Any rotary fans?

[Qingdao]

Gotta know if anybody on here is part of the rotary clique?

I've been doing the awful rotary life for about 8 years and I can't get out.

Here's my current problem in my driveway... 1984 Mazda RX7




………………





Its a 6 port 13B with turbo ii rotors. I have an S4 Hitachi turbo making about 8 or 9 pounds of boost. I'm blowing through the original carburetor.

^^^ another words its a real redneck rocket.

[Racer Boy]

Nice! I used to race a '79 RX7 that was ported (as far as you could go without a bridge port), full headers/exhaust, and a stock carb with hogged out venturis. It was pretty fast and handled great on the straights, but was a lot of work to drive quickly in the turns. The brakes were way too small for the speed of the car, too. But I did love the engine!

[Anker]

O yea, I love the B17 that occasionally circles over my house!

[Qingdao]

Originally Posted by Racer Boy

Nice! I used to race a '79 RX7 that was ported (as far as you could go without a bridge port), full headers/exhaust, and a stock carb with hogged out venturis. It was pretty fast and handled great on the straights, but was a lot of work to drive quickly in the turns. The brakes were way too small for the speed of the car, too. But I did love the engine!

A '79 was my first. It had an Edelbrock 650 on a 6 port 13B. Awful car, but I didn't know how awful until I got my '84.

Mazda did some major upgrades in suspension and brakes between the years.


The rotary is a weird little engine. Its so quiet without any valve noises at idle; it just hums.

[Racer Boy]

Originally Posted by Anker

O yea, I love the B17 that occasionally circles over my house!

A B17 with rotaries? Most of those had radial engines.

[piper6909]

Originally Posted by Racer Boy

A B17 with rotaries? Most of those had radial engines.

Yeah, big difference between Rotary and Radial engines.

I love the sound of radial engine. "There's no sound like a round!"

[Qingdao]

B17 as in flying fortress?

Lots of rotary in aviation. I hear its mostly because in case of catastrophic engine failure the other rotors still operate.

[BoxsterLS376]

Haha I got out of blowing up rotaries years ago although I was a rotary kid in my early driving days. Probably had close to 20 of them... all started with an 83 GSL... then an 87 T2 etc. etc.... Sweet ass little cars. I'd like to have a nice 3rd gen... only problem is i'd end up LS swapping it

[B6T]

Here is my '84 GSL-SE that I sold a few years back. It had a street-ported S5 6-port 13B, a Jenvey ITB system I made up, Electromotive TEC3 standalone, Racing Beat headers and exhaust, Racing Beat Springs, Tokico shocks, etc.

[Qingdao]

Nice GSL-SE. What ignition coils were you using?

[DoninDel]

I have never owned a rotary or even been in one, but the inherent design has so many attributes. (compactness, low vibration, among others) They say it didn't catch on because of mileage, oil consumption and emissions, but with oil injection and the latest fuel injection systems I think it would be fine. It is inherently a better design than the reciprocating engine, but seems there is too much 'inertia' (tooling and investment) behind the reciprocating engine.
Pity.

[maytag]

I've been missing-out on this topic. Based on the thread title, I thought we were discussing these:

[Qingdao]

Originally Posted by maytag

I've been missing-out on this topic. Based on the thread title, I thought we were discussing these:

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.

[Racer Boy]

What is really great about rotaries is that they are small and powerful enough to be great motors for transplants. I've driven a Triumph Spitfire that had a 12A in it, and it was entertaining. An acquaintance transplanted a 13B into a diesel Vanagon, and it surprisingly was a really successful transplant. Very smooth and once it got wound up a bit, much, much faster than the stock diesel.

[maytag]

I have a friend whi runs a 13b in his home built airplane.

Scares me too much to get in it...... Haha

Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk

[Qingdao]

One of these days I'm gonna get a rail car and a 911 transmission; and the turbo rotary insanity will take place.

Imagine 200-300 hp on a sand rail.

All the power and understeer one could ever ask for.