'89Vert

Just thought I'd ask out of curiosity, is anyone else SUCCESSFULLY using somethin other than gas to power their rotary? I.e. ethanol, propane, etc. It seems like out of this many people surely someone has attempted something. I'm really not asking out of care for the environment, but more for my wallet!

Tanjo

I swear I remember seeing pics of a propane powered rotary on here somewhere.. been a long time hough. Its definatly been done.

rotary emotions

In europe it was not that uncommon (although not the normal thing either) to convert to LPG. Not sure if you get that in the USA? It's a gas, but it's more suited for engines then "home" gas types (the ones for cookers etc).
Rotary engines will run on that very nicely. Because we don't have stuff like valves etc, and the cold (intake) and warm (exhaust) areas are seperated (unlike with a piston engine) a rotary will run on LPG without any internal mods. If you have a carbed engine, the setup is rather simple. For injected engines you will need some more money to invest, because of electronics etc.
As for methanol: if you mix it with normal fuel, it will be ok for rotaries. It should be ok pure too, but I am not sure if there's a risk.
Personally, I'm seriously considering converting my NSU Ro80 to LPG once the restoration is done. In my country (Belgium) on liter of fuel is now priced at 1.43 euro (that's 1.84 $ per liter!!!) while LPG is about a third...