The german rotary-guy - The Project

[RCMike]

I talked to an rx7 and an rx8 owner last night and neither had heard anything about this..

This has me curious now..

[redroadster]

One of the reasons I remember it so well was i was told I and 2 other techs worked on it .I may have aligned or checked align on it . the wreck was 2-3 months after he had it ,not sure the miles The manager stated he had talked to SHP about it and they saw no obvious cause steering or suspension wise and that people reported the wheels were turned but the car didn't
I think RX7 had a high caster setting 61/4 -7 degrees which is usually the setting for cars that have a understeer cond already rear eng Porsche's etc., they were a light car and most of the engine set behind the crossmember ,had a deep fan shroud.
i first heard he was doing 100 and lost it later it was that he was doing 80-90 but had slowed at the corner to 70
this happened in mid summer around 11pm usually high humidity then as the grass is soaking wet and this local was down by the blue river KCIR raceway.
we had a few Datsun racers come thru the shop and parts dept. and it was one of them a year later talking to a trans tech that stated the Mazda rotory ban and the tech and I saw it in a magazine article

I heard my service manager back then works now at a motorcycle dealer ship here. I would rather drive by and ask him about it, than call on the phone

[Rhänne]

Hey guys,

here are some News-pictures:

FEEL FRE TO ASK OR COMMENT! Thanks!



oldest picture







Shifter of the RX7 FC gearbox






Like new Sparco seats (pessenger seat with rail underneath)





Brake caliper Adapter for Front

[Rhänne]

Cooling





















breakthrough to intercooler
















charged air system






















straight intake

[Rhänne]

And here is another project which stands still for over 5 years.

My "Simson Schwalbe KR51/2" built 1986 in the German Democratic Republic.

Great ride!
50ccm, 2-stroke, 4 gears, original 6V -> now 12V with electric ignition. The only 50ccm-ride - beside the vespa from italy - which is allowed to do 60km/h. Others only allowed to do 45km/h ... officially

[RCMike]

Nice! Like seeing progress on this!!

[Rhänne]

Hey guys, sorry that I neglected this thread for a while.

my aim for this year is to start the engine, mounted in the car, with the standard ECU.

So my coolant system is ready to cool.
I build all parts of aluminum, a Flange for In- and Outlet, an Overflow tank, 90° tube with third connection to Overflow tank.
I elimated the mechanical waterpump to get space for the Turbo.
So I used a Davies Craig EWP115 electrical Waterpump for the waterflow.
When I will change the ECU from original to Megasquirt I wanna use a Map with PWM-Out for regulate the pump speed.
To regulate the warm up without little or no speed of the waterpump I installed a Thermostat, which is normally used in the Lada Niva.
If this system wouldn´t cool the rotary down on traffic or under hard track conditions I bought a SPAL Fan
Only thing which is missed is a fan shroud which will come sometimes



The Turbo needs Oil Feed, Water Feed, Oil return and water return.
So I ordered some special made stainless steel lines with teflon inlay at a industry hydraulic firm.
Water feed comes from Inlet flange
Oil Feed comes from front plate
Water return goes to upper side of the radiator
Oil return goes to front plate/oil pan



I installed the alternator 180° turned in the front of the engine so it runs left instead of right originally.
Put it produces AC-Current which will transformed in DC so there shouldn´t be a problem.
I used a 460x10 belt to connect it to the crankshaft. very small
Also I build some parts for tensioning the belt of the alternator.


Another thing I changed is the oilcooler connection.
Originally its at the top and on the side.
Caused by the place I want to install the oilcooler there is a problem between the top connection and the frame.
So I cut the connection at the top and welded also on the side.
Now there is no problem between the oillines and the Frame.


At the moment I have to plane some weldet flanges and to hard solder my Oil return Flange which is made from copper and steel.





This is engine bay without alternator and Turbo. You can see the water In-/Outlet flange ant the Lada thermostat







This is my selfmade "tension jack" for the alternator








Here you can see the Oil return line incl. fange to turbo (made of copper - beta version)
















Another shot of the tube from turbo to intercooler which is normally underneath the right fender







Last but not least a pic from above






The Year goes by and I told you that I wanna start the engine this year. And it WILL start this year

What I want to do before fire it up was to get the turbo hot side disassembled. But my "cold" torch couldn´t get so much power in this cast iron housing. So I decided to bring the turbo to the machine shop of my univeristy. They have oxy-acetylene burners which have a much more powerfull flame.
I headet it up for 30 seconds and could easy get the housing of. This is what I found:




unfortunately I have no good picture of the turbine wheel before blasting. It looked abominably
But here you can see how it looks now!
- I know that this is not the best for the efficiency of the turbo, but it´s a turbo which was developed in the 70s. Which efficiency?! - When the car is complete und runs a year or two I want to swap to a GT3582R or a more efficient turbocharger, so no problem about this at the moment






The headshield was very carbonized. I only cleaned it up. I think the prolem is the "piston Ring"
(picture is after cleaning it from coking)






Because of the size of the turbocharger Mazda originally used a twinscroll turbo with a flapper door inside the manifold. In low rpm´s, when the exhaust volume is low the door closes the smaller inlet of the turbo to get higher gas speed into the turbine.
I can´t use this manifold caused by space or better no space in the roadster. So I cant use the full potential of the twinnscroll system.




So I decided to get some mill work on the inlet of the turbine like some do on cylinder heads. Not as perfect as they, but I think better then original




At Last:
Last WE I connected all wires and want to crank the engine. After minimum 3h of wiring and searching in diagrams I found the one wire which I missed the whole time before, but it was this one which connected the ignitorswitch to the battery
After that, it works ! I tried it without gas only for a checkup... and it WORKS!!

So on Friday I want to fill it with gas and give it a chance
I will make a clip for you

[S Allen]

Very cool-looking forward to the engine running clip. Very nice work.

Steve

[notoptoy]

This has been a very complicated conversion, I look forward to seeing the results of all your hard work!

[Rhänne]

[youtube][/youtube]

[RCMike]

Huge! I love it! Where are you going with the exhaust?

[notoptoy]

Quick, open a door or a window!! That seems awfully smokey, don't get carbon monoxide poisoning before you finish the project!
I want you to live to it's completion
Awesome progress, congratulations on the first run.

[pebbles]

Awesome!!!

[peter]

It's alive!!!
Congrats.

[Rhänne]

Thanks Guys!!! I´m very very very very very happy with the result this year!

The smoke is caused by the strong mixture of 2-stroke oil and gas Of course I opend the garage "gate" and the door.

Fortunately no neighbour called the fire fighters They are acquainted with me ^^