OK so here it goes. I know this one will attract every hater possible.

I love rotaries. I love RX7s. I've been building and driving rotary RX7s for 8 years.

In April I started thinking I wanted to try something else for a little. I was planning on selling my FC for money down on a 350z. The car still had the FR layout that I was looking for, It was a proven drifting and grip chassis, has a large aftermarket, and wasn't a 240sx.

Then the funniest thing happened, after a little collision at the track, my radiator fan on the V-mount broke and the car overheated in about 12 seconds. I quickly shut it down and it was taken off track. I fixed the fan as best as I could, it wasn't pulling the proper CFM but it was pulling enough, and I drove the car 40 miles home from the event. I drove the car to places to get alignments done, changed the water, changed the oil, it was holding Idle, Temps and Pressures just fine. Nothing unusual. I thought I had slipped by my little overheating accident unscathed. I signed up for the next drift event which was East Coast Bash and brought the car down for 2 full days of drifting. I towed the car down instead of driving it because I figured I would crash. Needless to say the car was running about 10 degrees hotter than usual which I attributed to the outside temps being so damn hot. I had 3 ok runs on the back course at Englishtown and on lucky run number 4 the motor blew. It was a coolant seal, weakened by the overheating incident, and then finally giving way at about 6500 RPM.

I was pretty ****** bummed to say the least. That motor only had 9000 mi on it. I spent the rest of the day at Englishtown watching some drifting and talking to people. After a few conversations with a few different people I had a thought: I wanted to build a piston car and now I have a roller without a working motor... Might as well still do a piston build.

"A man cannot understand the perfection and imperfections of his chosen art if he cannot see the value in other arts."-Musashi


This then lead to choice of motor. I basically went for a common (and commonly hated) swap of a GM LSX motor. I did a little searching and ended up finding an F-Body car for sale with an LS6 already fitted and purchased it.


My build motto is going to be "Aggressive Japanese Exterior, Powerful American Interior"

I have begun ordering and receiving parts for the swap. I have been getting a ton of help and advice, which I really appreciate, from Andrew at D-Up Drifting. If you've never seen Andrew's car, I feel bad for you.



The factory gauges are getting tossed for some simple Autometer gauges


I have some 1 7/8" headers from JTR


All the wilwood clutch hydraulics my little heart could desire from Hinson Supercars


New Bosch spark plugs


A corvette Filter and FPR


And because of the tight fit of an LS6 in an FC with big headers I ordered a ton of heat protection from summit. The tubes protect each spark plug wire from the big headers


more updates soon

 

that was fast

 

I'm shooting to have this motor in and the car ready to rumble by freedom moves. So I'm moving as fast as I can. Everyone knows how annoying it is when you're just waiting for parts to arrive.

 

so that car you bought has a z06 engine in it ? you gonna dyno it before you take it out ?

 

It's not exactly a Z06 motor. Its an LS6 but it's a GM Crate motor. What I mean is that it was never taken out of another car. It was built from the ground up. It was already dynoed a little while ago. It has a very modest tune for street driving and extremely restrictive 1 1/2" headers with catalytic converters and mufflers. It dynoed at 428rwhp.

 

what happened to your other build?

 

^^ if you're referring to the FD, it's still in my garage and still a 2 rotor. It's always going to stay that way. The FC is the car I'm currently drifting so I'm focusing all my time and money on it. I've begun to gear the FD more towards time attack and road racing, but it will basically be an all around performer when finished. The FD needs about 2 months and $4-6000 thrown at it to be complete. I'm hoping for next summer on that one. I got Redline time attack to approve the FD for street tire level if I throw some things back in it like interior and a catalytic converter.

 

i hope i get to see this thing at freedom moves. looking into a piston build myself. i hope to b done by then.

 

i drove alcolades LQ S14 and those have like 300rhwp ? that thing is gonna be nuts with over 400 hp/tq on tap. no matter what gear i was in, burnout time

crazy $6k engine stock

 

Yeah it's going to have plenty of power on tap. With the larger headers and more free flowing exhaust I'm going to use it should add some HP. I'm looking to keep it pretty conservative though as I want it to be reliable and don't need 500hp or something. I'd be fine with much less.

 

It's a love/hate relationship haha. I have an FD too and it will always stay Wankel. But, as soon as my FC went boom, I bought an LS

 

they also fit ten times better in FC's. its retarded to put one in a FD

 

Vosko's right. The FC is much more agreeable to LS swaps and 20b swaps as well.

 

 

Thank you sir. I'm actually not completely emotionally on board. I do still like rotaries. Andrew tells me that the first time I drive the V8 I'll be very much on board. Right now I'm trying to learn as much as possible about the LS and LS FC car setup.

 

Wiring....I'll kill you. My basic plan is to have one 4 wire engine harness for the LS6, one harness for Headlights, turn signals, wipers, fans, and one harness for the gauges.

Speaking of which does anyone know where I can buy Cabon fiber to make dash panels? I'm not even sure what thickness I should use. I kinda want to avoid using metal do to the fact it will be close to wiring and don't want anything to conduct.

 

yo i didnt even realize this was u. i met u at a couple cl events, i got the blue fc.

glad to c u found a new powerplant. hopefully this one will last u moar then two runs haha

 

HEY!!!! It was 4 runs haha. Petty only got 2 runs out of his 13b corolla before it blew.

 

Feel free to PM me with any questions you may have. Chill out on the wiring, it's actually really simple. I thinned my engine harness after looking up a few diagrams and it really helped. My harness was automatic so it had TONS of retarded wires to remove.

After I got the engine it only took me 4 weekends of working on it to get it race ready. Raced on the 5th weekend and have not missed one yet!

I assume you have pez mounts, those really help simplify things.

 

EVANN! good luck with your build bro very much looking forward to seeing you at freedom moves!

 

Bummed to see the rotary go, but I'm glad you're sticking with drifting. I'm sure you'll do the build it right and have a killer car.

 

you got allot more than 4 runs with that setup. mine is going strong but i still have to fix some issues

 

Yeah I had about 1.2 million runs on that motor, but only 4 at ECB the first event after it overheated. Life lesson: Even when you thought you creeped by an overheat....... you didn't.

 

Well I made Myself a Gauge cluster.



and I know it's not perfect so I don't need any strict scrutineering.

 

I like the gauge cluster! it looks good. and im now subscribed to your build =)