In the current (November, 2014) issue of Kitplanes Magazine, pp 36-41,
is an interesting article about engine choice for a homebuilt Glasair III.

It goes into detail about how the author chose a Wankel engine,
and why he chose a ready-to-use Mistral engine.

FWIW,
john Westerlage

The article was written by Paul Jannssen. Pictures of his airplane are
on the front page of our web site.


"The engine is very good as long as it has ceramic seals. The old Wankel engine had metal
seals that wore out near the center. After that

engine had cooled down, the seals warped,
leaving a large opening.
Because of the loss of compression, starting an engine with worn
seals was very frustrating."

Totally untrue 2.5 million Mazda engines have been built and that never happens.
Mistral was just hard selling ceramic seals. I have owned seven Mazda rotary powered cars
and 10 engines. Several of my cars had over 300,000 miles. Mazda won many races before ceramic
seals were introduced to the after market.

The cast iron apex seals will not warp at only 500 F and they don't wear out in the center.

http://www.rotaryeng.net/history.html

Paul Lamar

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