Robin reminded me of the time about 20 years ago we took the 
13B Cosmo 300 miles south across the Mexican border to San
Felipe. In those days there was not much south of Mexicali except desert
and you could cruise at over 100 MPH for as long as 30 to 40 minutes.
Well the Cosmo over heated in 110 degree ambient temps and when we 
found a place with water we refilled it. It got us to San Felipe and 
back home with no problems. Eventually I had it over hauled as it 
was leaking coolant and was hard to start. 

Thinking back over the 55 years that I have been driving
cars I recall several times having troubles with blown head gaskets.
The worst was an an Alfa Romeo Spider Veloci I had in college.
It had an aluminum block and heads with wet cast iron liners.
Once you overheated that jewel the engine was history. Almost
nobody could fix it.

I really don't think an overheated rotary is all that different
than any other overheated liquid cooled  aluminum engine. Of course 
an air cooled aircraft engine is less likely to overheat as there is no 
liquid coolant or associated parts to fail but on the other hand you 
are going to start having expensive exhaust valve problems at around 500 
hours and up. 


Paul Lamar
 
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