Paul, what year rotary engine would be the best choice to get 300-350 hp with turbo charging (for an airplane)? I am looking for a complete running unit. James Whitehurst

   Anything after 1989. Best to get a running car. Then you can do a compression check.
   Before 2004 the nylon lines that feed oil to the apex seals get brittle and some times
   crack. If the engine is running however you can do a compression check and
   if that is OK the engine is fine.

   2004, 2005 RX8 suffered from the same problem as Mazda cut back too far
   on the apex seal oil for smog reasons. Mazda gave people a new engine.


   My 2004 is still running great as i always put in an extra one ounce per gallon
    of 2 cycle each time i filled the tank from day one.

   About 2006 Mazda fixed it with three oil injectors per rotor and a bit more
   apex seal oil. Some early RX8 computers were re flashed to increase the oil.

   Now if you don't mind learning how to take them apart you can get a real
   old junker and practice taking it apart and putting it back together.

   It is real easy once you do it once. Lots of Video's on how to do it on youtube.

   Then you can put in 20,000 hour life silicon nitride apex seals. About $1200 to
   $1500 for a set. It will run long after you die if you are now 20 years old :-)
   Assuming you are consistent about mixing 2 ounces of apex seal oil per gallon
   of fuel.

   Here are some picture of an aircraft with a side port turbo I did.

   Paul Lamar

       James,
       Even the obsolete 10A engines with a turbo will put out that HP. In the early racing days for Mazda the 10A engines in RX3's made 270HP with the Mazda Factory Race rotor housings and destroyed Nissan's 50th straight victory in the 2L GT-R that was highly developed. Parts for 10A engines are virtually inpossible to find now. The 12A is also obsolete and parts are getting difficult to find. The RX7 13B engines and RX8 engines are the way to go at this time. Something to take note of is the gact that automotive tubochargers in OEM application do not make great AC turbochargers. It is the difference in duty cycle that creates the troubles. Housings with a larger A/R are required. Otherwise the turbo is not likely to last long.

       Dale Davies


   Paul, the first pic- isn't  the intake radiator causing a lot of restriction?
   where do we stand on a 3+ to 1 gear box? is anyone building any for sale?
   James Whitehurst

   It is a bit over kill but no restrictions. Water never gets over 130 F.

   Neal Ungar is working on a producing a gear box in Oz.
   We just found an a company in Oz willing to build a one rotor
   LSA for the upcoming air show in Oct at Narromine. They will work
   together. http://ozkosh.com.au/

   Oz is in dire need of a one rotor as Jabiru is having
   a lot of durability problems. The exhaust valve is the Achilles
   heel of the piston aircraft engine.

   Paul Lamar

The latest Muscle Mustang and Fast Fords magazine has an article on Edelbrock head casting. The pro Ford drag racers were having to redo the valves after every race weekend. The previous casting process left minute "bubbles" (almost molecular) of air in the Al casting that under high compression ratios or boosted applications that allowed the casting to shift a slight amount. Then the valve hob had to be redone. The heads were replaced every year.


Edelbrock built their own casting plant and use a process for race application heads known as HIP. The deck surface and combustion chamber part of the casting mold is steel to quickly cool the molten Al. I am not sure if they vacuum degas but when they put the Al into the molds, it is pressurized to 10k to 15k PSI. The heads are then heat treated to T6. After that they are aged for about 5 hours at 375°F to get ductility back. Since going to this process on the Ford SC-1 heads the valve job lasts half the season and heads last 3 to 4 years.

I wonder how that could be applied to rotor housing manufacture?
I also wonder how TiAl gamma would work for rotors and end housings to reduce weight. Cast rotor housings so that to make p-port intake for AC use is just a matter of machine through the housing. The side housings also designed to easily drill and machine for side intake for automotive use. This way would spread the casting tooling costs over a broader market. Experimental AC engines could basically be automotive while certified AC would require the records of metalurgy, pour, heat treat and S/N etched on each part.
All castings would be the same with side exhaust but the intake machined as per application. Race p-ports where allowed could be made similar to AC.

Dale Davies

We got almost 200,000 hits on this p-port video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKJ00JsnS8A


Paul Lamar

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