PDA

View Full Version : Rotary engines



Bender
03-22-2005, 12:10 PM
Why dont they put these in atvs. They are smaller and give off more power, less moving parts, and they seem less complicated. Has a rotery engine ever been in an atv? The only engine that i know of that uses it is the Mazda rx 8 or mx 8what ever one it is.

1984kxtTECATE
03-22-2005, 02:25 PM
Rotarys turn a lot of RPM's but the down fall to a rotary is that they are weaker in torque than a normal piston powered vechile, rotarys also tend to make there power in the top end of the rev range

TrikeKid
03-22-2005, 02:59 PM
and their heavy from what i've heard

bigredhead
03-22-2005, 03:11 PM
Single cylinder rotaty's..... is there such a thing ?

Off to google i go !!! LOL.

Lomax
03-22-2005, 03:25 PM
The Rotory engine was tried By Suzuki in the early-mid 70's on a motorcycle. Fast and powerful yes, but the sales were so terrible that it was a short lived machine. Neat i thought, but it was ahead of its time then, and now, I think it would still scare people away if it was on a quad. If you do a search its called a Suzuki RE-5. They where made from 72-76 I think, I am sure that there is someone on here that knows a little more about it than me.

OldSchoolin86
03-22-2005, 03:30 PM
No cylinders in a rotary motor.

OldSchoolin86
03-22-2005, 03:31 PM
Suzuki RE-5 Engine

Capacity 1 x 498 cc
Horsepower 62 bhp at 6,500 rpm (48 bhp net at 6500 rpm)
Torque 55 lb-ft at 3,500 rpm (45 lb-ft at 3500 net)
Brakes front disk, rear drum
Weight 507 lb dry, 552 lb fueled oiled and watered.
Fuel Tank 4.5 gallons US (3.7 gallon Imperial)
Fuel consumption 31-33 mpg ("your mileage my vary")
Top Speed 110 mph
Quarter Mile 13.9 sec, 93 mph

350x'inNY
03-22-2005, 03:56 PM
I got a couple of the Wankle Rotary Motors here. Arctic Cat used them in the 303 Panther Snowmobiles in the early 70's. (ours was a '72) Definitely a different sounding beast!

Bruce

Dan Tenn
03-22-2005, 04:01 PM
Ahh the Wankle. I too used to have a sled with a Wankle rotary. Is it Wankle, or Wankel? I've long since forgotten. :wondering

YAMAHA_Jim
03-22-2005, 05:59 PM
My dad had a 72 303 panther.It was OK for putzin around on and breakin atv trails but it wasnt going to win any drag race.It struggled to break 35mph. It did have a nice sound to it though,,was also very reliable. I can see them maybe being used in utility quads but thier not gonna replace the new 4 stroke sport quads anytime soon.

cliff2302
03-22-2005, 07:21 PM
i seem to remember reading that rotary motors wear out faster than normal motors with clyinders because of their high RPMs and because the design of how it makes compression?

hrc85250r
03-22-2005, 08:36 PM
there is a rotr and section from a rx-7 in my colleges automotive technology lab room....its pretty big....another one of the big downfalls to rotary motors is that their "rings" on the apex's of the rotor would wear out at around 60.000 miles or get stuck with carbon in the "rings" slots and it would run super crappy...i believe the rx-8 has a completely redsigned style of wankle engine....i will get a pic tomorrow if i have time....

foster
03-22-2005, 09:38 PM
Back in the '70s I bought a Mazda truck from some guy who immigrated from Holland and brought his truck with him. I was told it was one of the only two of its kind in Canada, and it had a Wankel in it. Talk about a hard time getting service in a small city where they didn't even know what a rotary engine was!
I wanted some routine maintenance done, you know, just tune 'er up, and a friend said that if I brought the beer, he could certainly make sure that engine gave me many more trouble-free miles.
I asked him over and over again: "It's a rotary engine. You sure you know how to work on a rotary engine?" Of course he assured me he had the know-how.
So I fetched a case of beer and rode over to his garage and we went right to work, with him lifting the hood and checking over the motor.
"Where's the . . . are the pistons?" was his first question. :o
That was the end of that little experiment.
Here's a photo of her. Ran like a top until I drove her down to New York to catch Pink Floyd at Long Island Memorial Coliseum and it gave up the ghost on the return trip to east coast of Canada. :(

YAMAHA_Jim
03-22-2005, 09:56 PM
Dam dude,you must be a die hard Floyd fan.Thats a long trip.
That truck reminds me of the old datsun's from the late 70's before they were nissan. Hats off to Mazda for keeping the rotary engine around.

foster
03-22-2005, 10:17 PM
Ha ha. Yeah, those motors, like me, have been around for awhile.

