Renesis side seal discussion
#176
Registered
Originally Posted by cortc
There is nothing wrong with the Renesis and the side seals; I can't believe this thread is still alive...
#177
Originally Posted by loco4rx8
For those of us who simply don't understand the implications of all this very interesting but confusing technical talk, can someone please tell us what this all boils down to?
It sounds like it basically will result in eventually having lower than normal compression. How long will it take for this to happen? Will we even notice it? Will it cause the engine to quit working prematurely? Can I still expect to get 150,000-200,000 miles out of this engine? How does this affect owners in a real world, practical sense?
Thanks to all for your help and for the interesting discussion.
It sounds like it basically will result in eventually having lower than normal compression. How long will it take for this to happen? Will we even notice it? Will it cause the engine to quit working prematurely? Can I still expect to get 150,000-200,000 miles out of this engine? How does this affect owners in a real world, practical sense?
Thanks to all for your help and for the interesting discussion.
For thoose who think there is no problem, I, rotarygod and Mr port and polish have all ported motors, and know the implications of opening the port earilier, and what modifications must be done to the port to prevent this from happening, modifications that are not present on the renn plate.
Here is a website, which is about a completly differnt subject, but it shows the leading edge of the side seal scribed on the housing, you can see how the renn secondary ports would intersect this line.
http://www.mazdatrix.com/sccaportrule.htm
#179
rotarygod: You are very wrong, I have not seen one but I have seen a few RX8 rotary housings (5 as of last count, all with 10k+ and two with 25k+ miles...) and I did not have to see the one at sevenstock to know there is no problem with it...
#180
Registered
Originally Posted by cortc
rotarygod: You are very wrong, I have not seen one but I have seen a few RX8 rotary housings (5 as of last count, all with 10k+ and two with 25k+ miles...) and I did not have to see the one at sevenstock to know there is no problem with it...
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Last edited by rotarygod; 09-15-2004 at 05:41 PM.
#181
Administrator
this photo from ajax while blurry and over exposed
actually does show the area we are talking about rather well. you can see the notch in the upper left of the port which is leaving the seal unsupported for a moment plus the extra shiny spot is the nick that was caused by the impact of the side seal. i cropped it so it will fit.
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#182
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Let's just go along with cortc's statement that there is no issue with the side seals. This would mean that there is an issue with something else in this part of the engine. That leaves us with either the ends of the apex seals (doubtful) or with the corner seals. Mazdatrix has stated that the Renesis corner seals will absolutely eat up a 13B side housing. If it were a corner seal though, it would have done damage everywhere else.
The damage that was done to the Racing Beat housing may actually be small enough that it can be lapped off. They don't know yet since they haven't tried.
cortc brings up some good info never the less. If he has seen about 7 or so Renesis engines taken apart and none of them had any side seal impact damage, that supports the theory that this is not an issue with everyone's stock engines. Remember that Racing Beat said that the problems from side seal impacts they saw were from engines using forced induction. I still don't know why it would matter. I am curious as to the engines cortc has seen. Who do you work for that you have seen these taken apart? If these engines only had 10K to 25K miles on them and were still good, why were they disassembled so you could see the insides?
BTW: When you said, " I did not have to see the one at sevenstock to know there is no problem with it..." you stuck your foot in your mouth. There was a problem with it. We even have pictures! Racing Beat themselves admitted there was a problem with it and that's the second motor they've seen like that. Everyone there saw it. Who does that make wrong?
The damage that was done to the Racing Beat housing may actually be small enough that it can be lapped off. They don't know yet since they haven't tried.
cortc brings up some good info never the less. If he has seen about 7 or so Renesis engines taken apart and none of them had any side seal impact damage, that supports the theory that this is not an issue with everyone's stock engines. Remember that Racing Beat said that the problems from side seal impacts they saw were from engines using forced induction. I still don't know why it would matter. I am curious as to the engines cortc has seen. Who do you work for that you have seen these taken apart? If these engines only had 10K to 25K miles on them and were still good, why were they disassembled so you could see the insides?
BTW: When you said, " I did not have to see the one at sevenstock to know there is no problem with it..." you stuck your foot in your mouth. There was a problem with it. We even have pictures! Racing Beat themselves admitted there was a problem with it and that's the second motor they've seen like that. Everyone there saw it. Who does that make wrong?
#183
Originally Posted by cortc
rotarygod: You are very wrong, I have not seen one but I have seen a few RX8 rotary housings (5 as of last count, all with 10k+ and two with 25k+ miles...) and I did not have to see the one at sevenstock to know there is no problem with it...
Not to mention were not talking about rotor housings,...
#184
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THe only reasons I could see for you seeing the insides of 5 different engines would be if you worked as a mechanic for mazda, which if you are seeing that many would mean that there is some reliability issue, or you work for a performance R&D place or race engine shop and would have seen some of the issues we are taking about, so where exactly have you seen 5 renesis engines opened up?
#185
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I thought that the dealers were just pulling and shipping the engines untouched to Japan and replacing them when any major issue occurs (that would requires cracking them open).... or is that just rumor?
#186
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Originally Posted by 86rx7
Also i dont buy into this beaing a problem only on forced induction motors,.. it should show up regardless as its a seal support issue,.. not a seal expansion issue.
Like I said, FI may only make it appear or be apparent prematurely.
