12A to 13B swap
 

i have(had) a 12A in my car, recently i did a compression check on my 7 because it started runnin like shit, when it would run. sadly it only had around 70lbs of compression in the front rotor and 35 in the rear:( . i wanna put a 13B in it or hopefully i can find a 13B w/turbo, but i dont think the 13B will just bolt right up will it? ive heard that the turbo gets in the way of the steering? i think i need different motor mounts? help. i dont wanna have to keep running out to buy parts when i start doing this swap. my 12A is already out and my rx7 is awaiting. thanks.

DO NOT FRET fellow rotorhead. A 13b will go in your 12a car with minimal difficulty. I am in the proccess of preparing for the swap myself. You will need of course a 13b. If you get a 13b from a second gen(86-92) then you will need a gsl-se front cover and oil pan. If you get a 13b from a gsl-se then it simplifies the proccess. Because the engine mounts on 1st gen's are on the front cover, you have to have a gsl-se (1st gen with a 13b from factory) frontcover and oilpan to make it fit. Now the only othere problem is a 13b is 8mm longer then a 12a so your bolts from the mounts to the crossmember will not line up. You can fix this by cutting holes or buy a different crossmember from www.racingbeat.com that is fitted for this; I think it's like 100 bucks. That should do it. oh ya, if you use forced induction you'll need a beefy clutch too.

And the transmission that came with the 12A isn't going to be happy with all the extra torque.

By the way, can we please (one of the mods who knows this swap well) make a write-up on this swap, and make it sticky? That way we have it right there (the most common question), and people can read it whenever they come in, instead of going through all the same questions, it just simplifies it for them and for us.

i just finish the swap again myself.. i used a 13b from an rx-4 and so did not have the problem of swaping gsl-se stuff into the mixture. it is fairly easy, but one thing that will will run into is that the wiring harnes will not exactly match up. if you have one from a 13b lying around, i would swap that too (i wish i had), otherwise there is just a few wires here and there that you will have to adjust.

good luck

Currently doing the 86 NA motor conversion in Pauls car. lotsa fun, everything bolts right in!! .................. yah right, the ECU was the only thing that bolted right in. hehe
I'm going to writeup a complete conversion log when we are done. I've taken a ton of pix and still have more.
http://my7.rx-7.org/Paul/
also with the oil pan and front cover, you'll need either the GSL-SE or 12A oil pickup, and you can hammer/flatten/bend the exisiting engine mount to make it fit.
The wiring of the 2nd Gen ECU is a fun part to, not bad, just time consuming.

Say, what'd y'all do with that old worn-out 12A? I count 6 solenoids on the rack... '84 or '85 engine then?

Always good to have a few more engines stacked like cordwood in the garage... plus I think I wiped out a rotor in WT's engine, meaning one less '84-5 rotor in the world... :(

Hey I know... let's put half of my 12A on that one and make ourselfs an 18A 3-rotor :D

still sitting on the floor from when it was pulled. I'm sure Paul would still sell it if yah wanted it. And would buy it back when its an 18A 3 rotor, hehe.