So I was driving to work the other day and cruising and had a few stutters then lost power. Got the car to start again but would only run if I was fluctuating the throttle. If I held steady anywhere it would die. Got the car towed home, charged the battery and it started like nothing was wrong. A couple days later started it and moved it with no problems. Since then I can't get it to run without the same revving of the engine, any static throttle and it will die. Took a compression test and it looks really good, except for one chamber on the rear housing. Front rotor looks the same except all the are good. Seems like a bad apex seal would reduce two cycles wouldn't it?

 

Is the oil diluted with fuel? Would have to assume broken side seal. Do the intake ports support the end of the seal or are they slap style?

 

I will check the oil tomorrow. Ports are stock.

 

I am curious if anyone has any idea with a result of 0, would this likely be stuck side seal, flattened spring or broken side seal. Also, I've never lost a side seal before. How does damage of side seal compare to apex seal? Can the side seal actually work its way out like the apex seal can?

 

Never seen that result before, but 0 compression on only 1 chamber would have to be a side seal. An apex or corner seal failure would show low/no compression on at least 2 chambers. Unfortunately the only way to find out what happened will be to open up the keg and inspect it. With any luck, perhaps the seal is jammed in the low/squashed spring position, and didn't cause any damage to the plates/housings/rotor when it failed.

 

Yep, side seal issue. Impossible to know exactly what until you open the motor up, but that's the only way you can have zero compression on just one face.

No amount of trickery, chemicals, or good wishes will fix it. You will have to open the motor up. With any luck you have everything else in the motor happy so you just need to fix whatever is up with that side seal.

Dale

 

Opened up the rear housing and I can't find any problem. Quite a bit of carbon on the rotor, but all the springs are in tact and move freely. No visible damage on rotor, housing or seals. Not sure what to check at this point.

 

I'm thinking maybe a seal was stuck and came loose sitting. Wondering if I should open up the entire engine at this point. Don't really want to pull the front cover, but wondering if I should just check everything since the motor is out.

 

might as well. its a lot of work, but if you know everything is right there is some peace of mind there (along with some reliability)

 

Once you start un-stacking the motor you are committed. You can't just fix the rear and put it back together. Pull apart, clean, re-stack. Also the sealant all has to be re-applied - once you open it up the seal is broken.

Dale