Whats up boys, I'm new to the forums and I'm new to building cars so i had a couple questions and despite my best efforts i couldn't really find to much info.
So i bought 86 FC, no engine and a bit of body damage for real cheap. I wanna rebuild it for the track and i want to keep it rotary.
My dad has a lot of mechanical experience, but has never worked on a rotary before

So my first question is, which would be a better option? a 13b-REW or a regular 13b and add a turbo? i assume i will be able to go further as far as power with the REW but understand it might be a bit more difficult to do but were up for the challenge & extra work

Second is, what would be my best option about finding an engine? would it be viable to find a junkyard engine/cheap blown engine and rebuild it, or should i try to find a "crate engine" (i think is what they're called) and if so, how do you even go about finding one outside of Ebay?

Sorry if these are dumb questions, was just a bit lost for this part of stuff.

Thank you!

 

You could just buy a Turbo II engine and drop it in since the FCs came with those engines from the factory. I believe you need custom mounts for a REW and if you're going to mod it anyways, I'm not sure if there's much point in going through the hassle of dropping in a REW. There's a reason why REW swaps aren't common in FC RX7s. You could turbo a NA 13B yourself, but there's no "turbo kit" available on the market afaik so it'll have to be custom. It just depends on how mechanically inclined you guys are with regards to fabbing, wiring, etc. Aaron Cake's website has a great section on how to turbo a NA 13B (among a ton of other very very useful info for FCs): https://aaroncake.net/ He's also one of the OG members/admins on this site.

As far as sourcing an engine goes, you're not typically going to just find a 13B in a junkyard. Not sure about the junkyards around you, but RX7s aren't exactly common anymore. Best bet would be on the classifieds section of this forum or all the Facebook RX7 parts buy/sell groups. You'll probably have to be a little patient until one shows up within a reasonable distance from you that's worth buying. If you buy a blown engine, you can easily buy what you need online to rebuild it. If you don't want to rebuild an engine, you can hit up any of the major engine builders and ask them to build one for you from scratch, although it probably won't be cheap. There are no "crate" engines that you can buy directly from Mazda anymore, especially FC 13B engines.

Also as a side note, I don't mean to gatekeep anyone from building what they want, but I wouldn't completely ignore the option of just running a NA 13B when you're first starting out. You don't NEED tons of power to have fun at the track (I'm assuming road course, drag would be different...) and NA's are just so much simpler and a lot less stuff to worry about. They're usually more reliable, don't have to worry about fuel, not as susceptible to detonation, no boost leak or surge issues, no need for an aftermarket ECU right off the bat, cheaper, etc etc. And once you get the car up and running (and be able to enjoy it), you always have the option to turbo it later on. Just some food for thought.

 

Hm, for sure thank you for the advice! It's appriciated. Ill probably go with the NA at the start but i dont see myself being satisfied with it for long, nonetheless i want to be on the road with it as soon as possible.

Thanks again!

 

for the track? are you racing? racing has rules, and you need to buy the engine that makes it legal....

if you can find an FC 13B, turbo or not, its nice because it is stock, and will bolt in. the REW swap is possible, but it needs fab work, and the twin turbos are a pain (its a tight fit, and they are complex). i'm in process on my second REW swap, in California it is penciling out because REW stuff is easier to find, and it makes more power and passes emissions.

 

I plan to take it to the track yes.

Just a quick update too: i found a good deal on a 13b that was completely disassembled in the province over, so without a second thought i went to pick it up.
Its a normal 13b from a 1986 NA FC, which is the same as the chassis i have. So to start out I'm going to rebuild it stock and just get it running, then worry about turbo and all the other stuff once I've build the body up more.

Engine was $340CAD
Image is what i got, only issue other then what i assume is normal build up, the only issue is a lil crack around where the gasket goes on the center housing, so I'm not sure if i will need a new one or if that will be repairable.

Thanks for reading and answering!

 

a stock engine is kind of nice, because you can just put it together and then save the time and money and fab up an exhaust and get a better ecu

these cars are pretty awesome, but a lot of us (me included) spend so much time getting the engine together and working that we don't get to the rest of the car