What about the WANKEL (rotary) Engine?

Question

is a great engine, but why is it not used so much?? they say it pollutes a lot.. what else? and how can we solve this???

Answer 1

No torque, because of light weight. People don't understand them so they stay away. When you look at the power to weight ratio the emission are the best!

Also can be very loud when it's reeving at 9,000 rpm. We tried to use it as a boat motor with a supercharger but the whine from the pulleys will make you deaf.

I love the motor and it has fewer parts than a piston motor!
Wankel was a genius.

It is used today in the RX-8 and is the only piston-less motor in automotive use today.

Answer 2

Felix Wankel was a German engineer, yes German. Mercedes had the first rotary motors in the 30's. Then in the late 60's Mazda and bought the rights for the blueprints. Ans then Chevrolet bout the rights from Mazda.ina joint agreement .In 1971 Chevrolet put a 26b (4-rotor) in a corvette, they could not put this motor into production because of the smog regulations, it wouldn't pass. So they gave up. but Mazda stuck with it and through trial and error they came up with the 748b that also had a 26b motor and won le mans a few times in a row. it was unbeatable so a few of the other teams cried about it and eventualy they banned rotary motors from racing in the le mans series. something about it not having pistons and not having enough friction for the weight of the motor. So there there very good motor. 9000 rpms with the right fuel pump. but incase you need more convinsing think about this, almost 90% of all single and bi-plains have rotary motors on them, light weight high reving motors, you cant beat them with a stick.

Answer 3

they are great in someways, but they need some work in others. their fuel effiecency isn't that great and the main reason they aren't used very much i would say, is the fact that they function completely different than standard piston engines so a mechanic that specializes in rotaries would be needed, they also don't produce as much torque as piston engines. there is a really neat concept being worked on that is based on rotary technology it looks to have all the advantages of the rotary engine and none of the drawbacks its called the quasiturbine. check the links they are really informative.

Answer 4

My experience with rotary engines is that they tend to be a little more touchy. The break-in period is EXTREMELY important (it is important with piston engines, but even more so with rotary) and if someone did not take the time to break it in correctly, LOTS of troubles.

A friend of mine had a FD RX-7 (third generation) and used it as his track car. When the 2nd engine let go he replaced the car with a E36 M3. Not as fast or as light, but a lot more reliable.

Answer 5

a twin rotor engine of 1,300cc uses as muck gasoline as a six cyl. 4.0L motor. The design does not like high compression ping, detonation causes the apex seal dammage. Oil injecton so the engine uses a qt of oul every 700 miles at full throttle but they rev like heck. Rotary motors have almost no torque. Turbo 3 gen RX-7 was complex and hard to work on

Answer 6

My first "real" car was a Mazda RX7 with a 12A engine. I drove it for 160,000 hard miles. I loved the rotary engine but there are a couple of problems including a tendency to burn oil (i.e. not that clean emission wise) and gas mileage was not that great by today's standards.

I believe that Mazda is once again using the rotary engine in one of there current offerings.

Answer 7

There is not a lot you can do to it to improve emissions and MPG like traditional engines. Things like variable cam timing, cam profiles, shutting down certain cylinders when less power is needed. You can't do any of this with a rotary.

Answer 8

Im pretty sure for all vehicles it refers to the crankshaft. The definition of RPM is the number of revolutions around a fixed axis per minute. In your regular engine the fixed axis is the crankshaft. wouldn't see why it would be different for anything else, that would make it confusing

Answer 9

You cant solve it. They burn oil and are not very fuel efficient. They do make great power which is why Mazda used them. Not used by other companies because they had other solutions to for their needs.

Answer 10

because its gods engine of choice and you need permission from me to use it