so i'm looking to buy a rotary soon, however like most people i'm more accustomed to combustion engines. before i make a purchase, most likely an fd, i want to have a deeper understanding of how rotaries work and a basic knowledge of doing basic work on them. could anyone direct me to some websites or suggest some books(if there are any?) that could help me out. thanks a lot.

kyle

 

i know people usually refer newcomers to www.howstuffworks.com, but i've never visited there. the first site that comes to mind is www.pettitracing.com and just look in their FAQ section.

 

where are you at in jersey Kyle?If you are close to south,stop buy my shop(JPR Imports)409 S.black horse pike,blackwood,nj 08012.(856)227-1808 I have about 5 motors being worked on from early 12a's to fd rew's.Maybe I could show you some of the basics.......Jim

 

Hey, i'm up north in Pequannock...next to wayne. I'm not real familiar with blackwood but i'm in south jersey a lot. what area is it in? i could probably stop by one of these days.

 

its still a combustion engine lol

 

Read. Everything you can get your hands on, the message boards, parts catalogs, fan sites, manuals, everything. You'll learn about 80% of the stuff you'll eventually need to do before you do it. You probably won't be doing anything exotic, someone will have done a mod or upgrade before and written it down.

Get a good repair manual too, Haynes is OK but there are better ones. Keep it on the coffee table or the toilet and thumb through it.

Beat me to it.

 

If your looking for an Fd my best advice is to find one that is mainly garage kept. A low mileage one isn't always the best choice(could have too much carbon build-up which is bad for rotarys). The cars that are usually driven often usually have the best overall reliability because of regular useage.

 

Someone posted a great site that explains the inner workings of the Wankel rotary, complete with animations. It was an excellent resource, and it made it easy for me to understand how it works. I'll check around to see if I can find it, may have been in the FAQ?

 

Bingo! Found it: http://www.rotaryengineillustrated.com/index.html

Enjoy, some very cool stuff.

 

Hey.........great site, thanks for the link!