pyscho7

does anyone have any information on the le mans motor concerning its 4 rotor and 12 spark plug design? such as how much more efficient on fuel, as well as are they ever available even at high $$$

just curious, did not know that was what Mazda did to curb the thirsty machine in the Le Mans.

rotarygod

iTrader: (1)

Never made for production. Gained 2-3% in torque and fuel economy. That's not enough to notice on a street car. For that race though they finished with enough fuel out of their allotment to do about another lap and a half and that was it so every drop mattered. It isn't worth all the effort as it is far more involved than just drilling a couple more holes and adding coils. A dowel pin location even has to change.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

info is in the SAE paper which is floating around the internet if you google it.

pyscho7

oh thats not a lot..they made it sound like a lot more. but i guess for a 24 hour race 3% is great.

rotarygod

iTrader: (1)

That few percent was enough to make the difference between them winning the race and them not finishing because they'd have run out of fuel. They didn't have unlimited fuel for use during pit stops.

Evil Aviator

http://protonet.org/doc/Mazda_R26B_A4.pdf

Trots*88TII-AE*

iTrader: (11)

Thank you Evil Aviator. That is some great info

nillahcaz

iTrader: (2)

Link for some one who did this But as in my post in that thread more testing needs to be done befor any real clame on gains can be made.

DefYet

I may be wrong about this but cant this setup be achieved using a waste spark system? With the leading firing at the same time you gain a 3rd spark (known as the waste spark) per combustion cycle which burns any unburnt gas - i assume - left by this squish as found in the reasoning behind 3 plugs per rota in the protonet.org PDF. If this is the case, why go through the effort of trying to add a 3rd plug when a wastespark setup is so easy to set up? Im sure also that from FC's upwards this wastespark setup is used from Factory.

Link to info on setting up a waste spark ignition - http://www.ausrotary.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=167338

nillahcaz

iTrader: (2)

no... I'm not sure how to explain this one. The fuel burned by the 3rd plug is burned at a time and place in the rotation of the engine you can never get with just two plugs no matter when or how many times you fire them. So yes multi sparks will burn more fuel but will not give you the same boost in performance and economy.
as far as wasted spark and rotarys, yes ALL S4+ RX7s had wasted spark from Mazda and an easy upgrade for you distributor guys can be found by searching DFLDIS.