I am a retired Petroleum Landman. To those who never heard of this job, a landman represents the oil company and/or drilling contractor who bores exploration/production well(s) by finding, contacting and leasing the landowners and mineral-owners of the prospective area.
I only recently became interested in the rotary engine. When they were first introduced, I scoffed at the funny-named engine that smoked and had poor gas mileage. I was also one to hang on to my BIG American car(s). Fast forward to a couple years ago, I began looking for a small truck to go back and forth to Home Depot for stuff to repair the house. The Kei trucks are a pain to license to drive so I decided on another little Japanese vehicle, the Samurai. Perfect size and it was fun, although I soon found it to be really weak even though the previous owner had put a larger 1.6 engine in it. At my age, I wanted an automatic, too. So, I started scouting around for a small engine that could quickly get the Samurai around with an automatic trans while keeping the 4-wheel drive. I spotted a Rotary-powered PR Samurai that really sounded good. It shot flames out the side and did a wheelie as it ran a 7.770, 165mph/quarter mile! I was hooked! That's the kind of engine I want in my Samurai. I began researching the rotary and ended up buying a 13b Renesis JDM that I am readying to have swapped into the Samurai. I plan to have it running before the end of the year.

 

Welcome! Would love to see pictures of the Samurai!! Sounds like an excellent build!

 

Welcome to forum

 

I've seen plenty of old school carb'd 13B's swapped into Samurai's - but never a Renesis - should be interested! GLW your project.

 

I tried to put a picture in with it. I'll try again.

Here's my Samurai with present unpowerful 1.6 Suzuki power, waiting for the powerful 1.3 Renesis.

 

I thought a lot about going back to the carb and I think someone makes a 4-barrel Holley manifold for the Renesis, but I believe the engine is so advanced, I wanted to take advantage of the ECU controls and the fuel injection. I plan to keep the engine basically stock, but because it's a swap, I opted for an after-market ECU, the Adaptronics ECU looks like a good choice. I need an accelerator, so I will use one from an RX8 and maybe an RX8 fuel pump to make things easier. I haven't weighed it, but the Samurai is probably South of 2000 lbs. 200 hp should make it jump!

 

That Samurai appears to be in amazing condition!! Those things are skyrocketing in value!