Rotary Engine Failure Discussion Discussion Of causes, diagnosis and prevention of engine failures

Half bridge apex seal failure, only 500kms

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Old 05-23-2007 | 01:30 AM
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R.P.M.'s Avatar
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From: Kitchener Ont Canada
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So I had a customer bring me his motor he just installed in his car.



I ported and built the motor a while back and just recently he got it running. He's using a Haltech to control everything.

He ran the car for about 500kms while he messed around with the tuning to get things right.



Heres a quick vid of it running:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ozpit8NtGE



So he was driving it down the road real nicely and then BAM, it looses power and started to idle real funny.

He checked compression and the front rotor read about 75psi and the rear around 90psi.



We tore apart the motor tonight to find that a small piece of apex seal in the front rotor broke off right at the corner seal, just a little triangle piece missing. It damaged the rotor and scored the housing as well.



The apex seals were from Atkins.



What do you guys think? He told me he babied the car, never beat on it, the tune was conserative. Could it be just the apex seal? Detenation?
Old 06-05-2007 | 01:37 AM
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BDC
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From: Grand Prairie, TX
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Originally Posted by R.P.M.' post='872754' date='May 22 2007, 09:30 PM

So I had a customer bring me his motor he just installed in his car.



I ported and built the motor a while back and just recently he got it running. He's using a Haltech to control everything.

He ran the car for about 500kms while he messed around with the tuning to get things right.



Heres a quick vid of it running:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ozpit8NtGE



So he was driving it down the road real nicely and then BAM, it looses power and started to idle real funny.

He checked compression and the front rotor read about 75psi and the rear around 90psi.



We tore apart the motor tonight to find that a small piece of apex seal in the front rotor broke off right at the corner seal, just a little triangle piece missing. It damaged the rotor and scored the housing as well.



The apex seals were from Atkins.



What do you guys think? He told me he babied the car, never beat on it, the tune was conserative. Could it be just the apex seal? Detenation?


A corner of the seal broke? A piece maybe the size of a pinky fingernail?



Does the seal have any discolouration?



It's a heat-related failure. He was driving it hard.



B
Old 06-05-2007 | 03:31 AM
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I sent all the seals from the motor back to Atkins to see what Dan thinks of them.
Old 06-05-2007 | 10:28 PM
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R.P.M.'s Avatar
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Dan agrees, driving too hard and detination.
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