Hey!
I have recently aqquired this little beauty, and i want to give it that real "BRAP-BRAP"- rotary sound it deserves.







I know the bridgeport configuration is slightly less dailydrivable, higher mpg, tend to be "jerky" when close to idle coming off the clutch, and has low power down low, but flows lots of air, especially in N/A configuration. I want mine turboed.
Car is supposed to be a pure and simple fun car.

I have read abit here and there over the years about BPs eating seals due to the contact area between seal and sidehouse being too small and shortening the engine lifespan. Also, i have seen people having cracked the bridge from time to time. I do also recall people trying to fix some of the seal-eating by making the edges on the port less sharp?

expected lifespan on a BP is?

Please, give me the breakdown here

The plans are
13B bridgeport for that awesome brap-sound, singleturboed
Water injection
full supporting mods(ecu, ignition, cooling, exhaust)
rx7 gearbox
volvo or toyota rear axle
lowered
remove rust(not very much rust on it at all)
paint it matt black
wide oldschool pop-riveted fender flairs
oldschool rims, widened. streetslicks for traction

if i see 500rwhp, i am very happy! Should be fun in a 800kg car

My Qs are:

What front member can i use to make this happen? 1st gen rx7? RX3? Ive heard different versions.
The bridgeport questions above here.
What singleturbo do you recommend?
Do you recommend any change in plans or ideas? Any additional tips?

thanks

 

neat! my friend just posted a 500rwhp dyno of his BP turbo FC the other day. his is super simple

its an FD block, 8.5 rotors. HKS T51 turbo. 18psi on pump gas, no water, no meth. i think it was together for 4-5 years until the hose popped off the fuel pressure regulator... it sees some road racing action too, so its not a dyno queen

i'm not sure of the specs on the bridge, i assume its not huge, you have a turbo.. you do want to pay attention to the seal paths. more than that i'm out of my experience.

Bergen is quite a happening town in the summer, you need to give the V8 guys something to worry about

 

I've been daily driving half-bridge engines for roughly 30-40,000mi now. There was a long period of time where my odometer was dead The current engine has close to 20k miles on it now in half-bridge form, assembled 100% used parts from a core engine of unknown miles.

Upsides:

More torque everywhere
It sounds like a rotary should
It sounds like any performance car should
MORE. TORQUE. EVERYWHERE.

Downsides:

You need to drive around the port in traffic, not as much of a problem with a half-bridge (I previously had a peripheral port, have not had a full bridge engine yet)
It will not run well at cruise without "interesting" ignition timing and fuel settings. Currently I need to run at close to 12:1 at cruise speed/load in order to keep it from misfiring, supposedly playing with negative split under cruise will allow you to lean it back out to normal levels. I plan on trying this, can't do it yet though. As it is, I'm getting roughly 22mpg US (about 10.5l/100km) which is about what I could get with a street port 13B.
Exhaust becomes extra critical. It's easy to have a too-restrictive exhaust, which will destroy power. Most people just give up and live with a very loud exhaust, I drive too much for that to be acceptable.
You will get on your local environmental groups' 10 Most Wanted lists. Brap brap brap means that literally half of the fuel going into the engine goes right back out again unprocessed. It's not unlike a newborn baby
Turbo sizing, like exhaust, becomes critical. I don't play with turbos, so I can't comment on that. Very large turbine housings seems to be commonplace (1.1-1.3 A/R on a T04-frame turbo) given what people say, with divided housings best for flow and spool.

I have not noticed any longevity difference between a half bridge and a street port engine driven equally hard. The inability to run cleanly means the oil needs changing MUCH more frequently due to fuel dilution. I drain the oil out and put it in my Volkswagen, which has a bit of an oil burning problem.

 

You will need a front mount style from a rx3...bolts right up under the front sway bar...78-79 sa or earlier trans or do a later model with a shortened shift mod...tons of write ups on this. Austalia is now your friend as they prob have more rx323's than rx7's at this point and don't expect any of it to be inexpensive! You can go turbo bridgeport if you like, but these car are lighter than first gen rx7's and a ton of fun NA...mine even has the stock rear end still and I'm not kind to it. Fuel injection helps a BP out alot in terms of driveability...see inj perfection for this and be careful porting...there are well known companies out there that still do a hack job of bridgeporting...less might be more, but I'm still learning as I go. Good luck...I'm anxious to see it start coming together.