Rotary Midget project by Dutch 1960

4 minute(s) of a 97 minute read

The notch in the right frame rail will need to be enlarged to allow for draining of the sump at oil change time.

If I were doing things again, I would weld up the drain plug and install one on the aft side of the dropped section of the pan, as there is no crossmember to block access. I would certainly not notch the frame in this way for a car that was going to see competition. When I disassemble everything to do the cosmetics on this one, I will weld a piece into the frame rail notch, to strengthen the area of the notch.

The bottom of the sump fits nicely in a horizontal plane with the floor and front frame rails of the car, I am very happy with the relationship there.

Exhaust header.

There is not much room to work on the right side of the engine room. The header needs to immediately turn 90 degrees from the horizontal right pointed two exhaust ports, to a vertical drop, into the pocket between the right side frame rail and the rest of the structure that is there. Then the pipe needs to do a 90 degree turn from vertical to horizontal.

As this is a street engine, and long primaries for high rev power are not a priority, I will immediately "y" the two pipes into one, and it looks like the vertical drop is the place to do it, as long as I can accomplish all of this (horizontal to vertical to horizontal) in about 8 inches of drop from the center of the front exhaust outlet to the horizontal plane of the floor of the car and the frame rails.

Also, for ease of maintenance and installation, I am looking to put a flange in the vertical just below the "y". Then long lengths of the horizontal, under the car, can be welded together and installed as one piece.

The material is 0.125 wall steel by 2 inch O.D. Very heavy and stout stuff. The flanges and a couple of 180 degree bent pipes, which I then cut down, were purchased from Racing Beat, who know their way around rotary engines, and recommend this material for exhaust pipes. The "y" was recycled from my long-gone red RX3.

I have not yet mocked up the pipe beyond the flange, I plan to bring the pipe across the bottom of the car to the left side, probably under the rear of the oil pan, as there is a nice vertical air gap there. Then straight back under the driver's seat and over the rear axle, in the manner of the stock set-up. I am looking at one short muffler aft of the axle and the exit on the left side, like the older cars, to keep the hot exit away from under the gas cap on the right side, and to avoid placing a hot length of exhaust pipe between the fuel tank and the rear bumpers.