To turbo or not to turbo
 

Hey 7 club, its been a while since i've posted but i need a little help. Currently my FC is sitting at 100,200ish and i'm tired of being a slow n/a. I've had this car for 2 years and haven't done much work to it since i didn't have $$ but now that i've saved up a bit i'm starting to price things out. Its a GXL so its ideal for a turbo2 swap. As of now my cars leaking clutch fluid, its hard to get into gear, my gears whine from 1st to 5th, and the clutch pedal feels just dead. Ever since i got it i've had to press the clutch to the floor to shift gears so i'm sure my throw out bearing is shot too. (i'm sure i need to replace the master/slave cylinder)
The n/a 13b in there isn't giving me any problems besides having a low idle and a stumble now and then, but if i'm gonna do any rebuilding or work i might as well do a swap right?

http://www.jdmenginescorp.com/engine...s5-engine-swap

I've had people i know order engines off this site and never had any complaints, but they were hondas or toyotas, or nissans never any rotary guys. Does anyone know anything about them? They give warranty on all engines... besides rotaries.
Besides whats being given from that site what else would i need? turbo rear end, diff, driveshaft?
How hard is it to do a series 4 to series 5 swap? I know theres a problem with the omp, mechanical vs electrical or something. They sell s4 turbo blocks but i dont want less power for the same price and i dont want any issues with the pulsation damper so s5 would be more practical.

If i brought it to a rotary shop how much do you think they would charge to pull the old block out and drop this in? When i get a chance i'm gonna go around to a couple shops and gets some quotes, i just dont want to be jerked around or ripped off.

you want to stay in series unless you want to be swapping/splicing your body/interior harness to s5 too. just easier to use an s4 engine. you can swap to the s5 turbo, which is slightly better, do some searching replace the pulsation dampener to new regardless, they fail because they are a 2 decades old now.

if you just have a street car, mazdatrix sells a t2 to na driveshaft if you are using the turbo trans. the problem is that the tail shaft on the trans is different between na and t2. if you are going to be doing hard launches alot or drifting, turbo rear end would be a good idea. fyi, the na trans is glass so you will prob want to do at least the t2 trans as well.

almost all engine dealers will not warranty a rotary. just get compression numbers but best bet is a vendor/member here Japan2la. he has good report here. a lot of people consider it a smart thing to crack a used motor open and at least check the thing out, some replace soft seals preemptively (apex, side, coolant seals.). you sound like that might be above your experience level though so prob try to go through japan2la. he doesn't try and sell junk blocks. good luck.

lastly, take a read here
https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-gen-archive-72/s4-na-turbo-swap-details-813825/

Thanks for linking me to that thread, I'm going to start reading now.

The whole thing is that I dont want to put myself in a big mess, I don't have the tools, space, experience, or help to do it myself. Basically i want to order this series 4 t2 block which includes

"Your Swap Includes The Following:

Block
Turbo
Intercooler
Intake Manifold
Sensors
Exhaust Manifold
Fuel Rail
Injectors
Throttle Body
Alternator
Power Steering Pump
Wiring Harness
ECU
5 Speed RWD Transmission"

http://www.jdmenginescorp.com/engine...s4-engine-swap

go to a shop and have them do the work, I don't want to buy things part by part.

Is this your daily ride? Be ready for A LOT of downtime and more than likely problems. When I bought a J-Spec it had compression but when I got it started, it drank coolant, overheated and shot "milk" out of the oil filler. DOA!

If it were me (knowing what I know after 8 years of ownership) I would just fix the minor issues you have now and have a running fun car. I have not enjoyed my RX-7 in 4 years because everything has kept breaking :(

If you need a new gasket kit, I have one for sale for your exact engine. I bought it from a member on here for my FD and he sent me a FC kit. PM if you're interested. It's brand new too. Priced to sell/recoupe some of what I paid for it.

As of now it is, I'm looking into getting a WRX if i can find one cheap enough, or maybe a jeep. My fc can't handle for shit in the snow.

Having a slow n/a isn't fun, but i'll take it someplace to get the problems checked out. I don't want to blow money on fixing things and then still have a slow car if i could have put that money towards a turbo, but i understand what you're trying to say.

