I was talking to Atkins about apex seals and there seems to be three versions.

1) a one piece solid seal - race only

2) a typical two piece seal

3) a two piece seal with non exposed triangle piece


I understand the race only one... probably hard to set up right and hard to start..

What I am wondering about is this. Does number 3 address the excessive housing wear that you see in the chrome. A lot of the used housings I see have this small groove, the width of the triangle piece at the edge of the chrome. Is there a seal design that prevents this excessive wear?...i.e. longer life better compression?

Has anyone used this seal (#3)?

Sorry, I haven't searched on this particular question...

 

You might find that some people here dislike atkins seals, Ive had no personal experense with them, I have the #2 seals in my engine works like a charm.

as for wear that depends on your boost level and how you drive, my second engine lasted 30k and my father's 1st bone stock lasted 153k, Yes I did just say 153k.


Their was a new mazda seal but I think there were problems with it, not sure if that is what your mean by #3.

 

Ok, let me re-phrase my question.

What seal is best for long life and minimal damage with a turbocharged (i.e. FD) engine? I have searched and searched, and there is no clear answer.

It seems that RA seals are harder, and thus would possibly last longer, provided the seal is good. Lot of damage can result though if something is not right.

The jury is out on Atkins...Would like to hear what people's best opinion is overall. There are always bad experiences with every product.

Is there a builder that someone would recommend sourcing parts from?

 

OEM

 

Mazda has put much more time and money into apex seal R&D and has more resources at their disposal than a small company like atkins, hurley, rotary aviation etc.

For motor internals, I firmly feel that OEM are the way to go. I am making good power on OEM 2 piece 2mm apex seals.

 

there you go! that's a 20,000 posts strong opinion. I would do what they say. It makes sense about Mazda having better R&D and should be considered over small companies.

 

RE-Amemiya uses stock seals in all their builds.

 

3 mm....only way to fly

 

Agreed

 

Agreed, and disagreed, 3mm are great, but nothing is bulletproof, and my OEM 3mm seals have 15k on them and according to Steve K are warped, and I'm loosing compression if I boost over 10 PSI, it went as low as 6" of mercury @ 900 rpm, and has slowly come up back to 9 " ....... again... 3mm OEM, nice.... bulletproof better !!!

 

the atkins 3mm 2-piece seals are the only seals i would use above the stock seals. people can rag on atkins all they want, but their seals are awesome

 

why are they awesome? not busting *****, I am curious about these seals.

 

I think Aviation Seals are the way to go. There Is a lot of guy's that use them around here on 17-20psi never seen one break yet. there was a warping problem, but they had got a bad batch of seals.

 

3mm will break if you detonate, just like the 2mm.

stock is the ****
RA is the **** if you're on a budget
ceramic is the **** if you've got a very large wallet