Can a header leak cause rotary damage?
 

Ok so I'll try this once again, the last thread I put up didn't get much help though I managed to solve the problem on my own this one, I need some input on this one beyond my own experience.

The title says it all, whereas you can burn valves and the like on piston engines, what, if any damage can a header leak cause on a rotary? Will it burn the apex seals? If so, any idea approx. how long this would take? I bought a car with a newly rebuilt engine but it has a rather substantial header leak right at the port to the header will it burn the exhaust port exit? I will be repairing it soon, have no idea how long it was driven this way, only the break in mileage so far I'm guessing about 1000 miles if it was from the beginning? No way to tell for certain. Just want to gauge how urgently I should attend to it, if driving it at all is going to be detrimental to it?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

BTW sorry if this has been covered previously, searched without joy so here I am.

I don't see how this could burn apex seals (or valves), but it's probably not great for the flange mating surface. There is no port overlap on the renesis so you don't need to worry about reversion. Do get it fixed, but to my knowledge it's fine to drive on especially under break-in conditions.

Ok thanks for your reply, so I'll be fixing it shortly, but in heads with valves it does burn the seats or even clean through the valve as the cold air and oxygen pulled into the leak upon up shifting or down shifting causes a high temp circumstance against the hot valves and exhaust that cracks and burns the valve.

Have had it happen before, of course that is under competition RPM's which create more vacuum back flow in through the leak, the closer to the exhaust port the worse chance it will burn the valves. This leak is right up against the manifold at the exhaust gasket.

Since rotaries produce so much heat in that area already I'm still not certain that some damage is not potentially caused but there is ceramic inserts in these exhaust ports so maybe that is the main difference? But additionally the ports are so short I'm forced to wonder if the additional O2 sucked back into the leak (again under off throttle conditions after high RPM's where it occurs) can have an effect cumulative or other on the apex seals or other? As well it can also throw off the O2 sensor readings which can alter your fuel mixture causing more fuel to be delivered and not only adversely effect mileage but additionally throwing more fuel on the fire so to speak.