I just purchased my first rx7 and after reading an article online, ive come to the conclusion that my motor has 2 bad seals on the rear rotor. Now the test I used was the one that involves taking out the lead plug and turning the motor over and listening for the psst sound. Now my question is this: Is there any way that carbon build up can cause a loss of compression? And if I do have to replace the apex seals, are the really hard to get to? I am very experienced with motor building but I dont know anything about rotaries.

 

If one of the apex seals are carbon locked, then I think that would do it. I remember reading about a trick to unlock a stuck seal. It involved dumping a little bit of ATF into the housing, rotating the assembly, injecting more, etc, and letting it sit overnite. The ATF will dissolve carbon. But I also heard that stuff will dissolve your coolant seals.... so maybe search around about that one.

 

yeah I heard about sumthin like that too. But I was also thinkin, hell, the motor is probably already shot anyway lol.