what is it?
  >
  > http://tinyurl.com/w5mcp
  >
  > jofarr, soddy tn
  >
  > Not a rotary part.
  > --
  > Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.

  > It's a special tool that inserts in the starter location to rotate
  > the engine backwards when the rotary gets carbon locked.
  >
  > Bob Mears
  > Supermarine Spitfire
  >
  >
  > Thanks Bob.
  > How many people on here have experienced carbon lock?
  > I never have in over a million miles with seven different
  > engines.
  >
  > Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.


Is a carbon locked engine worth anything? What needs to be replaced?

I don't have one, just curious. I am looking at wrecked/"junk" RX7s
and might need to know in the future.

Doc Custer
Retired software engineer and sometime Audiologist
Building RV9-A. Fuselage

The vast majority engines you find in junk yards are not carbon
locked but merely rusted internally and locked. Best to buy one
in a car that is running.

Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.

++++++++++++++++

I never ran into an engine that needed this tool.
Well .... ya know how the Manufacturers run a racket forcing dealer /
franchisees to buy tool sets ?
Maybe this was just thrown in to up the dollar value of the tool set ?

Bruce Toski


It didn't happen very often. As a matter of fact, we only saw it 3 times in
30 years. But we still had to buy the tool. It only happened with the
automatics, usually little girls puttering around town for three or four
years, buying the cheapest gas she could find. Then one morning she goes to
start the RX7 and the motor is seized.

All that happened was a big chunk of
carbon fell off the rotor and lodged between the rotor and the housing. When
she hit the starter it really crammed it in there. Of course she hit it 20
times before calling us. You would think it wouldn't be hard to rotate the
engine backwards to release this carbon, but you cant. You can with this
tool however. You remove the starter, put this tool in its place, and with
that little pinion gear on the flywheel you will have enough leverage to
break it loose. Then we would take the car out and run the crap out of it
and it was fine. No harm done.

Bob Mears
Supermarine Spitfire


A carbon locked engine needs nothing besides being "unlocked". No parts are
damaged. Keep in mind the timing had to be perfect for carbon lock to even
happen. That small piece of carbon must break off right when the engine is
coming to a stop. If it has any RPM to speak of it just blows the carbon out
or just smashes it away. The first time I saw this I dismantled the engine
suspecting it had been run out of oil and seized. To my surprise there was a
small...I mean smaller than a pencil eraser, lodged between the rotor and
housing. There was no other damage. Not long after that the tool showed up
with instructions to try the carbon lock procedure before tearing into the
engine.

Bob Mears
Supermarine Spitfire

Put it in high and push the car backwards.

Paul Lamar

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