jozeyrx7

iTrader: (2)

Hey everyone,
I bought a 20b from ebay last night, it was in an rx8, and the owner of the rx8 traded his car in to a dealership, and the dealer ship pulled the engine to return the car to stock 13b reni and are selling me the engine. The dealership is legit as far as i can tell with hundreds of ebay sales and 100% positive feedback and a decent website too. They say the engine was running well when pulled from the car, and i found an old dyno video of when it was built and it put down 498rwhp. Apparently it was bolted to the stock rx8 auto trans with a custom adapter so if that's true i doubt it was driven hard. I'll be paying for it in a couple of days, and hopefully receiving it within 2 weeks. If anyone recognises the build from the pictures, i'd really appreciate any more info i can get my hands on. i especially want to find out it's series, and if it had a fat stud kit installed or late C,D series. So far, the known specs are as follows:
-20b with 13b housings
-Bridgeported
-Borgwarner 76mm t6 turbo
-Custom exhaust manifold and 4" downpipe to suit rx8
-Some kind of trans adapter(was told it's for stock rx8 auto trans but i didn't think they could handle +500hp?
-Looks like it has holes drilled into the throttlebody???


--Never owned a turbo car before, never driven anything more powerful than a vw passat 2.0.. lol... so i don't know heaps about turbos. but i can't recall ever seeing a wastegate pipe welded into the actual hotside of the turbo-refer to pics- please tell me why this is done, or if it's a bad thing to have been done, pros cons..?


Missing/need to buy:
-intercooler, oilcooler and radiator and hoses etc..
-wiring harness&ecu
-might need to make a custom sump or subframe depending on which car i put this in
-trans
-custom driveshaft
-i have a few rx3 coupes with no engines, and i know it's a lot of work and $$, still i'm tempted to start sizing up the installation. And i'm open to any other suggestions. i'd be trying to get this safely in a car for under 10k but pretty flexible and don't want to cut any corners to save a buck. i have a cnc mill, tig n mig, many other hand and power tools, a rotisserie, paint booth and 2 huge shops where i can store and work on my cars.
-Any recommendations for any specific parts, brands, things to check on the engine, and all of that are welcome!!
Thanks for reading, have some pics

jozeyrx7

iTrader: (2)

Pics from ebay ad.
It needs a clean-up but yeah i payed under 4k for it

hsmidy

Welcome to the dark (and expensive) side,
Welding onto the turbine housing isn't overly common, because it is usually cast iron its not the nicest to weld and around the welds it can be prone to cracking.

I am assuming that who ever put the engine in originally tried to retain most of the rx8 gear, given that the throttle body isn't 20b and neither is the front pulley set (looks like fd or maybe rx8), at a guess the holes in the throttle body were to try to get it to idle? as it may not of had a BAC valve after the conversion, doesn't look like it has a stud kit in it, but maybe there were some extra dowels placed in it.

4K isn't bad but the fact it was running before being removed doesn't mean that there is nothing wrong with it, get a compression test done on it, get some pics of the thick centre iron up the top on the sparkplug side of the engine. it should still have its engine number there.

Troclo

Good price even if it needs a rebuild. Drop that thing in an RX-3 and make us all envious!!!

Samito Built

iTrader: (38)

If you need a microtech installation performed on this rx-3 I can do it. I'm only 2.5 hours away and do tune microtech as well. Just simply pm me

Sammy

jozeyrx7

iTrader: (2)

well then... after over 6500 miles of driving, i finally have the engine sitting here in my workshop.
yesterday i stripped it, layed out every part for inspecion.
when i saw the engine before i bought it, i knew it had a bad coolant seal or a crack in the fron housing or iron, but i bought it anyway.
i knew it wouldn't be perfect, i also found a hairline crack on the weld that goes from turbo to wastegate.\
I have pulled apart the block, but kinda stuck on separating the 2pc e-shaft, i did some research and might be able to get it apart without a puller, apparently.
it did have 4x thick studs though, and there is no visible problems with any of the seals, irons, housings or e-shaft- except----
because it's bridgeported, they've cut the 'brow' far too close to the coolant seal. there is a good amount of material on the 'bridge' but there is 2/5ths of fuckall material to seat the orange coolant seal in it's groove, and there is area's on all of the irons where this thin material has chipped off, and i believe it's letting coolant into the intake chamber.
I hope there is a way to fix this, otherwise i'll have to sell the engine for parts or buy another one and probably find some other problem and have nothing to show for my ~$9k :/
i'll put up some pics to describe my situation better.
Thanks for reading. and thanks for your replies guys :egri n:

jozeyrx7

iTrader: (2)

pic
Pic

hsmidy

I feel for ya mate, with regards to plates 13brew plates are almost the same other than the larger holes for the thick through bolts. Just hope your thick centre plate is in good nic.

