Heres the deal, I have an 87' GXL, and I have always liked the FB the most, so I was thinking of getting a GSL-SE, and either port the stock engine, or buy one with a blown engine and put in the turbo. Like most people, I want it to be powerful and reliable, so what type of porting am I looking at? Also, which would be cheaper, the porting or the turbo, and no I can't do both, because I have a budget of $3500. Thanks.

 

With a budget of $3500, I'd think either would be possible. Most people run into cost overruns trying to turbo an N/A rotary and adding all those "Oh yeah, I need one of those, too" parts to the car - but you already have a complete donor car.

The only thing with porting is you have to (a) buy the GSL-Se, (b) pull the engine, (c) dismantle the engine and port it (and since you have it all apart, you may as well rebuild it) and (d) install the engine. If you do a lot of the labour yourself, you can stay on budget. If you expect to have a shop do most of it for you, the labour costs will add up.

 

I'd keep the 87 in my opinion... i'd gladly trade you my SE for it... too bad i've already sank alot of money into it, anyway, i'd go with a turbo but that's just me, you can always go with a bigger turbo but once it's ported and you want to go bigger... well you're kind of screwed, also a street port won't add much horsepower (30? i'm guessing) and will decrease it's street drivability whereas a turbo would keep it alot more drivable.

 

I'm assuming if he's turboing it, manntis... he's going to buy an FB with a blown motor and do a TII swap from the way it sounds.

 

Yeah, I know - and with a complete turbo donor car, he won't have to cobble together turbo parts and tack them onto an N/A engine

 

Oh, i wondered what you were talking about when you said donor car

so you've got a compete TII with motor and tranny and you want to swap it into an FB... the question is, why bother? let me know if my assuption is correct though.

 

Because FBs look better, silly!

 

I'm currently working on a TII conversion into an SE. Total cost I'm looking at is about $5000 including the SE which I paid $1500 (it's running great with 130k on it).

Donor TII car with blown motor $400, engine rebuild $1500, and all the other parts and modifications I'm expecting about $1600 (walbro fuel pump, wrx hood scoop, RP downpipe+high flo cat, gauges/pod + other conversion parts). Other than that pretty much stock and expecting about 200-210 HP. If you want more detail check out the last page of this thread:

https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showth...30#post1827930

So if you have an SE you can probably do it for $3500--and definitely get a donor TII, it's worth it.

And I'm with Manntis, the FBs look much better than FCs--IMHO.

Go Turbo--Scott

P.S. I'll have the wiring mods figured out probably by the time you need it--lots of work there. I'd say I'm about 95% done with the wiring plan.

 

Kinda funny, I got a friend that did a turbo swap, motor and all. and he has about $1000 in it. Of course its not a rotary turbo swap, but anyways, the car runs pretty damn good. The $100 is counting a $250 drievshaft too, wheres Eville140?