)

Now my next question is if anyone knows what size washer and material the oil pressure regulator one is? It says to replace it, can't find a washer at the hardware store that fits it. 20mm is just BARELY too small... and it'd probably be too wide even if it did fit! I think that's called "race" size but not sure... anyway, so I tried using a fiber one... it broke itself apart at 65ft/lbs, leaving just a small ring of itself still around the regulator. =(

Finally... a big question.

Seeing that I've been putting this engine together for the last 24 hours, should I now disassemble it... clean off the sealant, and try it again quicker?

I put pressure down on all the parts as I put them together, to get them to really mash up... but obviously that's nothing compared to all the tension bolts holding the thing together.

Think I'll get leaks all over the place since the sealant is probably cured by now, at least on the front housing... and the tension bolts are still not in. Everything is in except the rear iron... which is waiting on this oil pressure regulator being installed. =/

I've had a bad two days with this rebuild... not happy. =( (Oh did I mention I destroyed a front stationary gear bolt? Apparently my dad's torque wrench is broken, and just kept on going right past 17ft/lbs... to whatever it takes to rip a bolt in half... luckily it wasn't hard geting it out once I took off the gear. *sigh*)

--Gary

 

Something I forgot, does the Atkins kit come with this washer? There are a bunch... but I can't find one that fits it. What is the aluminum washer in the kit for?

--Gary

 

^

 

Why am I answering all these questions via 10k character PM's if you're just asking them again here?

 

I didn't want to bother you with another PM lol... guess that'd just be a drop in the ocean though haha....

But while you're here..

The rebuild has been sitting all day, as you well know, should I tear it down and do it all again? It might be a PITA but if there's a chance I could end up damaging one of the seals by starting the car with it not seated properly (I know they seated flat, but you mentioned the RTV could push on them when I tension everything down) and wasn't able to re-use it even if I took the engine all apart again, I'd be in bigger trouble because I'd have to buy a whole new gasket set. I definately don't want that.

If there's no chance it will make the seal un-re-usable (yay for hyphens) then I'll just finish putting it together, get it all in the car and running and hope... rather than have to try cleaning all that RTV off.

If that is the case, I'll put the end plate on right now and seal it down... worry about putting the pressure regulator on later when I get a washer... then at least I can flip the whole thing over and put the front cover on it.

And I'm thinking that pressure regulator washer does not come in the Atkins kit now 'cause I went through every washer in the kit. And there IS an aluminum washer in the kit but it doesn't fit. So I'll be making a trip to the city next to mine for a more hardcore bolt shop where I might be able to find that washer (both hardwares stores in town didn't have anything that fit, other than the crappy fiber one)

PS, no I have no shame on asking questions! hah... not that I COULDN'T answer most of these with common sense... it's just that common sense tends to be the WRONG solution with these engines, as I've been figuring out.

--Gary

 

This is just a guess, but I'd say odds are 90% that it'll do fine if you seal it up as it is. Im still not comfortable with using a hardening/drying type of sealant and letting it dry before tensioning the stack though. The coolant seal, when dry and new, is a certain shape and width. You sit a housing with sealant on top of it, and the seal touches the sealant. Then, as it's still wet and soft, you tension the stack, and that coolant seal now gets compressed and widens to about twice it's original width. So, it's "footprint" against the rotorhousing (and the rtv sealant) also changes. If the rtv has dried before this, then you can see it'd be less of a quality seal, than if it were still wet, and then dried in this position which it will remain in for the rest of it's life.

As for that oil pressure regulator deal, I already gave my opinion on that. I would go ahead and put it on right now though, because it needs to be very tight, and itll be damned hard to get a big wrench on it when the engine is together, there is NO room. I would just not worry about that crush washer, instead just dab a little loctite on it and tighten it down all teh way...it'll never go anywhere, and it shouldnt have to be removed anyway. You're directing attention to a place that doesnt need any. Dont create problems, you have enough real ones already.

Anytime you tension down the stack, you cannot reuse those waterseals reliably again. Whether or not you use rtv/sealant, new or used housings, etc. The only way *might* be if you never even filled it with coolant. They tend to stretch and break on disassembly though, regardless of mileage.

 

Why do you fill up the coolant seal cavities with sealer, maybe im dumb but isn't that what the seal is for, i was informed that you can use vasoline to help hold them in place. I know there are areas that do need sealer.

Please put me straight.

 

dear bob,

screw this thing and buy my car

 

OK then, archived.