How long can a rotary last at 9k rpm?

[Alfadog]

A bit off-topic, but I thought some might be interested.

Here are some (silly) guys with a series 5 FC RX7, with an engine they obviously dont need anymore. They want to see how long the 13B powerplant will last at full-throttle with no rev limiter (ie 9000rpm).

Anyway, don't download it unless you've got a fast connection, the file is about 27 MB and not exactly exciting!!

http://paladinmicro.com/RX7BlownEngine.wmv

[Gav240z]

Too much time on their hands.

They should have at least taken it for a drive and tried to blow it up that way.

Pretty dangerous how it caught fire.

Reminds me of some people who took a 200B Datsun L20 motor and went paddock bashing in it.

Thing caught fire 4 times they poured oil down the carbies blew the radiator and it didn't die they were at it for about 2 hours trying to kill this L20.

Oh well not something i'd do in a Z that's for sure

[Z-point]

Amazing!

[zwrenchturner]

I bet it woulda went longer if they had the cap on the radiator! I've always been a big fan of those rotarys, I dont know if I should be proud that it lasted so long, or cry because they killed the poor girl.:classic:

[lordbiotree]

For those of us with dial-up. What happened to the engine other than catch on fire. How long did it take for the engine to blow up?

What did they do and how did they do it?

-Brandon

[zed240au]

yeah fill us in have very slow connection would luv to know how long it lasted and what happened one question though is they must have limited throttle as i know with my rotarys 9000 is way easy know mine have seen over 10000 on a number of times never held one past that (and that was not really planned just heat of the moment chasing times on a stage) but at 10000 they still want to keep revving faster

Mick

[MikeW]

This particular car (2nd generation RX7 convertible) had an 8K redline and the tach pegs at 9K. These two dimwits claimed that the motor was already blown and wanted to see how long it would last sitting in the driveway in neutral with the pedal floored. They had a bet - one said 10 seconds, the other claimed 20.

After warming it up slightly they had at it. The camera stays focused mainly on the gauges with wisps of smoke or steam blowing past. It easily makes it 10 seconds. Then 20 seconds go by. It keeps going and going. It starts heating up (partially because it loses pressure since the radiator cap it off). An engine warning light comes on. In the end, with the tach at 9000 rpms almost the whole time, the poor engine lasts a whopping 6 and a half minutes by my watch before it finally just drops back to 0. No big explosion as I was expecting.

It then catches fire and we get to see dumb and dumber scrambling first into the house bathroom looking for a bucket and finally back outside for a garden hose. They've already ruined the engine and they are about to ruin the rest of the car (and possibly the other RX-7 parked next to it). Fortunately the fire is not as bad as they thought. It's more like an exhaust system that's glowing red. Oh well.

[Ed]

For you slow guys.

They floored the gas pedal and the engine reved to about 8700rpm. Slowly it increased to 9K and stayed there for atleast 4 minutes. Then they show a picture of the engine and you can see that they left the radiator cap off on purpose. Steam coming out of the radiator. The engine was doing great. 9k with no problems. Then finally the engine overheated. That's what killed her. :dead:

[lordbiotree]

Thank you mikeW and Ed.

Mikew I really enjoyed reading your post. So if they left water in the engine it probably would have lasted a lot longer.

Guess the engine was not blown if the car was running.

-Brandon

[Mr Camouflage]

For those with dialup, the engine didnt actually catch fire, though there was plumes of black smoke pouring out the radiatior when the engine was running before it died.

The exhaust was glowing red from the engine back, and it set fire to something under the car.

[Mr Camouflage]

This video is much funnier, because what happened wasn't supposed to happen. It's also an rx7.

rx7 blow.zip

[Alfadog]

mwuahaha :tapemouth