ok i have a question i am not familiar with imports especially not mazda and i have a question, now this may sound stupid but i'm interested and i thot i'd figure it out from some ppl who actually know. now what is the difference between a rotary engine and a normal internal combustion engine?. how does it work wut does it mean for example 3 rotor engine compared to i dunno liek a 2 or 4 rotor engine? design wise how does it work wut makes the power (burning fuel i know) but like wut would its equivalent to pistons and a crank be? get as detailed as uw ant i'll understand it i am just totally clueless ont his subject a lil help would be greatly appreciated alot of help would be even more appreciated.

pretend that the block for a rotary is an oval shape...now the roters are triangle shaped....the roters spin around in the block. there are only 3 moving parts. the crank and the 2 roters. it works simaler to a 2 stroke cus there are no valves but there is still 4 definate stages. look at rotaryracers profile...there you will find a pic of the wokings of the engine. i cant really exsplain it without using my hands or a pic. check out www.howstuffworks.com they have an exelent article on it!

wtf!

moron! do you know anything bout cars?

actually yes i do know enough about cars like i said in my post i am not familiar with the way that a rotary engine works i have never paid much attention to imports so i wasn't sure i had no reason to be familiar with rotary engines because i have never owned or worked on one and i don't plan to. so thanks for the info novaboy and the link i'm gonna check it out. and yes i did notice the pic thats wut made me curious cuz it looked much different from the standard engines i have worked on and have seen in the past so i thot i'd ask i thot i explained myself and how i didn't know about rotary engines because i am a domestic fan. i am looking to learn more about cars for future reference. also every single car me or anyone in my close family has owned is a domestic and i don't work on many imported cars or engines. well anyway thanks for the info and for those of you who want to knock me go right ahead because honeslty i don't care wut u guys think all i know is i am curious and new little aboutt he topic

oh hey nova boy sorry in that post i did mention ppl kncking me for not knowing about rotary engines that was directed at you although now that i have seen some of 123s other posts i realise it was directed at him so sorry if i came off as a snob thanks for the info though i'm about halfway through that article really helpful

i read the article very helpful although there is one question i didn't find answered there i understand the concepts but how is a 1 rotor 2 rotor and 3 rotor engine different are there 3 seperate oval thingies and 3m seperate rotors or like what i didn't understand that although i pretty much got the rest damn it's pretty complicated compared to a standard piston engine, maybe this is because the piston engine is wut i learnt but this seems complex for 3 moving parts thanks for the link and thanks for the help

They can be sweet one of the guys that use to pit for us. Did body and paint on an RX7 they raced at Bonneville it ran something like 220 mph back in the 80's they would bring out to OCIR (RIP) and run 12.50 al day. Just a thought....mls

Peace,

TRM

Hey everyone, this is my first post. Not a rotary expert, but I think I know enough to answer hooyeah's question.

I think you're thinking about it too much. Number of rotors is like number of pistons; the more you have, the more power the engine makes. This is not to say that one rotor is equivalent to one piston (I don't think there are rotary engines with morethan 4 rotors), just that the more rotors, the more power.

If I have been informed correctly, I think a 1.3 liter two rotor is about equivalent in power (and fuel consupmtion, not sure about torque though) to a small to medium sized car V6. Can anyone confirm this?

Also, Mazda isn't the only company that has done rotarys. In the sixties, Mercedes Benz and a company Audi acquired (forget the name and can't find my classic car book) did rotaries with not a lot of commercial success (Benz used them more for record breaking track cars than for production purposes). Only Mazda has remained faithful to this engine type. You can expect some new rotary powered sportscars in the U.S. from them soon.

Gavin

wut i am wondering though is in a 3 rotor engine how do the 3 different rotors like arranged are they all in different oval things or the same one are there actually 3 seperate rotors thats wut i was wondering and yes i know about the new rx8 should be interesting having the rotary back in america

Check out this site:
http://www.3rotorrx7.com/images/My3Rotor/index.htm

Also, a 3-rotor rotary is pretty rare. If you see one, they are likely to be in the neighborhood of 450-600hp, and they weigh NOTHING. However the rotary leaks oil, BAD, so I hope they fixed that in the RX-8

mazda did make a production 3 rotor car called the cosmo in the early nineties. 3 rotor 2.0, it was designed to be a luxery car but never really made it. i think it had about 240 or 250 hp, not too sure on the numbers, try www.3rotor.com for any more info. and mazda used a 4 rotor to win the le mans endurance, i think it was in 93 or 94. to answer the question the rotors are stacked one in front of the other.

oh so all of these stacked rotors move at the same time ahhh i see now so it's like rotors all hooked up to a shaft sortof like the difference between a v6 and a v8 except adding another rotor ok i get it now thanx alot ppl

Gday all:)
Generally speaking, the wankel rotary engine is not a big producer of torque, its strong points are its ability to produce linear power, and handle high revs.
There is a RX7 show car (MADRX7) running a supercharged 13b, that was wound out to 26000 rpm on a dyno (you read it right, twenty six thousand revolutions per minute). From memory it was making about 550hp at the treads.
Down here in Sydney we also have a triple rotor (20b) that is consistently running in the mid to high eights.
I believe its capacity is the equivalent to 2.6 litres.
Whilst it is not exactly a daily driver, it is street registered. Anyone who has heard it respects it.

LifeofAgony
I think the company that Audi aquired was NSU. They (NSU) went bankrupt as a direct result of the enormous cost of continually replacing blown engines under warranty (sealing problems).
Back in the day, owners of those shitters would wave to fellow NSU owners by displaying a finger for each engine that had expired. In some cases this entailed waving with two hands!

my friends 2 roter turbo ii made 266hp to the wheels and 256tq to the wheels...thats not half bad troque.