Ed Anderson wrote:

Thanks, George
 Appreciate the information on the seal grove.  Perhaps we'll just skinny down one  of Tracy's seals as on their web site they are reported 800% stronger than stock, then just stick them in the RX-8 rotor slot.  I mean even if milling the seals to fit reduces there strength to 200% of stock that should still be fine.  Must discuss with Tracy when he returns from Sun & Fun
 Ed

I'm going completely off the top of my head here, and stand a good chance of being wrong, thereby, BUT...

The seals (as they cross the exhaust opening) become a cantilevered beam, with a fulcrum or support point at the edge of the exhaust opening. Doesn't a beams bending strength increase as the 4th power of the distance between the sides?  I do know that if you split a beam in half, you'll have much less than half the strength.

The other issue would be that stronger doesn't necessarily equate to stiffer.

-- This is by far the hardest lesson about freedom. It goes against
instinct, and morality, to just sit back and watch people make
mistakes. We want to help them, which means control them and their
decisions, but in doing so we actually hurt them (and ourselves)."

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