Umm, rotary of course... My theory is, as long as you rev her up high (7k) on a daily basis, she'll run forever. Working great so far. lol.

 

damn. that's ******* crazy.

 

What's so crazy about that? Every time I drive my half-bridge I run it up to 9000 at least once.

 

Who the hell let that guy in the forum - "Piston or Rotary".. it's people like that that gave the rotary a bad name... the rotary is highly reliable in the NA 12A and 13B forms.... i've probably seen more rotaries w/ 200K+ miles than any other piston engine besides the 4.0L Jeep motor...



Congrats on the mileage and keep it rollin'

 

really though, ask many FB owners, as 75% of them are over 100k miles. Mine personally is at 140kish and I can attest to the fact that high revving once in a while does help. The 12a likes a little abuse. Pistons do not. nuff said

 

It's all about maintenance. If you don't keep your rotary in good shape, yes, you'll be rebuilding it soon. I blew my first engine at 160k miles and then learned about oil metering pumps. A lot of "hot rodders" are spoiled because a small block chevy will go 100,000 miles, even with abuse, but then you have to bore the cylinders because of ring wear. They'll bore it .030 anyways so they don't care. My 500 inch Cad motor had over 300,000 miles when I took it to the machine shop. I knew of the previous owner's excellent maintenance and of Cadillac's quality (472s and 500s have high-nickel content blocks and factory blueprinting) and wasn't a bit surprised when the machinist told me there was no discernable wear on the block or crank. I expect my Jeep to have similar quality.

 

the previous owners of my SA22 took poor care of it . its at 93k, and its 2nd engine (probably soon to be its 3rd). its staying at 93k until i'm done working on it (which could be a while) i just wish i was able to let it run for about 10 minutes a week, so i wouldn't have to worry about the engine.

 

true true, I didnt count that into effect. quick to judge, ya know? My 7 is my daily driver, and I think that plays a key part in it. Granted, I am finishing high school right now, so I am not exactly commuting, but I just drive a 140 mile round trip the other day and it was a beautiful thing how well it drove.

 

I bought my car with 175,000 on it, and the PO was an older guy. He was a sales rep that covered a 10 state area (hence the high miles), but he always drove it pretty easy. The car was pretty low on power, and idled like crap when I got it.



After I read up on rotaries, and how they need high rpms to keep them clean, I decided to redline it for the 1st time on the way home from work (still kind of scary with that kind of miles on the motor). It was like 3 am, and going from a stoplight I redlined it in 1st and then 2nd gear. When I looked in the mirror there was this huge cloud of smoke. I though I had blown my motor! I pulled a uturn and rolled the window down to get a whiff of the smoke, but it didn't have any odor at all. What a relief, I was expecting burnt oil or something.



After that, the power was very noticeably increased, and she idled as smooth as silk. Ever since then, I have been a firm believer in high rpms to keep a rotary healthy. I figure the cloud was just all of the carbon that was built up in the motor.



Like I said, she is now just a hair under 200k but I would not worry a bit if I had to drive from Michigan to Cali. Just check the fluids and go. Gotta love that!

 

I have an RX-7 with over 250K miles that still runs strong. Burns a little coolant, but still runs. My other one had 215K when it finally let go. Ive seen more RX-7s with 100K+ and 200K than anything else and they still run fine. The mileage you can get out of one of these things is amazing to me. I guess its the fact theres only like 3 moving parts vs all the damn parts in a piston engine. Less joints to fail I guess, I dunno.



~T.J.