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what would be easier?, change clucth or whole s5 na swap

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Old 09-14-07, 09:54 PM
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what would be easier?, change clucth or whole s5 na swap

what would be easier/faster to do?
well, my clutch in my s4 gxl finally went out today on the way to school. and i need a car by monday

i was thinking of taking the motor and tranny out of my s5 NA 90 parts car, since iv havent ordered a new clutch yet, and knowing itll take about a week to get and then ill have to get the flywheel resurfaced n junk.

i have the tools and the cherry picker sitting in my garage.
Old 09-14-07, 09:56 PM
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The only problem with swapping motors is that it will never go smoothly like you would think. Oil cooler lines stuck, etc. etc.

Besides, you would have to swap over some stuff from S4 => S5 to make it work right.
Old 09-14-07, 10:09 PM
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well, for that little extra work, you get that very little extra horsies... its not that bad if you work out okay with the harness and crap.. make sure you get your s5 motor where you actaully want it to be mod/maintence wise before you drop it in... or else it would just plain suck dice.
Old 09-14-07, 10:17 PM
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you can use the S5 Keg,and all of the S4 Manifolds..run it as an S4.you would have to change the front cover to,so you would have the Mechanical Omp,instead of the Electrical Omp on the S5.Changing the Clutch would be Much faster,and if you go that route,change the throw out Bearing and the Pilot bearing.This is also a Good time to change the Front and rear seals of the Transmission,and the Rear seal on the engine too.Good luck in any case.
Old 09-14-07, 10:25 PM
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wow, that's a really strange question to ask.........changing a clutch is wayy faster and easier to do. Doing a swap is not as simple as you might think. Wire harness, ecu, and AFM the immediate things that come to mind that must be changes as well. Maybe, and I mean MAYBE you could possibly get away with using the same ECU, wiring harness and afm and try to make it all work, but I wouldn't advise it and it won't go soo smoothly. Just change the clutch and if you want to do a swap, I would consider a turbo swap later after you have planned for it and what not instead and expect it to take some time. Swap's rarely go as easily as one might hope to begin with. There are always those unforeseen things that pop up, unless you have THOROUGHLY thought the ENTIRE process out and are prepared for just about everything that you should encounter. Typically, you'd only be able to do that if you've done it atleast once before. If you do the swap, expect your car to be done for some time. It's just the way it goes more or less. This is from my own experience.

By the way, the quickest turn-around I have ever accomplished is when I blew the 6-port N/Aengine in my 91, and I was able to pull it out, pull it all apart, go and find all 3 4 port irons and street ported them, 2 rotor housings and ported them, another rotor, and the series 5 4 port intake manifolds. I was able to do the entire 4 port swap, ported everything, rebuilt the engine, got it in and had it running in exactly 7 days. Mind you, I hardly got any sleep, completely took off from work and spent every one of those 7 days dedicated to my car. ALL because of that stupid little stainless steel pin that is in the auxillary port sleeve. After 25,000 miles on my original streetported rebuild,1 of the pineapple racing aluminum inserts popped backwards inside the sleeve and hit that stainless steel pin that's in the front of the auxillary sleeve, then the insert went back forward into place, and the pin that got banged out, got sucked right into the chamber and punctured a hole on each side of the rotor, gouged up the rotor housing, and took a chunk out of the rear (or front, I forget which) housing. Everything got annihlated, except for the RA 2-piece apex seals. they were the only things intact and in great shape.
Well sorry for that long ramble, but it just came to mind and I wanted to share.

Brian
Old 09-14-07, 11:07 PM
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well ill start to take the tranny and other junk out of my s4 gxl tommarow and see how it goes 1st,

ill pretty much do everything s5 and using the s5 dash harness and s5 engine harness/ ecu. i think itll work out, plus the s5 motor is really healthy and strong at only 115k, also the few extra horses would be fun too, s5 motor in a lighter s4 body would be nice.

i was thinking in the future i could do the s5 t2 swap with ease since everything s5 is there already if, i go ahead with the s5na swap in to my s4
Old 09-15-07, 12:09 AM
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Good luck (seriously) Just keep in mind that the s5 non-turbos didn't last as long as the series 4 non turbos did, dud to the change to the electronic oil metering pump. When I originally got mine with 110,000 miles, the front rotor's apex seals were DESTROYED and required a rebuild with the need for a replacement rotor and housing. The series 5 motors didn't get as much lubrication fo the apex seals as the series 4 did, thus the reason why soo many series 5 engines are destroyed earlier on then the series 4. I found this out 2 years ago after talking to (I forget his name) at Malloy Mazda (I think). He used to race and build rotaries and he told me that was the reason why the series 5 were always breaking. If it's still running, just be careful because you don't know how much longer it will last, even if you do add premix from now on. Take a look around and notice the average mileage on any 89-91 RX7 with the stock engine still running, or the mileage it is at with the engine blown. Just here to help with the knowledge I've acquired through the years.
Old 09-15-07, 06:33 AM
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Originally Posted by 2Lucky2tha7
The series 5 motors didn't get as much lubrication fo the apex seals as the series 4 did, thus the reason why soo many series 5 engines are destroyed earlier on then the series 4. If it's still running, just be careful because you don't know how much longer it will last, even if you do add premix from now on. Take a look around and notice the average mileage on any 89-91 RX7 with the stock engine still running, or the mileage it is at with the engine blown.
Oh, really?
With the "knowledge you've acquired through the years" what would you say the average lifespan of the S5 NA engine is?
Old 09-15-07, 09:18 AM
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well when it does blow ill jus revert back to my original s4 engine block, or s5 t2 or even lsx/t56 swap if it blows up by the summer
Old 09-15-07, 10:10 AM
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It takes a few hours to change a clutch. You can't even compare the two
Old 09-15-07, 06:50 PM
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yeah a clutch only takes like 2-3 hours if you have all the tools, an s4 --> s5 motor swap is gonna take you several days atleast, theres some wiring adjustments that need to be made, change out the ecu, not only that but your gonna need a custom driveshaft unless you change out the s4 rearend for the s5 one, so why don't you just drive the s5?????
Old 09-15-07, 07:00 PM
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Should I polish my car? or should I repaint it?
Old 09-15-07, 07:26 PM
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^^ hahahaha
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