<If you believe in rotary heritage, you keep the torch burning. Some of us could care less, apparently. We'd rather just drive our cars and not have to consult astrological star charts to find out whether or not they'll still be running at the end of the day.>

Oh, come on now Jim. That's being a little cynical. Its much easier to flip a coin. And its very easy to make sure it'll still be running at the end of the day. Don't drive it.

 

Jim...

You might want to ditch that opti-spark POS... I had mine go out on my old LT-1 ($700 to replace)... other than that I agree that the LT1 is an excellent V8.

Maybe someday I'll have a V8 powered RX-7 parked next to my Supra. Sure sounds like fun... Keep at it Jim. It's your car and you do whatever the hell you want with it (needless to say it's EXACTLY what I will do if I ever own one again!).

 

American cars like chevys use V8 becasue it is cheap power, period. I am not talking about Jim's which he has stated is nothign like a stocker. Anway, when weight or space is a concern(as it is everywhere except in the US) you spend extra cash in R&D, etc to get same power from smaller power plants. Hence 1.5 litre 1000hp f1 cars of late 70s. Rotary is such an attemp, it has only a few years of devlopment, potential is huge. but hell they have been making boingers for a hundred years. Also, look ho much Jim is spending, let's get realistic for most of us.

cheers

 

I'm way ahead of you...

First, the optispark is a vented '95 unit, which didn't have nearly the problems with condensation and carbon tracking which the earlier units did. Second, it's only being used for tuning, since because of height and space considerations I'm going to have to wait until the engine is in the car before fabricating a coil-on-plug mounting system driven by a FAST eDist electronic distributor in conjunction with my SEFI-8LO.

 

I made several choices which resulted in exotic (and therefore expensive) parts for my own specific reasons, but I could have easily made a lot of horsepower with far less expensive parts if I'd been willing to sacrifice a few things like a little weight. A supercharger hung on the front of a "standard" 383 LT1 would have easily done the trick. Anyone seen the "Darius 240Z" movies?

It's just like building a house. You build one, learn from your mistakes, and build a second. There are probably many things that I'd do differently if I had it to do over again, not the least of which are options that were not yet available when I made commitments to have some of my parts fabricated.

But I agree, don't use my project or budget as a yardstick. It's not very "real world".

 

so whwo would the ls1 compare to the lt1? Also, isnt the Turbo V6 a more logical route than the n/a V8? I dunno, I'm new at this stuff :p.

 

Well, sounds like with your VE, you will be putting a lot of exhaust gas through your headers, aren't you concerned with the coil on plug system getting heat damaged? Even ceramic coating and wrapping the headers will only get you so far...ever think about the MSD billettech distrib with a remote coil? I dunno, as I've not seen your headers (standard shorties or custom?), just trying to be helpful...

EDIT: BTW, I am going cross country in a couple of weeks, and would love a ride in your beast . If it isn't running yet, I'd love to at least see it, if at all possible...

 

My mistake... coil-per-plug, not coil-on-plug. LS1-style, not Supra-style.

Not a whole lot to look at at the moment... everyone seems to have my parts but me.

 

That man has too much power for his own good. What was it, 560rwhp/520rwtq and it broke on the dyno before it could make a full pull?? Yeah that might be enough power for a 240Z

www.taner.net

 

Aside from the frame kit, wiring harness etc..... Are there any other mods that need to be done? Any clearance issues for the headers/ dual exhaust? driveshaft? Anythng else?

The more I read about this the more interested I get shld I ever blow my rotary.... After talking to a buddy about this he thought I was nuts and that it cant be as easy as it sounds swapping out engines.

 

The headers being worked on will not have clearance issues, and the car remains single exhaust, so there is no loss of ground clearance or routing problems with the rest of the exhaust. The driveshaft can be included with the kit from Granny's, I believe.

It's not that difficult. The speedometer and tachometer outputs of the GM PCM can be recalibrated with two relatively inexpensive boxes from Dakota Digital (SGI-5 and SGI-5 "Tach", respectively). The PCM is a (roughly) 6-wire hookup. Power and ground, tach and speedometer, fan relay output, fuel pump relay output. The stock Mazda gauge senders can be retained and used to drive the water temp and oil pressure gauges in the dash.

It's not difficult, just (like all large projects) time consuming. If you had all the parts ready, and a good set of tools (as well as a little help), you could probably do the swap in a week or less if you were at all familar with the car and mechanical and electrical systems. If you're more of a beginner and have no help, or have to wait on parts, then it will (obviously) take longer.

 

Good man!

 

I had a 71 240Z with a corvette 350 motor, it was bone stock looking what a killer sleeper that car was.I would destroy 300ZX twinn turbos,Z28,mustangs loved it, but handling suffered from the added weight in front.Has anyone tried installing a BMW M3 inline six motor in the FD, it makes great power and should be light with aluminum block and head.

 

Dj*BaM|BaM: The Buick turbo V6 is pretty potent (600hp/650tq is possible with stock massaged parts and good pistons with a large turbo and proper fuel and intercooling/exhaust). It does require an automatic transmission to be used unfortunately. It would be too costly to adapt a manual and noone makes a Buick/Olds/Pontiac bellhousing for either the TREMEC TKO 5 spd or the T-56 6speed.

-JIMLAB wants a manual trans I'm sure; and the ease of an N/A V8 with its lightweight and easier tuning vs. supercharging/turbo'ing.

A Buick 231 weighs in around 350lbs with turbo/headers/aluminum intake/TB etc. This is about 100lbs lighter than an LT1. I'll weigh one in the next few weeks as I'm curious about the weight as well.

The LT1/T-56 route with billet 4 bolt main caps, decent forged crank, good rods and pistons with home ported heads/intake and a homebrew turbo system ($700 turbo, homemade headers (expensive if s/s), $600 intercooler, $300 fabbed downpipe) could make in excess of 600rwhp on a budget. A FAST/Felpro SFI fuel management system would make this easier.... but LT1 Edit with careful tuning could work. I have a friend with a 3600lb '95 Camaro and Vortech S-trim on a 383 LT1 and ported heads/intake/solid roller cam running 10.01@137mph. This engine in 3rd gen would be mind numbing and easily do 145mph+ in the quarter and probably 200mph+ top speed due to the .50 6th gear ratio of the T-56.

Now get your car done JIMLAB.... this has been a project that should be driveable by this summer right?

-GNX7

 

In theory...