Can you turbo rotary engine

When Scott Molitor contacted us and told us he was building a rotary engine for his Subaru Impreza, we had to know more about the decision to do it, and of course, we wanted to hear all about what it took to make the rotary engine a strong fit.

The speed shop does all kinds of work on a number of different cars and engines, from tuning, engine builds, repair and service work for Subarus to Audis and everything in between. We like to work on anything that goes fast. We will work on import stuff as well as domestic stuff. It seems to come in waves. Scott got into engine building during a time in his life that was a sort of crossroads, he says. In , he dabbled in motocross as a hobby and would build go-karts and weed eater-powered bicycles with his dad.

I was breaking some bones doing motocross and working a construction job. That was kind of my first foray into the automotive scene and world, and I fell deep down the rabbit hole. Scott ended up going to trade school for automotive and worked for a couple of small mom and pop-type shops along the way before he started Mofab, LLC in After finally getting my foot in the door with another company, learning the trade and picking up a really good skillset, I decided to go off on my own.

What Scott loves the most about this industry is fabrication work and TIG welding. However, the shop, as mentioned, does more than just fab work these days. Our other niche has been the dyno tuning. The next step naturally for this car was going to be a dry sump. I was always looking for ways to try to get around the issue, but having done a couple of those setups on some customer cars already, I knew what it was going to take and how much the costs were going to be.

I always appreciated RX7s and the FD was always a prized car… so I got a rotary engine from a customer of ours to throw in there as a mockup to see if it was going to look right. I could still keep it all wheel drive. Lo and behold, Scott found a company called Subaru Gears in Australia, which makes adaptor plates for basically any engine to mate to a Subaru transmission. One of the more popular adapter plates was for the 13B Mazda rotary. It is a 13B flywheel, but the tooth pitch and everything was the same for the flywheel as the Subaru, so I just had to basically bump the diameter of where the starter sat in the bell housing further out and was able to use my Subaru starter.

That was the most challenging part, honestly, was just making sure I could get that to bolt up. This actually cranks pretty slow as opposed to the smaller gear, which turns the rotary over a lot faster and they start easier.

One thing that is a little tough, especially with a ported engine, is the fire up. But with a solid battery, it kicks over every time. We got it back and got it in the car. All the fab work had already been done, the engine harness was done, and the build was really together just how I wanted it.

Everything I had envisioned was really panning out. We were on the phone with the builder the whole time talking about how the tuning was going. This was supposed to be about a horsepower capable two rotor, and it basically let go right at horsepower. Of course, it spit an apex seal out and smoked one of my turbos.

I figure they've got a lot more XP with rotaries. No buddy, no stickers for me. I want straight power. I know you only get a decent amount from an RX8 but I want more.

If I remember back in the eighties Mazda put a turbocompressor on it's RX The RX-8 has an improved RX-7 engine without the turbo. They won a worldchampionship race with a quadrirotor Wankel turbo -charged. I know for a fact that in the early 90's and even the car Vin Diesel drove in the first fast and furious was a TT twin turbo Rx Mazda actually made a stock version, a single turbo version and a twin turbo version that came out of the factory.

However, after they discontinued the RX-7 there's only a few Mazda's that are turboed mazdaspeed 6, mazdaspeed protege, and i think one of their new suvs are turboed. I have a buddy who has an RX-8 and has had nothing but problems with it since he purchased it, it seems like the rotary engines cause nothing but headaches.

The higher the boost level you desire to run, the greater the likelihood you will need to address the issue of a lowered compression ratio. In our experience, we have found that 5 psi. As the above comments would suggest, we do not recommend supercharging an otherwise stock, "non-turbo-based" unmodified engine. When you weigh the anticipated power gains against the very real likelihood of a premature, and costly, engine failure it's likely not worth the headaches.

If you are willing to build an engine that is capable of handling the increased heat loads that superchargers develop, the following tips will prove beneficial, increasing the likelihood of a long-life engine. Increase oil pressure to approximately psi, or to psi or more if the engine is bridge-ported or peripherally ported we use to psi in the HP 3-rotor engine. Use the oil pump assembly found in the engine, or a dry sump oil system. This requires using a front housing because of the extra passage at the bottom of the pump.

Perform the water jacket modification discussed previously in the Rotor Housing Tips section to improve heat transfer. If it is possible on your year vehicle to do so, adjust the output on the metering oil pump unit to double the flow at 2, RPM. If the flow cannot be adequately increased in this fashion you will need to pre-mix oil with the fuel.

Intake Systems. Carburetor Applications. Fuel Pressure. Carburetor Tuning. Misc Tips.