Tried to send the below message with 4 photos and
it was rejected as 307K which exceeded the lists 300K limit. So here it is
again with two photos with this e mail and two photos to follow with
the next e mail.
Ed
Well, folks the Mystery of my apex seal failure may
never be solved completely. But, I can now eliminate the spark plugs as
well as the plastic plenum. The end of the spark plug clears the
combustion chamber even with the washer removed - and no pieces of the porcelain
appear to missing from the plugs.
So just don't know what caused the initial seal
failure, but the sequence of events after that is fairly evident.
Photos 3 piece Apex shows what remained of one apex
seal from rotor #1, clearly a rather large chuck is missing and could not be
found. But evidence of its passage through the combustion chamber was
left behind. The other two pieces of the broken apex were still in
their slot.
Photo Apex Departing Slot clearly shows where
the missing piece of the apex seal bent over the straight edge of its slot when
it departed. Apparently when it left the clearance was getting less and the
departing edge was apparently caught between the lip of the slot and the rotor
housing forming a flatten corner.
Photo Apex Scrapes shows that the ejected apex seal
piece probably made it around the chamber a couple of times, one
impression looks to be smaller than the width of the ejected piece - so perhaps
it broke up further in its round.
Photo Apex Slot Peened shows that the 2nd apex seal
of #1 rotor that would not move up and down - clear why, now. The
departing piece peened over the slot and froze the seal in its slot. I had
to pry the opposite end of the seal up to the position you see.
Overall rotor #1 is shot, although I guess one
could have the slot milled out to 3mm but I'm not inclined to do
so.
Surprisingly, I could find no damage to either the
side housing or the rotor housing. The rotor housings were used (came with
the core) and looks the same as when I put them on in 2001. The side
housings are new and minimal wear - could not even catch the tip of a
dentist took pick on any of the marks.
So what was the initial cause of the apex seal
to fail - no evidence I could find. No indication of FOD other than the
broken apex seal imprints in the rotor. Could have been some thing that
just failed the seal and did no other damage before departing. Before this
intake I had a SS screen mesh placed over the Mazda throttle body I had been
using. Had not yet mounted one to the new Mustang TB as it was not as easy
to do. Don't know if that would have made a difference.
I am still puzzled why it took so long if it were a
foreign object to cause the damage. Just one of those things I'll likely
never know.
Now the question is what to do next. Someone
suggested the 10:1 rotors of the new Rensis as cheaper and higher compression -
I like both of those features {:>). I'll need to check with Bruce T and
see if there is any merit to that idea.
Surprisingly little carbon on the rotors and most
was soft not hard baked - may have been caused a bit by the gobs of fuel I was
forcing through the chambers with no good combustion taking place. But,
certainly no where near as bad as a car engine.
That's it for now.
Best Regards
Ed