[Cutitup55]

Acquired this today and have no idea what it was used for or who made it.
Looks like maybe a stationary application being air cooled.
Don't see any identifying serial numbers or manufacturer.

Thanks

 

[joe_padavano]

Pretty cool. Sachs built some air-cooled rotary engines in the 1970s. The Mann oil filter suggests German heritage. I haven't been able to find one that looks exactly like yours, but they have a similar front mounted fan. They were used in motorcycles, snowmobiles, and other applications. Sachs partnered with Curtis-Wright to build one for aircraft use also.

 

[AutoGear]

There was a smowmobile engine that looked a LOT like that. Evinrude (OMC) spent millions of 1970s dollars developing it, around the same time GM spent several dumptruck loads of cash developing it for the "H-special" -body (Monza family). They had trouble with the non-turbo rotary being fuel efficient. Like, a LOT of trouble. One of my friends Dads had a 70s 454 low compression vette he drove to school occasionally. His best friend had a non-turbo RX7, and the vette got MUCH better mileage. The OMC engine I believe, eventually ended up in hobby aircraft.

 

[2old2fast]

Good example of an idea that uses up billions in cash & countless hours to prove it ultimately doesn't work !

 

[Cutitup55]

Thanks for the input guys.
I spent hours on the internet last night and found nothing like it.
Looked it over closely again and cant find any identifying numbers or brand. Almost all the castings have what looks like a part number and they all begin with the number 440.
Quite a few of the fasteners are safety wired. It appears to be in pretty good condition and I
would like to try starting it but am not sure where the oil outlet on the filter housing went. I cant find a external fitting anywhere that it would go to. In addition to the oil sump it also has another smaller oil reservoir. Would need to know what type of oil to fill those with.
You may be correct about the German connection Joe. with the Mann filter, Bosch spark plug and a Bosch starter.
I want to hear it run

 

[Moosecountry]

lots of rotaries use 10/40 or better oil. My RX-7 would use up 10/30 like there was a hole in the pan. They use oil between oil changes,,,normal

 

[Cutitup55]

Couldn't stand it anymore I fired up that rotary today and it sounds pretty good.
Had to go through the carb as it was a mess. The fitting on the oil filter housing must have gone to a gauge at one time, so I just plugged it. Pretty cool little engine. Would still like to know where it came from.
Now, what to do with it.

Thanks again guys.

 

[Dave57210]

Arctic Cat snowmobiles used these engines on certain of their Hi output sleds

 

[Morrison]

Acquired this today and have no idea what it was used for or who made it.
Looks like maybe a stationary application being air cooled.
Don't see any identifying serial numbers or manufacturer.

Thanks

 

[Morrison]

Back in the early 70's, both Suzuki RE5 and Hercules W2000 used a rotary engine on their motorcycles. Kinda looks like it might be a Hercules engine.

 

[farna]

The main savings that was to be had with a Rotary was on the production side -- fewer moving parts, cheaper to build and assemble. Fuel efficiency was no better than a piston engine of similar output. There would be a small amount of fuel savings due to less weight, about 2/3 the weight of a typical V-8 of similar output. Hot rodding one is a different story -- not easy to do. Can't just change cams and intakes like a V-8. But manufacturers weren't concerned about that! GM was interested in the production costs savings, as were all others. In the end, GM dropped it because they couldn't get it to meet upcoming pollution standards. They got it to meet early 70s standards (dropped it around 75), but couldn't get it to meet future proposals. So they asked the government for a 10 years freeze just on their rotary, and it was denied. So they just wrote it all off. The real cost savings came from designing a car around the smaller package, not just fitting it in a currently produced car. AMC had a license to build rotaries, but not the capital to do it. GM agreed to sell to them in order to increase production levels for GM, making the engine cheaper to build due to numbers. AMC designed the Pacer around the relatively large (compared to other production rotaries -- Mazda and NSU) GM rotary only to have the rug pulled out from under them. They had done too much work on the design to scrap it , so they made their straight six fit. That's why it sits under the cowl so far and has a big trans tunnel -- it originally had all kinds of foot room in the front.

 

[Doright]

Its a savkel

https://autoinsiders.co.nz/autofair/sales-ad/2280/savkel-sp440-1978