Easiest way to do a turbo swap would be to buy a j-spec long block engine and rebuild the block then put it in your car. $1200 is about average price for a long block. Stick with the same year engine if you decide to do this. Also there are many posts about this. Use the search function on the forum to find more information as to what else you might need such as what ECU, wiring harness, AFM, etc...

 

Unseen24-7. if you disassemble a working engine ( unless it is a very fresh engine ) you should always replace all the water and oil seals and unless your a cheapo your side/ corner and apex seals and springs. you can reuse the side, corner and apex seals but the first two are cheap to replace and should always be done ( IMO )

 

So what you're saying when disassembling a working nothing has been damaged, it's just a good idea to replace those 20 year old parts with new since the engine is opened up and all...have i got that right?

 

Yes, I think that is what he is saying.

-Scotty

 

yep thats right. they are fine while there in there but as soon as you take the preesure off them etc they wont go back to being the way they were before you pulled it apart. ( dont listen to aaron man, ******* Bridge that bitch and chuck and ida in her and your be away laughing. who cares about emissions......

 

Its always cool to have the brap brap brap...hahah

 

I don't particularly care what you do with your engine, but Aaron knows his ****, so don't be dissin.

 

im not saying he dosnt. You yanks are way to **** about this kinda ****. with a IDA you get mean induction noise, awesome backfires and a primo looking set up. just coz its old technology dosnt mean its bad man.

 

Are you high?

 

ok, i guess its just not cool over there. I'll shut up then. didnt mean to offend anyone. Its not the way we do it over here

 

heh yeah
thats why i never say anything about my single plane, big overlap, big carb, high stall, locked timing bbc here....

 

OK...Here's why I keep replying....

People on this forum need to stop thinking about what is right for them. They need to think of what is right for the person who asked the question.

Think about it for a moment. The original poster is obviously a newbie. He didn't even know that the engine had to be disassembled to port it. Nothing wrong with that, we all had to start somewhere. So in all good conscience, can you recommend that he bridgeport his engine and convert to carb? When did that ever seem like a good idea?

A bridgeport is a wonderful thing but it does have some challenges. One of the more intricate challenges is getting it tuned to the point where you can actually drive the car, expect it to start hot or cold, etc. I have had experience with carb'ed bridgeports and while they went like hell up top (no more then EFI, of course), drivability was not exactly ideal anywhere else...And of course mileage suffers a lot with a carb, and good luck on emissions (if it's a concern).

What's worse is the carb conversion. The car already has a perfectly good EFI system, so to switch to a carb would require converting to a distributor, a new manifold, low pressure fuel pump, wiring for it all, and of course the carb itself. A Megasquirt EFI system is $189 for the kit, then add an extra $50 for wiring and use the existing EFI equipment on the car. For under $300 you then have a fully tunable EFI system which will rival any other standalone commonly used feature for feature...

The original poster should start with basic bolt ons until he gets used to the car and more experience, then he can start thinking about porting...

I'm Canadian, not American. And I have a bridgeported 2nd gen and am currently working on building a peripheral ported engine for my 1st gen, so I do in fact know what I'm talking about.

 

When apex seals break sometimes people are lucky enough to just do a rebuild, it all depends on how bad the seal broke. Sometimes the seal will only break on one of the corners, and sometimes if the engine was being abused they might even break in half or in three pieces, when one of these big pieces comes out of the rotor groove then you have a badly broken motor...

Rebuilding and engine costs vary upon shop...

The bridge is done in the side housings, if the seals break they usually do not damage the side housing (but has happened). There is a bridge that involves cutting in the rotor housing also but that is not for street use...

You could get lots of power by just porting intake and exhaust without any bridgeporting and still have a car that will not annoy the living daylight out of you after you get tired of the "brap brap brap brap brap..." when months go by...

There are many kinds of aftermarket seals, for example atkins seals will not damage the internals of your engine. Right now I'm using RA superseals which I have been abusing for over 6 months now and have not managed to break them like it used to happen when I used atkins... It is really all up to you in the end. Just make sure you make a decision that will not make you feel sorry in the long term... Good luck!

 

Its ok Aaron, You have heaps of good advice and seem like a very clued up onto it bloke. You Know your stuff about the FC's probably more than any one i know personally. Hell, I cant even get mine to go and i dont know why. Im no expert. I have a 13b (monster) big bridge port in a 1 gen and an rx323 running a modified 4 barrel carb and it went hard. ( well past 180 in 3rd at 8000rpm plus). And im sorry for saying your american. I know how much it offends you guys and to be honest i dont blame you. I wish i could get a mega squirt and wire it all up but i just dont have the know how ( making the ecu that is ) I commend you on your FC, it looks awesome and you have some good engineering skills.
again, sorry for calling you a yank

 

I searched for this, but couldn't find anything definite. What are the best apex seals, longevity-wise? I know a lot of people use Atkins and a few others. What will hold up for 75k-100k miles, w/ mildly upped boost and mods? You say you have RA's, will they last that long?

 

First, good job on searching

Second, whomever you quoted there has some wrong information.

Atkins seals, although soft and break-in on used hounsings easily, WILL......let me say that again....WILL damage rotors, housings and irons if they let go. Trust me. I have a front rotor and housing who could tell you the whole story.

That being said, the "best" seals IMHO anyways, are OEM Mazda's. The Atkins stuff is good and I haven't had alot of personal experience with it (my engine didn't last that long, the seals weren't the problem though) but they back their product and their seals are running and boosting in many many many engines across North America. But you just can't compare to the amount of R&D that went into the factory seals from Mazda.

 

Yeah I was kinda thinking the OEM seals would have good longevity, seeing as how my car has 140k on it and still runs. I wasn't sure if the aftermarket seals were maybe a bit softer to seal better or something, I'm a noob on that stuff still. Not that I'll probably need them but I'm gonna search up on 3mil seals now

 

This thread went to **** in a hand basket.

 

lol all I can say is that in New Zealand, we love our bridgeports.

 

Even with a megasquirt, power levels will not be the same if he uses an aftermarket intake manifold and a carb vs his stock OEM manifold.

 

There's no real "best" apex seal. The best seal will depend on your application.

Nearly new housings? Stick with Mazda OEM.

Used, sort of worn housings? Atkins seals seem to have the fastest breakin and seal well to used housings, and will handle the boost.

I don't have any experience with any of the "super" seals that people are using these days. I generally stick with OEM or Atkins.

True. With the short runners that most carbs use, I expect the high-end to be improved over what the stock EFI manifold can provide. However that means that the rest of the powerband suffers as the shorter runners will provide less low end (I've personally seen this).

In the same sense, going to an aftermarket EFI manifold (ITBs! ) will provide an even greater improvement.