What is the appeal of the rotary in terms of fuel efficiency or power? I just remember my friend's RX7 and RX8 always warm, needing oil and being finicky.
Something different is probably the largest reason, they make good power per liter and they rev pretty high. Then you have others who have been around them and have emotional attachments to them, so they'd love to see them make a return.
I for one never saw the appeal.
I asked you last time why you thought the engine is a POS, but you never replied. For the record, I'm not some hardcore rotary engine lover, I just want to spread what I know because there's always been so much misinformation about them.
People say it's smaller displacement, but it's crappy mpg.
High revving, but no torque..
People say it's smaller displacement because of power per liter and weight. No one in the same sentence (or at any time) goes out and says the rotary makes good mpg.
How many high revving engines under 2.6L makes torque? I'm genuinely asking because I don't know, the only other high revving engine I've owned was an S2000.
less moving parts.. but breaks down more than a piston engine.
apex seal is laughable
I hear a lot of wild things about apex seals, but the main cause of failure is detonation. Not because something like the 2mm seals are inadequate, even the 3mm seals will fail due to detonation.
In the case of the FD, when they became more affordable, there were plenty of people buying them, neglecting reliability mods first and foremost and then going full bolt ons or cranking up the boost without any ECU management.
THEN you do get it tuned and it's not by someone who are used to tuning rotaries since shops are so few and far in between and it leans out too much and pops an apex seal anyway.
It's funny how the FD RX7 is a great car with one main weakness...the engine.
that's why you see FDs with LS swap.
you don't see supras or nsx getting engine swaps...
In terms of engine swaps, the FD has gotten a reputation much like the S13. Buy the car and immediately swap out the engine for something else. Why bother to learn anything about what it came with when everyone has already told me to swap it because it's better?
Add it to the fact that people go and buy used ones that are clearly abused, don't take the time to learn how they work and what they need to be maintained and lots of people just end up deciding an engine swap would be easier.
A former friend started his company by doing LS1 swaps into FD RX7s. The cars were badass but he would get so much irrational forum hate.
https://www.hinsonsupercars.com/
What I find hilarious is that the RX7 gets hate no matter what engine it has. People hate it with a rotary because unreliability! People hate it with a V8 because murican motor in my jdm! In the end, just rock what you like. I love LSX motors, I really miss my old C6.
To be fair, I've seen lots of hate for Hinson even on the v8 rx7 forums, mainly due to customer service issues.
The hater are the "purist" who wants you to constantly check the oil, treat it like an exotic, drive it a certain way and so on..
seriously...nothing is impressive about a wankel...
Checking the oil is needed because the rotaries inject a bit of oil into the combustion chamber to help lubricate the apex seals. I see lots of people check their oil on plenty of cars, it's not specific to the rotary. It was well recommended for me to check the oil in my s2k cause the ap1 would burn oil, especially if you hit vtec or used Mobil 1.
Drive like an exotic? It's pretty well recommended to rev the shit out of it whenever you want when you drive to help knock out any carbon deposits that have settled in there. Though nowadays with everyone going with water injection, that's helped a lot in cleaning it out and keeping temps down.
