I definitely think the 3 mm are the way to go. Since we run the engine at only
6000 RPM the wear should be good for at least 1000 hours. I saw Tracy's 2 mm seals
after he removed them from his engine at about 800 hours and the wear along the
sides of the seals was noticeably but not excessive. In any event if I can't
talk Eamon into doing it on all 3 mm seals I will make a little drilling jig
and drill mine in the drill press one hole at a time :-)
I have not gotten around to looking for an outfit that can grind the seal
slots. Should not be too hard to find however. You might even find someone on the
internet.
Paul, aren't the Mazda seals hollow on the inside? I thought this was a breakthrough they had developing the mazda engine, solved the chattering wear problem.
Hans
Not to my knowledge. I broke one with my fingers and it looks very solid.
The chattering was solved years ago (1960's) by going to aluminum impregnated
carbon seals and a chrome plated housings. Then they found out that
cast iron would work as well so they have been using cast iron and chrome
ever since. The 3 piece was developed to improve the low speed sealing
for fuel consumption and emissions. Low speed is what the EPA test for
as 50 MPH is only touched briefly in the EPA driving cycle.
Some CARB dork drove around the block 30 years ago, recorded it and
that is what it has been ever since. Hardly real world. I drive 70 to 80
MPH for an hour back and fourth to the hangar even during rush hour.
BTW I see where GM is suing the state of California over the really stupid
so-called ZEV law. Good for them. I hope the rest of the car manufactures do
the same.
A stake has been driven through the heart of the very fine rotary
engine based on the fact of a small percentage increase in emissions
and despite the fact that there are less than 100,000 rotaries out of
20 million engines on the road here in southern California.
For awhile there the stupid jerks were going after aircraft piston engines.
Sorry! I digress.
Paul Lamar
The AirCraft Rotary Engine NewsLetter. Powered by Linux.
http://home.earthlink.net/~rotaryeng/ http://www.linux.org
