can anyone explain the Mazda Wankel engine?

[Menthe]

how is it better than the piston engines? pros and cons list 'em. someone said to me that the Wankel rotary engines are super fast reacting? is this true? Please explain how a wankel engine works. thank you.

[Puck Luck]

I'm not a mazda expert, but hope this helps

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wankel_engine

[Skim]

interesting

[CDN-R32]

Great wiki for the engine. I had an R-100, a few RX-2's, a Rotary Pick Up and an RX-7. The truck was the best, street ported 13b, great sleeper vehicle. Pro's...small motor, few moving parts and great power potentional. Cons...early seal failure and the motor is more or less a large fuel pump! Ha! If fuel costs are not your concern they are great fun.

[coolio99]

Rotarys are also great for turbocharging or supercharging because they have higher rev limits. Also because of a small motor, you get better weight distribution.

[Phil@rise]

Originally Posted by coolio99

Rotarys are also great for turbocharging or supercharging because they have higher rev limits. Also because of a small motor, you get better weight distribution.

They are damn near as heavy as an aluminum headed v6.

[fd3]

My fd can rev like crazy.

Goin from piston to rotary is a whole new world thats for sure LOL
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[TurboFC3S]

Coming from a guy whos owned more than 13 rotary powered vehicles...

Pro's - Fun motors, extremely smooth running, good throttle response, easy to boost, super light, have a good top end powerband and are incredibly powerful for their size, reliable with proper care

They are not good for supercharging...very rarely do people supercharge them, but turbocharging yes, and they are very easy to work on

Con's - Really bad gas mileage. And depending on what year (1993-1995 RX7 for example) Expensive maintenance

The only reason people say they are unreliable is because the owners dont take care of them properly.. Ive had friends and had a N/A RX7 last to 350,000kms when i sold it. I sold one of my turbo FCs which i got stock, then fully modded (garrett turbo, microtech ECU etc.) and beat on every single day and sold it with 180,000kms still running fine, its all about how you take care of the motor and the tune


Heres a animated gif simply showing how it works







Edit : Ok just noticed the OP's post date..Why was a thread from 2009 bumped lol