guess the engine

[dieselgeek]

let me clarify a little.

From a power-to-weight and power-to-size viewpoint these engines are AMAZING. Many people have used them as aircraft engines in Experimental planes with great success. In fact most of the later Apex Seal improvements have come from the aircraft community - they have them lasting 1000+ hours before overhaul (which is cheap and simple to do).

From a power-per-fuel-consumed perspective, they are awful engines!! they get horrible economy even for the power they can make.

[squirrel]

If you watch one side of the rotor as it travels around the housing, you'll see the four distinct cycles: intake, compression, power, exhaust. The "cylinder" contracts and expands twice per cycle. I'm defining "cylinder" as the variable volume adjacent to one side of the rotor.

A two stroke engine gets everything done with a single expansion/contraction of the "cylinder". The rotary doesn't work like that.

in terms of cycles/revolution, I'd think of it as a 1.5 stroke engine.

[Stich496]

man I would've got it, if you added what engine uses more oil than gas

[BOOOGHAR]

I met a guy back in AZ who builds some evil rotary engines, I met him at a local cruise and he was showing it mazda pickup with a rotary engine in it and saw a motorcycle at his house with a rotary engine



link to his website, it has lots of pics and info http://www.azrotaryrockets.com/

[DanStokes]

My sister-in-law has one in a second-gen convert. It was OK 'till about 120K mi or so. It got REAL hard to start and made crappy power. They had an internet-sourced rebuild installed and all is happy now. Not a rocket ship (it's stock) but it'll get your attention. I'm guessing it would be sprightlier if it had a stick but alas, it's an auto.

Dan

[SuperBuickGuy]

I had an 89 rotory RX7 - they do make awesome power, high-reving hp.... not terribly fuel efficient (15 mpg was the norm). Its apex seal died.... that was the end of that car. I sold it to a guy who has a field of dreams much like others have posted on here (carsinbarns)

[tardis454]

WINNER!
They actually inject some of the lubricating oil into the combustion chamber to keep Apex seals lubricated. One of the first thing the guys building them do, is ditch the oil injection and simply mix 50:1 two stroke oil directly in the tank!!

Those oil injection lines break & cause fires!!!
My friend Cam knows all about it, he almost lost his RX7 because of it.