I had an apex seal stick on an 80 RX 7 with 180000 miles, so I pulled the engine apart. By normal standards its not really rebuildable since the chrome on the rotary housing is scored off on both housings about 1/2 inch wide and 3-4 inches long. The scoring seems to line up with the small end pieces of the seals. I was wondering if I could get away with replacing only the one bad seal, and reversing all of them so the small piece wouldn't line up with the preexisting damge. Would it work to reverse the seal that way?

I'm really trying to do this cheap, but I don't want to be stupid.

Thanks

 

the factory service manual says that the apex seal has to be oriented one way. You cannot reverse it.

 

You can reverse them. They'll be harder to install though.

 

Let me re-word that: You can reverse the seals, but you should not.