Aloha-
This might be a stupid question but, what are "seals" in regards to the rotary motor? Are they hard to change and can you obtain them in different applications like a clutch (ex: stage I= street, stage II= street/strip, stage III=autocross/strip...etc.,)? any feedback will be greatly appreciated.

Mahalo

 

Howz it!
Seals are the rotary piston rings..

 

Seals is on the tip of the triangle, of couse its use to *Seal* the combusion chamber like the rings in a piston engine ^^^^ like he said.

and yes it could be change, but that means you have to take your engine apart completely. There was a topic by RotaryGod about Seals, Search

 

Unless you go turbo, the seals are ABSOLUTELY no concern on an RX-8.

They seal well, they do it for the entire life of the engine, and they are incredibly hard to change anyway, (as stated above).

The only "fact" many people know about a rotary, is that they have "apex seals", so that is what they will spout when they want to sound authoritative.
Real rotor-heads rarely talk about them, (other than for forced induction) but every salesman and/or Honda owner will blurt out something about apex seals in their first sentence = sure sign of a noob.

S

 

masukarealm, There are more seals on a rotor than you can shake a stick at; not sure which ones you mean

In addition to the apex and 2 corner seals which are located at all 3 apexes of the rotor, there are a number of seals on the side of the rotor. The side seal, which follows the edge, and 3 concentric seals about the center. Add in all the springs and you got a whole bushel of pieces

 

Funny, my dealer started talking about apex seals when he was scolding me for having an aftermarket intake on there (and leaving the vfad controller, which he thought was the air temp sensor disconnected). That's about when I chose to leave.