12a spitfire conversion help
 

Its been a week since I decided to do a rotary spitfire conversion, and I have made alot of head way since. Bought a low miles nice spit, bought an 84 RX7 with a good motor, pulled both motors. Today I did a test fit and need a few questions answered:
1. Can a 12a oil pan be turned around without too much trouble? How can I modify the oil pickup to do this?
2. Is there a way to remove the shifter assembly, cut some of the shaft, redrill and tap, and bolt the assembly closer to the engine? The gear lever is too far out in the spitfire for the 12a tranny to work.
3. What dia exhaust pipe would be needed for a non-ported, holley carbed 12a?
Thanks.

hey. i don't know if this link will help. but it might.
http://www.grmotorsports.com/rospit.html
or maybe even this one.
http://home.earthlink.net/~rgibsonsprint1/index.html

I'm not sure,, is it that a 2ed gens tailshaft is shorter ??
or longer. it's one or the other.. same transmissions=
1st and 2ed gens, different tailshafts. check it out.

I moved the shifter location just like you said, took about 4 inches off to move the shifter forward. Cut the shaft and redrilled it. Mover the rear bolt holes to the front.putting 12a into opel gt.
Zoomie

oh what is a spit fire because i hace no idea

Did you buy RRTEC's car? The rotary-to-spitfire thing sounds oddly familiar ;)

Glad to have you on the forum.

As for the oilpan, I don't know if you can turn it around, but I know that people doing a TII swap have to do something about the oilpan if they want it to fit.... maybe one of them can suggest something.

Jon

I did buy RRTECs car. And a Spitfire is a 62-80 British Sports Car convertible. They always had the low weight and good handling, but never had an engine worth anything.
Zoomie: This may sound stupid, but how do you get the rear assembly off? I removed the bolts and pulled and shook and twisted, but the assembly seems to be attached by the tube surrounding the shifter rod. It looks like I would also have to cut off some of the assembly to be able to bolt the back bolts up to the front. Can you give me more information? If you want, PM me with your phone #, and you can explain it in more detail. Thanks,
Aaron

There was a TON of machinework and customization done to grassrootsmotorsports 13b half-bridge project. It runs like a raped ape and gets fastest time of day @ autocrosses.

I'd REALLY reccomend getting all the back issues of this project. RoSpit they called it. Something like 13 articles!

Any help would be appreciated as I'm converting my '68 MG midget the same way....
eg. Are you using the RX7 rear end in the spitfire?
Have any spare rotary engines?
THX

The shifter is also held on by two location pins right under the shfter, had to lift up on the shifter to get it off.
I did have to saw off the front part of the shifter to remove the forward 2 holes.
zoomie
ps opel gt comes in at about 1450lbs. with 12 a and 5 speed. removed about 300 lbs, including the top its a roadster now.

Ahh....Opel GT. I used to have 2 73 GTs.....both ugly ass Yellow.

Do you have any pics of your roadster GT now?

Ahh, dowels. Directly under the shifter? I will look for those and hopefully get them out. Next question: What size drill bit and tap do I need? I will try to post some pictures of the spit as the motor goes in. Took the body off today, si I am ready to start all the welding and fabrication.
I am trying some Metal supply stores tommorrow for sheet steel and some 2" square tubing, does anyone have a source here in atlanta that I could use? Thanks,
Aaron

Aaron, it'll be saturday before i can get back out to the car, i think to measure the RAdiator....maybe someone here can help him out...will someone post the EXACT measurements of the "short" radiator in the fb's..thx...

trevor

Well, a few days of work, and the motor is mounted. Was able to utilize both the original engine mounting locations as well as the plate used to mount the spit rear transmission. She fits in there beautifully, with over an inch of extra clearance under the hood compared with the stock motor. Engine must also be lighter, as the car sits up alittle higher. Now I just have to have a driveshaft and exhaust made for the car.
I have taken lots of pics, and will try to post a few in the coming days. I also ordered an early 12a rad and it fits in there beautifully also. Almost like the car was made for a rotary.
Thought everyone might find this funny:
Stock Spitfire hp: 61 bhp
My spitfire: >140 bhp
It is nice that I do not need powersteering, AC, fan, or almost anything that robs the engine of power. She is going to be one fast little pocket rocket.

yeah. you need to get some pics up.i would love to see the engine bay. and mounting brackets.

She's bolted in!!
 

Hey guys, motor is in and bolted, including tranny. I have been sourcing parts and making brackets and now have all these things done:
Steering (required chopping short a metal water tube that contained two outputs on the driver side near the firewall. This allowed room for the steering shaft.)
Clutch(RX7 slave connected to Triumph Master using a racing braided stainless steel line)
Brakes (rerouted brake line that goes to passenger side caliper by flipping the line around at the inlet and running it across the frame rails near the firewall rather than near the steering rack)
Starter (ran original starter wire from upper post of Triumph solenoid to post on Mazda solenoid. Also lengthened wire from starter relay to mazda solenoid)
Radiator (using early RX7 first gen "short" radiator mounted slightly above frame rail and the top tilted away from the engine)
Driveshaft is being made, 32.5 inches from end of tranny splines to Triumph diff
Throttle (used original weber carb cable modified to work on Holley)
It all looks like it belongs there. I will try and post some pics.

Shifter location, about 3 inches closer to driver than stock.

Frame mods (the cuts were made on both sides) A new bar was also welded to the front of the steering rack brackets before any cutting was done.

that is just beautiful. glad its comin along.

hey, what year of tranny did you use?

Used the motor and tranny out of an 85 GSL. I believe they are all almost exactly the same, and would just require shortening the shifter assembly like I did. Made the shifter 4 inches closer to the engine, which is the perfect amount.

cool. the 80 tranny is about 3 to 4 inches closer already. guess i'm set.

Very close to driving my car. Have practically everything hooked up now, I just need to have the exhaust made. I will be doing this job this week I hope. Found an AWESOME electric fan from Flex-a-lite (310) that fits the short style rad perfectly. Also bought a mr.gasket holley intake that is 9" diameter by 3 1/4 height. Exact dimensions that I needed. Used some of the rx-7 harness to wire ignition and alternator, and they work very well. Bought a holley 4.5-9 pressure regulator and gauge. Tried to start without exhaust on friday, but without much luck as the carb is not perfect.
I am hoping to take some better picks and get them up. Just trying to find a temp guage to use right now, as the stock sender won't work with the spitfire gauge. I even hooked up the spit tach to the rotary, and seems to work when I was cranking the engine. Won't see how well till the car runs. Very close... I hope this engine doesn't leak.
Aaron

oh god,I didn't even think if the shifter will fit nicely into my Celica from the RX7.

Car is looking awesome!!!!

Got an exhaust put on, but it is rather useless, as they didn;t use the thick guage header pipe I got from RB, but that is not where the questions come from.
Got it to start today, but it ran horribly. It is running a brand new RB holley, and here are the problems:
1. Surging at idle speeds, but will not idle on its own
2. Revs very slowly and not very high
3. Exhaust pipes getting very hot very fast
4. does not have enough power to get the car moving
5. pops and backfires (once back through the carb)
It does start quickly when given a little gas, and sounds kindof smooth. Not acceptable at all. Help!