Evening everyone,

This is gonna be a 2 part question. I'm quite new to working on a rotary engine well engines period, and was planning on putting one in my Dakota Truck.

1st question. Where would be a good place to read up on building the engine and to buy the parts. (Parts list would be pretty sweet as well )

2nd question. What problems would any of you forsee with putting this engine in a dakota. I've already figured I'm gonna have to do something about the stick shift and the engine mounts, there anything I'm missing?

Thank you for any info.

 

**tap tap** Is this thing on?

 

Well, it would be different to put it in a truck but why might i ask....more bay room? also why not a 20b in the dakota, so you can have the extra power for the extra weight....the 20b is a three rotor twin turbo engine...its like the v8 of the rotary world but only in 2.0 liters!! If you dont know much about engines then a rotary probably wouldnt be a good place to start, they are EXTREMELY simple but misunderstood. I've known of kids rebuilding these engines, but be warned hardly any mechanics know how to work on these engines so if something happens be prepared to do it yourself!!

Is the engine going to be N/A, if so then:
porting, intake and exhaust flow is about all you can do

Turbo:
all of the above and turn up the boost for fun times!!

Here's some sites though

mazdatrix.com
tweakit.net
atkinsrotary.com
racingbeat.com
rx7.com

Some of these sites even have DVD's that explain step by step on how to rebuild the engines.

 

To start I bought a Dakota with the idea of fixing it up, the engine was the one part I wanted to work on and right now I have a 4 cylinder and one day I was looking at the engine bay and it hit me like a ton of bricks, an engine bay that can fit a V-8 and Rotaries are very small. So yeah more bay room is part of it, the other is I just like the sound of the exhaust/engine (I've driven an RX-7 before) and how many rotary Dakotas are there running around?

I do realize that few people know about the engine which is why I wanna build it from scratch, so I know what to do when it breaks. :-)

Much Thanks for the info and Yes I will definitly have to look into a 20B.

-Mantokir-

 

Just did some looking around and all I got to say is ouch.... Eccentric shafts are expensive... :-D

 

How heavy is that truck, because rotaries are not exactly torque monsters.

 

-start with buying an engine

you can get a parts car or you can buy a jdm imported turbo engine

-When rebuilding buy one of these videos(I bought them both because it's good to see two angles of rebuilding)
diy 13bre
atkins rotary rebuild video

Go ahead and purchase a rebuild kit(I went for a full rebuild kit)

------- as a side note is you might want to purchase new rotor housings because the engine will last a lot longer with them(it depends how much money you have)

I did basically all this and I only went to three web sites.
mazdatrix.com
racingbeat.com
atkinsrotary.com

and like you said you will need motor mounts and tranny mounts and a custom driveshaft but other than that you should be all set.

You might want to look into using a zeal megasquirt system(stand alone ecu), check in that forum for more info on buying them and what not.

 

It's the 98 Dakota regular cab.. not exactly sure on the weight but I'm gonna try and minimize the weight of the truck gradually.

 

Something I didn't think about... thanks, would junkyards be a good place to look for a used engine or just go straight to a website or store and get one?