Hey Tim if it is carbon sticking this is something that I did to my 20b when I first got it a couple years ago to free the carbon sticking of the seals. My 20b had zero compression on all 3 rotors when I got it. Now I have very strong puffs when I crank it over. Look for my post half way down. Also he wouldn't have to remove the engine to do this. All he would need to do is remove the turbos and manifold to have access to the exhaust ports. Use a funnel and pore in some fuel injector cleaner or some acetone to break down the carbon. This stuff will break down carbon unlike ATF. 2 cups worth in each housing will be enough to completely submerge the apex and corner seals in the solution. The key is making sure the apex seals are in the 6 o'clock position. Let it soak for 30min and manually rotate the engine over so the other apex seals are submerged. In between soakings, he could grab a plastic knife and wiggle the apex seals while they are exposed in the exhaust port. This will also help loosen things up. After all 6 sides have been done, a small tube and air compressor can be used to blow the solution out. Install the tube in the housing and blow air across the top of it. This will lower the air pressure over the tube and the solution will come flying out. Also make sure he sprays water in the area that the solution is spray too. You don't want to start a fire during start-up.







Well I did leave that wide open. Anyways if your engine is already out then this process is very easy to do. When I got my 20b it had so much carbon buildup that my 1st & last rotors had hardly no compression(once the turbos & manifold were removed, you could see all the carbon inside). After talking to Adam (Rx7 Specialties) he told me they rebuilt the 20b engines because of all the cardon buildup inside. In his past experiances, they tried to install an unopened 20b but, it locked down during startup because of all the carbon buildup. I was like damn! I don't have enough money right now to rebuild my engine. So I started to experiment and I figured out something. With my exhaut ports exposed, I went down to Wal-Mart(it was really late) and bought some fuel system cleaner. Once back, I poured 1/2 cup of the fuel system cleaner down the exhaust port. I then turned the engine over till one of the rotors were facing at the very bottem of the rotor housing. My purpose was to completly submerge the apex & corner seal with the solution hopeing it would break down the carbon. I let it sit for 30 min to 1hr. After that I turned the crank over till the apex seal was showing through the exhaust port. I then grabed a plastic knife and began to wiggle the apex seal. Sure enough it started to move up and down more freely. I repeated the process for all 9 of the apex seals. And you know what, all 9 of my apex seals are free of carbon lock. Lastly with the solution still in the housings. I cut a small piece of that braided steel shit( the thing you use while your scrubing pots & pans) and put it down the housing and began to scrub the rotor faces clean. Once all was clean, I then used gas to rinse the housings out. Now before some of you guys cry BS, I know this works because every time I rotated the crank around, the solution would start to come out of the exhaust port and would not seap back down(and this is when the engine was on its side with the exhaust ports facing up) Therfore, it would appear that my engine has regained much lost compression. When I finaly get it installed I will let you guys know the results of this cheap fix.



Putting a tablespoon of ATF through the leading spark plug hole and cranking it a while may unstick the seals if that's the problem. 



I had an engine vibration along with 'single-rotor' operation and it turned out to be a combination of fuel injector pigtail connectivity at the wiring harness, plus a sticking apex seal. Some ATF later, it's back to 110% (compared to before!). HTH,


After the ATF you should have huge clouds of smoke, enough to encase your whole house for a couple minutes but it should be a "grayish" color



after letting the engine soak over night i now have great pulses all around



I was told to do the same thing to my 88 gtu dont do it.After i did it my car smoke ever morning untill its warmed up.And my car never smoked befor.The atf killed my oil seals




Kozmic... First, drive your car hard for a couple of days. The smoking will stop. Judging from your amount of posts, I'm guessing you didn't give the car enough time. I used a lot of ATF for 48 hours and it took about 3 weeks before the car stopped smoking completely. Once it did, though, it not only performed better, it smoked less than it did prior to the procedure.

Also, how in the world does ATF ruin seals? If ATF ruins seals, then maybe we shouldn't be using it in automatic transmissions! Geez! We better start notifying ALL of the manufacturers around the world!!!

Angelguard... How in the world is using the ATF trick "sloppy?" It's a simple way of cleaning any sort of combusiton chamber. The idea is to PREVENT the need to replace the Apex seals. Replacing the Apex seals in a housing with lots of carbon build-up (without proper cleaning) will still yield low compression.

Before you guys start telling people about your opinions and bad experiences, maybe you should consider that you did something wrong if it didn't work for you. Maybe you have other problems-- kinda like treating a headache with Rogaine.

I believe the concensus is that the ATF trick works miracles. I'm sticking with that.





ATF doesn't compensate for anything. It breaks down the carbon in the engine that prevents perfect sealing. If your drive a RX7 very weakly, with no high revs, it'll build up carbon. The apex seals will stick into the housing, and not come down. Its really common in the automatics. Add some ATF, the carbon is dissolved, and wammo, the seals are again in perfect contact with the housing.
Adding ATF will NOT weaken the apex seals, or make them any more likely to break. Breaking is caused by detonation, and none of the cars on this page are turbocharged. If the springs break, your car will not start, but it will not fuck up your housings.