I'm new to rotary.
One question: Why does rotary engine consume so much oil? Can someone explain this in detail?
Thanks.

 

"so much" is rather subjective, athough the fact that most other engines don't/shouldn't consume any makes the small amount the rotary does use "so much" more.

Anyhow - Oil is injected directly into the engine's combustion chambers to lubricate the seals inside the engine - specifically the apex seals which are on the 'corners' of the triangular-shaped rotors. Therefore oil is consumed as part of the normal running of the engine.

The reason why oil is injected in there to lube these seals is because there's no other way for oil to get to the seals, since they're inside the combustion chamber on the other side of the oil seals (comparable to the piston rings in a piston engine). Once the oil is injected it is subsequently burned and so the oil is "used" over time. The burning of the oil isn't the point of injecting it, lubricating the seals is the reason it's injected.

There are some good websites around explaining how the rotary works - check out http://www.rotaryengineillustrated.com/

Simon.

 

as an example i just added 1/4 qt after the first 1100 miles. thats not that much oil.

 

sferret, excellant link thanks!