strange ebay find
 

hope im the first one to find this, but check this out

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Vinta...40972951QQrdZ1

strange, has an epitrochoid shaped housing, at least thats what i got out of it. any one who has any info on this, post or pm me, i wanna learn a little history associated with this. have a good one everybody

If you've heard people relate an engine to a glorified pump before (particularly when explaining a rotary), it can't be more obvious than looking at this. It's a sliding vane turbine, though I've never known of one for sale. The pic below is for a sliding vane pump used in a car's power steering. Unlike the Wankel engine, the rotary vane pump or turbine doesn't have the same specific tolerancing on the volute, so there's no fancy epitrochoid shape. They're cheap and they work.

Very cool find.

These kinds of pumps are quite common. These are often used in high pressure low volume pump applications. We use this type of pump at work for pumping water through semi permeable membranes to get ultrapure water. I just had one go out on me this summer and it looks about the same as that one except with fewer vanes and smaller. If you want more info search using key words "rotary vane pump". The one that seized up on me used graphite apex seals and side housings

Sure the pumps are common, but I've never seen a rotary vane turbine.