RX2.3

I realize this car might be considered sacrilige, but I figured some of you guys might get a kick out of it.

-1986 merkur 2.3t engine
-rotated upper intake
-knife edged and ported lower intake
-front mount intercooler
-big VAM from turbocoupe
-t3 turbo
-new plugs,wires, cap, and rotor
-t5 tranny from a turbocoupe
-willwood mastercylinder for clutch master cylinder (so i could use a hydro clutch instead of converting to cable)


suspension
-1985 gslse suspension (front and rear)

misc.
-the motor and tranny are on solid motor mounts
-battery relocated to the rear
-no interior/sound deadening behind the seats
-walbro 255 fuel pump
-straight exhaust





The motor as it sits now, on stock boost (15 psi) will put down anywhere between 180 and 190 to the wheels. When I up the fuel pressure/boost here soon, it'll be riding around 240 rwhp. These 2.3s are tough. Just thought you guys might like this, I'm not sure how common a swap it is.

Other than the extra boost, plans are to get some suspension under it, a set of panasports the "scca" lip from mariah and a silver paintjob.

Any recommendations on suspension setups? Any other common chassis/suspension problems I should look for?

Hades12

Are you the new owner?

purple82

Was the previous owner of this car on this board? I think I've seen this car before.

RX2.3

I haven't picked it up yet. It belongs to a friend of mine, just waititng for a day we both have off.

He might have been. The car has had about 3 owners fairly recently, none with the time to work on it. I've got the time and the ambition, should be a very fun car. I am trading my 91 Ford Taurus SHO for it. Before the SHO I had 3 MR2's, I miss RWD and a good handling car, so this will be my project.

RRTEC

iTrader: (13)

I remember this one also.. Good luck with your project.... I have that turn signal that is broken if you need it... $12 shipped.

RX2.3

Cool, I may pick that up from you.

Hyper4mance2k

iTrader: (40)

its not a r anything the friggin r stands for ROTORY. Its a Px-7 the 'P' stands for piston or piece of $#!+

RX2.3

alrighty buddy, calm down.

mar3

iTrader: (8)

Here's where it will be appreciated and not given the kick in the nuts it deserves....You've posted this in the wrong section...

For the Weird Folks

RX2.3

Doh.

Who makes the best suspension combo for the fb? Going for backroad/road course performance, not too worried about street ride. As long as it's not so stiff that it breaks the car.

RRTEC

iTrader: (13)

Hey Don't pay attention to the WHACKOS. I personally wouldn't put a piston motor in the car myself (niether did you) but I have come very close to buying several that had pushrods in them... Your car is an interesting car and should be fun to drive... Wait to see the look on the local moron at AUTOZONE when you need spark plugs for a 1985 rx7 with a 2.3l turbo motor..lol.

cpt_gloval

iTrader: (1)

my second favorite engine = 2.3 turbo.

looks like fun. how does it sound?

1stgen4life

iTrader: (1)

Actually the r stands for rotAry. If your going to bash the poor guy at least spell the name of the engine correctly! J/K. I agree that it is not my personal preference to put a piston engine in one of these, but the car will still be hella fun to drive. Good luck with it.

comradegiant

I mean, really, how many people would think to swap a Merkur engine into ANYTHING? Its German built Ford, those things are practically bulletproof.

Have fun with it. Best suspension combo I've seen is the full Racing Beat kit, swaybars and all, with Tokico adjustable shocks.

wwilliam54

the r stand for reciprocating now

Eville140

http://www.eville140.com

RX2.3

That's what I'm talking about right there. Haha.

