It occurred to me that the RX8 rotor housings have the O-ring slots. Therefore the end housing can be real simple. The steel wear surface is just the cheese in the simple sandwich. It can even be chrome plated just like the rotor housing for a super low wear and a super smooth surface. When over haul times comes (if ever) it can be replaced or refinished. One of the cheap ways of making these things is chemical etching. One large O-ring seals the steel wear surface to the aluminium end housing.

Light weight end housing are essential for 120 HP one rotor light sport engines.

An external AN hose oil gallery further simplifies the engine.
An oil scavenge pump replaces the stock oil pump and scavenges the rotor cooling oil drain back, front and rear main bearing drain back. An after market combined oil pressure and scavenge pump is used. Here is one from Barnes.

These are ideas Jim Mederer, owner of Racing Beat, used on the time to climb engine.

The end housing themselves can be NC machined billet.
No need of castings.


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I think we can incorporate the water pump housing in the front end housing.
A while back we cast up some stand alone water pump housing for the stock Mazda water pump cartridges. They worked great. We can use the stock low cost cartridge here as well. All aluminium versions are available  for the second gen RX7 engines.

Here are some 3D's of what I have in mind and some old pictures.
A lot more work to do on the dwgs.

Paul Lamar

Paul,  You are confirming that there are unlimited choices out there for single to even 4 rotors.  However for a single rotor could you even move the starter ring to the back of the engine for aircraft which gives a clear front to direct couple a reduction box?  The old mate in Sydney is currently assembling 3 engines with his rotor housing liner inserts to see how they perform.  All good on the engine side, but need a light weight reduction box as well.

Neil.


I don't want to move the ring gear to the back of the engine. The back end house is already quite complex with water pump, oil pump and rotor drain backs.

  All stock parts can be used with the ring gear on the front of the engine along with the phasing gear. The alloy front housing is a piece of cake. It is the end of the engine that is designed to extract the power.

The one rotor torque pulse is huge so there is not much to be gained by saving weight on the gear box.

It might work with a smaller gear set but to start off we should use something that is proven.

The coupling is all important and we are about to test the silicon rubber coupling on the 650 HP TTC engine.

A one rotor would without exhaust valves and  with  just two moving
  parts is going to beat any piston engine let alone a six cylinder piston engines with six exhaust valves to burn.

We should get all the rotor heads in Oz together  for a corporation for the purpose  of building a one rotor Light Sport engine in Australia. Then issue stock to everyone that buys it.

I nominate you for CEO Neil.

Paul Lamar

Hi Paul,
    Do you think it might be feasible to band saw off a slice of the cast iron end plate, say1/2" thick, and then surface grind the back so that it finishes up about 3/16" thick ? You could use that as the sandwich plate, it would already be the right dimensions.
        Chris Hoskins New Zealand

Great idea Chris. I think it would work great..

I am still working on the end housing so they are not cast in concrete yet :)
Hear are a few pictures of Chris's rotary project. Chris is a very creative guy with lots
of good ideas. Take a look at his power steering nose gear.

Paul Lamar ...... Putting Experimental back in EAA :-)


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