a buddy of mine who is very mechanically inclined(im learning and not near what he is) came and told me that since i was planning on putting a 13bt from an s5 into my '80 FB why not do a v8 350sbc swap instead....its cheaper and would get about the same gas mileage as the 13bt..
however nothing sounds like a Wankel engine when revving....
the biggest part of my dilemma is the price.....since i have friends they told me the entire v8 swap motor mounts and everything custom fabbed by a guy thats EXTREMELY good would run me no more than 1200$ where as the 13bt along is 1500$ without shipping...since rotaries are rare its not like i can go to the junkyard and 1. find replacement parts 2. find an s5 engine for cheap
but i bought an rx7 for the rotary however as we all know the rotary has little to know torque....granted my 12a is stock and 28 yrs old but still when i do a high rpm launch its hard to feel the torque "slam" you back in your seat....
so i guess my question is granted the financial area of this
V8 or 13bt? and why? please dont come back and say stuff like "rotary only dude!!" and then give no reason for saying that
give me a reason of why u say what you say please
thankyou
patrick

 

i also would like to know the answer to this.. also what tranny do you use with a v8?

 

well the tranny id use would be the one from the car it was pulled out of...
im praying for a camaro lt1 +t56 6 speed! if i decide

 

I would suggest if you want a V8 in there, then just go buy a Camaro. The point of the RX7 is "Rotary Experimental". You take the rotary out of it and it's not a RX anymore. Your car. Your choice.

 

thing is i cant afford a camaro and i love the way the rx7 (all gens except the 1990 fc convert ) and i dont want a camaro but i want more power from the rx7

 

Honestly it comes down to this.

The RX7 is a rotary powered car, and to change that you are denying it's heiratage.

I personally do not find fast V8's impressive, because really, anyone can make a V8 go fast. Now a well-handling V8, that's impressive. Hence why I am sticking to the rotary even though the original motor was junk, and I was offered a free (running) V8 + auto trans.

If you want to go fast, you can build a V8 to be much faster than a rotary for much cheaper. Flamesuit on, but seriously, a fresh-built 400hp Small block Chevy can be done for about 2 grand, including engine purchase price.

Repairs for a V8 are very cheap, and (new) parts are extremely available for cheap. Hell a junkyard 350 can be had for $400 with trans, and a complete rebuild can be done for $300 including machining.

 

Then just turbo it

 

i'd stick with the rotary, mainly because of the same reasons these guys have, you're taking away its heart. an rx7 is not the same w/out a rotary. yes it'll be really fast with a v8, but it's just not the same, besides v8 screams "AMERICAN" and that does not go well with a Japanese car :P

 

rotary only dude

 

lol jeezus.

why would u want a v8 powered rotary car that would then handle like **** and be heavy.

The whole point of the rotary is its a small low torgue engine for a small light car. throw a heavy v8, then you just join the straight line crew, and everyone likes turning corners.

As well, I dont think the v8 swap will be as cheap as you think. Sure the motor is but you still need just as much custom work if not more than the 13BT.

 

The RX7 has 2 main points that make this group/forum hat it is. 1. It's a rotary. 2. Handling. By installing a V8 or any other non-rotary swap, #1 is gone. To keep #2 even in the ballpark, you'll need to go with an all aluminum LS1 block and heads. That right there just put you out of your price range.

I understand that the 1st gen forum is the cheapest group of all 3 gens, but sometimes it's not the money that's important. Taking a slightly modded 1st gen 12A to track day or an SCCA meet and waxing other cars that may cost 10 times what you have in your's can be priceless.

I probably have over 8-1/2 k in my widebdy so far, and it's not done yet, but there are very few cars that will be able to out handle it once I finish this last round of suspension mods. Then I'll still need at least 4k to do the TII swap just so I can go to the drag strip and occasionally show off. Keep in mind that I frugally source my parts and do 95-98% of all work on the car. Had I simply written checks and let others do the work, I'd be looking at 30k+.

You need to decide how much speed/handling you want and what you're willing to pay for it. Somedays that can be a very difficult decision that is often compromised by budget constraints.

 

There is a V8 RX7 forum somewhere on the internet as well, if you decide to go with the swap and don't want to get ragged on here. I believe it's www.v8rx7.com but I may be wrong.

 

Dude, don't take it personal, but the heart of the RX& is the rotary man. A rotary can make insane amount of power as well, and like others have told you, why would you want to mess up the perfect weight distribution of a 7 and the 7, well at least the 1st gen is not a car that is supposed to have crazy hp, but instead a fun light car to drive that can handle beautifully, like no v8 can. But after all, it's your choice and your car.

 

To echo the others, the V8 would have high torque, but the weight and center-of-gravity change would ruin the good points of an RX7. It'd steer like a tractor and brake like a cow, unless you sunk $$$$ into suspension and brake upgrades. Even then, the balance would be off. & I'd be shocked if the trans would hold up for long, even if you did find a way to bolt it up.

& if Ohio has any smog regs at all, you'd be hosed.

It'd be a fun project (any complex swap is fun) but I don't think it's something that can be done well on the cheap.

As we engineers say:

Speed
Quality
Economy

Choose any two.

 

Speed and Economy, I choose you!

 

Torque is overrated in a sports car. What you need is agility from the car and skilled driving from the driver.

I'm actually going from my 85SE with 13b to the lower torque 83 with 12A. It's been fun to have extra torque for the past 2 years that I've used the SE as my DD, but my driving skills deteriorated as I got lazy and depended on torque to obviate poor driving. When I drove the 83 this morning it was sheer fun as I had to plan turns and esses and set them up, then kick the lighter more agile car through the turns.

So I'm going to put up my 85SE for sale and go back to the kind of car that attracted me to sports cars so many years ago.

I don't know why you would want to take a car that shouts Grace and Agility by it's very appearance and turn it into a hairy gorilla.