This is an early build(1978) 12a.

I was looking for a place to insert my AutoMeter temperature sensor and came across a brass plug located on the front iron, on the drivers side, diagonal from the front rotor leading spark plug.

I searched the forum/internet and information about this brass plug is sparse. It looks like it leads into the water jacket but I wanted to make sure. See pictures below for a better idea of what I'm talking about.

 

That should be the engine coolant drain plug, pretty sure its in the same spot on all rotaries

 

Thats not the coolant drain plug. You can see the coolant drain plug at the bottom of the first picture, its a regular steel hex head bolt.

The brass plug I'm refering to is circled in the pictures. Its put in and removed with an allen wrench.

 

Yes, and so was I, the allen plug is the normal drain for coolant out've the block

 

Thank you for the response, i appreciate it. So this port leads into the water jacket, it sounds like this will be a good spot for a temperature probe? Any objections?

 

Nope, been done and used for that MANY times

 

lduley, I really appreciate the responses and for being helpful. That's where I mounted my temperature sensor tonight. Thanks again.

 

Off topic, but how does a rotary do without engine supports? Like when hanging from the back of a VW; like in the picture above.

 

Like with any engine, that would be DANGEROUS, imagine those tacos flying out!

 

It actually does ok, I've seen a number of VW rotary transplants that don't bother
with any other bracing. Personally I would repurpose the 12A front mount to be
bolted into the rear of the bug engine bay. Seen that too. If you go on samba.com
you can find old threads on rotary VW installations with pics.

 

tim, do u mean thesamba.com? samba.com is a banking site written in arabic.

 

Supporting it with the the rear iron can't be worse than the aluminum front cover.

 

Yeah, but when the engine is in a mazda it gets supported by the rear iron AND the front cover.


I've seen 12As in VW's before. I've thought about swapping, but the boxer is pretty peppy as is. Why no 13Bs in VW's?

VW busses use a motor mount on the front of the engine. Problem with bugs and ghia's is that the metal on the way back of the car is very thin sheet.



Alright, i'm done thread jacking. Brass plug dunno what its there for. I use the drain plug in the center iron. Only thing to consider if you put a sensor in it is how much coolant passes over it, and what temp reading will it give you at that very hot location of the engine.

 

The plug is steel. I don't recall seeing a brass one there on US-spec Y plates.