86 BASE FC, 305 holley 5speed swap
03-12-12, 12:09 PM
#26
endurance? lemans? regulation standard changes handicapping rotaries since they were introduced?
IMO, that is one of the best points of these engines. but i get your point, not many people on this board flog on a rotary for 20 hours at a time or have the money to sink into it to make it as reliable as an endurance racer should be.
IMO, that is one of the best points of these engines. but i get your point, not many people on this board flog on a rotary for 20 hours at a time or have the money to sink into it to make it as reliable as an endurance racer should be.
Last edited by RotaryEvolution; 03-12-12 at 12:11 PM.
03-12-12, 01:53 PM
#27
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+1. i think it was the 2009 25 hours of thunderhill, we had good weather, so it was a fast race. our car killed a trans, the alternator, and a bunch of other small things, so we had to stop and switch batteries (and add a couple quarts of oil) every 2 hours. ALL of the Honda K engines blew up, even the factory cars, which killed their engines, and then the spare engines. the E36 guys 2 pits down went thru 2-3 motors...
it was carnage.
but silkworms FC happily ran the whole time. they had some fuel problem too, so it would go by the pits like BRAAA AAA AAAA AAAA. they changed a lot of spark plugs, but the engine held together just fine, i'm not ever sure they rebuilt the engine for the race either!
endurance racing is funny, the car on left had the fastest laptime at one point, yet the car on the right finished 60 laps ahead of it because it broke more often.
it was carnage.
but silkworms FC happily ran the whole time. they had some fuel problem too, so it would go by the pits like BRAAA AAA AAAA AAAA. they changed a lot of spark plugs, but the engine held together just fine, i'm not ever sure they rebuilt the engine for the race either!
endurance racing is funny, the car on left had the fastest laptime at one point, yet the car on the right finished 60 laps ahead of it because it broke more often.
03-13-12, 11:27 AM
#28
that's the thing with endurance, it simply takes too much time to swap a motor in and out. if regulations even allow it..
i still think of that redneck video where they blew up the vert from many many years ago running it on one rotor. the only reason it even eventually died was because they left the radiator cap off and tried to run the water cooling system on air which doesn't work too well.. i bet it would have run out of gas and still started up after refuelling it if they had not tampered with the cooling system.
mazda's biggest downfall for the later model 13B engines was moving the coolant seals to the irons. they eventually took a step back about 20 years in tech with the 13B-MSP and put the seals back into the rotor housings. magically a lot of the coolant seal issues disappeared.
pin a V8 to redline for an hour and see what happens to it. pin a rotary to redline for an hour and it might just like it!
i still think of that redneck video where they blew up the vert from many many years ago running it on one rotor. the only reason it even eventually died was because they left the radiator cap off and tried to run the water cooling system on air which doesn't work too well.. i bet it would have run out of gas and still started up after refuelling it if they had not tampered with the cooling system.
mazda's biggest downfall for the later model 13B engines was moving the coolant seals to the irons. they eventually took a step back about 20 years in tech with the 13B-MSP and put the seals back into the rotor housings. magically a lot of the coolant seal issues disappeared.
pin a V8 to redline for an hour and see what happens to it. pin a rotary to redline for an hour and it might just like it!
Last edited by RotaryEvolution; 03-13-12 at 11:31 AM.
03-13-12, 11:54 AM
#29
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dude, the guy with the E36 BMW can do that swap in 2 hours, and he's done 2 in a night before! we did our trans in under 90 minutes, but we had like 27 people.....
but yeah thats right, if you put the lower radiator hose into like a swimming pool, and floored the rotary, it would just run forever..... with the V8 you'd need to stand behind something so you don't get hit by shrapnel....
the part that is scary though is the honda K motor, even the FACTORY can't make it work....
but yeah thats right, if you put the lower radiator hose into like a swimming pool, and floored the rotary, it would just run forever..... with the V8 you'd need to stand behind something so you don't get hit by shrapnel....
the part that is scary though is the honda K motor, even the FACTORY can't make it work....
03-13-12, 12:22 PM
#30
that's not bad if you have a complete motor ready to drop in, then again a stripped down 13B could be done in half that time. 
i have an E36 1.8 but the 1.8 is basic, you're probably referring to the 2.5 or 2.8 which would be a little more competetive.. the 2.5/2.8 also seem to have weak cooling systems and prone to head warpage/blown headgasket as easily as a rotary with a single overheat cycle shutting it down before the gauge even gets to 3/4. i was unimpressed and went for simplicity of the 4 banger, every 325i i looked at they were trying to pass off with blown heads as good running daily drivers! apparently the 7 isn't the only unreliable car.
i have an E36 1.8 but the 1.8 is basic, you're probably referring to the 2.5 or 2.8 which would be a little more competetive.. the 2.5/2.8 also seem to have weak cooling systems and prone to head warpage/blown headgasket as easily as a rotary with a single overheat cycle shutting it down before the gauge even gets to 3/4. i was unimpressed and went for simplicity of the 4 banger, every 325i i looked at they were trying to pass off with blown heads as good running daily drivers! apparently the 7 isn't the only unreliable car.
Last edited by RotaryEvolution; 03-13-12 at 12:26 PM.