#188
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This has been bothering me for some time now - how do we know that the damage that was witnessed at seven stock was not a by-product of the failure? Isn't it possible that the side seal damage occurred after something else failed? Or is there evidence suggesting that the side seal damage was the cause, not the effect of the blown engines?
Oops, just read RG's post. Obviously, we do know that the failure wasn't caused by the side seals. So, this suggests to me that we really don't know for sure if there is a side seal problem, even under boost. Or am I missing something?
Oops, just read RG's post. Obviously, we do know that the failure wasn't caused by the side seals. So, this suggests to me that we really don't know for sure if there is a side seal problem, even under boost. Or am I missing something?
Last edited by GeorgeH; 09-15-2004 at 07:17 PM.
#189
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Originally Posted by rotarygod
FWIW the Racing Beat engine did not die from a broken side seal. It broke an apex seal under boost.
Well, that makes us all feel much better now!
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#190
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Originally Posted by Rob Tomlin
Well, that makes us all feel much better now!
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I wonder how often do all of us get sick... :D :D
#191
Administrator
one point i would like to make is i never heard anyone at racing beat say "we have not seen this on NA engines". i wonder if they have actually looked at any NA engines for this. they may have only opened the FI engines because they broke and they wanted to know why. maybe they just havent cracked open the NA ones yet. i might email jim langer and and ask him.
#192
I'm curious as how companies like GReddy, SFR, and SSR have managed to get their turbo kits out without regarding this situation. I wonder if they know about this shortcoming.
In the coming days, or weeks, depending on my school schedule (I'm behind), I'm planning on coming up with a probable analytical solution.
In the coming days, or weeks, depending on my school schedule (I'm behind), I'm planning on coming up with a probable analytical solution.
#194
Damn. The gears in my head were already turning. ![Frown](https://www.rx8club.com/images/smilies/frown.gif)
Mazda should've done this in the first place.
Well, since the RENESIS is still under experimental phase, as all engines are, of course there are going to be problems associated with creating more power. Luckily, Mr. P&P was nice enough to reveal what is going on. This thread has been a learning experience for myself, who has been into rotary engines since I was 16.
How does one fill in the notch to better support the side seal? What is the best material for this operation?
![Frown](https://www.rx8club.com/images/smilies/frown.gif)
Mazda should've done this in the first place.
Well, since the RENESIS is still under experimental phase, as all engines are, of course there are going to be problems associated with creating more power. Luckily, Mr. P&P was nice enough to reveal what is going on. This thread has been a learning experience for myself, who has been into rotary engines since I was 16.
How does one fill in the notch to better support the side seal? What is the best material for this operation?
Last edited by shelleys_man_06; 09-15-2004 at 08:36 PM.
#195
You wouldnt be able to fill it in reliably, the better option is to contour and polish that area.
Once again, this will not cause an engine falure only a loss of compression which will result in slightly less power. I still dont buy into the FI having anything to do with this.
It would be interesting if someone with say 30k+ miles got a compression check done, and then someone with less then 2k miles (as few as possible) had one done either both on a mazda compressiion checker, or both with the same piston compression checker. That would put this to rest.
Once again, this will not cause an engine falure only a loss of compression which will result in slightly less power. I still dont buy into the FI having anything to do with this.
It would be interesting if someone with say 30k+ miles got a compression check done, and then someone with less then 2k miles (as few as possible) had one done either both on a mazda compressiion checker, or both with the same piston compression checker. That would put this to rest.
#196
Administrator
right contouring and polishing the area would help reduce and hopefully eliminate the impact and damage to the side seals. i would think there is some way to fill the little notch to add support. since its an intake port and not exhaust there might be some material that you could use that wouldnt have a problem with the relatively low heat in that are and would stay put.
#197
Ah. Machining the notch will get things back in order, sort of. I thought of the compression drop while driving to school. Is it enough to cause significant power loss? My guess is since it's on the order of the one-thousandths, it may not affect the engine as much as we say it could. I may be wrong. As for the broken apex seal, that was expected to happen. You can't get everything right the first time. 86rx7, didn't you mention the apex seals were harder than previous ones in the RENESIS?
#198
Registered
Originally Posted by zoom44
one point i would like to make is i never heard anyone at racing beat say "we have not seen this on NA engines".
The Renesis apex seals are stronger (supposedly) than the older seals. They are also shorter in height.
I am with 86 on the fact that it shouldn't make a difference whether or not the engine is under boost when it comes to side seal issues. I don't see why it would be or how it could be. Again this is just what came out of the mouth of a RB employee.
#199
Ok, well looks like some will see what they want and others will raise questions where none exist; part of the human condition I guess...
Not all engines that fail go back to Japan, only a few and just in the early build cycle. This is a mass produced engine and so far the failure rate has been well within the expected numbers. All of the manufactures including Porsche take back a few of the early problem engines it's actually part of the confirmation process... The Renesis is a very reliable engine compared to other high performance engines...
Rest assured what you have seen here is an isolated issue…
Gentlemen enjoy your search, will be un-subscribing to this one...
Not all engines that fail go back to Japan, only a few and just in the early build cycle. This is a mass produced engine and so far the failure rate has been well within the expected numbers. All of the manufactures including Porsche take back a few of the early problem engines it's actually part of the confirmation process... The Renesis is a very reliable engine compared to other high performance engines...
Rest assured what you have seen here is an isolated issue…
Gentlemen enjoy your search, will be un-subscribing to this one...
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