[Vettezuki]

Originally Posted by SeanPlunk

Don't listen to the other guys - I still think rotaries are awesome

Great pictures by the way - I'm definitely going to make it next year.

Uh, two of the other guys are planning to build a project car with a rotary . . . .

Don't listen to Carlos. He's a big fat meanie. I heard he kicks puppies.

[Leedom]

Originally Posted by Vettezuki

Uh, two of the other guys are planning to build a project car with a rotary . . . .

Don't listen to Carlos. He's a big fat meanie. I heard he kicks puppies.

I think on the Angeles Crest Curise someone said he hit a baby and laughed at it when it cried. Mean dude!

[enkeivette]

Originally Posted by mdpalmer

Here's my pics: MDPALMER'S PICS

Wow, you guys really like to get on tangents. This thread was about Sevenstock, not a why rotary engines suck balls, etc. You want to know something funny? I actually bought my FD to do a V8 swap. There's a whole 'nother story to that, but that has nothing to do with this thread At any rate, as a rotary engine car owner, I am very impressed with how well some of the V8 swapped cars come out, I am in no way a piston motor hater, in fact I actually am a huge fan of the C6 ZO6. But I think if I'm going to get a V8 powered car I would just get a C6 ZO6, better turn-key package than a motor swapped car, I don't care how clean you do it. I've ridden in a couple of swapped cars, and yes, they haul ass. Doesn't mean they don't have engine problems too though.

My car runs great. I had my motor rebuilt (bought it blown), and have about 20k miles on it with a lot of abuse. I'm making around 300 whp on stock turbos, it's plenty for "mortals" on the street. It makes what I think is a neat sound and is really a lot of fun to drive. I've learned a lot about engines (piston too) and tuning from tweaking my own car, it's more fun than just about anything for me (besides surfing, of course).

Reliability in the turbo wankel engines boils down to keeping heat in check and avoiding motor knock. As long as you don't ping the thing you're fine. Run it a little rich under boost, don't run super aggressive timing, and you can get many miles out of the thing and make pretty good power. Like most motor failures, it's lack of attention to the supporting systems that will end up compromising the engine. A lot of people who don't understand the motors blame it on bad design, and everything else besides fundamental things like proper air-fuel ratios, lubrication, and good old-fashioned preventative maintenance. I'll admit, IMHO, long term durability of the turbo rotary is usually not as good as a piston motor of equivalent power.

I also know a handful of guys with piston motors (V8, inline 4/6, diesel) who have blown their shit up "prematurely", and most of the time you can attribute the failures to bad maintenance, neglect, or not paying attention to the motor running condition (oil pressure, oil/water temps, etc.) among other things (freak accident, poor tolerances, incorrect assembly, shitty parts, etc.). One thing I want to know: how many of you making more than stock power have over 50k pretty hard miles on that engine?

I'm not here to argue, just saying my piece

I think most of the people in this thread like rotaries, I looove them. I will definitely have a rotary something at some point. I even thought about selling my Vette for a 3rd gen before my stroker build. My uncle had one, two... three actually. But only two at a time.

As far as the displacement, you're comparing apples to alarm clocks. If I piston engine used the same cylinder three different times with three different pistons, you'd have to say it's 3x as big aswell. Even though it was just the one cylinder.

A rotary fires into the same chamber three times every revolution, so the combustion chamber is only 1.3L, but it's not really fair to call it 1.3 comparing it to other piston engines. Because piston engines can't reuse the same chamber three times in one revolution.

So... yeah. Let's just say rotaries are 1.3 units of awesomeness. Cool pics btw. I really wish I could have been there.

Also, also, rotaries are damn reliable if you keep them cool and filled with oil. They just burn more oil by design, it's not a bad thing, just different.

