Yes correct. I should grab a pic on mine. I even have a external shield on the trans and I still have around 4" from the top of the shield to the top of the tunnel

 

It is widely accepted in the automotive industry to estimate CG height of a vehicle by the crankshaft centerline.

The corvette argument....is a bad one. I'm about to sell my pristine modded c5z that was my baby for the past 2 years because my FD is finally running and I haven't driven the vette in 3 months.

Before the FD was finished I was worried I'd like the vette better and just wasted 5 years and a ton of money.

 

Zbrown that picture is the future. Someone should put cylinder heads on a rotary engine.

I don't know why. Or how it even makes sense. Just do it.

 

Although that's not a good engineering practice, I'm not going to say that you're wrong because my brief search not find any information that confirms or denies this. But if the statement here is that the lower crankshaft vs eccentric shaft height ultimately puts the overall CG in regards to vehicle dynamics in favor of an LS motor vs a 13b rew I must respectfully say that would not be a wise claim IMO.

 

 

I've only ridden in one v8 FD and I'd prefer a tt FD with a basic street port making the exact same power. It was a basic LS engine probably 325 rwhp.

One is typical truck power feel and the other is motorcycle feel/linear pull and I prefer the latter for power delivery in a light weight sports car.

NO DOUBT about it the LS engine is much more reliable but the power delivery/vibe isn't in the same ball park.

 

v8 isn't going to compete with that so YES an FD with a rotary is going to handle better

How much who knows but the little keg sitting in the center behind the axle down low with a low slung light weight trans won't be beat if this test is applied

 

God damn there are idiots here

 

Love the truck delivery statement and linear power delivery of e rotary. Jesus h

 

Mine is a pretty "basic" build, LS2 with L92 (LS3) heads and a cam. 463rwhp at 6400rpm, it is not a "truck motor"

I shoulda taken you for a ride in mine! And I *definitely* should have gone for a ride in yours

 

Lmfao look at that grain truck! Pulls on top like a diesel, not linear either!

 

Damn I've been following this video since it was being talked about and now since it's all said and done I wished they did a longer segment and reviewed way better. If only he talked about your efr turbo and how well it works with our engine. Maybe I'll give him a call when my semi pp 9180 is done

 

Chill out, no one's insulting you here. If you are saying that by putting in an LS motor you improve the handling of the FD chassis the majority of vehicle chassis designers would disagree.

 

Nope laughing at the truck and power delivery comments

 

Here is the dyno graph from my FC Camino.

 

But you don't make it worse either.. I can think of one person that has swapped to a V8 (that did it correctly and fixed the bump steer)and said the car handles worse, or their lap times are slower.

 

I'm sure the differences are very subtle, but they are there. Most drivers will never notice a difference for it to matter. I won't mention names, but I know of one occasion where a guy swapped to an LS, had around 50 more peak hp, more tire, and ran several seconds slower than a similarly prepped single turbo FD. Both very experienced drivers. Same track. Same day. But yes you're right, that's not always the case.


Again I don't want to come off as just a rotary purist, because I'm not, it's a fun engine, but it has plenty of cons. The main issue I see with the LS swap is the length of the engine. If anyone followed the M3 GTRs back in the early 2000s you might have noticed that they pulled out the inline 6 s54 and when with a v8. Most would think well, now you killed the handling while indeed they improved it since the v8 was shorter and close to the same weight (can't remember) than the I6. Same is the scenario for the 13b vs LS. But the differences will only be realized when going 10/10s on the track. All else the LS will be better.

Any time you add weight past the strut towers you create a moment (torque). That moment will stress the chassis and will make its way through the suspension members. This is why most of the best handling cars in the world are mid engine because all the weight is in between the strut towers. Mazda accomplished this with the rotary and created a front-mid engine chassis (honorable mentions go to the C6? corvette, and honda s2000) and since the engine is so short they could reduce the wheel base and thus keep the chassis size (weight) down even further.

In the end, even relocating a battery will change the way the car handles. Therefore replacing an engine with one that has physical dimensions of much larger proportions will indeed change it.

 

I will gladly take the LS engine if the only objective downside is handling difference so subtle that hardly anyone will notice.

I truly have such little opinion about rotary engines that I don't really even enjoy the debates. I didn't put an LS engine into the car because the rotary was bad. I bought a rolling shell because I wanted to put an LS in it. I would not own an FD with a rotary.

 

And just so people don't think I'm one sided. But I would also make the statement that an LS swapped FD should handle very close, if not better than a 20B FD and noticeably better than a 26B. If we could only get a one rotor developed that could make 300 rwhp reliably and not sound like a lawn mower that would be the ticket.

To Spanks, yes I agree 100%. The LS is much more practical and the instant torque is second to none naturally aspirated. Just basing my rants off of vehicle dynamics alone, which might be the only case where smaller is better lol.

 

Well that is an intelligent response. I agree with you that there are differences as well. On paper you may be able to quantify positives or negatives but in the end I think overall car setup will erase most if not all the handling differences for 99.9% of drivers.

In this case if we pulled the suspension off the red FD and put it on the white FD, I don't think Farah would have been able to tell the difference from a handling perspective.

I agree that the car will handle better with an LS than a 20b or 26b, unless you move the engine back.. but that is another can of worms.

 

Not necessarily! Rotary's dimensions make it easiler to move them back because the engine itself is the height/width of the transmission bellhousing (which allows it to slide furthure back into the tranny tunnel. My personal NA 20B fd has a lower CG and polar moment than even the stock fd because my engine sits 3"lower than stock while still sitting behind the rack (which is still in the factory location). I didn't hack up my firewall to make it fit either. The reason you never see these Vblocks moved back is because the heads will hit and you will need to do some major surgery to the firewall. Most v8 swap guys could care less about this sort of thing as they just want the most reliable hp in the car they love. Hell the only reason the REW isn't lower and furthure back than it is is because of needing room for the factory twins. With a single, the rew can be moved much lower and back another 5-1/2" leaving you tons more, room for very nice V-mount. Guys like (Fritz who track his Fd) will notice a consideral difference in handling and reflexes if he decided to move his 13b back.

 

Interesting. I did not know that. Might have to experiment with that in the FC and might be able to make up for having such an outdated suspension design .

 

The v8 fixes that. I blow by C6 Z06s with mine.

 

LOL, that chip on your shoulder must be hard to carry. As I said I rode in ONE and wasn't impressed. I'm sure your car would knock my socks off.

TYPICAL v8 power/torque hits hard doesn't last long and falls fast on the top side, shift and it starts over again. I've ridden in a LOT of cars over the last 15 years while instructing at various race tracks and although I may be an idiot my *** is a pretty good judge of how power is delivered.

 

Very nice, that's probably what you call a driver mod since the C6 chassis is leaps and bounds better than the FC, if I'm not mistaken .