snip.....................

We are all now very close to agreement.  Monty added the sonic wave
component to the picture, showing that it can either help or hurt the
inertial tuning.  Obviously we want to tune it so that it helps.  Paul may
be right about there being some more power potential in the Powersport
engine if a larger runner was used.   BUT, to go with the larger runner, you
would need a larger intake port with more radical timing (similar to the
LeMans engine).  Keep in mind that the Powersport engine used very
conservative peripheral port timing in order to get a reasonable idle (and
it still wasn't all that great).  If you have ever heard the LeMans engine
run (did everyone listen to the LeMans engine soundbite link posted awhile
back?) you would know that it had a completely unusable idle for a practical
airplane.  It was litterally worse than supercharged AA fuel dragster
engines.   Maybe Paul's variable intake port scheme would help.  This would
be a substantial R & D effort.

Tracy Crook
tcrook@rotaryaviation.com
www.rotaryaviation.com

Ken Powell is building one so we should find out soon.

The Power Sport trick of putting the throttles plates
right next to the intake port also improves the idle.
I think Everett Hatch (Power Sport) beat Mazda to the punch on that one.

Paul Lamar

Actually, I think Suzuki beat everyone to the punch.  The 1975 RE-5 rotary motorcylce had the throttle plates next to the rotor housing.  I was a senior in college and was working as a Suzuki motorcyle mechanic when these came out - my boss wouldn't let me near one!
Ken Powell
kenpowell@aristotle.net

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