And it's a sad one I dare say. Last night, on the way to work, I blew an apex seal on the rear rotor. Sparks, flames, the works out the exhaust. Weird feeling too, because it happened just as I was finishing letting out the clutch taking off from a stop. At first I thought that it was the clutch blowing up, but then realized that it was working properly still, and then it hit me clear as day as the guy behind me slammed on the brakes as a cloud of black smoke and flames shot out the right side exhaust pipe. After that, it's like driving a 90hp geo metro on only 2 of the 3 cylinders.

Well, after this wonderful adventure, I can only say one thing: She was fun while she lasted, but now I have the power to rebuild her, making her bigger, stronger, faster then she was berfore.

Also, the tear down and rebuild will be photographed and uploaded regularly.

 

How many miles were on it? What kinda compression did you have?

I'm just curious. I've also a 90 GXL, with 105 PSI. It runs really strong but at 180k I still fear that apex seal failure...

 

I look forward to the build up...but any ideas on what you are going to be doing?

 

Well, because I've been working and going to school alot the last few days to get some green for this up and coming ~4 month escapade (I always plan to take my time), I haven't had time to reply. Basically, the engine was rebuilt after blowing at ~90k by the original owner (whom I purchased said GXL from), and the engine blew at 162k for me. I'm pretty damn sure that he used the old housings, too, so I'm not going to be very suprised when I pull it open. I've got the UIM off now (haven't had much time to actually get it out, tomorrows project), rat's nest, and the PS pump (no more AC).

Anyway, in the way of plans, I'm going megasquirt EMS running closed loop WB o2, custom intake manifold with either 2 seperate throttle bodies or one slide valve, and full bridgeport on all 6 ports, TII exhaust sleeves, and bigger injectors. I'm going to ceramic coat the oil pump to increase flow a hair and put in bigger E-shaft oil jets, clean up the coolant passages, Hurley corner seals, side seals, and racing apex seals, and a thermal pellet relacement piece.

I'm also going to build a stock 6 port engine when I get it to pass emissions with.

maybe.

Wish me luck!

 

Well, here's the scoop, and it really is ****.

first getting engine out of car

LIM off engine


front rotor and housings were excellent

The rear, however, looked something like this:






Now, before everyone laughs at me saying I dropped a bolt in the intake, a. I'm the most meticulace person I know about accounting for parts when the intake is ever open and b. the imprint isn't a bolt, but rather a broken off stud, being that it has no real "head", but rather a round smooth top, as well as the start of the other sides thread imprinted slightly. Needless to say I'm down 1 rotor and 1 rotor housing. Hell, the primary port is even dented where the stud entered. I'm just at a loss of where the damn thing came from, especially since it was ~2 weeks since I did any work where the intake was open (installing blockoff plates), and all 3 studs came out nice and were accounted for, all bolts were used. It really does feel like getting kicked in the nuts though when you see this when you open it up and can't help but feeling like it's your fault somehow, even though you know you did everything humanly possible to prevent anything from happening.

 

damn...that's pretty nasty...

well...do you have any JB weld anywhere?

 

honsetly, i make more mistakes when i take my time than when i don't. ever play golf? every time you try to hit a perfect shot it winds up off the course completely...

also consider it wasn't a stud but a broken bolt then somehow screwed itself into the manifold and dropped in leaving a "visibly intact" screw from the outside though that is a longshot.

 

Yeah, I was going to say...
It looks like a bolt or something got in there!

Side note: 1,000 post?
Damn rookies...

Sorry to hear for your loss.
Get that thing rebuilt and running again!


-Ted

 

Okay, now for a good question: is there a difference in side seal width between the N/A and the TII rotors? I'm looking at hurley's site and it says they're 2 piece side seals are only for 13b EGI, TII's and FD's. I'm just trying to make sure that I'm not throwing money at a sensless cause. Also, who has the best deal going for rebuild rubber seal and gasket kits (not including apex/side seals)?

Also, on a side note, upon taking off the oil control rings, I realized one on the front rotor was cut, looking like it was done during assembally, and the side seals were never surfaced by the looks of them. Honestly, I'm quite disappointed at whoever did this last rebuild.

 

That's exactly how my buddy's FD blew...

 

Well, due to the fact that in the last couple of days I've begun measuring out all the hard parts, and only the intermediate housing, front rotor housing, eccentric shaft, and front cover are really reusable in their current state. The front rotor looks as if the tips may have even impacted the housing at one point. This may be leading to a change in direction. $2500 for a front clip of a JDM FC sounds pretty good from where I'm sitting now. I hate to do that, but I think in the long term this may be the best choice, giving me a chance to build up the 6-port as a really damn nice race engine with the TII being the emissions engine.

Discuss my potential situation and talke me into/out of it.

 

Well, change of direction! Some dumbass kids I know were off roading an s5 '91 coupe and abandoned it after breaking the suspension, so they said to take what I wanted. After some minor tests (compression, etc.) this may prove to be my replacement engine! If nothing else, this is at least some free parts for my engine rebuild being that I have hardly any reusable parts.

 

luck maybe on your side after all

 

What?!? Did you do us all a favor and shoot them?

 

^ Nope, just kicked in the nuts. I get a parts car out of the deal, after all.

 

Okay, just to be safe, can I reuse this rotor housing? I only ask because there seems to be alot of chatter marks on the housing itself. There is minimal flaking, though, but alot of wear on the chrome near the intake port area.

 

not bad....and, god damn for that apex seal!! that really sucks *****, anyway its good that your rotary inclined....

 

yeah man that blows... my 7 was dead before I bought it... Like all n00bs I didn't know till it was too late... anyways... here is what happened to mine.

But now the new rebuild is just waiting for rest of oil pan assembly and install this spring. until then I rebuild everything else I can teardown and replace/rebuild. W00t

 

Well, unfortunatley, that's the "good" housing. What happened is a small stud broke off in the intake and trashed the rear rotor of the engine. I have a second engine with a blown coolant seal, and I just got my atkins rotor rebuild kit and o-ring kit and planned to tear it apart and make a porting template (basic street port, nothing fancy) last saturday, but failed to account for the foot of snow we got friday night. That really sucked *****.