Mazda

Dec 03, 2006 22 Replies

The effect of pressure and temperature is not a problem. Lubrication of the 'skates' is. Mazda partly solved that in the Wankel engine (special oil admixed with petrol). What is even more challenging, in my view, is the complete -- has to be complete for it to work at all -- sealing off of one chamber from another, while at the same time as this whirls round at high speed, it is in constant tight contact with the inside of a somewhat distorted (not a perfect circle in cross section) cylinder. So, here is the equivalent of the piston ring seal in an Otto engine, with all its early problems that implies. The distortion is yet another clever bit of design to augment/enhance the pressure fluctuation in the chambers, but that is another story. :)

I think they are pretty good value, comparable prices to other Japanese sports cars of the 80s and 90s, maybe a bit cheaper even.

There are a few places that break them. And all those otherwise good cars with failed engines means lots of good parts...

The rotor side seals can also fail. But my RX-7 did 120K miles before its engine lost compression, and apart from an alternator failure, a new battery, and some exhaust corrosion, absolutely nothing else ever went wrong with the car, which seemed to me to be of generally very high build quality.

Is the friction area really so much higher in a rotary engine?

I imagine it would be a little, but is is necessarily a lot?

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