Hey rotor techies, I have a problem. I put a header on my N/A fc and the front rotor now has no compression. It ran perfectly before I did the header installation. It is a Racing Beat header and presilencer.

The rear rotor has 90ish compression on all three and the front started out with 0 on all, now it is up to 30. I soaked it in motor oil and then this stuff called Zemax which soaks into metal and carbon deposits. I can easily turn the motor over by hand with the front pulley, feel compresion force of the rotors (mostly just the back rotor). Still running only on the back rotor however.

I am going to try soaking it in some "Seafoam" from Napa and also some Marvel Mystery Oil tonight. I think my apex seals are carbon locked because it was very hard to turn the engine after bolting up the header. It was also very damp the night I did the job, so perhaps the moisture in the air entered the exhaust port and corroded the engine internals a little, enough to make the seals get sticky.

So can anyone offer another suggestion for freeing up the seals? Squirting a few drops of water into the intake while the engine is running on the back rotor? Techron? Power foam?

I would really like to just do a full rebuild but I don't have a garage, shop, or $700 for the seal / bearing / gasket kit.

Thanks to anyone who can offer a suggestion

 

ATF it ... or you can use some gear oil

 

Thanks . . got some I will put in right now.


I tried Marvel Mystery Oil last night, just put it in and turned it over by hand. Compression on the front is now 10-10-70. I just need to isolate the bad seal and position it at the bottom of the housing, then soak it in ATF . . .

Wish me luck!

 

Can't really do it accurately by hand. Have to crank the starter. ( someone always corrects me if I'm wrong though) You didn't drop any nuts or bolts in the exhaust port and tear up an apex seal did you?

 

I won't rule out that possibility, but the front showed 90psi in the good two seals last night after it soaked in MMO for a day. A 90 compression reading couldn't happen with a scored up housing due to a bolt getting dropped into the exhaust port.

I did turn the starter over to find the good pair of seals with their corresponding compression spike, then turned two more rotor puffs to arrive at having the bad seal at the bottom of the housing. Then I soaked it with ATF. When I squirt the ATF into the spark hole, it slowly seeps out the exhaust port so I know that the apex seal is definately stuck in the "up" position of its range, or it is broken. If it were broken, I would not have 90psi on the good pair. My rear rotor shows 3x90psi, too, so I surmise the housing is in the same shape as the back.

Thanks for the ideas!

 

push start the car.... the load will start the car.... rev it up to 3,500 , hold it there for 5 minutes.... that should do it!

 

What! Are you sure?

It did not respond to ATF, other than making the two good seals in the rotor give 90psi like the back rotor.

I guess I could try starting it (it does start very well on the back rotor with a few turns) and rev it to 3500 and holding it there. I am about to rebuild the motor so I can't lose anything by trying that.

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

Update:

I just started it up (after a lengthy un-flooding procedure) and drove it for a while, smoked like crazy for the first ten minutes. No luck with the front rotor, the back runs great. It is amazing how much pep the car actually has with only half the motor working. It is almost like my 88 Acura for acceleration!

I think I either have a damaged apex seal, damaged housing, or just really really frozen joint where the seal sits in the rotor.

Now I get to do that streetport and full rebuild after all. Its okay though. The car owns me and I'll do whatever it wants me to