So this is my 3500mile tear down. Had an issue a week ago and just got it apart today. About what I expected except the small area in the side housing. My guess is it ran way too rich or lean causing a break that went unnoticed. I was getting my car ready for a drag event and after swaping gate springs and ading a line lock I went out to test it all. Forgot to add the race map back in. Oops! This map has never scene over 1.3bars and I was around 1.65 that night. HAd bad break up then I realized that I swaped maps the day before for a ride to work.. So all ran well after that night so I headed on down to the drag event. First pass, bad 60 foot (1.8) but the car pulled very strong thru the 1/8th mile right when I shifted to 4th it had the same break up I expereinced the day before. No power so I coasted the rest. checked logs, all looked well except the afr's was a tad rich, high 10's (10.7-10.8) I pulled some fuel up top and went again with the same problems. Crazy thing is after it did that it idled, started and pulled perfect thru 3rd. Anyway I made one last try and this time it had the break up in 2nd and neverf quit. Here are some pics for ya...... Give me any thoughts. Thanks, Mike

 

What apex seals are those?

 

How much of a closing bevel do you have on the exhaust port?

Edit: saw in the pics

 

Mike is that detination that damaged the rotor and seal, it looks like it to me but im no expert. Kinda looks like when a piston gets eat up on the edges!

 

atkins.

 

Well I am no expert either..lol by far... I am not quite sure just yet what caused it. I have one thought but not 100% sure. My logs look really fine from the strip. But as I posted above the night before I was not logging info when it first started to have issues. I was just thinking it was the street map timing and base map. I have no idea what afr's it pulled but I was atleast on 114 gas so there was a little room. Looks like I will need atleast one housing, rotor and maybe back plate ( Not sure if lapping will pull the very small blem out). So much for a quick rebuild.

This may sound silly but but at first I was thinking the rotor was worn smooth because the housing was very worn around but realize it would be hard to have that happen..LOL So what is the differance between the 2 below? One has the lines/unsmooth and the other is smooth?

 

The slightly damaged rotor is a candidate for 3mm machining. I recommend upgrading to 3mm for this car. Yep it appears there's a slight nick on that rotor housing. I'd elect against using it.

B

 

Brian do you have an idea what took out the seal like this?

 

from looking at a lot of different rotors, both new and used, its like mazda has 2 different machines, one makes a rotor with all the grooves and the other makes the nice looking smooth ones.

since they have started doing the side clearancing with the new rotors, i dont know if you'll get one with lines anymore, used to be about a 50/50shot

 

Sorry to hear that the motor broke.

Knowing what you want to do, go with one of the un-breakable seals. They've got a sweet set on ebay for $450. Alot of the 7 sec guys are apparently running them.

Here
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/APEX-...spagenameZWDVW

 

The seals look similar to Ernie T when his engine failed recently. What kind of timing you running??


rgds
Brian

 

were are the pics of ernies? I would like to see them.. Timing is 18 and 12 on race gas.

I will look at those seals you mentioned Viking...

 

Both housings have scares. Even thu the front had no seal issues. ?? Looks like I need to housings.

 

Your apex seal looks identical to mine. I also had regular atkins seals. I was running a lot of boost though and never really pinged. My fuel pressure dropped at the top of the track and it went lean. My motor was hurt prior though and I knew it. I had a cracked iron letting water into the oil. I won't be using them again. Mine took out my turbo too. The black super seals will warp instead of chipping or breaking. Much easier on the motor this way. You may want to consider those as a cheaper option. I switched to the NRS one piece ceramics. But with those you HAVE to run richer.

 

talked with the shop that sells the ALS seals last night. I think I am leaning that way unless I can find a bad thing on them soon. Viking was right, many have swaped to these and seems no one has had issues yet but you know there is always a down side.. LOL...

Oh, my... this may end up being a long project as I want to switch
EVERYTHING!!!!

 

13B-RX3 is running those seals, and he's shooting for 2,200 hp.

 

so who can I send plates to for dowel pining?
I was suggested to use Alex Lopez?

 

Ray does mine.

 

Hands down best in the country....By far

-J

 

What makes him the "best"? Cause you say so?

 

 

Mike, unless I'm seeing things, these are mismatched rotors unless Mazda manufactures one with a different shape combustion area. If you still have everything apart on your old engine, compare these to your original ones. I wonder if this had anything to do with your engine failure.

 

wow, I did not even notice that either... I am scraping the other rotor either way as its got too much damage.

 

anyone know if one is a lower compresion rotor? I have not scene enough to be able to tell.

 

not an expert but every low compression rotor i have worked on are smoth and heavier. the s5,13bre,13brew are lighter and have the groves all around the rotors. you may want to contact rb for more info.