So i just got done upgrading my clutch/flywheel to hold the newly tuned power by Steve Kan finally...I get all my fluids changed and get the car over to my house and everything is great, the clutch is holding and its smooth...

A week leter i take the car out as it was kind of cold i let her warm up for like 5mins... take her out and let her rip, but notice a hesitation in the 4500 range which makes the car well...hesitate for like a half a sec, then move up the RPM range again...everything is fine...I go on the highway and its all good, go on this side road before my friends house and let her rip in 1'st 2'nd and 3'rd gear...dont notice the hesitation as much...slow down, roll into my friennds neighbourhood and shift in neutral....the car starts vibrating and sounding retarded, like its missing a rotor... with idle still ok, but vacuum at -10 to -11, notrmally i see higher like -15 to -18...

I shut her off and let her be for 5mins...

Come back and try to start her up again...and its not wanting to start...i try and give her the gas and eventually i get her started with the same low vacuum and retarded sound...

A week later i start taking **** apart and get a piston compression tester...plug her up and get like ~100psi compression bouncing nice and steady on the front rotor, rear rotor is like ~40psi nice and bouncy...So i guess the motor did not like the new power of the higher boost...and blew the rear seals...DAMN IT>>>

So now i am contemplating as i just paid tuition and have little funds at what caused the rear rotor to go out...I will try and do the rebuild myself...got the Atkins DVD and it seems pretty straight forward and the rebuild kit will be like $1300 plus the streetport is $300 and i am contemplating on going with 3mm seals istead of the stock 2mm, are they less prone to detonation and are they really worth it :-/ Plus some $$$ on a good rotor housing and a good rotor...as mine might be Effed internally, and i dont even want to know what damage is done to the turbine wheel in the single turbo...

Why me??? So depressing...

 

damn! well good news ray has rotor housings on sale now good luck. im finishing mine up now and the experience was really good, ended up costing around 2.5k

 

Sorry to hear man...I would get the Ground zero LIM on your next build to even out the airflow to both rotors...

 

How were you tuned if you had a slipping clutch?

 

the motor didn't blow up because of the amount of power it was making.

fattening the apex seals by a milimeter won't change the fact that your engine is detonating.

nah don't be depressed. just do a little more research before you go blow a bunch of money.



dude don't you know!?!? it wasn't because it wasn't tuned for more load with the grabbing clutch, IT BLEW UP BECAUSE IT'S A ROTARY!

 

Personally I think rebuilding it yourself is probably the wrong way to go about it.......

 

Thanks for the quick responces everyone...

Well the tune was done on DynoPack with somewhat not so good turbo which compressor wheel nut came off during tuning...HKS go figure...well after i got 344rwhp and OEM Exedy clutch was only 15k old held just fine on the dyno load...its when i had it under full boost 15.5psi on the highway in 4th and 5th gear that it starts to slip as soon as i am full throttle and full boost...

I know Steve Kan's tune is not indestructable, but i happen to finish in time for his tuning session and he was pretty recommended guy to have tune my car...(the tuning on my car was cut short due to the nut coming off and all, but i managed to get some red stuff and apply on the nut to have it hold...

As far as my choices i decided with the Rotary Aviation 2mm super seal and race springs with the master gasket kit!!!

Rebuilding the motor myself...Should not be that difficult!!! I am pretty good with mechanical work, do everything myself and fixed/rebuilt a I-4 eclipse motor for my friend...looking at the video its not that difficult...the motor i have now was rebuild done by Ray at PFSupercars and now has about 20-25k miles on it it was a stock rebuild, which makes me wonder why the motor blew??? I just dont want to have the motor blow again...once i do rebuild it...you know...

I will have Ray do the street porting on the motor...and tune the car again once im done, but spending 4k for someone else to rebuld the motor i just dont have that kind of money...at most i can scoop up 2k in the next 2 weeks along with what i have left!!!

 

You are assuming everything besides the seals are resusable. 90% of the time an apex seal goes, so does the housing and possibly damage to the rotor.

Take your time until you have enough money to do it right.

 

I sense some rude surprises in store for you unfortunately......

Edit: I realize you figure you'll need a rotor and a housing, but I know every motor job I've done typically the car needed so much more. ie coolant hoses, wp, tstat, wiring harness, bearings, etc etc. Depending on how many miles are on your components, the parts price can add up fast.

