I purchased my 7 a week ago after drooling over the cars for years. For the past few months I have been doing tons of reading on swapping the rotary for a v8. Things have changed thanks to some local folk and posts I have read on this site.

I now have a new plan and will be sending my car in to a rotary specialty shop. My goal is to have a reliable street car that makes around 300-350 HP to the wheels, while NOT killing the low end power. Here are some of the things planned for the car.

Engine rebuild, gaskets, engine ported, 3mm apex seals, powder coating, painting, zinc plating of manifolds
Apexi Power FC engine management system
Non-sequential conversion
Down pipe, mid pipe, high flow catalytic converter (all 3" polished stainless)
Racing Beat cat-back
Intercooler kit
Denso fuel pump
replace differential fluid and tranny fluid with redline synthetic
possibly have the injectors blue printed as I heard that is cheap and not a bad idea while its all apart.
Should I be looking for a high flow radiator as well?
New plugs and tune after its done.

Any opinions would be appreciated.

 

First congrats on staying rotary

To answer some questions:

Yes, get a radiator. you can't run a midpipe and high flow cat at the same time, so pick one of them. Also, consider staying sequential if you want to keep the great low end from 2500ish to 4000ish rpm. non sequential isn't bad, but be prepared for less low end vs stock seq. Lastly, I don't think 3mm apex seals are required and may be detrimental when it comes to sealing. Instead, spend the money saved by getting a simple water injection kit which will ensure your engine stays in one piece.

 

I agree totally with the above. But on the midpipe vs. high flow cat decision you are making let me reccommend the high flow cat. Otherwise you need to make mods to compensate for the boost creep you will be seeing with a midpipe. The wastegate will need to be ported and a good electronic boost controller may not be totally neccessary but definately not a bad idea if you go that route. SO, just keep it simple and go with a high-flow cat. You will still easily attain your power goals with it.

 

Stay sequential, also if you want to keep the low end torque of the engine keep the porting very minimal.

 

+1 above - stay sequential if you want any low end.

 

Hi,

Would just like to add a few suggestions to your list

First, I'd make sure that everything is working before you start modding....test to make sure you have a good boost pattern especially if you want to stay with the twins. You're going to want to make sure that all your solenoids/etc work BEFORE you put everything back together. Having the engine out is a great time to do this with a mityvac and dgeesamans writeup on how to test them.

1.) Replace with aftermarket, or eliminate AST
2.) Replace all coolant hoses
3.) Replace O2 sensor
4.) Replace fuel filter (that one is fun)
5.) Vac hose replacement (even more fun)
6.) Wastegate porting
7.) Replace/drill thermostat
8.) get some of dale clarks viton check valves
9.) dual oil coolers, if you don't already have 2
10.) if you plan on keeping your OMP, consider replacing your OMP lines while they're out with aftermarket ones. The OEM ones get brittle and crack, and the aftermarket ones are pretty much the same price as the OEM ones.
11.) Efini Y-Pipe

 

300-350hp is easily attainable for the mods you plan and the suggestions above are all superb. + 1 for the high flow cat and staying sequential to keep that low end. I went nonsequential on the R1 and you end up missing that early boost and transition.

I would add getting a good conservative tune to make sure you are in optimal performance and reliability.