actually he is right, the rotary is unreliable, but only in the hands of those who are inexperienced. how do you think weve figured out everything that we have thus far? trying stuff and blowing engines the entire point of this forum(correct me if im wrong) is to figure out how to make more power. the fact is his motor popped cuz he was pushing 15 lbs of boost on a 1000 mile fresh rebuild. thats all there is to this story, the other engens may have been something else, but this was just poor desision making. and he knows that.
pistion engines have been around as long as cars are, rotarys have only been with us about 30 years. rotarys are relitivly young in comparison plus there are only what 10 rotary vehicles out there? pistions have had much longer to grow and see there full potential in power and reliability, rotary has not. the concept of a rotary is a billion times better than that of a piston, infinatly less friction it the key, theres only 3 moving parts!
bottom line is if you want reliability, get a bike, if you want to learn and have fun get a rotary. we drive them cuz we love them. case and point.

p.s. sorry to hear about your engine dude. rebuild it bigger and better and remenber, be gentle till 2,500 miles

 

Arent you the same guy that bragged about letting his friend drive the car with 10 miles on the rebuild knowing that he would drive it hard? No offense, but you get no sympathy from me.

 

Riddle me this: If the rotary engine is such an incredible engine, why is there only one manufacturer that uses them in vehicles? Hmmmm........


Actually, I'm wrong. O.S. engines does make a .30 cubic inch rotary for model airplanes but guess what, its got a bad reputation too.

Actually, the engine's reliability is great for people like Kevin, it puts money in his pocket and feeds his family.

 

Do you ever give up? If you hate the rotary engine, why are you here? Go somewhere else if you dislike it so much.

Riddle me this:
If you think the rotary is so bad and unreliable, why are you putting it in a plane? If it's so bad what happens when you're up in the air and it fails? Are you ready to look death in the face as it fails since it's "so terrible?"

The engines are not unreliable, the owners are. Sure sometimes there will be little issues because of the engine design, but most the time it is the owners fault.

Most car manufacturers have tested the rotary as a possibility for using it, but the main problem is that not many people "know" about them or work with them, so it's hard to just convert suddenly.

And for the last time, if you have nothing but bashing to say, keep it out of here.

 

haha, I like that... Your Grandfather was a wise man.

 

no really, what are ya gonna do with the turbo?

 

So true, lol.

There are several reasons why I kept driving. First, because it was 3am and didn't want to wait for a tow-truck when I was a couple miles away from my house (and with a friend). Secondly, because I've driven with a blown motor in the past and nothing terrible came of it. And third, because I've got housings, plates, rotors and E-shafts to spare.

 

what are your fuel mods???

 

No.

I simply let a friend borrow my car when he was in need. Then I added that he was trustworthy by explaining why.

Yeah right, there's NO way I'd let someone borrow a fresh-rebuild TII who was going to be hard on it...

Regardless, I'm not asking for sympathy. I chose to make this post. Not as a whiny, 'woe is me' type deal. But as a, 'look what happens when you're an irresponsible n00b' post. I have no problem urging others to caution by creating this post, even if it means being viewed like this---->

 

I've still got to check the condition of it. As of right now, my beautiful TII is sitting out in the rain, while a pool table 'borrows' it's spot in the garage, lol.

Tomorrow I'm going to move it into the garage and start the teardown.

 

Walbro 255, cleaned 550cc primaries, Denso 720cc secondaries, S-AFC set to +20% fuel enrichment at 4k RPM's and up.

 

QUOTE: "Riddle me this: if the rotary engine is so great why does only one car manufacturer distribute it?"
my assumption would be because, uneducated people don't like things that are different, or maybe are scared of things that are different? wouldn't you say that plenty of people say the rotary engine is unreliable, but after you have been educated on the subject of the once unknown it is almost amazing, just like the first time you get some *****, or first time you blaze up your mind with the special smoke, or when you become educated on a new way of life ( www.crimethInc.com ) or whatever, i just figured my $ .02 cents are allowed to be mentioned.

 

ok home brewer, in responce to your question about other manufacturers...
most majior car manufactuers have th blue prints for the rotary engine, but didn mot make it because as previously mentioned it isnt well known, BUT...
chevy did infact make 2 rotary engine vehicles, a 3 rotor corvette and a 4 rotor corvette, and they beat the pants off of their piston vehicles, they almost used the 4 rotor one for back th the future, but chevy pulled the plug on the prototypes because they didnt want to tarnish their powerful pistion outward apperence, and it would have been too expensive to switch factorys that were geared to making piston cars into rotary factorys.
and how about the 787b rotary supercat that has been dissallowed in international and most national racing events because the piston manufactures bitched so much. face it, pistons are reaching the end of their groth phase, but rotary has just begun.
keep your eyes peeled, rotarys will start showing up all over...

 

Homebrew....if you are really a pilot and actually putting a wankel in your plane...I would not **** where you eat sort to say

James

 

rotaries are the best engines out there when it comes to individuality n getting heeps of power n grunt out of them, yes they are not as strong at taking a beating than the slower, lower reving piston engines.
I luv my rx7 series 4. I blew my turbo s4 engine after 106 000kms but i only had the car for 3 months b4 that happened maybe the guy that owned it b4 me in japan thrashed it hard or the change in climate effected it, one thing I found out to late was I should run full mineral oil through it not the synthetic stuff.

