Rotaries

starfox07 said:
If you leave it stock, they will run as long as a piston engined car. The car I'm looking at buying is totally original with 105k miles and everything works perfect. Its not a turbo model, but a rotary engine can go 150k miles no problem if you take care of it, and don't stress it too far.
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Where is the fun in that ;) I do know a guy who used to be a rotary mechanic so if I ever did decide to get one I'd be fine. Though he did say that basically the main thing you gotta do is get ceramic apex seals.
 
prizrak said:
Where is the fun in that ;) I do know a guy who used to be a rotary mechanic so if I ever did decide to get one I'd be fine. Though he did say that basically the main thing you gotta do is get ceramic apex seals.
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Ceramic's aren't a requirement. There are a few guys who have got near 600hp 13b FD's that blow up everything except the motor. Their secret is A) have it properly tuned and B) don't try and get more power out of desperation and run it out of the range it was tuned (i.e. leave the boost controller alone).

Ceramic's only give you a few extra chances at avoiding blowing up the engine and their other benefit is that when they do go, they go into a bunch of tiny soft pieces that are far less likely to destroy your irons/turbo(s).

Go spend a couple of days on the RX7forums and I promise you you'll start to notice the real problem with boosted rotaries.
 
The biggest problem with a rotaries is that they are built with alot more attention payed to tolerances, otherwise they will not run very efficiently. Consequently they can not handle any amount of detonation like a piston engine can. Ceramic apex seals will just shatter with detonation.
 
I wonder how many "experts" on rotary reliability have actually owned one...:rolleyes:

Rotaries are absolutely fine reliability wise and have been for many years.

Like all motors, you can do stupid things (such as run way too much boost or too many revs) that will kill the engine in a short period of time, but they are far from the grenade motor that so many people believe them to be.

Cheers.
 
starfox07 said:
The biggest problem with a rotaries is that they are built with alot more attention payed to tolerances, otherwise they will not run very efficiently. Consequently they can not handle any amount of detonation like a piston engine can. Ceramic apex seals will just shatter with detonation.
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Well the biggest problem I can see with the Apex seals vs Piston rings is that piston rings can for the most part be protected heavily by the piston once the engine is warmed up, plus they can be put further away from the combustion chamber for added strength.

Though I wonder how much of that could be remedied if Rotors/housings could be cast and machined to extremely fine tolerances?

TJP said:
I wonder how many "experts" on rotary reliability have actually owned one...:rolleyes:

Rotaries are absolutely fine reliability wise and have been for many years.

Like all motors, you can do stupid things (such as run way too much boost or too many revs) that will kill the engine in a short period of time, but they are far from the grenade motor that so many people believe them to be.

Cheers.
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Well the FD, which IMO is the reason rotaries have the reputation they have, did have a few engineering issues that made them unreliable even left stock. I'm sure there are plenty of stories of pre-99 FD's sitting in traffic, heat soaking and then popping a coolant seal.
 
thedguy said:
Well the biggest problem I can see with the Apex seals vs Piston rings is that piston rings can for the most part be protected heavily by the piston once the engine is warmed up, plus they can be put further away from the combustion chamber for added strength.

Though I wonder how much of that could be remedied if Rotors/housings could be cast and machined to extremely fine tolerances?



Well the FD, which IMO is the reason rotaries have the reputation they have, did have a few engineering issues that made them unreliable even left stock. I'm sure there are plenty of stories of pre-99 FD's sitting in traffic, heat soaking and then popping a coolant seal.
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This sorta corresponds to what I know. Everyone says FC is absolutely fine and reliable even with tune but FD stands for Fund Depleter :) My RX-7 mechanic friend had one dump some fuel and oil on the ground and set it on fire on him at some point. Luckily there was a dude washing a sidewalk not too far from where he was.

Biggest challenge is finding a rotary in good condition from someone who had enough forethought to not touch the damn boost controller. Then again I like the FD better than FC it's just cooler :)
 
To be fair, I have heard a first hand account that the FD did run a little hot at times; this was from a guy I used to work with who had imported a lot of Japanese cars into Australia as a side business. He owned an FD for a year or so before moving it on.

Through him I got to know quite a lot of the tricks and pitfalls of the Japanese import business and I scored quite a few Best Motoring & Hot Version video CD's before they became popular in the West.

Cheers.




 
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so if i wanted to get an FD as a first car and do some minor tuning (mostly reliability) ie. single turbo swap, get it around 350hp. would it be a good idea? i hear most people get an FC and move on to an FD just to get used to rotaries. that's something i want to try and avoid though, cause the cheaper FCs are really old cars and i'd rather not drive something that old.

im not going to treat it as a daily driver, it'll be more like a hobby. (going to study mechanical engineering)

it'll be expensive as hell for sure, but this has been something i've been wanting to do for a while and i'm saving up when i'm in university.

call me an idiot if you want, but i have a thing for rotaries :D
 
rx7_ted said:
so if i wanted to get an FD as a first car and do some minor tuning (mostly reliability) ie. single turbo swap, get it around 350hp. would it be a good idea? i hear most people get an FC and move on to an FD just to get used to rotaries. that's something i want to try and avoid though, cause the cheaper FCs are really old cars and i'd rather not drive something that old.

im not going to treat it as a daily driver, it'll be more like a hobby. (going to study mechanical engineering)

it'll be expensive as hell for sure, but this has been something i've been wanting to do for a while and i'm saving up when i'm in university.

call me an idiot if you want, but i have a thing for rotaries :D
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From the thread it would seem that if you can find a 99+ you would absolutely fine.
 
rx7_ted said:
so if i wanted to get an FD as a first car and do some minor tuning (mostly reliability) ie. single turbo swap, get it around 350hp. would it be a good idea? i hear most people get an FC and move on to an FD just to get used to rotaries. that's something i want to try and avoid though, cause the cheaper FCs are really old cars and i'd rather not drive something that old.

im not going to treat it as a daily driver, it'll be more like a hobby. (going to study mechanical engineering)

it'll be expensive as hell for sure, but this has been something i've been wanting to do for a while and i'm saving up when i'm in university.

call me an idiot if you want, but i have a thing for rotaries :D
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If it's purely a 2nd car, and you want something to learn on, I don't see a problem with it.

A single turbo swap isn't necessarily a "reliability" mod. There are a few tricks to the stock twins you can do to fix some of the problems with it.

Read this: http://fdowners.com/showpost.php?p=3279&postcount=2

If that don't turn you away, enjoy the money pit :thumbup:
 
Bump. Time to add a few more videos.

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aPxe3vezdw[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClCFhAQ7pqQ[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2AIntOcrkQ[/YOUTUBE]

http://www.braptv.com/play.php?vid=497
 
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^^Do you have an RX7?
 
could you say, if you have a car with a rotary engine "I have a wank. " ?:p
anyway, don't care about the smoothness, don't care about the consumption, a car should not sound like a superbike, because if it sounds like a superbike you expect more, therefor you cannot be pleasantly surprised, and that's the best kind of surprise
 
I like what this thread is all about. Its about winners.
 
Whappeh said:
I like what this thread is all about. Its about winners.
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Scope around the RX7 club a little while...and you'll see that 'teh 7 neva loses!!'

emil_t said:
could you say, if you have a car with a rotary engine "I have a wank. " ?:p
anyway, don't care about the smoothness, don't care about the consumption, a car should not sound like a superbike, because if it sounds like a superbike you expect more, therefor you cannot be pleasantly surprised, and that's the best kind of surprise
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I don't understand what you're saying?
 
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I would, but I don't want them to make fun of my car.
 
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