Rotary engines have always been a mystery to me. Never understood them, no clue on how they worked. Here is a great little vid on how it works.
Thanks for reading
Tim
Rotary Engine Part 1
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I’ve never seen any advantages to this motor. The apex seals start to wear on the very first start up, and they cannot be rebuilt, or even modified. Throw away motors. It is an excellent example of something that ‘looks good only on paper’.
Both AMC and GM tried to get these motors to work in the early 1970s, but theyr were smart to abandon the idea.
I had a friend who tried racing these crappy motors back in the early 1980s. He gave up and started putting tried and true Chevy 350s in RX7s to make a realiable race car.
After 30 years, even MAZDA is getting away from the Wankel motors.
I also have a freind in Tucson with a RX8, and even he claims that the gas milegae is best at 17MPG city, and the base V6 Mustangs will blow his doors off with ease.
That interesting he used a 350. In one of my Corvette runs with my local club there was a guy that joined with an RX7. Stuffed between the fenders was a Mustang 4.0 engine. Everything was custom under the hood, but home made. The car was fast, but couldn’t keep up with the Vettes though. However, he paid no attention balance. That car needed an entire different set up for the suspension. On the way back he lost it on a curb and smacked the side of the mountain. The speed was slow, were doing the elephant walk due to traffic. But I admired the work.
The rotary is indeed a marvel. Imaging in 1.3 liters Mazda RX8s were getting 232 hp at 8500 rpm with no turbo or super charger. It died simply because of 16 mpg and only 22 on the highway. The engine was difficult to comply with current emissions standards and fuel mileage was never good all the way back to 1973.
I had a 1975 Mazda rotary pickup truck. It looked cool, sounded cool but only had a 4 speed tranny and 110 hp. Consider though that in 1975 mini trucks averaged less than 80 hp with four cylinder engines.
Sad it’s gone but they just ran out of engineering on the engine.
Lots of power from a small rotary engine. I’ve never worked on one but I understand were either very reliable and once they began having issued it was nearly impossible to maintain.
Thanks Steve.