Hades12

The last 2 owners have been on the board, Looks like the 2.3 makes a great enigne for the 7, Eville's Car is awsome, Hope yours will be to.

onepointone

im the guy that built that car. glad to see someone bought it that has time for it.

im telling you right now, the best thing your going to do with that car is a standalone. i would go with a megasquirt. im sure thats going to clear up alot of problems with that car.

suspension. i would go with groundcontrol coil overs in the front (with caster/camber plates). suspension tech swap bars, and the groundcontrol rear 2.5" springs. i say this because that motor put alot of weight over the front end. with the ground control coil overs, you can play with spring rates to help even things out. a strut tower bar might not hurt either. then i would get some sticker tires on that thing. on 7psi of boost i was loosing traction with those shitty *** tires. you can get falken aziens for cheap, but i autox'd that car on them, and they were still giving me traction issues coming out of the turns.

have you driven it? you really should get it running right and on some new motor mounts before you go crazy with modding it all to hell.

if you need any help, let me know. i know more about that car than anyone since im the one who put it together.

and as far as i know, me, and kevin are the only ones who owned it. do you have any new pictures of it?

damn it sad to see someone you dont know with something you spent over a year putting all that into.

onepointone

unless he put a boost controller on it, its only running 7psi (thats what the wastegate is set at) and since its not running right, id put money that it wont put 180 to the ground. also, it has issues when you up the boost (i dont know if kevin mentioned it). i set it to 15psi once, and in first and second gear, it studders like a bitch, but in third it pulls like a mother ******. but that is useless until you can clear it up in first and second gear.

cruise over to turboford.org for all your engine questions. those guys are pretty cool.

eViLjAy

Im not much for piston swaps but i got to respect this one. Once ya get that thing running right it should be a hell of a ride! Actualy considered getting an Xr4ti back in the day but they are so damn ugly

Eville140

Thanks for the kind words, but you need to change the "is" to "was"
http://www.eville140.com/crash.html

A head gasket let go and caused it to puke a ton of water and oil under my slicks. 110mph sideways is not fun. And bouncing off a concrete wall at that speed is even less fun. Little car held up good though for as hard as it hit.
Here is a quite form a buddy that ws at the track.


"Randy,

Next time you decide to go for a ride like that warn me first...

We were pitted probably right around 850 feet mark.... im sitting here thinking.. Dang the car left well....

700 feet mark i start seein a little white smoke from the tailpipe... rut roh another headgasket....

800 feet.... red coolant litterally EXPLODES out from under the car... next instant Randy is at a good 45 degree angle to the centerline of the track and im seein the whole rear end of the car... the front end hits... picked the rear end a good 18 inches off the ground ( had the rear wheels been on the pavement when the rear end hit there woulda been damage all the way to the bottom of the door glass) the rear hits and Randy is at a 45 degree angle the other way sittin at about 950 feet.

He gets out unhurt and the whole time we are loading up the car all he can talk about is how the other guys there have gotta be mad he oiled the track down. LOL

Whens the parts pullin party again Randy??? lol

Glad yer ok bro.

John"

I will probably end up saving another rx7 from the crusher and bolt everything into another one. But this one will have even more safety items. Only pain I have is on my left hip where from the side impact caused my to hit the roll bar.


Later
Randy

chachee

Glad to see your ok evill140. I am a huge fan of the ford 2.3t. A good friend of mine has a '85 mustang SVO with a highly built turbo motor. I wouldn't be suprized if he had well over 300 horse under the hood. I have taken many rides with him at open track events. Insanely fast car! Very nice motor to put into the 7. Do you have any particular things you want to share about the swap that would help a person complete it? I have thought many times about doing the swap if my rotary takes a crap.

RX2.3

Yea, I know it needs some work. That's why I want it. The SHO is not only pretty much a pain in the *** to mod, but it's EXPENSIVE.

I'll have a beater to go along with it. I was misinformed about a few things, not by Kevin, but thanks for clearing them up. I am getting it from Kevin, probably Friday. I'll try to get some new pictures.

onepointone

holy **** man... that sucks. are you going to just bolt everything into another rx7 chassis? want to sell the whole thing? that sucks though, atleast now you have a winter project. glad your ok.. 110 mph into a wall is pretty scary ****..