I'll start off by saying i did use the search but couldn't find what i wanted.

I am VERY new to the rotary world and am very interested in getting a RX-7 TT ( i currently have a supercharged 96 camaro ss ). But the thing i wanted to know is if i could push the engine to 5-600 hp and if so what kind of work the engine is gunna need to do that and not need a rebuild every year.

Thanks

 

Yes you are new, best bet for reliable HP at that range is a 3 Rotor Conversion, for which you might have to sell the camaro for Think 15+K for th engine and istall.. turbos IC etc....

 

let's bump that number to twice that...

 

Yea the camaro is being sold and i am gunna have about 12k to work with... Right now it is a toss up for me between a 300zx TT, RX-7 TT, or buying a 3rd gen camaro and building the engine up to about 800hp.

So you are telling me i'm not gunna get 500hp out of one of these engines?

 

At those power levels, the engine will be on the ragged edge....

FWIW, you won't need that much power unless you are doing a drag-only car. 350-400 rwhp in these cars is semi-reliable and will equal a near 500rwhp Camaro. If you are just looking for a straight-line car, IMO, there are far better choices. The real strengths of the 3rd gen RX-7 are its low weight, fantastic handling, and braking, looks, and good, but not world-class power.

EDIT: If you only have $12k to work with, this is not the car for you. Unless you buy a single-turbo car, it will take nearly $12k just to properly build it up to that point.

 

Why is 500hp so important?

Have you ever driven an FD before? I would recommend driving one.

Sure you can get 500hp out of these cars. However, you'll be slapping a single turbo on it that will take forever to spool up. At that point, you'll be getting beat from a stop by just about every car out there. Also, IMO, the car won't be very streetable (i.e. a pain to drive in traffic).

Are you looking to build a dyno queen or just a powerful sports car?

If all you want is high HP dyno numbers, you can get that easier and cheaper from domestic and other cars.

 

I've had the easy HP car... now i want something that is gunna be more of challange... why 500hp well b/c from what i have seen it is a number that isnt normally done with these cars and i like POWERFUL cars (right now im bored with camaro putting down nearly 500hp and about 600tq)... 12k is what i have to start with not how much i will spend total... thank you very much for the info

 

I'm a little confused because those statement go completely against your initial post of wanting to know if you could do 500-600 hp reliably? If you could, you would see a lot more of it......If you want a challenge, you found one. I hope you like rebuilding engines...

Hard to imagine being bored with that car but.....like I said earlier, it is likely a 400 rwhp FD would be faster than your Camaro. That's the benefit of only weighing 2700 lbs (in modded form). Actually, are your numbers flywheel or at the wheel? (I notice V8 guys tend to quote flywheel numbers for some reason...) If they're estimated flywheel numbers, a 400 rwhp FD would eat your Camaro for lunch...

 

HEHE

 

those are very much rear wheel numbers.... i have only lost one race on the street and that was to a nicely modded c5 vette.. and when i say challange i mean challange to get to those numbers, not stay there... also how do these engines like nitrous?

 

The only problem these engines have are with:

1. Heat
2. Knock (detonation)

You can throw anything else at them as long as you take care of those two items. Taking care of heat is the easy one.

One thing you will be missing with these cars, which you are probably used to, is torque. This is why I stated that slapping a huge single turbo on these cars is not the best idea if you are "street racing" from a stop (also the pain about being streetable comes up as well). If all you want to do is highway rolls, large singles are just thing.

IMO, you need to spend some more time researching and testing out a stock version of the car before you start placing HP goals.

Good luck.

 

Thats what im trying to do here... I'm trying to decide what car i want to get for my next project (as i said earlier).. Thanks alot for the info guys but with what you have said I don't think that this car can make the kinda power i want (not just for straight line)... It does have the handling i want but what is handling without power... again thanks for the info even if it isnt what i wanna hear

 

Well, you really need to think about what you want to do with your car. Having a 500hp car that weights 3500lbs verses a 2800lb having lots of power is a lot different. You have to remember the power to weight ratio as well. To make a FD produce the same power at 2800lbs, it would only need 400hp.

As far as handling without power? You should go to a track and check out the cars as they do laps. If you see any F-Bodies out there, you'll see them getting lapped by the slower "handling" cars because they have to be off the gas so much on the corners that all that power is wasted. Big power is for drag racing and dyno numbers only, it doesn't have much use after that besides bragging rights. If you find some nice twisty roads, an FD at stock 255hp is going to be 10x more fun driving through there then some 500hp F-Body, guaranteed.

You aren't going to get a super handling car with huge amounts of available power cheaply. It just ain't going to happen. You can make reliable 500hp on an FD with lots of low end torque, however that's called a 20b engine swap:

http://www.pettitracing.com/sections/Banzai.html

You aren't going to get a 20b into an FD for under $20k. Having Pettit do their conversion is about $38k, however they do more than just the engine swap as you can see from their pictures of their Banzai FD.

An FD putting down 350-400rwhp will take most cars on the road and it's not that hard to get to that point. You don't need 500hp to be fast. Once again, if all you are after are large power numbers, you can do that with any car. Making it streetable and driveable is another thing.

 

The only problem i have with making 350-400 hp is that the power can is fairly limited....

 

It's not limited. At 350-400rwhp, you are only limited by the turbos (and fuel management). The power curve and torque is different with a 2-rotor engine than a V8. There are plenty of FD's here on the forum around and over 500hp in the single turbo forum as well as the 20b forum.

The FD is the kind of car that turns heads where ever you are. It's rare. You can have a fast VW Golf at 600hp. However, at the end of the day, it's still a VW Golf whether it can beat every car on the road or not.

 

Thanks for the info.. rx-7 is looken like the way i will be going.... Even back when i was a hardcore domestic guy i still loved rex's... Thanks again and hope to be joining you soon.

 

Why didnt anyone suggest a supra yet if you just want purely HP. I believe the most hp on a stock bottom end has just been changed to 980. Those cars are beasts

 

If i was gunna do a supra i would just buy a fd with a blown engine and do the tubular frame front with the supra motor... i likes me fab work

 

I was thinking supra too, but if you would rather drop the supra motor into the FD before buying one then it sounds like you are into the FD for the same reasons as a lot of us..emotional. Anyway, don't feel like explaining that Although it may sound weird to an outsider, V8 conversions are not a complete rarity. But it in my opinion it isn't an rx7 w/out the rotary.