I finally (three years later!) got time to tear into the engine that came in my car when I bought it three years ago. According to the car lot sales man it had a broken connecting rod.... Well I compression checked it at the lot, and there was 0 compression in either housing. Figured it was blown apex seals, and proceeded to buy a 1000 mile rebuild from Rapid Rotors in Kent Washington. All is going well with the heart transplant, still ordering parts here and there and hopefully it will roll under it's own power soon!

Here are the pictures of the rotors, their seals, the housings, and the irons. Other than a TON of carbon buildup on the rotors, I don't see anything out of the ordinary, do any of you? Or if you'd like better pictures, I'll gladly take some with the wife's DSLR and get them uploaded as well.

13B-REW - Album on Imgur

What's the best way to clean all this up? I called a local machine shop to see if they'd be willing to hot tank the irons and rotors and cold tank the housings and it'll probably run me $80 to have it all cleaned by them. Or would I be better off buying a case of brake cleaner and going at them myself?

 

Pics aren't the greatest but it looks like either it detonated and broke a seal, or a chunk of carbon broke off causing the scoring and damage you see.

 

What seal would be broken? It looked to me that all the apex seals were in tact and all the side seals were as well. Now when I push the side seals in, they are very, very slow to bounce back. Any ideas on cleaning all the parts up?

 

If your wife is ok with it, chuck them in the dish washer

 

Look for a missing tip

 

No dishwasher. I'll probably try and get them hot tanked and see how that goes.

Banzai, I'll get the rotors tore down tonight and try and get some higher quality pictures uploaded.

 

Looks like a missing apex seal.

 

And the culprit is....broken apex seals! So this engine is supposed to have 3 piece apex seals.

Rotor #1 seems to be missing the entire top portion of the apex seal. There's no sign of it anywhere
other than the 1/8" piece I pulled out of the turbos when I first got the car.




Rotor #2 has all the pieces for apex seals, but something seems to have went through the spin cycle and hammered one of the seals. It's busted into three pieces and stuck in the rotor.




Are these rotors rebuildable or glorified door stops now?

 

Most likely that rotor is done. You MIGHT be able to re-clearance it but I don't recommend it.