That trip was even longer than it seems. First I drove to Toronto to pick up my buddy, just as he and I had discussed. When I pulled up at his place he was sitting down to dinner with a date.
"I figured when you called me about Floyd that it was only the beer talking," he said.
:wondering
Jerk.
So I drove all the way from the east coast to Toronto then down to N.Y. and back to Toronto to visit with him for a while (and cuss him out during my entire stay) and then home again.
I used to do that pretty regularly. Back then I was young and rich. And had a fun truck to drive with a great 8-track stereo. :rolleyes:
Now I'm old, broke and drive a freakin' Escort station wagon! WTH went wrong??? :D

rustbucket
03-22-2005, 10:51 PM
It seems as though the rotary sleds had problems with the trigger coils and crank seals. also last year at a vintage sled race there was a dude who took a johnson rampage put two 536cc rotarys on it and beat everyone there. in a rotary the cumbustion chamber is sort of oval shaped and the rotor kind of looks like a triangle with the corners cliped off. problem is most of the old rotarys took a suface gap plug and to my knowledge noone makes them any more. seems like the rx7 had twin turbo rotors.

Pistonhead
03-22-2005, 10:53 PM
I saw a mazda pickup with a rotary in it go up for sale a little while back for $2000, it sold pretty fast. It was a beater though.

foster
03-22-2005, 11:08 PM
I dunno squat about mechanix or motors, something I've proven here many times before with the questions I ask you guys.
All I know is when I put my right foot down in my Mazda truck, I'd better have it aiming in the direction that I wanted it to go. Because that's where it was going -- and FAST!
Yeah, I do remember very well the rotor was exactly like a triangle with the sharp corners rounded off.
It's kind of surprising that the technology never took off. With a little refining of the idea, you'd think they'd have something there.
And it's true, the truck does look like the old Datsuns! Ha ha, never even thought of that even though my uncle had a Datsun back in the last century that looked pretty similar.

cliff2302
03-22-2005, 11:11 PM
i can't believe i forgot this in my first post, but i was at the local dragstrip when i was in high school (about 4 years ago) and there was this mazda or toyota car that looked like a chevette. It had rust in the wheelwells, faded original paintjob and some slicks on it. The guy started it up and i never heard anything like that before. I went to look at it and it had a rotary engine with 2 turbos and a EFI that they were tuning with a laptop. It had a 5 speed in it and when he lauched it sounded like a chainsaw, had to be reving upwards of 12k. He'd put it on the bumber and shift before the wheels hit the ground. It ran mid 6's in the 1/8th. Noone could believe it, ultimate sleeper. Ever since then i've been fond of rotarys. I want to get one and put it in a sunbeam alpine. It would be completely foriegn, but it would be pretty cool.

RideRed250R
03-23-2005, 12:57 AM
we had a 80 mazda rx7 ran good and had some racin beat hop up parts and ran quick sold it tho those motors are notorous for eatin the oil seals and suckin oil threw the seals. my dad liked it cause he said its the closest * can get to ferrari type rpms for next to nothn now my mom wants a rx-8 and they are all new design in wankel technology
adam

1984kxtTECATE
03-23-2005, 04:00 AM
Tell your mom to getn a V8 put a high lift cam in it and some stiff a** valve springs and a big carb, then tell me what kind of revs you can do, Ford small blocks will turn millions of them :cool: BTW Moderaters, wht do you have 2 cool smiles?? They look the same when you submit the post :wondering

wolfspider
03-29-2005, 01:14 PM
Hi
norton motorcycles used wankel engines to great effect in british superbike racing during the eighties and nineties. winning the the british superbike title and the F1 isle of man TT in the hands of the late great steve hislop!!!
they even produced a production model whyich sold quite well.
http://www.jpsnorton.com/start.asp
http://www.scottishbiker.com/Writeups/NortonRR.html
steve.