rotary engine design (water jackets)
 

I don't know if this would offer a cooling advantage or not, but what posessed Mazda to design the rotary with the tension bolts going THROUGH the water jackets, as in this picture:

http://www.fc3s.org/how_tos/engine/i...earhousing.jpg

Wouldn't it be better to design it with a continuous water jacket surrounding the rotor housing (with appropriate bracing to support it from collapsing)?

And then have the tension bolts on the outside of the water jacket? It just seems odd that it's done this way, it's like having eighteen friggin' coolant passages going the length of the engine.

If the tension bolts went outside the water jacket, then water could circulate between the combustion area of the engine to the exhaust area of the engine to the intake area of the engine thus preventing coolant/engine hotspots (or the intake area could be blocked off as necssary to maintain some sort of cool intake charge)

Also it would allow for what looks to be probably 40% extra cooling surface area around the engine.

Anyone ever thought about this?

how strong would the inner surface of the housings be if it were done like that. they be much more prone to warping

I would suggest that the extra aluminum in the water
jacket area would actually help give more surface area
to the aluminum contacting the coolant and better
heat dissipation would be the result, where as a smooth
surface like you suggest would have less surface area
contacting the coolant.
whats better high coolant vol. and low circ speed or a faster circ. speed and lower vol.?
matt

wow, thats one crusty engine!

look at an nsu, the water jackets are self contained for each rotor housing and go around its circumferance.

To reinvent the wheel or not, is the subject at hand. I,m 52 years old and been turnning wrenches since high school and have worked on more things then most think posable that one person could have ever done, in short been there and done it. So why try, becouse you just mit get lucky and come up with a brake through. How does this relate ?, ideas are good even if you are trying to reinvent the wheel

the housings inner surface would warp and not be strong enough, this is why people put larger dowels in the tension bolt holes... so that the engine is stronger.

also if the bolts were no where they are now but further out, you would most likley get water leaks between theplates.

Mazda actually said it would be better to have the cooling jackets run around the housing but couldn't due to manufacturing constraints. Because only one side of the housing is heated to any significant degree having the water ciculate around the housing helps distribute the heat.

the bits of aluminum give torsional rigidty IIRC