My motor is apart for a rebuild, my mechanic says I may possibly need new housings, because the ones I got have these really really really small horizontal ripples (can not see only feel them). Ive been told by a friend and mechanic as well that their from detonation and completely normal, so should I just get new seals (which I have to get regardless, and let them wear into these tiny tiny ripples? I mean these things are very very slight and small.

 

On this extra housing i have it is also like that. But I see them but not feel them so its the other way around. Dont know what causes them though.

 

Pics?

 

Its at my mechanic. No real use of pics, since you cant see them. I'll try to take pics regardless.

 

Chatter.

 

the devil's nail

 

Thats what it sounds like to me. Is your OMP not working properly?

 

Wouldnt the motor have blown? The car run for about a year perfectly fine.

 

I wouldn't chance it - buy new ones, and sell the old ones if it turns out they can be saved. That way you really don't lose out.

 

its likely chatter. the housings are junk, its not going to seal very well because the apex seals are going to be bouncing off of the housing surface

 

Did you ever over-rev the motor?

 

Not necessarily! Some lubrication is better than non. But I'm not an expert on stuff like this either.

 

Possible? But is it possible to over-rev it? I think the highest by chance is 9k when I made a mistake downshift. I still have the stock ECU.

 

Yes, the idea is that as the rotor rotates, the apex seals move in and out of their slots a little bit. Rev it fast enough, or have seal springs that aren't firm enough, and the apex seal won't keep up with the housing - chatter.

So another possibility is the motor sat for a period of time, and the apex seals took a little set. Probably on the first startup, the apexs chattered a bit but it eventually loosened up.

Dave

 

That's almost certainly chatter. It isn't desireable, but it is fairly common. They are near the exhaust port, right? If the undulations are relatively minor, you can reuse the housings. New housings would be best, of course, but some minor chatter marks doesn't mean the housings are completely trashed.

-Max

 

Update: Well I got them back, and realized that the chatter was not the only reason they were shot. The corner seals ate away a nice chunk of the edge of the housings and the water leak cause a lack of lubrication and scracthed up one of the housings pretty bad, the other one is fairly ok.

 

I was just talking to the owner of Pineapple about my rebuild, and he had said that this rippling is the result of a rebuilt engine that had been overheated. I think the deformation exists, and then after the housings are lapped and have more and more heat cycles put in them, the deformations return.

 

Observation: I think the original post in this thread is about rotor housings, but it sounds like we are drifting toward a discussion about side and intermediate housings.

-Max