How Rotary Engines Work

How Rotary Engines Work

Rotary Engines are combustion engines similar to how pistons engines are combustion engines and are both used in the automotive industry, but Rotaries work in a different way when compared to a conventional piston engine. In a piston engine, the same volume of space (the cylinder) alternately does four different jobs -- intake, compression, combustion and exhaust. A rotary engine does these same four jobs, but each one happens in its own part of the housing.

Like a piston engine, the rotary engine uses the pressure created when a combination of air and fuel is burned. In a piston engine, that pressure is contained in the cylinders and forces pistons to move back and forth. The connecting rods and crankshaft convert the reciprocating motion of the pistons into rotational motion that can be used to power a car.

In a rotary engine, the pressure of combustion is contained in a chamber formed by part of the housing and sealed in by one face of the triangular rotor, which is what the engine uses instead of pistons.

Rotary engines are small, in factory cars they have 2 rotors and are 1.3 liters in displacement rotary engine making around 200 horsepower from it. These engines are known to be in the Mazda RX-7 and RX-8 from 1978 - 2012.  

Rotary engines are discontinued mostly because of not being efficient when compared to a piston engine and by design burned a small amount of motor oil in order to lubricate the seals to spin properly.

Original Article: http://auto.howstuffworks.com/rotary-engine.htm