Back to the Rotary Engine

I love rotary engines. A couple of years ago, in what seems like a past life, I had an old series 2 with a mild port 13B in it. It had a decent exhaust, stock carby and ignition and on an old school motor out of an RX-4. It went quite well and probably pulled mid to high 15s but it seemed faster, and was a sheer joy to drive

The series 2 has a great weight distribution and the chassis is very strong. The light motor is mounted as far back in the engine bay as possible, and the driver/passenger sit quite close to the rear wheels.

The series 1, 2 and 3 RX-7s that were sold in Australia had 12A rotary engines. Mine had a 13B put in it which is a bit bigger and more powerful. I was impressed at how much fun the rotary engine is to drive. They rev effortlessly out to 7 grand, making more and more power as the revs increase. They are incredibly smooth, and to me they seem like a great idea. The rotary engine does not have any pistons, valves or anything like that. It has much fewer moving parts than a conventional 4 stroke engine and make more power for it's weight. This makes them ideal for small cars that want to go round corners like an RX-7.

The time has come to get into rotarys again. I'm soon to move house and will be purchasing an old 13B to rebuild, and a reasonable series 1/2/3 RX-7 body to put it in. I need the car to be decent, as I don't want to initially put much thought into it. I want to concentrate on developing a home-built pheripheral port engine, which should make up to 300kw, although it may not last longer than 80,000kms. The beauty of the rotary engine is that there is nothing holding it back. All you have to do is let it get the air/fuel it wants by making the holes (ports) bigger. A pheripheral port is a totally re-located inlet port that allows the engine to draw close to maximum charge, creating insane amounts of power for the size of the engine. It also burns some of the fuel incompletely, and there is some blow-through at idle, causing unburned fuel to come out the exhaust. Especially when cold. Such an engine can cost $20 worth of fuel just to get warmed up. I have to build one.

I will document the whole process on the web, although I will probably create another blog/site and do the whole thing properly with photos and everything. Of course I will put a link here.

I couldn't be botherered writing any more. It's really hot tonight and I'm going to go downstairs where the air-conditioning is.