 

gordy, maybe i didn't make the sarcasm blatant enough in my post?

 

Try to identify what caused the detonation or you may just be throwing money at your NEXT detonating motor. If you're wiring harnesses are old you may have low voltage to your injectors or a broken wire somewhere that's causing a phantom glitch. Replacing your harnesses can make a world of difference.

 

I would agree gmonsen, I have my remod motor on my car since august of 96, beat it up and it's still clicking. The origianl motor blow because I ran into metal or birck that pop my a.c condensor and radiator and did not realize it and next thing I saw smoke just coolant seal was shot.

 

I originally budgeted my build for around 3k and that was including basically free help from a local rotary club member as far as labor goes. I knew better, so I doubled it to 6k. Good thing, I'm at 5k now (not including the new clutch which was almost 600 iirc) and I still need to spend atleast another 300-400 for coolant hoses and misc. clamps and whatnots here and there, and that also doesn't include the tranny being worked on.

Do it right, do it once. And even that isn't a 100% for sure bet that it won't blow up at 5k miles.

 

and for ***** sake don't "let her rip" with a 5 minute warmup -your oil temp was probably nil.

 

This is turning into a pretty good thread

 

Not to mention that with colder temps comes denser intake air resulting in a leaner mixture = KABLAMMO if you were tuned near the limit during the summer months in NoVA...and I know it's been pretty darn cold here!
Regards,
Crispy

 

Max Spd's definitely not batting .1000!

 

Well, he might be batting .100 (1 for 10), but he's not batting 1.000 (10 for 10). I don't know many FD owners who *are* batting a thousand tho

 

haha woops! i guess that means i'm the one batting .100!

 

All this batting has me confused...

In any case...I know what everyone is saying...But I have almost everything replaced with silicone and or new rubber...the one thing i did not replace was the wiring harness, as it does feel brittle...and is something to consider...

My concern as stated abobe is to try and figure out what caused the rear to blow!!! So that i dont blow it again...

I mean how many things can blow either an apex seal or coolant seal...as the common concent...right?

PS
My oil temps were in the 160+ my coolant was 140+ at the time i started driving the car...it was 180+ oil and coolant at the time of the first small clutch test...me thinks the cold air temps and tuning in warm weather blew the rear...NO?!?!?!?!

 

Personally, I'd tune down the boost. So it was tuned to 15.5psi in warmer ambient temps? That's kinda aggressive if you don't have the money to handle a blown seal.

I run 10psi when I can't afford a new motor.

 

Is that celsius or fahrenheit? Those temps are too cold for Farenheit and way way way too hot for celsius.

Your coolant should be between 176-212 Fahrenheit or 80-100 Celsius.

 

Fahrenheit

I was in the clear when i stomped on her...Idle was fine at the light...

I was running 10psi for a while, since the clutch was slipping, i had Steve tune low and high boost 10psi and 15.5psi...

 

THANK YOU..... I tell people this all the time. And though I'll be the first to tell you I make

mistakes all the time, threads like this just aggravate me because of the ignorance and

then the ????what happened???? It IS a balancing act.... You have to have the proper

engine, suspension, fuel, ignition, drive line, ems, foot work, instrumentation, cooling

etc. ALL WORK TOGETHER. This does NOT always mean just throw money at it and it will

work right..... (("well I bought the best turbo on the market, what happened"? "It was

tuned by the 'best' tuner in the world, what happened"? "I have the most expensive EMS

on the market so why did my engine blow....Screw it I'm going V8")). It's a machine,

treat it right and it WILL do right by you! Engines "blow" for a reason. NOT because "it's a

rotary" but because something or someone screwed up. That's it.... You have to

address all aspects and "read" your machine.





P.S. Please remember that we are dealing with 79cu. in. engine and asking it to make x2,

x3, x4 and x5 the oem power output. This is NOT as easy as boost+fuel+insert "tuner"

here= 150,000 mile MAD-TYTE-JDM-y0 Ferrari eater.

-J

 

God himself tuned my car 3 weeks ago when i had a boost leak, a slipping clutch, and a flat tire. My car blew up last night during a top speed run.

Why did this happen?