Is there a Ryen· Rotary
Engiile in. your future?
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Would you believe that a
28 .. year-old inventor named
Ronnie Ryen, working out of his
basement in Cedar Falls, Iowa,
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The engine with lawnmower carb and a home carved ignition system.
Controlled van motion is made possible through the plate lying on the
cases which is pinned to the powershaft and into the vane backing plate.
created the motorcycle engine of the
future? If you do, you're pretty gullible;
because he hasn't yet. He has, however,
conceived and huilt from scratch and
run a rotary engine with a couple of
unique twists. It's not a Wankel, and it's
not a totally new mechanical principle,
either. What Ronnie R yen has done is
added a key piece to the jigsaw puzzle
of claims and counter-claims
surrounding all rotary engines. And he's
got a patent on it.
Working on rented time in a local
machine shop, Ryen scratch-built two
prototype engines, and formed a
shoestring corporation to develop them.
Neithor engine would go hmmm at the
time Cycle News visited him, because
among other things, Ryen's protos have
some horrific sealing problems and at
best can only get 30-60 Ibs.
compression. A t this poin t, you could
almost write Ronnie and his· engine
off..except for two things:
1) What Ryen did, he accomplished
with only time, patience, skill and a
budget of less than Honda spends daily
on paper clips. His second motor cost
about $600 to make, inIcuding his
labor. Ryen actually spent -about $300
cash per prototype for materials and
ren ted machine time.
2) Ryen has, despite problems, made
a breakthrough into the fundamental
simplicity of rotary design.
Ryen's engine sits apart from the
basic Wankel design. The Wankel uses a
triangular rotor in a "pinched oval"
combustion chamber. Ryen's engine is
from a different family, which for lack
of a better name, ['II call "scissor-van<'
engines.
A scissor-vane engine uses two
vane-type pistons (see illustrations)
which move in scissor-fashion with
each other as they revolve abou t a
common powershaft. (Note: Don't say
"crankshaft." It hasn't any.) As the
vane pistons scissor together, they'
enlarge and con trac t the four
combustion chambers between them
through one four-stroke cycle
(in take-comp re ssi on -power..,xhaust)
each powershaft revolution. That's four
power pulses per revolution, delivering
smoothness equivalent to an 8
