Ludachris

We just ran our first Lemons event and had an overheating problem. Our mechanics will tear down the motor to see if it can be salvaged, they believe the seals are leaking. We'll wait to see what they find but after finding rebuild kits that cost $1000 alone it almost seems a little cost prohibitive to rebuild it for this car. I'm wondering if it might make more sense to find a cheap engine swap option that would have similar power and weight that would be cheaper to maintain. Any ideas on some really cheap engine swap options - something we could find really cheap used that will either work with the stock transmission or a tranny swap option that would be really cheap to work with.

We've been told about a Kia Sportage engine swap that might be paired with a Mazda truck transmission combination (possibly just the internals swapped into the RX7 case). I found the Grannys Speed Shop site, which is great. Just wondering if there would be any other innovative options that might save us some money if we found them cheap - we don't necessarily want big power, maybe a little more, but not much. No turbo engines, and only a V8 swap if it's something we could find crazy cheap, but we'd really rather just have a solid 4 cylinder or maybe a 6 that we can find used for dirt cheap and have it be reliable.

Thanks!

misterstyx69

iTrader: (142)

Isn't there a spending limit on that race..what you can spend on your car MAX????

Ludachris

There's not necessarily a spending limit, you just have to show up with what looks like a $500 car. Most of the cars that enter the race were not $500 cars, it's obvious when you look at some of these cars that thousands of dollars go into some of them. There was even a late model Pontiac GTO out there running with us this past weekend. It's not about spending limits or proving that you got parts for free - it's more about showing up, having the "judges" look at your car and say "yeah, this looks like a $500 car". If they want, they'll assess penalties for those that don't look like they're playing fair.

We're not looking to gain an advantage with an engine swap. We actually want to try and do this for as absolutely cheap as possible to stay within the spirit of the series, but we don't want to put all this effort in just to have the car break again. And if we do a swap we want to choose one that will be cheap to maintain.

darmy

iTrader: (10)

Now, now. Don't be hasty.

This weekend was only our teams' 3rd time driving on a racetrack. And we finished 10th, to our total astonishment. This despite the fact that we still barely know what we're doing and are pretty shitty drivers compared to many of other the teams out there. The number one reason for this is our absolutely bulletproof rotary engine. It just completed its 3rd Sears Pointless with 0 issues. We've done unspeakable things to it, including grabbing 1st at 85 miles per hour, and running against the fuel cut-off for 5 seconds at a time every lap, but it's stronger now than ever.

The Off-the-Scale team did fantastic, with a rotary FB I believe. I think the F-U-Haul guys are still rotary as well.

We bought the car with a bad coolant seal, and rebuilt it on the cheap ourselves. I had an FD for years, so I was practiced at the 13B rebuild... We made sure that we had tons of ducting to the oil cooler and radiator (super important), and spent a good portion of our budget on a nice very used aftemarket radiator. We've got good add-on oil and water temp gauges and senders, and we watch them. I'm pretty sure the only thing that can kill an N/A rotary is heat. It’s all stock S4 parts, albeit with many free modifications gleaned from this here forum. The car does very well up the hill after the carousel.

Every year we have guys come by before the race and say something to the effect of, “You guys still have that rotary?? They break too easy.” Then they walk away shaking their head. Whatever.

PM me if you want info on a cheap rebuild or just to swap info on our cars.

Ludachris

We had people say that to us too - which car was yours at Sears Pointless? My guys believe we need a new coolant seal too. If we can rebuild it cheap then great, but finding the 13B rebuild kit for $1k scared a few teammates. It just seems like it's pretty expensive to maintain this motor. I'm glad to hear that it might be cheap to fix.

I'll PM you for sure.... thanks for the reply.

darmy

iTrader: (10)

The white FC, #21 Rotary Rooter. We had the paddock near the grandstands a row back from the garage paddocks.

If all you have is a bad coolant seal, and your engine isn't super high-mileage and hasn't been starved for oil, you can probably do a lemony rebuild with this, and reuse your hard seals: O-Ring Kits

There are other sources for parts, but RA is what we used. The Bruce Turrentine videos have walked me through a few R&R's and rebuilds. These engines are different, but not complicated. Just like anything else, the real bitch is cleaning it.

Tell the Lemons guys you blew your motor and get a residual value for the car if you want to keep everything on the up-and-up.

Ludachris

Ahhh yes, I saw you guys. Hope you did well out there.

We shut things down at the end of the first day in hopes of salvaging the engine. We're discussing options for the engine at the moment. I'm pushing to do a cheap rebuild as you suggested.