What are the main causes for a water seal to go? (searched, saw blown motor stuff but no causes).

 

OVERHEATING is first and foremost reason a water seal fails, AND the STOCK guage will give you LITTLE or NO warning that you are running hot enough to damage the seals.
The second killer is just plain age and HEAT CYCLES.

 

Heat, warping the housings.

That's why overheating a rotary engine is a very bad thing.

 

Not waiting before the engine is warm before loading it. Easiest way to warp the housings short of blowing a coolant hose. The tension bolts are very long and thin, and are torqued to a very low value, and when the engine is warm the iron and aluminum sandwich expands, putting more tension on the tension bolts. Well when the engine is still cold, the tension bolts are still "loose". Wouldn't want to load the engine down then. Also the thermal shock causes things to expand unevenly, leading to eventual warping.

In short, stay out of boost until the engine is fully warmed up!

 

I ask because I saw the list of blown engines and causes. It was an interesting read & then I got a call from my friend yesterday who thinks his engine is blown and is showing the signs that it is. I linearize my temp gauge tonight. But Im overly worried to even race the car anymore its also got me scared to run at one of the high speed touring event this spring. -----------------------
So as long as I dont overheat the engine then the waterseals will remain intact? My new radiator is functioning great and I never rev past 3500 on cold engine. So after the gauge linearization, I shouldnt be overly scared of blowing it as long as I keep an eye on the temps?

 

IMO, the FD is NOT the car to have if you are scared to break anything.

I've seen people who have done everything right and still blew a seal or had the coolant seals go. Then I've seen people do everything wrong and never had a problem.

Just drive the car the way you like and do your best at the normal maintenance items. That's the best you can do.

 

Well I new what I got into when I purchased it. But I see alot of you RoadRace, AutoX alot and I wanted to make sure I knew everything to look for on the car, for when the season starts back up. thanks for the info.

 

Check your hoses often. If you blow a hose, the rapid temp change when coolant pressure is lost can be enough to warp housings, even if you shut the engine off right away.

A side note - lots of people are putting 13Bs and 20Bs in aircraft. (Much more reliable and less expensive than aircraft engines) A couple of them have had coolant system failure while up in the air. They just kept flying with no coolant and brought the planes to a safe landing. Granted, the engines wouldn't start again after they'd cooled off, but it shows you just how much abuse a rotary can take... a piston engine would have siezed long earlier.

 

dont have such little faith in your rotaries. I believe that if you mod ANY car it can break, this is something you always gotta have in mind when you mod.