what apex seals do you use? Poll
 

I searched and didn't see anything like this so I'm making it now. Here is the deal. Me and a budy of mine (he is Puerto Rican and from miami) are going to rebuild my engine and he has a big hookup in florida with all his other Puerto Rican friends and family that all do the same thing. He actually knows jesus pedilla or whatever his name is (sorry I don't fallow rotary drag racing all that much). Anyways we have been talking about this for a while and I told him I wanted to go with rotary aviation apex seals and he said ok but first let me call my people in florida to see what they think about them because they are all running in like the 9 second braket. Well he calls me today and says that they tried the rotary aviation seals out and found that they where not near as good or reliable as atkins or the factory seals. Now this kind of struck me as odd as everyone on this site always says nothing but good things about the seals. I checked the atkins site and their seals aren't too much more expensive then the RA seals so if they are a better seal I would preffer to go that route. Anyways what do you guys think? THanks for any input!

oh shit!! here we go again!!

Mazda

Oh yeah and if you could give a reason why you like the one you voted for that would be great! Thanks for the reply jhammons01

If I give a reason do I get to vote again??

I heard some bad things on this forum that scared me away.

I have read good and bad things about most of the seals.. but Mazda seems to get the least amount of crap when it comes to bad things. Thinking about it the factory seals seem to do the job just fine.. I just wish they were a little cheaper. ;)

Well thats what I was thinking to elfking

RA seals are 182
Atkins seals 239
Mazda seals 381.78

I'm thinking you get what you pay for so I would guess that mazda has the best R&D team and the most money for that so Mazda would be the way to go but I would sure like to be able to shave some money of this rebuild.

what did you hear? I wanna hear the bad with the good on any one of these seals so I can make a good informed descision. Thanks.

What kind of engine are you building?

Rotary Aviation had some issues with outsourced milling a year or so ago that led to seals warping under high temperature applications (turbos, specifically - NAs didn't get hot enough to have trouble). They fixed the problem, offered a free replacement program for people with the bad seals, and have apparently been doing fine since. They work fine for me, but I'm just a lowly NA that does mostly highway driving, so it's not like I'm making them work very hard.

-=Russ=-

i got Ra because i herd there almost unbreakable, and the price....

I know a couple friends who are using the RA seals in their Turbo II's and they are happy with it... pushing quite a bit of power... I just have seen pictures of RA seals destroying housings if a mistake happens and the seal decides to give out. Being stronger they stand a better chance of screwing up the housings when they let go.

I have heard good things about akins seals seating down quicker (Ie higher compression numbers on fewer miles) but I have also heard stories of them letting go pre-maturely for one reason or another. Its so hard to decide if it was the seals fault or the person driving the car. (example: One guy ran 87 oct (CA GAS) and 15psi on akins seals and blew it out....I blame the user in that case... )

The only time I have heard of Mazda seals giving out have been either after 100k miles +lots of boost on a rebuild or someone making the mistake of advancing the timing for 'power' thinking he knew what he was doing. I have 125k on my Turbo II, and my GTU had 170k on stock seals. Previous owner blew a coolant seal and drove it around too long. It lost compression in one rotor when I had it but when I took it apart it was the seals were rusted into the rotors from the coolant leak + sitting since 03 not running. (Just swapped in a new/used S5 motor with 40-50k mazda reman miles on it) I couldn't pass up the deal.

If I had the extra cash, I would go with Mazda seals... if I was a bit tight, I would go with akins... but I dont like the idea of the RA seals.... and definately not their corners springs.. there were thread and threads on problems with those and not being heat treated...

I don't know.. thats just my personal thoughts..

I have always used Mazda seals without any problems. However I'm going to use the RA seals in my new motor. The only thing that I have heard is that turbo guys using the RA seals need to use stock Mazda springs. The RA springs aren't made for the stress of a forced induction motor.

Zach

I have used them all, prefer Atkins at this time.

hum....interesting. So right now I'm leaning towards the atkins seals but if anyone has horror stories etc... let me know! THanks again for the replies!

edit: damn now I'm seeing all the people voting for mazda seals.................such a dilema. I may just bight the bullet and since I want reliability go with the mazda seals.

Currently running Hurley Engineering, so far so good in an EProd FC.

damn I totally forgot about hurley, how are they? I gotta check the prices of those seals.

If ya buy through Mazdaspeed the 2mm seals are only $215/set. ;)

oh you are the man!!!! I"m going with mazda, it's done and set. Thanks again man! any links?

do you have to be a member of a car club to be able to sign up for parts at mazda speed?

You have to join the site... meaning you have to be building a race car or have a race car you are buying parts for one you have(I think autox and 1/4 mile runs are acceptable)... and be a member of a club like the scca or another(they have a long list of clubs that you can choose from)...

Yes, AutoX times are acceptable, as long as they're posted on a SCCA website, so you can't "fake" the times. For the 1/4 mile runs, you have to include a picture of your car on the line, since most of the time 1/4 mile times don't list a VIN or plate # or anything like that, they're just a recipt style report.

damn well what if your not a memeber of any car club? and I've never drag raced or any other type raced this car because it's simply not done. hum....... Can someone buy them for me and I'll give you an extra 20 bucks for your efforts :)

On the Hurleys, we have only run about 6 weekends on them, compression is great. The engine has been passed 10k rpm many times and oil temp got to 280 F once before we perfected the oil cooling system. (two stock coolers in parallel now, up from a heat exchange system before) The car is winning races so we're happy so far.

What I learned that if I raced or autoX or Time trial in my car 2 times I could qualify for Mazdacomp and get 40% off the price of parts. something to ponder.

well how can you race if it has to have a rebuild?? :) anyone else with any apex seal input?

How much boost are you running now, Honda Dude?

I want Mazda OEM, but they're expensive, so I use RA instead :)

Also remember if you get RA seals, don't use the springs if you're using nitrous or running higher than stock boost, and I know you are so yah just a warning.

My next engine build I'm using RA seals with OEM springs.