That appears to be a horribly thin amount of material to the waterseal. was it about 1mm thick?
I'm surprised that they ported that far out with it being turbocharged.

You could try pinning the seals but I don't know how much luck you will have with that(longevity) being turbo charged.

Have they opened up the intake runners much?

jozeyrx7

iTrader: (2)

got my e-shaft separated, over-all was pretty easy and came apart in minutes, but was not using the right technique for a few hours.

thankfully, the other side of the fat iron still has got the edge and is not broken, but still a similar size, less than 1mm thick, and positioned the same to the other ports, i think it will not last long.

I have looked up big ports and what they're supposed to look like. And i found a 'fat bridge' or 'monster bridge' will actually be cut right through the inner coolant seal, and various techniques are used to guarantee a good seal but im yet to find instructions. (ill put pic of this example, these are crazy ports and i wouldn't want to go this big but a good idea of what is done)

having considered all of this, i still have hope i can make it work.
I think i'll stay safe and keep it n/a, ~300hp would be nice to get, maybe even keep the exhaust turbo manifold and just bolt a custom n/a exhaust to the t6 turbo flange so i have the option for turbo later on.
I think i'll read up a bit more on sealing and port work, make a list of parts to buy after i measure their spec, then order a full rebuild kit if it's worth it, then make exhaust and engine mounts, setup fuel system, buy a haltech ps2000 with harness and dash, use a t2 transmission i have, make custom driveshaft, gsl-se diff(maybe something stronger?) and i might be almost there

hsmidy

The picture you've put up it looks like they have used something along the lines of Devcon, depending on how much they have ported the intake runners pinning might be a better option for you, can you put up some pics of the thick centre plates ports?

jozeyrx7

iTrader: (2)

Sorry I been away for a couple of weeks, I have since put everything I own that's rotary related up on ebay, but it didn't sell, so I did a bit of hunting and bought another 20b, it was too good of a deal to pass up, I bought this one for $3000 and it included a microtech ltx12s, all wired up with an old laptop with the software. It didn't include turbos but otherwise was complete with an fd 5speed. I bought a new oxy/acetylene kit and will have a go at repairing the cracked borg warner turbo housing. Pretty confident I can make this borgwarner turbo work which will be good because I have the whole 5" custom exhaust for it, but if not they're cheap but I still wouldn't know where to put the tial 60mm wastegate. I compression tested the 20b I just got and it is consistently getting between 49-50psi while cold on the small rx7 fd starter on all faces and rotors which while considerably low I doubt there's any major damage in the engine being 100% stock and apparently under 50,000 kilometers. I am tempted to just leave it sealed up and continue the build to see how it runs like it is, then if I need to rebuild it later then I'll go for it. But on the other hand I could use 13b rew housings and streetport the plates while I build it and get a load more power and even be more reliable if i pull it apart now which is probably what I will do until then I am stuck working in florida again and will be back home in about 1 week so I have some time to shop around and consider my options. Sorry for not getting you the pics of the intake ports hsmidy, from memory they were ported a fair bit, when I get home I'll put loads of pics up and maybe a video or two to show y all what I'm working with.
Cheers, from Jozey

jozeyrx7

iTrader: (2)

got some updates coming to this thread as soon as i clean a path for the engine crane and get the new 20b off the back of my ute,
just drove across the USA 2 times and cames back with some cool stuff!
i got:
1x new tig welder
1x brand new 12a from an rx2, 41 years old and never been used, looks sweet!
2x new oldschool 12a housings
1x oldschool kinsler ida intake setup for 12a
1x 20b
1x heaps of spare parts i am selling

**I also started a page on facebook called "Jozey's classic rotaries" where you can find everything that i have for sale, so check it out if you need anything just ask me and i probably have it, mostly pre-rx-7 parts**

watch this space!!!

Cheers, from Jozey