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Apex seals
Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 9:09 am
by Draco
Hi guys.....not a 200sx question.....sorry
On a 13B rotery engine, what does the apex seals do-where do they fit?
Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 9:31 am
by Sokar
I can give a quick answer, but if you're asking about something as fundimental as apex seals then rather do a "crash" coarse at how stuff works:
http://www.howstuffworks.com/rotary-engine.htm
It will explain it quite nicely...
Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 11:24 am
by Draco
Thanks....I might buy a RX 7......
Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 11:41 am
by Draco
Ok....I read some....they refer to "at the apex there is a ......"
Me knowing nothing about this....what does this mean....how hard is it to replace this?
Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 12:04 pm
by Enzio
To replace apex seals the rotor has to be removed - in other words: complete rebuild.
That was always one of the main concerns with the older rotary cars that didn't have the better type of apex seals used today. Modern seals are made from better materials and can handle a lot more strain - but are also more expensive.
Some tuned motors need to rebuilt quite often - sometimes every 10k km's
Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 12:07 pm
by Sokar
Draco wrote:Ok....I read some....they refer to "at the apex there is a ......"
Me knowing nothing about this....what does this mean....how hard is it to replace this?
On page 3 they have a cross section of the rotor with the apex seal labelled.
The apex seals are basically piston rings, replacing them means motor out, stripped, new apex seals, side seals, oil seals, water seals, bearings etc etc. Its a full rebuild... I got quoted around R15k should my RX8 kick the apex seal bucket...
The RX7 you looking at, I assume looking at your R25k budget this must be a 1980s "FB" that we had locally? If so it can be a 12A or a 13B motor, cost is the same wither way.
Hope that helps, if you wanna chat to the rotary experts I can give you the number for Stefan at RTT in Boksburg.
Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 12:30 pm
by Riekert
Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 12:55 pm
by Draco
Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 12:56 pm
by Draco
Thanks Sokar
Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 1:20 pm
by Riekert
nah man its just the shape that I was referring to....
Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 1:21 pm
by Draco
OK.....sorry....
Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 4:05 pm
by Riekert
Draco wrote:OK.....sorry....
all good dude!
Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 6:31 pm
by veecee
the FB rx7 is closest to the photographer and has its lights up.
then there are two rx8's.
and the white car furthest away is an FC rx7.
draco - if you are able to get an FC go for it man. those cars are awesome. i reckon FB's are probably great too, i just dont know too much about them!
and the best of them all is the FD, in the foreground of the pic below:
Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 6:37 pm
by veecee
also draco - some pics...
an apex seal as seen through the exhaust port. that particular one is damaged. the apex seals separate the three combustion chambers of a single rotor.
on the pic below you can see the 3 pointy bits of the rotor. those are the apex's of the rotor. the seal for each apex is inserted into that funny round shape at each end (pointy bit).
Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 4:12 am
by Vlade
umm interesting... also been reading up on these rotor things they call motors
interested that oneday, if my SX gets sold, I'll be able to buy a car this side... and yeah FD was one of my cars on the my list of have to have's
but yeah after much reading i decided I would not buy one where the motor have not been rebuilt... the 13B's tend to blow after 100 000km (which is very common here), on TradeMe (the local Ebay) most FD's go for sale shortly before or after 100 000KM, although there are plenty of cases were they have run 2 to 3 times that much before kicking the bucket...