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Ceramic Apex Seals

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Old 02-18-06 | 04:55 PM
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Ceramic Apex Seals

is anyone on here running them? i'm rebuilding a motor to SCCA IT specifications and was looking to do it right. problem is, the car is going to be driven very often on the street. almost to the point of daily. i'm planning to use carbon seals at the moment but i'm worried about the cold start issue. ceramic seem to be the answer but at 2k, seem a little unreasonable. any thoughts from the peanut gallery? anyone know where to pick up some ceramics for less?
Old 02-18-06 | 05:20 PM
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Ceramic and chrome are not a good tribological situation, I think.
Old 02-19-06 | 07:10 PM
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then why are ceramic seals considered the top seal by many people, especially in na motors?
Old 02-19-06 | 08:28 PM
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what's wrong with stock 2-piece?
Old 02-19-06 | 08:35 PM
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i would reccomend carbon seals if you are going to drive the car on the street. what kind of rotors are you running? have you checked the GCR? im more familiar with the rules on EP and Pro7 cars, but i know the rules can be touchy.
Old 02-25-06 | 02:35 AM
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Carbon seals tend not to seal up very well at low rpm. Since your driving
on the street to. I would go with stock seals. Ceramic are nice if you have
a couple grand just for the seals.
Old 02-25-06 | 03:43 AM
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so what are the benefits of ceramic over carbon over steel?
Old 02-25-06 | 11:57 AM
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Heat resistance/boiling point and hardness
Old 02-25-06 | 05:19 PM
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Ceramic seals are much lighter than steel/iron, and you can use very stiff springs since they are low friction. The result is good sealing at low and high RPMs (no float), no chatter, they wear very slowly, and perhaps a little extra power from the low friction.

-Max
Old 02-25-06 | 05:21 PM
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Originally Posted by maxcooper
Ceramic seals are much lighter than steel/iron, and you can use very stiff springs since they are low friction. The result is good sealing at low and high RPMs (no float), no chatter, they wear very slowly, and perhaps a little extra power from the low friction.

-Max
so whats the downside, aside from costing $2-3k, are they more suceptable to blowing under detonation, a poor choice for a street car?
Old 02-25-06 | 05:52 PM
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i wouldn't touch carbon with a 10 foot pole.
Old 02-25-06 | 06:57 PM
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The downside is the price, that is the only downside. Carbon is not super streetable, but the original rotarys were carbon seals, and they ran pretty damn well for daily driving. Carbon wears out extremely fast however, 20-30k on a race motor would be very good. NOW, there is good news, JHB makes ceramic seals for a much more affordable price, in the $1,300 range for seals and springs, one-piece 2mm. Contact SHM21284 for odering.
Old 03-05-06 | 01:30 PM
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Originally Posted by 93VRTouring
so whats the downside, aside from costing $2-3k, are they more suceptable to blowing under detonation, a poor choice for a street car?
Actually you can detonate all day on ceramic seals. They will eventually go
like any other seal. The down fall when they blow is ceramic is very hard,
and the pieces will usually take out everything. Rotor, Housing, turbine, ext...
There well worth the money, but not everyone can afford to use them.
Old 03-05-06 | 03:55 PM
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but even if you found a nuke-proof apex seal, you just break side and corner seals and flatten out springs... good tuning is everything, no matter what you use.
Old 03-12-06 | 03:32 PM
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hi i have a 85 rx-7 and im adding a t-26 turbo, im not good at this but i have 2 bow off valve where can i get the vacum line from for the valve
Old 03-13-06 | 11:21 AM
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talk about a random question!!

get the vacuum line at any auto parts store, ebay, hightempsilicone.com, any turbo shop, hardware store, mom's kitchen, etc etc etc

vote 4 pedro
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