Maintenance of Harvester gas engine range extender

[soedesh]

Oh, you were replying to the oil change stuff. Gotcha. I thought you were replying to the operation of the Voltec drive.

 

[ClayCollins]

Mazda used a Wankel engine for their range-extended MX-30:
https://insideevs.com/reviews/712120/mazda-mx-30-range-extender/

I do wonder about the rotary engine used for this purpose - they're famously smooth, but also notoriously thirsty. If the whole point is efficiency, is a rotary engine going to use more or less gas than a traditional cylinder engine for the same energy output?

I do know the Wankel engines suffer from apex seal wear which limits their life. Mazda has improved, but not eliminated this problem. Perhaps the reduced weight and size would offset the efficiency. I don’t know if Liquid Piston’s design is better in efficiency. I do know they claim to have solved the apex wear problem.

 

[timmyhil]

My guess is that its maintenance will be around 4,000-8,000hrs of run. Only because it will most likely run at the most torque made rpm which would in theory create less heat and wear to oil and internals. The reason it would be the torquiest rpm is because it would be connected to some kind of alternator or to a special alternator crankshaft to charge the battery.