Just a short note regarding my broken apex seal.This was due to fuel quality issue as a result of my own stupidity.The main thing to be learned here is that while the Renesis engine may be somewhat more resistant to detonation than earlier 13BTT and 13BT models,it will still sucumb almost as easily.The failure mode is essentially the same.The first picture shows 2 apex seals from my rear rotor,you can see that a tiny piece broke off where the end piece joins.The piece which broke off then got hammered between the rotor and the rotor housing.Note that the 3rd apex seal is jammed due to the broken piece impacting the rotor.(in picture 2)The third picture shows damage to the rotor housing.
The 'good' part of all this is that the centre housing and the rear housing were undamaged.Amazing considering the engine was turning in excess of 8000rpm when the event occurred.
My engine is rebuilt(by the gang at Mazdees) and back in the car and hopefully I will have it running again on Monday.

 

Ouch ! Can you elaborate on this "fuel quality" issue ?

Good luck w/ the rebuild man

 

WOW! I'm w/ Dro - what are the specifics so I can avoid that!

 

I forgot to add fuel stabiliser to my gas when I stored the car last September.So when I brought the car out with the turbo on 3 weeks ago,the fuel probably had an octane reting close to paraffin!

 

^ouch..glad your engine is back in ..happy motoring

 

what did the rebuild cost you?

 

Wow, sorry to hear about that. Hope you are back on the road soon.

 

There are special circumstances so quoting my costs would not be meaningful.I did have to buy new rotor,new rear rotor housing,3 apex seals,gaskets,oilseal o rings.I work part time at a local Mazda dealer so I get a good price on parts.

 

Welcome to the Dead Renesis Club.

My sympathies.

This really is a glass engine...a high-compression rotary.

I don't think anybody here in California can break 300 WHP unless they run race gas. If you live somewhere with 93+ octane, consider yourself lucky!

 

your trashed rotor would make a fine addition to my collection. muahahhahahahhahaa

sapph-- i'll make more than 300whp on 91 octane with chris's car. i might even tune it on 87 or 89, then just run 91 for safety.

 

I don't think its unreachable anymore, even here in CA. I think PURNRG had 260whp on a mustang. I don't remember the psi he was at, but that is only with a RB exhaust and RP supercat. I'm sure with something like the TurboXS, it would have been a huge difference. I haven't dyno'd yet with my current mods, maybe soon.

 

Detonation can be strange on a rotary. 1 little ping might kill one engine while a dozen hard pings might do nothing to another. You never can tell.

 

How???!!! You've got boost, fuel, & timing to play with...we are getting pings at mid-RPMs with 11.5 AFR, 8 psi, & -13 degrees of timing (2 more degrees & we're up against the knock sensor so there's NO protection).

 

I didn't get pinging until 10psi in the mid range. I wasn't pulling that much timing either.

What do you mean "up against the knock sensor"?

 

The problem is that you can't adjust timing split between leading and trailing. You need to widen it. This has a VERY large effect on knock resistance. If you can find a way, go up to about 20 degrees of split. You might find that you can actually advance the total leading timing this way and still not knock.

The lack of trailing adjustment is my biggest gripe about the eManage (although I don't know if the highest end model can do it or not) and why I like the Interceptor so much. I have no idea if the XCEDE ecu can adjust this or not.

 

i'm not sure what the split capabilities of the interceptor are yet, but i'll find out as soon as that motor is broken in.

what i've found in the older motors is more breakup at higher boost levels with a wider split. coils may or may not be upgraded in the near future. we'll just see how it goes--i'm still a noob at 8's...and i think i've probably done more rebuilds than most real shops

 

Thats pretty crazy. Record it though. I, and im sure alot of others would like to hear it for learning purposes.

 

Hmm, I hear something like snapping glass sometimes.

Its always in the mid range. But I run premium, and it aint hot here, so I doubt it detonation.

Would be nice to hear a sound clip from a renesis.

 

Your engine is running great...for now. If you start noticing a loss of power/roughness just off idle (800-2000 RPM), you might have a cracked apex seal. If you rebuilt the engine before the seal totally gives out, you'll likely save the cost of a new rotor & housing.

This is 'zactly what happened to me, except I wasn't smart enough to get a rebuild until the seal broke and buggered my rotor/housing/etc.

 

^ if you waited until the seal broke to open the engine, then how could you know that you ran with it cracked for a while?

 

Typically a damaged apex seal results in a lousy idle for obvious reasons,that is pressure bleed off across the damaged seal.If 2 apex seals are damaged,then that rotor will hardly run at all(depends on the extent of seal damage).
If a bit of seal comes out on a Renessis motor you see the damage shown earlier.and the rear rotor did not run at all.