21 replies to this topic

[m|n|]

Are wankel engines really that good?

IMHO they have a high volume:surface area and historically they tend to run damn hot and be a tad unreliable and ineffecient.

I don't know about the later variants of the Wankel engines though?? P'raps there have been vast improvements!

by the way Ollie, nice spaceframe Mini! Is that one of yours then? lol

rotaries can produce huge amounts of power for thier size. in the latest "high octane - detonate" a 12a rotary turbo races a v8 supercar.

and the rotary wins hands down.

the rx8 engine would fit if you made it RWD and cut a hole through the firewall for the gearbox, bt would probably have to remove all the other engine C**p that comes with it, like stupid uneeded electronic , your best bet is fitting a 12a a engine (1.2L) or 13b (1.3L).

currently out in new zealand there is a 4 set dvd that shows you exactly how to bui;d your own 13b rotary engine from scratch.

DIY-RE

if anyone is keen to purchase one of these dvd sets just pm me

[minimole]

should of proof read sorry i was meant to say you wouldnt get 1.3 ecomny



edit: i should really learn to spell at some point

[Pavel]

One misconception is this 1.3 litre business. I believe the mazda engines are twin-chamber 1.3's therefore they are a 2.6 engine (that's like calling a mini a .25 litre engine because every cylinder is 250cc in a 998 engine).
Their economy was the biggest problems especially with the last generation of RX7 where mpg figures often were single digits

But they ARE good engines and the latest mazda engines seem to have sorted out a lot of problems.

[ed4ran]

Hmmm cant remember where i saw it but somewhere there was a Rotary engine mated to a mazda 323 gearbox and it was front wheel drive, wonder if that would fit?
Also several been put in midgets 1 2 3

[kada1980]

the RX-8 is a twin chamber 650cc the increase in cc to 2.6 is theoretical because there is no lost motion in the engine, unlike a piston engine which stops to change direction, a rotary is constantly rotating in one direction and producing power.

Take one cycle of a 4 stroke, suck squeeze bang blow, a rotary is constanly doing this all all in one revolution. For the piston engine 1 in 4 strokes is power, what a waste!! This engine is powering while sucking, squeezing, Banging and blowing oh err missis!!!! :grin:

[chairchild]

12a = 1140cc, stock power = 114Bhp

it's made up from two 570cc rotors - they double the engine size to make it fair on racecars, as they give the output from an engine almost twice their size

You dont need to constantly rebuild a rotary either to keep it in good shape, just change the oil regularly (they inject a small amount of oil to lubricate the apex seals) and there's a small mod you can do to the OMP so it supplys 2 stroke oil from a seperate resevoir, which burns cleaner than 4 stroke oil


you CAN make it FWD, but it would mean making some weird connection between the gearbox input and flywheel, which would be a good 14" away from each other!





but the best bit is - if you drill a 2" hole into the housings with a hole saw, bolt on 2 modified HIF44 carbs - you can jump straight from 114Bhp, to around 250Bhp, on the 12a!


and when people say they dont give much torque, thats because they're comparing them with other 200-odd Bhp engines, not 1.2 or 1.3 engines :wink:






I love rotaries, as my first car was a 1st gen Rx7!! And if you know what you're doing, you can rebuild a whole engine in under an hour :wink:

[eddyg]

Yea they are not great on fuuel efficecy but what 200bhp car do you know that is. After all to produce that much power you have to burn a set amount of petrol....don't know the figure but remember that the more power you want you have to burn more petrol/loose less of the power of what you are burning. hence the McMerc slr at 200mph will drink its tank dry in 20mins because to produce 600bhp it needs to burn a lot of petrol!