Hi!
From what i see from old posts, the RA super seals eats housings like a cookiemonster on speed.... But, now a few years has gone by, has anyone come up with a magic fix to this problem? More premix? OMP + premix? Special jungle prairs, rotary voodoo?

Any thoughts?

thanks in advance for answers

 

Switch to the Goopy Seals.

 

^^Sorry Elliot, you're gonna have to do better than that

 

I think using premix and fresh housings would be the best way to avoid problems with housing wear. I couldn't comment about the super seals specifically, though.

 

Even with premix the RA seals have a tendency on leaving marks on the rotor housings.

 

I've used RA super seals for years. Many different apps, never a problem.

 

LOL

RA seals do work, I have engine that has been running them for somewhere around 9 years on a single turbo...

The last engine I took apart that I built with RA seals didn't have any housing issues. It was only 2000miles mainly at WOT( 19psi on pump gas/water injection 1 oz premix). I think I still even have those seals somewhere laying around.. Radiator hose blew off @ wot...

Back in 2001 or whenever those seals were released is when I saw the housing score issue( happened in 200 miles!)

 

nm

 

these are my housings after a set of RA super seals. these had around 750 miles, running OMP and a small amount of premix. car was tuned by Steve Kan to run at 12psi, on pump gas. afr's were in the 11.1 range at WOT. this was on both housings. one one of the rotors a seal broke, and the other two were curved bad. i have switched to ALS.

 

You broke a RA super seal?

 

Yup. Broke it right at the point where corner part goes in. The other two were curved.

 

I tried 50:1 premix (quart with fill up) and the OMP and the RA super seals still wore the rotor housings down quickly with lots of grooving.

I tried 3mm and 2mm RA Super Seals. Yes, I also broke and warped them.

I am using 3mm stock Mazda seals now with OMP and 100:1 premix when I remember. No perceptible housing wear so far.

 

seems hit or miss with the RA seals. that's still too high of odds for me to use them or recommend them.

perhaps they work better with some series housings which is why some people simply haven't seen issues with them. curious those who have had them gouge housings, what series housings were they?

 

with my minimal experience, I used super seals the thing knocked more then 4 time very loud on the dyno and they survived and still manage to put down power.

after 6 month of abuse one of the apex seal flatten the springs and got stuck in the groove. anyway when i disassembled the engine i was expecting housing grooves etc etc.... but to my surprise the looked like new!

so for me the super seals are just fine.

right now I'm using goopy and still in my break in period we will see how these hold up to 20psi

 

The above picture are FD housings.

 

Any input on the standard RA "Classic" seals?

 

I also experienced the classics, but they were 3mm early series with the stamped numbers to match the corner seal. They warped.

My housings were brand new FD housings on the 3mm classics (grooved) and used S5 housings on 3mm and 2mm super seals (grooved and also worn greatly).

 

i think that the early ones were ok..a kid i work with has had blacks in his t2 for many years with no problems but any recent ones that we've used had problems,from what i herd was that adam at rx7specialties made them for them when they came out and the switched to someone else and went down hill from there..we no longer use them and use adams seals with no problems at all,a friend of mine has a datsun running them @700hp with no issues...

 

I have RA Super Seals Black in my 20B. Kilo Racing rebuilt the engine about 7,000 miles ago. No issues at all and the car makes crazy vacuum at idle (normally around 18.5 but saw over 20 in the cold this weekend).

These are the only seals Kilo uses and he's warranted the engine against having housing wear. Said he'd fix the engine for free if there is a problem.

 

In my experience, the 3mm RA superseals eat housings in less than 10k miles. Seen it with 3 seperate engines back in the day all that started with great condition housings. By 8-10k miles each struggled to hot start. Upon tear down each had extreme grooves all the way around the rotor housings, much worse than was pictured abouve. Keep in mind, all 3 engines were in cars that were making 450-500rwhp, and the seals took the abuse back before the days of WI. This was back in the 2005ish era.

The 2mm Super Seals I have built several engines with before discovering the seals I now use. They are a great seal, seem to get around 12-15k miles out of a set before compression starts to suffer. By 20k miles the housings are usually beaten pretty bad.

My last FD about 2 years ago I ran the Super Seals because ALS seals were back ordered and I had limited time to work on my car. Put about 7k miles on that engine before tear down. The striations were starting to make them selves noticeable but werent extreme. More wear than I would ever like to see but not as bad as the picture above. Hot starts were ok but werent stellar by any means.

They have/had a place. They have helped a lot of engines stay together while making big power. For someone who plans to drive their car more than 5k miles a year I say forget about it, unless you just enjoy rebuilding engines.

 

I have a hole in my rotor and I am running used S4 housings on my NA rally car that has RA classics, it takes quite the abuse made 105psi with used parts, after 2 years im down to 97psi on both rotors.

I like to order their wet seal kit and RA classics (they come with apex seal springs) great quality great price IMHO.

 

being that the seals are used for aviation purposes foremost, i just don't get it. their seals seem to be the least reliable.

i've only built one engine with their seals and i have no idea where it went as it was sold by the customer when he decided to go with a 20B instead.

 

105 psi with a hole in the rotor??

 

i don't think he's quite all there. unless he somehow gets away with running the car doubling as a mosquito fogger. a hole in the rotor allows crank oil directly into the engine, i've seen engines run with a hole in the rotor and the smoke clouds were neverending and it would eat through all the crankcase oil in less than an hour.

 

I had the regular RA, and they gouge the S5 JSPEC housings in less than 10K miles.

CRAP, not what I wanted to hear