Just curious, has anyone used WPC treatments on rotary engine components during a rebuild? It is supposed to dramatically increase the strength of basically any metal part and reduce friction as well. I am not really sure the cost yet, I haven't looked that deeply into it, just wanted to see if anyone tried and could give an opinion. Thanks.

Here is a website, if anyone is wondering what it is:
http://www.wpctreatment.com/about.htm

 

Nobody has done it huh? Must be expensive?

 

Re Amemiya sells apex seal with WPC treatment. check out their website.

Makers 7 Racing also provides WPC treatment service.

 

my bud kevin at rotary resurrection has used cermet coatings on his housings before

 

^ I think it's not a coating. It's a micro sized shot peening process.

ref:
http://www3.jetro.go.jp/ttppoas/genki/fujikihan.html

The company who create this technology
http://www.fujikihan.co.jp/

 

Here is the WPC Treatment web site. It will explain it all. I am doning a rebuild soon and was thinking about this, but not sure about how it will be with a rotoy. I would love to get some feed back if anyone out there knows.

www.wpctreatment.com

 

Wow, didn't realize this thread got ressurected. I'm glad it did, I didn't know about the Amemiya WPC apex seals. It's depressing when I look at the original post date and realize I still have not done my rebuild!!

 

sounds like shot peening

 

it is similar, this supposedly goes more into a microscopic level and is more effective.

 

Oh dang!

 

I have used it. Motor is still running haven't had a chance to look at things. I did all the seals.

 

WPC was used for the SR20DET and RB25DET that were documented in our DVD series. We did notice that the produced helped reduce friction when we rotated the crank by hand.

 

And how long did the treatment last?

 

yeah at the mazdatrix website they have prices listed for this process.. i was thinking about doing it as well. $15 bucks per seal.. housings were $50 each I think or $100 dont remember..

 

Thanks for the input, I am glad to see the treatment getting more attention, from my research it would seem it has to be more than some "snake oil" fix. I think I will definitely use it in some way once I finally piece the engine together. (It has been a long and painful road, hopefully I'll have my baby running again soon)

 

Just found it. Nice comparison pics too. In the pics I can see the need to treat the rotor face to help prevent denting during detonation but, why do the side of the rotor? The rotor itself doesn't contact anything. Seems like a waste to me. I'm also curious as to why they are not doing the rotor housings themselves. This kind of treatment on the housing would seem to be superior since it would allow for better oil retension and reduced wear of the apex seal.


http://www.mazdatrix.com/wpc.htm

 

Micro Shot peening. Wonder how this compares to Cryogenic treating...

Well it doesn't harden, but is supposed to reduce friction.

http://www.metarizer.com/e.html

Anywho, Cool Stuff!

 

So who else has done it? and what are the results?

 

i just read up on it on the mazdatrix site, my advice is:

don't
waste
your
money
.


so they bead blast your parts, whoopie... i've also seen the negative effects from doing this such as excessive break in periods that cause additional carbon buildup in the engine due to the additional oil burning off. and also the workers taking too much material off in some areas and not inspecting or cleaning them thoroughly when finished and shipping them and calling it done anyways.

 

The guys over here say it was "the rage" for a short time then once people started opening their engines up they saw that treatment did not last that long. From the results guys got out here they said it was not worth the money. Although this was a couple years ago so if prices are cheaper it may not be too bad but again it seems like hype to me. I tried the cryo treatment before and it wasn't anything to rant and rave about either.

 

of course it is hype.

all you have to do is take 30 seconds to think about what the "treatment" is doing, it is taking material off slightly and folding over what is left into a pattern of "dunes" to peak out to retain "oil in the valleys". what really happens is they do this to the rotor apex seal grooves and apex seals, the seals don't really retain much oil in their slot anyways while running unless you run your premix oil at extremely rich levels to overlubricate. for most typical street driven cars people do not over-premix so the seals run a bit dry normally, especially in OMP only fitted systems. so what i envision happens is the "treatment" wears off quite rapidly leaving you with even more wear than you normally would have in both the apex seal and the rotor seal slot... is that what people really want? i didn't think so.

the other part is, doing this the shop has to be meticulous because using any media blasting on a rotor, it is VERY difficult to clean media out of the oil veins in the rotors, anything left in there can destroy bearings. also if they blast the whole rotor including the oil seal grooves this can prematurely wear out the oil seal o-rings because they need a smooth machined surface, not a ribbed for her pleasure chafing wear surface cutting the living **** out of the rubber seals.

so, well, as i said above, i would save your money. this isn't some proven technique but it may work for race teams who don't expect to get 100k miles out of their engine and run 100:1 premix ratios with synthetic 2 stroke oils.

 

Joke use cryo treatments

 

Why don't you buy some Z-max too. It soaks right into the pores in the metal!