Quote:
Originally Posted by maytag
I've been missing-out on this topic. Based on the thread title, I thought we were discussing these:
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LOL
Rotary engines are like communism. Looks amazing on paper... then you try to do it and everything is fubar.
To be honest I've only had one apex seal give way... I had an ignitor go out under full boost and the trailing ignition pre-detonated and cracked an apex seal. So the whole myth of apex seals breaking is just bogus.
What actually breaks (and does so VERY frequently) is the water jackets. I've caught hell with the Irons cracking at the water jacket. Hard to describe with text, but if you've ever put one of these engines together you'd know what I was talking about.
The early rotarys and the RX8 from Mazda housed the water jacket grooves in the aluminum housings so they rarely break there, but the middle of the road (FC-FD) engines have the coolant groove in the iron end plates and center plate. Well ladies and gents iron gets brittle over time. So that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Regardless of the longevity of the engine its still a hoot to drive one. And lots of power for the displacement for sure.