Causes of Rotary engine failure

[TitaniumTT]

Side seal failure - overheating........ severly. Seal must have expanded into the corner seals with all the heat, had nowhere to go and just shattered. This was a fresh engine, about 1000 miles with TIGHT clearances set.

Side seal failure to carbon lock - basically the same thing as the overheating

Coolant seal failure - Using Dex-cool or Redline Water wetter. There is a chemical in those two that EATS away at coolant seals.

Lets not forget to add things like
misfires cause pre-ignition. Haltech vehemantly denies this but how many rotary owners have lost engines on the highway when barely in boost only to find in thier data-logs a 50* BTC fire? Talk to Joe about this

Improper tuning - again, too much ignition lead, not enough fuel, whatever the case may be turbocharged rotaries die early deaths at the hands of thier tuners daily.

My favorite one that is just so hard to prove though is using parts during a rebuild that really shouldn't be reused. E-shafts for example, how man people bust out the V-blocks and dial indicators and mic the bitch up? I firmly believe that alot of people pull these things out and don't mic every last little piece, they just say, it came from a running engine, it'll be fine. When it blows, it destroys the piece that was in question so the answer become a mystery that perpetuates the myth that rotary engines are unreliable.......... this coming from the guy that has gone through 4.5 engines this year. But let me tell you my story

Engine #1 - purchased as an import sometime around 2003. Sat in someones basment until 2004 when someone else bought it to let it sit in thier garage until 2005 when I bought it. It sat in my garage until 2006 when I started my swap which took 2 years - 5 years just sitting. It had REW housing so I knew it was rebilt. She made 105psi comp so I said what the hell and ran her for ~5 hours before I lost the carbon locked side seal and chuncked 1/2 the engine.

Engine #2 - I rebuilt and clearanced everything to the best of my abilities. Broke her in for ~800 miles, she put down 313RWHP on WG and 36 hours later was run to ~265* oil and water temps during an emmisions test - lost a side seal

Engine #3 - made 346 RWHP before she ran out of fuel on the dyno @ 4800 rpms on the 1st pull and went to 13.6 AFR's, warped two apex seals.

Engine #4 - Didn't even dyno this one, found a sticking corner seal on the comp test. Here's what I'm talking about. This rotor really shouldn't have been reused but it was matches and cryo'ed and I really didn't want to wait so I worked that corner seal with some compound until it was free'er that when it was when I started. It still wasn't as free as the others. When I broke it down I spent HOURS working that seal and recess until the seal moved like glass.

Engine #4.5 - still running awesome, dyno'ing in T-Mius 84 hours