Floyd

I found these links and was wondering if anyone had more information about this process. It seems pretty cool to me. I'd love to deep freeze some rotors and some housings

http://www.kfor.com/Global/story.asp?s=3390503

and for racers

http://www.300below.com/dragracing.htm

expo1

You might also like this link.
http://www.rotorsportsracing.com/per...gine_parts.htm

But what's the point of spending 2 grand on a engine rebuild with ' frozen rotors" to gain 3 MPG?

army_rx8

well it would save you money in the end....as long as your drive a few million miles or something :p

Floyd

I guess the overall duribility increase would be cool too...mabey beef up that trany or something.....

Rotary Rasp

iTrader: (2)

I'd do it. But the chances are, the car would fall apart before the engine. The engine would last at least twice as long. N/A wankels already last twice as long as piston engines. So thats what? ...almost 3/4 of a million miles...lol

RotaryIT

Maybe I should buy the lightweight RB rotors and have them Cryo'd before tearing down the engine? I wouldn't be doing this for a while, waiting to see what the MS RX8 is made of first. If there is someone out there thinking of buying the new rotors, this might be something to try.

RotaryIT

We still have to consider that the Honda Insight in the first article was able to get 120mpg, as opposed to 50mpg. That is a huge difference. I did not go through all of the rest of the articles, did it say only a 3 mpg increase somewhere?

Floyd

no, unless expo1 has some personal experience or the performance parts page he linked to had some information that that I missed the +3 mpg was just a guess

expo1

That was just a guess; the rotary has significantly fewer parts than a piston engine. How much can the friction be reduced when you have fewer parts to begin with? This photo http://www.rotorsportsracing.com/ima...ingrotorsB.jpg refers to reduced carbon which for longevity is good but if that had anything to do with fuel economy why doesn’t a brand new engine get better MPG? I am not saying this process has no benefits for people that race. But for street use what can this do for an engine with three moving parts?

fray

iTrader: (1)

there are more then three moving "parts".. 2 moving assemblies (the rotors) and the eccentric shaft..

The place where this looks like it would be useful is with weeker rotors, as well as with the side seals, apex seals and corner seals.. Make those stronger, less likely to wear on friction and the engine will last a LOT longer, and might pick up a few MPG (less blow-by).

Now what would be interesting is if this truely stengthens the engine to the point you can safely do more revs and/or add boost in a safer fashion.

guy321

ive heard of people cryogenically freezing rotors like 2 or 3 years ago.

jaguargod

I'll definitely look into this when it is time to replace my brake rotors. If my small business venture proves successful, I would be open to replacing my engine rotors with cryoed ones if there was a little more testing and proof of significant mpg improvement and engine longevity.

Red Devil

Just saw an ad the other day for "Frozen" brake rotors. I was contemplating whether it was BS or not, or if even to trust the vendor. Though I saw an article in SCC years back about them cryo treating their project 300ZX engine and lauding what a stronger block it would be as a result.

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

3 MPG increase???

In your dreams maybe ...

rotarygod

I had a friend that sent his rear ring and pinion to his Camaro off to be cryogencially treated. He only paid about $30 for it. It also wasn't associated with any performance shops. It was just a cryogenic lab somewhere. If you go through other places that are automotive related you are also paying a middle man.

therm8

120mpg?? I call bs. 120 instantaneous, while coasting downhill, maybe. But then my 2.3L turbo Volvo would do that (well 99.9mpg, as high as the trip computer went).

Floyd

Well, if the guy went MONTHS without a fill up even with very little daily driving to and from work that would be astonishing.

I'm not sure about it being less for a rotary though. If you consider the large surface area of the rotors during the combustion cycle then perhaps having these surfaces "smoothed out" on the molecular level may have more of an effect then we imagine...but jsut like everyone else, i'm just guessing.

Photic

I fail to see how it would improve gas mileage like that. Maybe his the electric portion is work more efficiently or something? I can see where reducing friction would help but would it help to that great of an extent? I mean aren't you essentially still using the same amount of gasoline/air per combustion with the same amount of rotation on each part?
I suppose I need some schooling in this category.