Dear Paul,
I have been reading many of the articles on your website, they are very
informative. I have been looking for a good engine for a heavy duty
gyroplane, and I was told a Subaru EJ25 is a good choice. However, I
have not been convinced. I would think the 13B would be a much better
choice. I owned a RX7 for many years, and when I sold it after an
accident it had well over 150,000 miles and the engine was in perfect
shape.
I have a couple of questions and hope you can help me out. First of
all, do they make brand new rotary engines? If not then we can only buy
old cars for the engines which is not easy to do in my country as cars
must be destroyed after 10 years. Second, how does the power to weight
ratio of the rotary compare with that of the EJ25? The data I got just
got me very confused. The power for the EJ25 ranges from 165hp to 300
hp. This sounds rather strange, and with such power range the EJ25
could have rather high power to weight ratios too.
Best regards,
Gordon Gao
Soobs have a weak spot in heavy duty use. The head bolt threads fatigue
in the aluminum block
and then you have head gasket problems.
Kind of common in piston engines with aluminum blocks. Seems like every
GM North-star engine
has failed. Same thing happened to my Honda Odyssey. That is with only
40 HP average. Imagine what it
would be with 150 HP continuous as found in aircraft engines.
I have owned six Mazda rotaries since 1973 and several went over
300,000 miles.
Paul Lamar
Gordon,
Soobs I have a lot of unfortunate experience but only in the 6
cylinder. At about 100 hours the inlet valves "tulip" and no longer seal.
Happens fast at the end. You will shut down and then they will not start.
Everything can be cured but as usual at big cost. Ifg you want to spend
the
money in modifications, the 4 cylinder WRX soob is by far the best but then
you have to find a reliable redrive and again they exist but at a cost.
The rotary is far simpler and reliable and part of the attraction is this
web site and others where advice and backup is always available. Soobs are
fantastic in cars. They are also heavy. Neil
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