I own a 39 FD and I'm showing sighns of a shot motor. I'm still not sure it is an apex seal blown. I get erratic vaccume readings, one day 10inhg and 16inhg another day. I do get alot of smoke on start-up. I want to know if ther condition my engine is showing could be due to worn side seals, oil seals and corner seals. I would have thought it would be the apex seals but it has alot of power on the top end and will only idle right if the A/C is on. (Due to the increase in idle control) My compression readings are not the same every time I take a reading. I'm looking for opinions on where I should start or a general direction. I'm not looking forward to doing a rebuild but I feel it is time.

 

Check the regional forums for a local rotary specialist or maybe a helping hand from a local knowledgable FD owner.

Smoke doesn't necessarily mean your engine is blown. Could be many different things that cause smoke. What color is the smoke and how long has it been smoking? List your mileage and mods.

The erratic vacuum readings are odd. I would suspect some kind of vacuum leak more than a blown motor.

 

Actually, we are it for rebuilding in this area. I'm just wondering about the condition in general. I have not heard or seen this type of behavior before.

I was confused by the readings, they go from one extreem to another:

front - 85/90/90 to 90/70/85
This is the range of the readings and the other rotor is reading close to the same thing.

The smoke, I believe, is from the oil control rings because it will smoke durring start-up for about 5 minutes. After it is warmed up, no smoke. I'm also going through a quart every 800 miles.

I have went through all the vaccume hoses and replaced ALL of the hoses with Viton (may be spelled wrong) hoses which are not cheap! I do have turbo issues and a boost leak but they are not part of the problem I'm trying to deal with.

I'm just going to order a basic rebuild kit for the engine and just do it. I still want to know if anyone here has seen this before and figured out the cause.

Oh, I have 72,000 and no mods.

 

Bump!