[mdpalmer]

Hey guys, no worries, I just don't want to give the wrong message or digress too much from the intent of the thread (to see who was going to the event, who went, who had pics, etc.). I really love my car, it makes me smile, and that's what's important I never said that wankels were the best thing in the world, they just have their own quirks and when you find workarounds for those, they are great. BUT, I'm thinking of getting another FD, keeping my rotary powered one and doing a V8 swap still

[enkeivette]

Originally Posted by mdpalmer

Hey guys, no worries, I just don't want to give the wrong message or digress too much from the intent of the thread (to see who was going to the event, who went, who had pics, etc.). I really love my car, it makes me smile, and that's what's important I never said that wankels were the best thing in the world, they just have their own quirks and when you find workarounds for those, they are great. BUT, I'm thinking of getting another FD, keeping my rotary powered one and doing a V8 swap still

Is your car on display? Let's see some pics of it.

[mdpalmer]

Originally Posted by enkeivette

Is your car on display? Let's see some pics of it.

If you go to the gallery I posted you can get higher res version of all the pics except the last one of the yellow FD. Later I'll try to find some other photos of the swapped cars, there was two or three of them who showed up, they were very nicely done and give me inspiration for a V8 build. Anywho, here's mine with the lovely ROTARY








And the girlfriend's car:

[Vettezuki]

You know we're doing a V8 FC right? Follow the link my sig.

[enkeivette]

Your gf has one too?! That is so awesome. Is that how you two met?

I can see the bigger intercooler, what else have you done to get it up to 300whp?

[mdpalmer]

Originally Posted by Vettezuki

You know we're doing a V8 FC right? Follow the link my sig.

Oh yeah, I'm very aware, I wanted to participate but have decided that I shouldn't add another "car thing" to my plate at this time. Such a cool concept, I look forward to the finished product and its timeslips

Originally Posted by enkeivette

Your gf has one too?! That is so awesome. Is that how you two met?

I can see the bigger intercooler, what else have you done to get it up to 300whp?

Yeah, it is how we met, that's 'nother story too It is cool, it sucks when your chick thinks your off your rocker for messing with your car all the time, we have so much fun with it, it's great.

For reference, a healthy stock 3rd gen puts out around 220 whp/190 wtq (tons of variables, just take this with a grain of salt) @ 10 psi boost. Keep in mind I don't have a recent dyno chart, the one I have on my profile, from almost 2 years ago, was at 12.5 psi peak boost bleeding off to 11 at redline. I corrected the problem street tuning a few months after that and run a pretty solid 13-13.5 psi consistently, car definitely is faster than before the tweaking. Honestly though, my 300 whp is an estimate, nothing more My best trap speed to date is a little over 112 mph at a 1/4 mile track. When I weighed my car with 1/3 tank of gas, and me out of the car, it was 2790 lbs (went to a truck scale)... Mod wise:

3" downpipe
hi-flow cat converter
3" cat back
bigger IC + ducting
freer-flowing intakes
bigger secondary injectors (upgraded from 850 cc/min to 1300 cc/min)
upgraded fuel pump
aluminum radiator
Power FC engine management (with FC-Datalogit to interface w/ laptop)

I have a bunch of other stuff (boost controller, full-time WBO2, gauges, etc.) to keep an eye on what the motor is doing. I have plenty of fueling potential with the bigger injectors and fuel pump @ stock fuel pressure... probably have enough to run 350+ whp w/o maxing out injectors/pump-pressure. I didn't want to rewire the fuel pump just yet (some guys do that to increase the voltage at the pump thereby increasing fuel pressure... cheap way to get more out of what is already on the car). I feel that running more than 14 psi boost on stock turbos frequently is not a good idea, that's why I'm limiting myself to less than that.

Etc. etc. I feel bad, I think this thread has gone a slightly different direction than I intended

[Vettezuki]

Originally Posted by mdpalmer

. . . Etc. etc. I feel bad, I think this thread has gone a slightly different direction than I intended

The process is not complete until I call someone a communist. ;-)