the problem with rotaries is that the new breed are untested. The Wenkel engine had a habit of skimming the top of the cylinders resulting in terminal compression loss. No-one has had an RX-8 long enough yet to see that they have cured it. I think that anyone that has an RX-8 and is intending keeping it will end up with a car that needs a new engine at 70k miles.

 

That's what killed my RX-7. The seals at the points of the rotors wore out and it scratched the walls and eventually wouldn't even start. However, it did last to 168,000 miles though.

 

You had good luck. My '88 RX7 lasted all of 63,000 miles having FULL factory scheduled maintenance work performed and still it lost its ability to hold compression.

No more rotary engines for me, ever.

 

Alas, thinking like that is why the rotary will never have a chance to catch up with (and surpass) the piston engine.

Though I can't say I blame you.

 

I'm surprised we haven't seen more Rotary Hybrids. The compact size of teh Rotary makes it nearly ideal for the application, and their strengths would complement each other. Electric gives you range and torque, rotary gives you top end and power.

 

Yah you're right, I still hold a grudge. I loved that car! Except for when the engine failed.........

 

I drive an 04 RX-8 (but have loved 'Stangs since a kid), and as much as I'd like to see the rotary engine used in more vehicles I dont think it will happen, mostly because each Renesis rotary engine is hand built by a master craftsman in the Hiroshima plant. I just dont think Mazda could build enough engine for both the RX-8 (possiblely Kabura/RX-3) and a Ford product.

Oh, and the flooding issues have been resolved for quite some time now (PCM reflash), although Ive never had one problem with mine.

However, there have been around 100 renesis engines die (lost compression) in the Southwest (Az, Las Vegas).
Mazda is still looking into the reasoning. Lastest thought is the owners are not reving the engines the redline enough to burn the carbon deposits out, as most of the failures are on the automatics, not manuals.

 

Probably a mis type, but a rotary engine doesnt have cylinders.

Oh, and quite a few owners are approaching the 70K mark (many over 50K) with the engine going strong.
Remember the Renesis is a totally different animal than the 13b's, etc's found in the RX-7's.