yes, i took the motor out of mine twice without taking the slave off (the t2), the clutch hose really likes me =)

mike

 

This might not be the right thread for this, but I *wonder*... can you fit '73-earlier front covers on '74-later engines?

Twin dizzy 20B! Who needs a goofy siamese distributor cap when you can have two separate distributors?

 

Let's see, according to what he told me, the engine sits in the same position, from the rear, as the 13b. he cut the middle of the crossmember out and repaced it with a tube. Mounts are welded to whats left of the original.
The tranny would be a jericho 5-speed. The car is tubbed and sports a straight (Strange I think) rearend with a four-link. No NOS on this car.

 

peejay, are you still trying to build a 20B ignition system? Speaking of 'still', mine's still not done either. Soon though. Anyway, I once thought it would be cool to try a '73 front cover, but I ultimately decided against it.

I've got a '73 engine (no longer running) which had a '74 front cover fitted to it. From what I can tell, it only needed one bolt hole to be tapped to fit a standard Mazda 14mm headed bolt, and one hole in the front cast iron 'side plate' is not used.

Installing a twin dizzy front cover would require the opposite front cover hole to be tapped and plugged. The other unused side plate hole may be ok if you use lots o' sealant. The biggest prob, however, is the oil pan. The 20B has a very squared front, while older rotaries had three facets. You would need a custom pan. Heh, forget about using the oldschool front cover motormount system. There's no way I'd trust it to hold a 20B. I don't hardly even trust it with a supercharger.

I may try my luck rebuilding my old '73 12A with a '74 rear side plate. Two tension bolts don't line up between '73 and '74. I'd imagine tapping and plugging them to be similar to those who peripheral port and have that one leftover hole in the upper right corner of the back of their engines. All I'm doing is losing one more bolt than them, and the engine is only street ported. I also have way more tranny options with '74. I think it's a good idea, other than using '83-'85 rotors and apex seals in '73 housings. Maybe the chrome is softer?

 

Well, you'd need to make an oil pan anyway, so what does it matter?

 

I guess it doesn't matter, but I'm still not gonna be using a '73 front cover on mine

Does anyone know if '73 chrome is softer than '74 and later chrome? I don't think it's held in place by the same cool jagged edges like what you've all seen before on the later engines. Maybe that's the only difference?

 

what they used to do around here for the pre 73 cars, was if the rotor housings were good, build them with 74+ rotors and seals. if the housings were bad you can redrill the 74+ rotor housings to 73 spec and run whatever seals and rotors you want. the r box has the same bellhousing bolt pattern from 70 to 02 so you can use any r box you want, the only thing that changes is the input shaft/ clutch setup.

peejay: 2 three cylinder distributors was my idea! j/k

mike

 

Then that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to use FB rotors and seals in '73 housings with a '74+ front cover and rear end plate. I can't very easily change bellhousings right now, but maybe in the future.

 

hey fellas maybe its a racing beat dissy thats firing that 20b.....i remembered a few years ago that marcos acosta 20b mx3 was using a custom racing beat distributor.....i think racing beat still sells them for about $400-500.....

 

the racing beat distributor looks VERY different from the one in Jesus's car.