Where in queens are you located btw? I'm around queens center mall

An FC is always fun, you're not driving it right ;)
I used to own a 91 NA, I had more fun in that than my 315WHP Turbo 2.

I live in Flushing, near the hospital.

definitely do a turbo swap! it's lots of fun boostin! when i received my engine, it smoked. i was pissed cause it drank coolant and burned too much oil. after some poking around and lots of reading on this forum, it turns to be that i didnt bleed the cooling system correctly and the oil seals on the turbo were blown and not the engine. i got "lucky" and lots of others do but some receive blown engines. be prepared to rebuild just in case! i didnt buy a transmission so used my NA trans, flywheel, rear end and drive shaft. no problems so far! if u want to use a TII trans and your NA rear end u will need a different length drive shaft. i have a new one that i didnt use. for sale if your interested.

also my engine came with half of the stock downpipe, so be prepared to buy a new one or source a used downpipe. in CA the stock downpipe is needed to pass the visual inspection but not the emissions test. NY might be different, i dunno.

also buy a new clutch since the engine will b out of the car already. i saved lots of $$$ by doin the work myself. i didnt know anything about cars before owning my seven.

Go turbo and stay s4. You will have so much more fun driving and staying s4 is gonna save you a lot of headache.

Turbo. The only streetable n/a worth driving is a 20b lol.

It would obviously be easier to drop in an s4, however if you can find the s4 accessories cheap they bolt to the s5 block and the job will be just as easy but w/better internals. Interesting side note, the n/a omp lines will fit on a turbo in case u planed to keep them.

An FC should handle as well as any RWD car could handle in the snow. I've driven mine in, I think, every snow fall since I got the car.. Even 32mi of compacted icy snow back from my GF's house.. Though that was a bit scary [no chains, 185 tires, and it was basically all ice by that point.. But as long as it's still snow it handled great]

Though.. AWD or FWD would naturally be much better if you have snow/ice frequently..

My NA FC seems to impress people.. S4 plates, FD housings [no diffusers+32% less friction], S5 rotors, Pineapple sleeve inserts [air pump activation], and a FULL RB exhaust. It feels amazing to drive around.... But how it compares with a turbo FC.. I've yet to dyno it..

IMO, i would say build your car to handle and look around for a streetported block, wayy cheaper and a lot less things to fail. Quarter mile times are lame, turning fast and flying through windy roads is awesome. Just my two cents however and idk what you are trying to achieve with your car exactly. And once you got a boosted awd you'll probably forget all about your twenty year old gas guzzler.

Whos gonna do the swap? If you take your 7 to a shop to do a swap your gonna get porked.

Sell your car, buy a turbo II. Done.

A swap will nickle and dime you to death. Even more so if your not doing it yourself. Believe me, I have one.

I never drove a Turbo 2, but I had drove a lot of higher powered cars and I actually prefer my RX-8 and FC, which are both torque-less wonder.

If the FC NA is not so much fun, I wouldn't bother to spend so much time to fix it up.

Are the s5 convertibles the same as the regular ones? Im referring to the driveshaft and differential

Yes, the 'verts have all the standard NA drivetrain componenets.

Thanks, is the drivetrain different between the turbo and NA one? Or is it only different between series?

The turbo and NA drivetrain are not interchangeable. The only exception is you can go with a tii trans and na rear end and use a custom driveshaft. Mazdatrix sells said driveshaft. Its either go with that or swap out the full drivetrain to the tii version

If you did that would everything bolt up into place? Or if fabrication needed?

It will all bolt right up I believe. Never done a full swap out myself.

Ok, thanks for your information

t2 and na subframes are the same so it will bolt up. the diff is different as are the stub shafts and maybe the axles (not sure, I think they might have different splines). the thing you have to check up on is if t2 axles will fit your hubs. everything else works I know (obviously using the appropriate driveshaft so t2 trans/t2 shaft).

Would a t2 drifeshaft work the stock NA rear end? Or would i have to get a new diff, axles and hubs?