In a message dated 2/13/2006 3:19:15 PM Eastern Standard Time,
echristley@nc.rr.com writes:
High on
my priorities for
> selecting an engine was
RELIABILITY.
Well,
Until Mazda farms out the cranks to Jethro's aluminum siding
and crankshafts, the Rotary will remain the winner just from the factory
not screwing them up.
And it is always the company trying to make more money. They are more than
willing to bet your life that they can get away with some new gag to save a
penny. If you can get $20,000.00 a copy, maybe that can last a while. Not the
case in car engines.
There seems to be a gap in the engine support systems area that needs work.
Not to put too fine a point on it......................A piston engine can
survive for years with no air cleaner. It can survive ingesting a broad
selection of crap and keep right on going.
The rotary can do none of this. All air has some abrasives in it. The apex
seals are moving at the speed of light. It takes just a small obstruction to
damage a seal. The addition of an air filter is as basic to safety as the seat
belts.
The filter is to remove the abrasives and evil spirits from the
air. None of the installation counts for anything if a piece of the filter
housing, cracked ducting, sealant, brackets, assembly fasteners, or even a
fragment of hardened Locktite, is available inside that system, It will
eventually go through, (or more correctly, part of the way through) the rotary.
I don't think this type of situation should count against the rotary. If
there were some malady that kept biting every installation that was engine
based, then there would be some engineering operation to address that problem.
But I see none.
You cannot pound out the center main bearing saddle. You cannot swallow a
valve head. You cannot break the crank. You cannot crack a head. You cannot
shock cool a cylinder. You cannot wipe off a cam lobe. And you can lean it until
it stops without melting anything.
I was going to add that you cannot over-rev it, but with no prop and no rev
limiter??????????
And if you do hose it up so bad it stops, it is unlikely that 8
quarts of flaming oil will blacken the windscreen. Notice the "Nearest" button
actually vanish from the GPS when this happens.
But I run on as usual.
Lynn E. Hanover