Then I had a rebuild series 5 put in it that didnt even get out of the workshop had a leak in the rear apex seal and was idling extremely rough. nearly 3 months later and 4 workshops I should have the s4 back hopefully with a s5 engine running properly.

If you want a rotor U want a beast that roars is individual and kicks the crap out of other cars asses in stock form.

The rotor is a gem in a haystack. if u wanna b like all the other noobs out there then sell the rotor and buy some lil crappy piston powered car!

 

Couple reasons why rotaries aren't "mainstream". 1) Probably the most important reason rotaries didn't "catch on" was the timing of its mainstream introduction. Late 70's and early to mid 80's was a time of reformation in terms of emissions and fuel economy. Frankly, the rotary engine didn't amount to much in either of these categories. Why buy a 17 mpg mazda when you can buy a 30 mpg Honda, etc. etc. Fuel economy was big... and it discouraged automakers from pursuing the rotary design any further. 2) Like someone said earlier... there's a paradigm in this country in regards to automobiles and internal combustion engines. Our infrastructure (manufacturing, maintenance, marketing, customer culture) is mainly geared towards the reciprocating piston internal compustion engine. It will take a drastic event/circumstance to shift this paradigm... even with the introduction and expansion of hybrid/electric/alternative energy powered vehicles.

So, in conclusion, I do believe the rotary to be a great engine... and it's fun as all get-out to drive. But, I readily admit: It's not mainstream and I'm attracted to the novelty. There's nothing wrong with that.

And, also, rotaries have been used in aviation applications for years with much success. Not a new idea.

 

Well besides making yourself look like an idiot in your previous posts, you're only making it worse with this one

Mazda
NSU
Citroen
Suzuki
Norton
Hercules
(this is of course counting motorcycles in the last three)

All manufactured vehicles with the Wankel. Countless others experimented with them, but never went to production. Take your LS1 bullshit to chevy forum and quit ruining our cars.


Now back on topic, why do all of you care if he's giving the rotary a bad rep, you obviously can't change the minds of people like Homebrewer, so why even care. Erik, keep doing what you're doing, if you're having fun, more power to ya. Although I don't know how you stand rebuilding all the time! Good luck on the next.

 

so when are you going to post pictures of the destoryed motor?

 

Your posting makes me laugh. When you throw that ls1 in the trash can, tell me which trash can it is in, so I can make another fast car!


I post this in direct response to the thread of DREYKO's that I recently found in the other engine conversions forum. Notice I did not bash the rotary, only DREYKO's ignorance.

 

No, I'm not really a pilot..I'm just a licensed commercial helicopter pilot with an instrument rating. I'm type rated in the Boeing Vertol 234 and several light utility helicopters. However, flying is not an occupation for me, currently a hobby only.

I'm not shitting where I eat. The rotary isn't the best platform for a car. This isn't an opinion but observation based on the countless "I've blown my engine threads" here. I belong to several automobile websites for other vehicles I own and guess what, this website (rx7) has by far the greated number of engine problems. I'm not basing this on personal experience, but just reading all of YOUR posts. Either the engine is not reliable or the operator/user is an idiot.

Perhaps, I'm wrong and the engine is reliable. Perhaps, the stupid 16 year old punks on this website, the same ones who can't figure out how to wear a baseball cap correctly are also cueless about general operation and maintenance of a vehicle. Maybe the engines are unreliable because the operators idea of maintenance are fart can mufflers, stickers, painted dashes, LED lighting, cone airfiliters and other useless "improvements".

As for my own experience with rotary engines...I have yet to blow one and I've only owned four in the past 15+ years. However, my personal experience appears to be the exception. I also recognize that the rotary engine doesn't tolerate attempts to squeeze extra power out of it. You guys rag on me for not being a rotary purist, but hey, I'm not the one trying to squeeze 250-300 HP out of a 1.3 liter engine.

I'm actually a fan of the rotary engine but unlike many of you, I RECOGNIZE its limitations and respect them.

 

lol you totally stole my avatar! that is a beaten up NA rotor on the floor of my garage. poor thing had an apex seal tear it to bits.

 

There are 2 main reasons why an engine blows up. This applies to all engines rotary, piston or otherwise.

1. Neglect. Overheating, running out of oil, etc.
2. Poor tuning.

Both are owner error. It is rare to have an engine blow up just because it was bad. Why is there never enough money to build something right the first time but always enough time and money to do it over and over again?

 

hey homebrewer, **** you for stereotyping young people and assuming the unknown. and i'm pretty sure there is a 8 second 1000 horsepower??!?! 1.3 liter rotary on the dragstrip somewhere, that person knew how to squeeze some horsepower. and comparing the rotary to the piston engine is not fair, IMO by design the rotary is better, by actual evaluation of experiments you have probably 500,000 piston engine designs vs. 20 different rotary designs, so it ain't really fair (and the rotary still is probly on top of 80% of the piston engines).

 

"LS1 Upgrade" thats cute. Erik post some pics of what happened to the engine!

 

Haha, it's still sitting in front of my house collecting pine-needles.

I'm waiting for a buddy to come with his Tahoe and tow-rope so we can put it in the garage... I changed my mind about driving it in, because I don't want to have to slip the clutch at 3k RPM's just to get up the *mini* hill leading to the garage.

That's if it even starts... (I don't want to know)

Oh, and for the rotary vs. piston flaming in my thread--keep it up. Especially the passionate rotary loving defense...

Pistons and V8's, etc. on an Rx7 forum equals