OMC's 4-Rotor Wankel Racing Engine - The Real Story

[olboatman]

Scribed. Gary

[jackiewilson]

Where are you Jonno?

[Rotary John]

Where are you Jonno?

I'm still here. Just nothing good to ad.

[powerabout]

John
When was the move to oil cooled ones that allowed peripferal ports?
Cheers

[SCT]

John, how many rotary engines were made by OMC?

[powerabout]

Cobalti
Was the guy in Melbourne
I'll find a photo
Cheers
edit
photo

[lars strom]

Back on topic..!!!!!


OMC and the Rotary outboard took the overall win in Windermere 1973


http://svera.se/blogg/omc-and-the-ro...ndermere-1973/

[Rotary John]

John
When was the move to oil cooled ones that allowed peripferal ports?
Cheers

The oil cooled engines were actually the first ones OMC worked on. It was 100ci; 210HP in both outboard and IO. They were peripheral ported and were actually pretty good engines. However, cost was much more than a 2-stroke of the time and even after a complete redesign for cost, it still wasn't competitive. The 32ci engine was designed for the snowmobile and was air cool/charged cooled. The race engine was the water cooled variant of the snowmobile engine. Go back to the start of this thread and it tell the whole story.

[Rotary John]

John, how many rotary engines were made by OMC?

OMC produced approx. 15,500 snowmobile engines in 1973-74. Though several other engines were developed, the SN engine was the only one ever in production. OMC stopped rotary development in 75/76. I believe OMC research worked on a larger engine after that, but never got it to work properly. By that time all of the engineering people in Waukegan had left.

[Rotary John]

Back on topic..!!!!!


OMC and the Rotary outboard took the overall win in Windermere 1973


http://svera.se/blogg/omc-and-the-ro...ndermere-1973/

If you look closely, the bottom half of the engine (bucket) is silver (Evinrude). For some reason I don't remember, An Evinrude engine was mounted on the Downard/Posey boat and shroud was switched to make it a Johnson.

[2us70]

For all you rotary enthusiasts there are several YouTube videos on building rotaries.

[powerabout]

The oil cooled engines were actually the first ones OMC worked on. It was 100ci; 210HP in both outboard and IO. They were peripheral ported and were actually pretty good engines. However, cost was much more than a 2-stroke of the time and even after a complete redesign for cost, it still wasn't competitive. The 32ci engine was designed for the snowmobile and was air cool/charged cooled. The race engine was the water cooled variant of the snowmobile engine. Go back to the start of this thread and it tell the whole story.

Ok re read it all, thanks John, I see Moller are doing what they are doing with a charge cooled engine, is that right?

[Rotary John]

Ok re read it all, thanks John, I see Moller are doing what they are doing with a charge cooled engine, is that right?

Moller is using the 538 OMC base engine. Charged cooled/water cooled. He has developed a central web rotor with dual intakes. He also does direct oil injection to the bearings. He tells me he is getting 105HP from a single rotor engine. Knowing what I know of the exhaust system and porting on the 4 rotor, I would estimate 450+ HP for a todays 4 rotor. I would love to see one of them on a current race boat. Look out Merc, Again.

[jackiewilson]

Moller is using the 538 OMC base engine. Charged cooled/water cooled. He has developed a central web rotor with dual intakes. He also does direct oil injection to the bearings. He tells me he is getting 105HP from a single rotor engine. Knowing what I know of the exhaust system and porting on the 4 rotor, I would estimate 450+ HP for a todays 4 rotor. I would love to see one of them on a current race boat. Look out Merc, Again.

Why Johnno, nobody out there has "UNLIMITED" cash any more, it still wouldn't be enough to touch the 1,000 hp a formula 1 motor produces to day, proven , in production , successful and viable, all from 3 liters.

[powerabout]

I'll bet they could if the spentOTE=jackiewilson;2611544]Why Johnno, nobody out there has "UNLIMITED" cash any more, it still wouldn't be enough to touch the 1,000 hp a formula 1 motor produces to day, proven , in production , successful and viable, all from 3 liters.[/QUOTE]
I'll bet they could if they spent the 2-3 hundred million each year that F1 does just on the engine
This year is an all new engine, lets see how reliable they are for $200 mil
Which means they will have spent a billion in 5 years