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I read a great book about the history of the Wankle a while back, I wish I remembered the name of it. It actually started out as a water pump. Makes sense, after all engines are just air compressors at the end of the day. That said the biggest problem was the engineering issues of the apex seals. Mazda managed to figure that out but the issue now is combustion temperatures which bring NOx emissions way up. This is the reason they don’t make them anymore. It’s a great concept but it does have some issues and limitations that hold it back from getting any bigger.
ic ic so comopared to the piston you think that piston is better engine overall? because i was thinking of buying a 85 rx7 gsl se xD.
No that’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is they no longer use it because they can’t get it to function with today’s emissions standards. It’s a great engine but I’ve seen more than one with failed apex seals and we never did the rebuilds we just installed reman engines. You might want to do a compression test on it before you buy it.
ic ic but the apex do the function of the pistons rings dont it? ive seen piston engines with bad rings
Like Eric said, the apex seals are its down fall. A rotory engine has “rotor’s” in them that act as 3 pistons. Each edge has a seal to seal off that side of the rotor. The seals act as both the valves and piston rings. Also the rotor is in a oval type of engine block and (correct me if I am wrong) hits the engine block sealing that side off. Now take the basic engine fluid and it has to lube everything. so basically its eating the seal away and over time you will have to either tear the engine apart and replace the seals or put in a remanufactured engine…its also the reason why that line of car burns oil. It’s hard for me to explain it.
The rotory engine though, is an amazing concept due to how small it is and what it can put out as far as power goes. Its just how to keep the seal’s as efficiant as possible.
Hope this helps!
Only thing I’m drooling over right now are via motors trucks, won’t see outside of fleet applications til 2014 though. Think they might actually start getting the idea right for a change instead of some handicapped crappy super-small car, or a completely electric such as tesla motors where you get limited severely if you need to go more than to and from one place. Still like to know why a 4-cylinder engine is necessary to power that generator, would think they could get away with an even smaller gas engine.
hello thank you for your replys but i know a lot about rotarys…. i just wanted to read what eric tought about them… apex seals = piston rings kinda but it really dont eat that much oil… it uses the oil and gas mixture to lube the apex seals so it takes oil and kills it to lube it self up…, u dont have to kinda bash it… just because a weak point its the apex seals dont make it bad in anyway… as for any other car u change parts some wear sooner then others… apex seals go out and some take 160++k miles or more to go out so that is no excuse to bash it just for that…
As a performance builder. I build about 7 or 8 rotarys a year. when it comes to power vs cost. rotary wins hands down. all you need to make some good HP out of a rotary, all you need is a dremel.
I wonder why wankels on motorbikes never caught on. Low mass and low center of gravity, high power for small displacement and willing to rev.
Any ideas?
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