"Lemings, Bob" wrote:

Paul,

Has any consideration ever been given to air-cooling a

Rotary?  I realize this is a fire-breathing heat generator,
but one liquid on board is better than two.  What if cooling
fins were added to the rotor and side housings and oil flow
added to the coolant passages instead of coolant-- increase
the size of the oil cooler, oil flow, and the quantity of oil
available to recirculate.  Maybe someone out there is
proficient in Thermodynamics that could do some calculations?
 What are the heat transfer properties of engine oil (Mobil
1, of course) compared to Ethylene Glycol and water.
Ethylene Glycol by itself is very poor, I know.

Bob Lemings

Its been done but the big problem is cooling between the rotors.
No problem on a one rotor engine. Come to think of it that might
be an easier way to make an all aluminum one rotor. I should apply
for a patent :) Also while we are on the the subject it is easier
to make an aluminum front housing if you use an external oil pump.
Are you listening Richard? If you mill some parts of the ribs
out of the
rotor housing you could feed coolant into and out of just the rotor
housing and cool the end housings with just air. No casting would
be required for these air cooled end housings as it can all be done
with a manual mill if necessary.

Paul Lamar

How about creating an air-cooled two-rotor by putting two of the
proposed
air-cooled one-rotor's in series?  You could make an intermediate
housing,
the core of which is a mesh of fins for heat transfer.

Grant Schemmel

Hard to get enough air and fin area to cool between the rotors. Not
enough room.

This one rotor version on the other hand is easy to do. Use a peripheral
port and an external oil pump. The rotor housing is still liquid cooled
with modifications to allow the water to flow from chamber to chamber.
New water inlets and outlets are drilled and tapped into the rotor
housing. Cold water into the spark plug area first. The end housings
have simple steel wear surfaces held in place by the rotor housing
and the steel front and rear main bearing holders.

Paul Lamar

For the 2 rotor, include a squirrel cage fan in between the rotors
that's attatched to the eccentric.  Duct it to pull air past all the
cooling fins.

As long as we're just dreaming,

Chris Cosman

The problems with high power fans is they suck HP and consequently burn fuel.

Paul Lamar
 
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