I figured this would be as good of place as any to post my introduction lol.

I currently have a 97 Cobra, but it is just to damn expensive to drive, mod, insure, maintain, ect. I plan to sell it and get myself an FD, preferably a 93 or 94 R1 or R2, without a motor. As you may have guessed from my name, I want to do a 20b swap. Is it possible I could get the car (in fair-good shape), the 20b, and all the parts needed to do the swap, for ~$10k? I am gonna have a few grand when I sell the Slobra.

I may be setting my goals high, but I will be coming to you guys quite a bit over the course of the creation of the FD.

Rob

ps- what is the displacement of the 20b? I gather its around 6.0 L? yes, no, maybe so?

 

Hmmmm........I suggest you do quite a bit more research. You have lots to learn lol

 

Ok, first off....getting a FD because the Cobra is too pricey to maintain is like smoking a cigar because you think cigs have too much nicotine. As for displacement, 2rotors= 1.3L, you can guess what 3 has. And finally for the price, you are looking at around 10k for the 20B and the rebuild you are going to need.

 

what he siad, if you think the cobra is hard the maintain welcome to the 3rd gen forum. the land of blown motors, expensive mods, and possibily months of down-time. My FD has currently been down for 6 month.

Welcome

 

Take a trip to Pettit down in Fla, and see what is involved in the 20B swap.

It's no $10k bolt-in.

Dave

 

Dude, 10K, dreaming, and if you think Cobras are hard to maintain you have another thing coming when you enter the rotary world!

 

La LA La La La LA

 

All I have to say is, GOOD LUCK!

 

well thanks for the replies guys! It was WAAY more than I hoped for! lol

As for my logic about the 20b, my friend supposedly has a connection who can get a refurbed 20b for $2600. Friend has a 88 FC under construction with a Cosmo 13b.

My logic for the 6L comment was that a litre has circa 1000 cc's in it, and I have been lead to believe that the 20b has 2000 cc's per, which would yield a totaly of about 6k, or around six litres.

All in all, I am hoping to get lucky! I do want to learn, and am very willing.

Rob

 

Well, look at it this way.
Car+Motor+Tranny+ECU+Reconditioning a car that has probably been sitting around with a blown motor for cheap+Everything else involved in the conversion.
Pettit charges around 30k for the swap and it isnt all just the engine and labor.
My advice, add another 3-4k and get a good 3rd gen with a motor with good compression (always do a compression test before buying- see thread on compression numbers for reference) and enjoy the car for a while and save up for the conversion if that is what you want to do. As for maintaince, check out the thread of how much people have paid in the past year on their car, it is nuts. To give you a idea, I have spent 2k in the past month on small stuff and still have more work to do and I DONT have a problem with my motor/tranny/turbos.

 

ACTUALLY the listed displacement for the 13b is 1.3 liters...
BUT a rotary engine has 3 cycles for every revolution, bringing it to 3.9 liters...thats with 2 rotors...so its about 2 liters per rotor...20b = 3 rotors = about 6 liters

BUT a rotor revolves offset around a shaft so it actually turns the shaft more that one revolution for every revolution of a rotor...so its actually more complicated than a set piston engine...

as far as your talking about, FD3S is no cheap car to mod, drive, or insure either...
the FD3S is a high performance sports car just as your cobra was...it may be older but dont expect prices too low.
FD3S's were listed to have 14 mpg stock...something to think about..
mods are always expensive...

but dont let THIS discourage you....

 

You need to start here:

https://www.rx7club.com/20b-forum-95/where-does-all-costs-come-59544/

 

It doesn't get much better than this.

 

Oh, and just on the record, I am not trolling, I am (or at least was) serious. Seems like this whole thing will cost waaaaaaaaaaaay more than I can afford

I am also not looking to do some super hotrod setup like most of the people who do this swap do, I just want a basically stock 20b in an FD.

 

Wow, this is the funniest thread I've read in quite a while.

FD in GOOD shape but with blown motor = $13k+
Cost of doing 20B conversion CORRECTLY = $25k+

= $38k, minimum. I guess that's a little over your $10k budget......

The only FDs you are going to find for $10k are one's that have been beat to ****, one's with very desparate owners, or both.

Stick with the Cobra.

 

You'll eventually need to rebuild the "refurbished" 20B.

Anyhow, you can put it inside an AE86 (Toyota Corolla) or similar rear wheel drive vehicle. It may be a cheaper route to consider if you have some professionals help you.

J

 

RX-7 owner readiness evaluation.
Part one: Complete the sentence.

"My _____ is expensive and difficult to maintain, but I love it anyway."

(A.) Bone stock RX-7 Turbo
(B.) Modified RX-7 Turbo
(C.) Other rotary-powered vehicle
(D.) Other non-rotary powered vehicle

If you selected (D.) you fail. Go buy an econobox, and entertain RX-7 owners by trying to race us on the freeway.

 

please go buy a clue, or at least search on this topic first before you post this nonsense.

each rotor combustion chamber is about .65L. there are three per rotor. for one full rotation of the ecentric/output shaft each rotor goes through 1/3 of a rotation. thus for a 13B engine, 1.3L of displacement goes through a combustion cycle for each revolution of the output shaft. on a 20B, it is 2.0L (wow, you would think those numbers are related...).

the trick when comparing these numbers to a piston engine is in realizing that for a piston engine, it takes two revolutions of the output shaft for the full displacement of the engine to go through a cycle. so in order to adjust for comparisons sake you need to multiply the rotory displacement by two. so a 13B is roughly the same displacement as a 2.6L piston engine. for handicapping purposes, there was an additional fudge factor involved since the length of the power stroke in a rotory is longer than that of piston engine.

is this clear enough?

-bill

 

oops my bad...

 

Just slap a Vortech S-Trim on that cobra (if you go to corral.net or svtperformance.com you can find great deals on used one, there is one for sale on SVTperformance right now under the SN95 Cobra section of the forum) , that will give you a nice boost of HP

I have a 95 Cobra and have wanted a FD for a long time but at the moment i just don't have the money to support one and my 5.0 is doing great.

The FD will also get less mpg then your Cobra and will most likely cost more to insure because it is a 2 seater car. And a 20B swap, VERY expensive.

My honest opinon if you do want a FD, make sure you have extra money in bank for when the engine goes (and it will go) and for other small problems that may occur.