anyone has experience with rotary engines?

[mgbrillo]

just want to ask if there's anybody here has experience with rotary engine? i mean, experience driving cars with rotary engine (mazda rx-8). gusto ko lang malaman how it runs and what are the things to do for maintenance. thanks in advance.

[KrisKros]

All i have to say if you have problems with a Rotary Engine is..GOODLUCK! Even back in the states, my friend owns a RX-7, he had a hard time finding mechanics who are familiar with Rotary Engines. Since he's had it, he crashed twice already, very very minor crashes. He crashed once trying to drift on a turn and the other time was because the power just took ahold of the vehicle n spun it out.

I'm pretty sure there are sports car mechanics around the area that are familiar with these engines..as aside to the local shops.

There are RX-7 RX-8 clubs/forums online if u check around, they should surely be able to help you with your questions since most of them have rotary engines..heheh..unlike us heheh

[speedyfix]

my experience has been purely with rx-7's. owned one until last year. parts are hard to get but power is pretty good and engine is smooth as hell.

they have quite an appetite for gas tho.

if you have an rx-8 locally then just have it serviced at mazda if they brought it in for you. of other shops including mine can order parts for it if need be.

[niky]

The only experience I've had driving one was an old 85' Savannah. But no matter how old the Rotary is, it runs creamy smooth from idle to redline, talagang iba sa piston engine. We were looking at buying it (ang ganda, classic ang dating, almost like a 240Z) but we didn't because I already had a boy-racer that needed lots of maintenance at the time.

Matakaw nga sa gas... at mahirap i-maintain. Word is, the easiest to maintain are the naturally aspirated FCs (not the twin turbo FDs) but you still have to add some oil every now and then, as Rotaries drink a little oil in normal operations to keep lubricated.

[nicolodeon]

AFAIK, bihira ang garage dito sa 'tin sa 'Pinas na may experience with Wankel (rotary) engines. Pero I'm sure that there are specialty garages out there that can provide a fix for this type of engine if anything goes awry. 'Trick is to find that garage.

[speedyfix]

as long as you have the parts it's actually not that hard to work on the rotary.

[hector angel]

mahal ung engine and parts pero malakas siya.... if i remember it right, ung 1.1L rotary engine ng special stage auto na nakakabit sa sprinter produced more than 160hp

[orly_andico]

here's an idea... order a surplus 13B from Japan. i know some of the protegetech boys have been ordering BPT's.

i mean if there are tons of JDM engines floating around in Banawe.. from ebay pricing as a guide, it shouldn't cost much more than a B16A.

[iqaruzz]

mga kabarkada ko rito naka FC Rx7 at FD Rx7 facelift. impressive talaga ang mga wankel engines. 13B engines has its ups and down. Renesis engine in RX8 has less down and more up.

13B Mazda Rx7 are most common engine. Old series are 12A.
brief summary to cc ratings.
13B = 1300 cc usually rotary comes in two therefore 13 x 2 = 2600 cc
its advantages very light, and smooth to run (it has good power to weight ratio)
its disadvantages are high maintenance and petrol.
Old 13B engines require apex seal replace every 60000Km. Apex seal is an equivalent to piston rings. If you need to replace them that means you need to overhaul the engine.

20B - is actually 13B with another rotor. 3 x 13 = 3900 cc

Renesis engine doesnt, but Im not so sure how long it will last.


Modification.
For standard NA tuning, make the intake port bigger.
There are several types of porting.
Bridge porting - making the port larger and placing a bridge accross the port to avoid turbulance.
J-porting - a lot larger then bridge
Monster port - WOW!

For turbo, well everyone knows how to do them up.

Enough about the fact.

How it drives depend on how you tune your car.
Rx8 drive very balance. It has power and I found it much more luxurious than sport.
RX7 (FD) p*tsa ang sarap i-drive. malapad kaya kumakapit sa kalye. not much room in the back seat so you cant make-out. and who cares about 3 passenger.

[orly_andico]

the rx-8 renesis engine requires a full synthetic oil change every 1000-2000 miles!!!

that's because the apex seals are made of some soft metal. if you don't do the recommended oil change interval, they will wear out very fast.

that's what makes the routine maintenance so expensive, imagine full-synthetic oil change every 3000km.

[speedyfix]

iqaruzz, the reasons you stated for the percieved increase of displacement of the rotary engine is wrong. it's not because the engine has 2 rotors (which it does), but rather because it normally requires 2 rotations of the rotor for it to be considered as one combustion stroke.

so normally it's about 600+cc per rotor x 2 rotors x 2 rotations
or in the cosmo 3 rotor engine it is 3 rotors x 2 rotations.

you come up with close to the approx equivalent piston engined displacement but use the wrong formula.

[iqaruzz]

iqaruzz, the reasons you stated for the percieved increase of displacement of the rotary engine is wrong. it's not because the engine has 2 rotors (which it does), but rather because it normally requires 2 rotations of the rotor for it to be considered as one combustion stroke.

so normally it's about 600+cc per rotor x 2 rotors x 2 rotations
or in the cosmo 3 rotor engine it is 3 rotors x 2 rotations.

you come up with close to the approx equivalent piston engined displacement but use the wrong formula.

Yes, you are quite right. Just simplifiying in to lamers term.
Formula I've given actually lacks of details. ("brief summary to cc ratings")
What I understand about this is, each face of the rotor is 650 cc and there are three face, two rotor. It takes 3 eccentric shaft rotation cycle to complete one engine cycle. Weird in a way its like a 3 stroke engine.
So in one engine cycle it actually did 3.9 Litres.

Hmmm, if you have a total of 2 rotations of the eccentric shaft in comparison to 2 rotations of the crankshaft in 4-stroker. The 13B would be actually 2.6 litres.
Reason I did this way is I have previously explained it to few people who hasnt worked/seen rotary engine. And actually took me few hours trying to explain it. My bad!

[speedyfix]

don't worry about it you should always bring a diagram of the engine para maexplain mo sa di pa nakakakita. hehe!

[mini888]

the rx-8 renesis engine requires a full synthetic oil change every 1000-2000 miles!!!

that's because the apex seals are made of some soft metal. if you don't do the recommended oil change interval, they will wear out very fast.

that's what makes the routine maintenance so expensive, imagine full-synthetic oil change every 3000km.

You are totally off here. For RX-8 Renesis engine, it is recommended that you use mineral based engine oil, not fully synthetic. I am currently using Quakerstate 5W-30 (found it at True Value). As for the interval, I am planning to change it every 5,000 kms. As for any mechanics in the Philippines, I am still looking for one.

Regards.