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