Newb (me)
 

Ok, I apologize for the Rotary newbness. I'm not going to bullshit, I have always been a very serious Honda lover. I've owned probably 9 in the last 7 or so years. My latest was an 07 AP2. I want something different and would love to get into an FD. My question is though I hear alot of people doubting the reliability of the 13b. Is the 20b any better or are all the rumours just that, rumours of people who can't tune or work on a car.

I have posted this in the 20b forum but wanted to introduce myself at the same time.

Thank you all for your help and I will say this seems to be a good board to be on.

Also would any of you all recommend another FD board to be on?

"Never come to a man yard and pick at the way he works".

Thats how I feel about the 13B. it has it good points and bad points like any other engine, if you build it right it will be golden... and if you build crap, you know the rest.

Oh and before they tell you you, SEARCH!

turboed rotaries get the bad reputation because of problems with bad maintenance and care is what i would say. so if these engines are well taken care of they will be fine. its fragile, not unreliable.

20b might be easier to take care of in some respect but a pain in others and its expensive to get it set up in a fd.

and i have no idea what a ap2 is, is everyone supposed to know these acronyms. realllly

oh and u've had 9 different cars in 7 years, the fd is probably not good for need-a-new-novelty-car-ever-year type people. keep on getting those hondas ;)

I've had my FD for almost two years now... not one mechanical problem... fingers crossed :) their the best cars you'll come across if taken care you... I wouldn't even consider a 20b conversion as they are very expensive... but one day ;)

like the first guy said If you want rotarys especially a turbo rotary to be reliable you need to build it right never doing the easy thing. With these cars the easy way out usaully turns out really bad trust me I know. Read the stickies give yourself 6 months to learn everything about the car. Then if you still feel like its a good idea then buy one with the knowledge you will know if anything breaks at least you can fix it with all the knowledge you now have. I was a hardcore Honda fan also before this car but the difference is that with hondas all you have to do is replace oil and youll get 200,000 miles out of the engine easily. You have to watch listen and watch everything that your rotary is doing because it is one finnicky beast. Also the 20b is just as reliable as the 13b but what people dont seem to get is most shops charge $30,000 for that swap so just enjoy the 13b to learn on.

Thanks everyone for their thought and ideas. I don't plan on purchasing one until April or May of this upcoming year, so I have a little bit of time which will go to learning as much as possible.

Sevensix, there are one of you all on every board, don't like new people and would rather have the board left alone with no new people. I've had different projects and different DD's over the last 7 years sometimes three at a time just to have something to do. I don't need a new car every year but I thought after all the used older model Hondas, I wouldn't mind owning a new one and making the payments.......I was wrong. I hate making the payments on it evey month. Love the car, hate the payment, so in other words, I think I will stick around to see how this pans out. The reason for my first post with the question was because I didn't want to start looking into the FD if the only real way to get any kind of power and relaiability out of it was to drop an LS1 in it. I don't want to do that, something about dropping an American made motor into a Japanese chassis, not knocking anyones taste, just not my cup of tea.

Oh and sevensix, an AP2 is an S2000 from 05 to 08........newb. :lol2: :lol:

actually its kinda sad that you know that...maybe you and honda boy should hook up

haha

No, there are a lot of people like that on this board. You see, after years and years of "zomg RX-7?!", "How much for 20b lolz", "RX-7 good drift car?", "RX-7 or Supra?" threads, it's easier to tell people to just get a supra, get off the board, rx-7 sucks for drifting get an S13, etc.

I totally agree with just about everyone here; the FD is high maintenance. But if you take care of it, it will run like a dream. 20b is a VERY expensive way to go, and there is PLENTY of power that you can make from the 13b. Plus keeping the originality of the car is always a plus:icon_tup:

:D i was in shitty mood and im sick of people not knowing about fds which means u don't really want one coming on here asking for information and u talking about 9 hondas and a ap2 has nothing to do anything. and i <3 hondas.

Its all good man, just giving you hell. Like I said before, I have no problem not searching and doing my own research. I want to know everything I can before I jump on board but up front I just wanted to know if it is honestly a waist of time. Every manufacturer is going to have hardcore fans, I'm not looking for them. I just wanted some general background on whether or not you can actually make the FD a fast, reliable car. Thank you all once again and any help is appreciated.

s2k's get alot of respect in my book.Spoon moon top, turbo, and the right mods that thing is a beauty.

+1

This has got to be one of the worst things ive read on a forum which is here to help answer questions for people who dont know about their FDs. I think in stating that he has had Hondas in the past was just making aware that he is serious and not a 16 year old kid.

Then again it is a very commonly asked question!:shocking:

Dont worry about the other guys negative comments, i love S2000s, but the FD is far sexier!

dont mod it too far and it will be fine. I bet that a 500hp S2000 would suffer with reliability too, keep the engine simple and smart. The 13B is best bang for buck and will have more options for mods, and will be easier to source for parts. The turbos is what make the FD so exciting. But with that said, i would love a 20B powered FD!

Put simply, the 20B has a lot more power capacity. About 50% more.

The rotary loses reliability when you go from NA to boost. More boost, less reliable. You can run a 20B in NA, get loads of torque and power, and it will run for a very long time. Put a little boost into it (say, 7-8psi) you get a good heap of power, and it's still much more reliable than a 13b with enough boost to match it.

The issue is cost. If you can take a $20k FD and put $30k into the 20b swap, go for it. You can torch a couple of 13Bs and then some for that price and not have to wait months for the car to get done.

Dave

;)