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Tracy wrote:

The glycol ingestion should not be a problem.  In fact, Mazda used glycol
injection on some RX-7s (including the 1988 model in my garage) to improve
cold weather starting.  Don't know how or why this works but there is a
little tank for glycol on the firewall for this.

Some people have speculated that the apex seals did not work as well when
the engine was very cold due to relative shrinkages of the metals involved.
Perhaps tolerances opened up at the same time that the thickened oil made
the apex seals less likely to spin out at the very cold slower cranking
speed. The glycol injected promoted a little extra sealing until the
cylinders fired and then heated the rotors and apex seals.

Reasonable hypothesis? Beats me.

Barry Gardner
Wheaton, IL

The glycol kills off the frost that forms in the housings during the winter. It also improves sealing during startup. I had an RX-2 race car years ago. My first race engine was from the junk yard. It was junk.
no detectable compression. If you could get it warm you could shut it off and restart it. From cold I dumped in 1/4 cup of motor oil into each throat and a 1/2 cup of hot coffee. Makes one hell of a cloud of smoke, but it works every time. There were people who watched me do it, and they still didn't believe it.
Lynn E. Hanover

 
The AirCraft Rotary Engine NewsLetter.              Powered by Linux.

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