Well I am in awe...Maybe for some of you this is nothing new, but I have never seen or heard about this anywhere, so I thought I would share this with you guys. I might even get some info as if this is regular stuff or not.

So I put in a JDM engine in a 1993. Start the car, starts right up (after letting the oil pressure build up by cranking 30 some seconds of course) all is fine, nothing leaks, oil pressure is fine. So I let it idle for a while to be sure everything is fine and dandy and also to recharge the battery that was weak. After 15 minutes of constant and solid idle, nothing is leaking, good oil pressure and car is not heating up. So all is good. I turn off the car, put the hood back on and its off to the gas station to gas it up. I fill it up and go for the test drive, after more or less 1.5km I step on it about 75% just to see if both turbos kick in and the PPPPPFffffffff....and the car runs on 1 rotor...Just like that. No sound what so ever. Usually it makes a sound, kind of like one metal popcorn that pops.
So I barely get back home on 1 rotor while leaving a huge trail of smoke and I check the compression. Rear rotor, 0PSI on all faces, and I mean 0. Even by putting my finger in the spark plug hole I could barely feel a draft. Usually, you get atleast something, a small puff out of 3....So obviously, my reaction is Wtf?!

Next day, I take out the engine. And this is what I find first. Oil Everywhere, and I mean everywhere! In the coolant, in the intake, intercooler, throttle body....name it. And I mean oil, not a thin coat, a river of oil in the TB. I have seen oil in the intake system before because engines blew, but never this much. Look at the pics.
When I took out the oil, only 5/8 of what I put it came out...that means that in 1.5km, 3/8 of the oil got into the engine everywhere...Wtf? again.

follow on next post

 

Then I take out the engine and tare it down and I go for the rear rotor and look at what I find. Of course, lots of oil, and, it looks like wolverine took care of the rotor on all 3 sides...Thats not the surprising part, I have seen similar before, not that bad though. The gashes in the rotors are about 3 mm deep atleast. What surprised me is on the next post.

 

waiting for next post

 

Sorry for the crappy pictures, I will try to get better ones for you guys. Look at the last picture. The freakin rotor warped...1 apex seal went kaplow and the 2 other ones became one with the rotor, nicely sanded down so it really looks like its a one piece thing... The side seals move only on the left side of the corner seal and not on the right side...If you look closely, or can make it out (thanks to my crappy camera) on the last picture, you can see that the 2 sides of the rotor arent even even. I try to remove the apex seals from the other 2 corners but they wont move, even with a hammer and a screw driver...Like I said, they became one with the rotor... And like I said, when it popped, I heard absolutely nothing, just like if I just stopped getting spark or fuel in one rotor. Has anyone ever seen or heard about this?

If so, please, I am all ears!...well, eyes.

Thanks.

PS: Sorry, going to try to get better pics with same crappy camera.

SPec.

 

Damn. That rotor has a helluva lot of carbon on it. Never have been a fan of JDM engines......

 

Your camera is a POS j/k... yikes!

 

Its the operator usually, not the camera. All of the pictures that he has posted of stuff up close; the background is clear but the point of focus is blurred. He is too close to the object with a lens setting that's for far away.

There might be a "MACRO" setting on your camera. Its usually a setting that goes from an image of a mountain or something regular to an image of a flower. If you have that on the camera, switch it to the flower and take the picture.

Other than that, I have no idea what may have cuased your motor to go =(

 

SON!!!... That's just wrong... I'm assuming there's no warranty on that thing huh? Sorry to hear that...

 

It sometimes seems that all used JDM engines have an advertized ~35km on them but really have three times that amount and have been sitting in a junkyard in a salt water dock for a few years before shipment to the US.

While you are figuring out how to focus your camera you might think about deleting your overly long sig too.

 

Why did it dentonate at 75% throttle? Other than it's JDM engine, any speculation? What was the situation with the previous motor?

 

I have a JDM engine mine works fine, well for now. Of course there was alot of work done to rebuild and clean the bad boy.

O man Rich, my car got broken into yesterday night. . NJ is truly the anus of AMERICA!

 

It blows my mind people still choose to got that route considering the other choices on the market. Damage doesnt look to be to far out of ordinary for a blown seal, looks like a large part of the seal broke off instead of the typical weak corner of the long apex seal. It is difficult for a large piece of seal to exit the exhaust and thus this damage occurs.

Wait to you guys start looking into the Renesis and what happens when it blows, this damage is very minor in comparison

 

Havs anyone ever seen a warped rotor though?

SPec.

 

oooo i bet, since it has side exhaust ports the apex seal probably bounces around in there for a while, i bet that is not fun.

 

I havent seen it due what you are describing, it is hard to get a real grasp with the picture quality.

Sounds like the rotor was crashing into the housing. This typically happens in higher hp cars. It is common for the side seals to become one with the rotor when a bearing fail, but I havent personally seen it happen to and apex seal. I have had some that wouldnt come out due to the damage caused by other broken seals. I still dont understand your oil issue really? Was the car not smoking an insane amount?

 

wow...sorry about your luck...u should get some sort of award for shortest lived engine

 

Yes, it was smoking like crazy. And I thought about the rotor colliding with the housing but the bearing is in perfect shape...I really dont understand what happened for it to get that way. Still waiting for more input if anyone has any...

SPec.

 

HA! Good one.

Spec.

 

At the very least you should have opened the engine up to inspect and at least cleaned out all the carbon deposits b4 the install. Carbon flakes can easily destroy the old brittle 3 piece apex seals when they break loose from the rotor face. Also getting the injectors cleaned and flow tested eliminates any boubts about injector flow.

 

Its not my decision. Customer has a budget.

Spec.

 

Uh oh... One thing you should know to do is avoid them at all costs. Some things just CAN'T be overlooked.