How a Rotary Works

drift318 Says:

Nov 20, 2008 - lolz it really depends on the driver

indeskize85 Says:

Nov 23, 2008 - for the most part no, not for about the first 60,000miles then you need to replace the apex seals, but other that that they are very reliable.

101ThatGuy101 Says:

Nov 28, 2008 - theyre not even officially 'rotary's. its called a WANKel engine. rotarys are the engines with cylinders around the crankshaft. but rotary sounds way cooler i guess

vettefan77 Says:

Nov 29, 2008 - theyre only higher maintenance if you dont take care of them. the problem is people like to wind them up to 9000 rpm, and it ends up running lean and transforming into a home-made acetylene torch. Thats what burns up the apex seals.Solution - add another set of injectors, and run em off the secondaries...youll smell the extra fuel at idle, but man o man...get it on the highway and youll need wings :D

westsidewindsor707 Says:

Nov 29, 2008 - he said it himself lighter but can they compete in power to a piston type motor and do the use more or less gas and if it doesnt meet emission standerds why build it

heathfiedler Says:

Dec 3, 2008 - Well you can add turbos to them. The have a 4 chambered rotary motor with a turbo and it got 1664 hp out of it. i sen a video on here about that

MXtreme89 Says:

Dec 5, 2008 - Thanks for posting this video...Now I understand, after quite a bit of research. Especially the 3-D Model.Now, I understand that it's possible to throw rods, cranks, n' stuff...What does it look like when you blow up a rotary engine? Does it simply blast the rotor through the chamber? I'm sure it's not quite like a frisbee :)

ChetCampbell72 Says:

Dec 5, 2008 - It was that very thin seal that was always breaking in the 1979, 1980 models. They fixed it.Had a 1984 Mazda RX-7 GS and I loved every minute of driving that car, it was freaking great with no problems.

dustziggy Says:

Dec 6, 2008 - Actualy its a '4 rotor' engine. Each rotor always has just 3 chambers. 4 x 3 = 12 chambers for the 1664hp rotary engine.

dustziggy Says:

Dec 6, 2008 - Hmmm. The most common fault with the RX8 is they suffer from carbon deposits which cause engine failure. The failures are almost always on auto RX8's because there never driven hard enough to burn off the excess oil. They need to be pushed to 9000 sometimes

Dominican11746 Says:

Dec 8, 2008 - oooooooooooooooooo so THATS how that works

723557 Says:

Dec 10, 2008 - Hmmm that gives me a good reason for flooring the car on the highway when slow drivers are in front of me and I want to pass them up. lol

tomashcu60 Says:

Dec 14, 2008 - now i get it....... imagine a whipper snipper with a rotary lol WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPPPPPP

AaaJii69 Says:

Dec 19, 2008 - nice. Too bad they dont sound that good.

amperion1 Says:

Dec 21, 2008 - Rotary engine? no, its a Wankle engine :-/ dont forget who invented it

dhiralv Says:

Dec 23, 2008 - u can say it both ways, it doesnt matter

sausageslaps Says:

Dec 23, 2008 - wankle was the guys name, its a wankle rotary engine. the rotary part simply describes the motion of the engine, since conventional engines are piston style

masterofthekeyblade Says:

Dec 26, 2008 - yea so like are rotary engines good on gas? lol whats the mpg on an rx-7 anyone know?

SpideyFan6010 Says:

Dec 26, 2008 - They are decent on gas if you have a N/A but once you go Turbo kiss what little good gas mileage you have good bye. They don't get as good gas mileage as piston cars but then again the combustion cycle is longer so it makes sense

SpideyFan6010 Says:

Dec 26, 2008 - Apex seals don't blow up like a bomb. They wear out or the springs go bad. I have never seen a Apex seal just explode. It takes a long time and very bad maintenance to make a apex seal go out. If you ever had a Rotary engine you would know what I am talking about but you don't and you just believe all the hater talk just like all the other ignorant people out there. Do some real research and learn for your self.

vkotis Says:

Dec 26, 2008 - ok, first of all, when i said something about the seals blowing up, i didn't mean "like a bomb". second of all, i used to own an FD 2 years ago. i know how the rotary works. i know about the freakin' apex seals. i've never had any problems with my FD because i knew how to take care of it. (yes, i did premix my fuel). nonetheless, the seals are a weak point in the rotary. even more so than piston rings in a piston engine. love the rotary, but it has alot of flaws as well as advantages.

SpideyFan6010 Says:

Dec 27, 2008 - I agree I don't think it is perfect but for something that moves a car in a different way it isn't that bad. The whole Piston vs Rotary war is really stupid if you ask me. An engine is a engine no matter how you look at it. Everyone needs one in their car have it be a rotary or a piston. BTW premixing is a bitch

Melaneimoon Says:

Dec 28, 2008 - Calling a Wankel (not Wankle :p) engine a rotary engine causes confusion with the traditional rotary engine (revolving cylinder block). But since those aren't used anymore since the 1920s I guess it indeed doesn't matter.

RioXavier Says:

Jan 4, 2009 - How do you know when it's time to replace the seals?

SpideyFan6010 Says:

Jan 4, 2009 - I personally never had a motor pop on me so I don't know but I have heard a lot of Smoke After the warm-up cycle is a good indicator along with sudden hesitation in acceleration at certain RPM lvls. But this is just information I have heard from a few people so don't quote me. Like I said I have yet to need a Rebuild on my rotary and I beat the shit out of that 13B.