A unique monster of an engine, the rotary!...
 

wow! unique work, no more, no less lol. great work love it! the welds wow, stunned. cant wait to see a video, fired up and down the track. take care, be safe later...

How do you weld like that iv never seen welding like that?

Nope. I'm an automation engineer, but I weld in the evenings at a buddy's shop. I learned how to weld like that from a stainless pipeline welder though. For the past 8 months, we have been doing a lot of stainless sheeting and piping for an eythelene oxide sterilizer. So, I got a LOT of practice!

I knew it...:icon_tup:
Pipe welders are some of the best welders out there..
and they make really good money....
There is a shortage of pipe welders and overhead welders..
Good trade to go into.. Guaranteed employment even in a bad economy...

+1 on that japan...you hit that right on the money

Well, the engine is off to Alan. He should be picking it up from the freight hub tomorrow. In the mean time, I'm trying to have everything ready to drop the engine in and fire it up once Alan is done. The header and turbine housing should be back from ceramic coating tomorrow. The intake, piping, and some other stuff went to the powdercoater last week.

Paranoia got the best of me again......I started to worry about the welds for the 4-link brackets on the axle. They were done before I started welding at the shop, so I was a little worried about the weld's tie in to the axle (and they were ugly as hell!). On the old Pro Street '85 Chevy, I actually tore off the spring perches at the track! At the time, those were the factory welds, too. So, I pulled the axle and washed over the old welds with the TIG. No worries now. I'm also swapping the 7/16" axle studs out for 1/2".

I also started wiring up the center gauge pod.

Awesome work as usual. Gettin closer.....

Got the exhaust manifold and turbine housing back from Jet Hot. I had them hit it with the 2000 series.

dude I have an insane idea. Find a guy with a v8 swap into his rex and contact a magazine and have them do a story, American Muscle vs the Japanese rotary. The shock value when they open the page would be sick.

hell yes

I just spent the last 2 hours reading every word in this thread and every picture. This is absolutely amazing. The work, creativity, skill, attention to detail, and everything else that went into this project is.... I don't even have a word to explain how awesome it is! haha..

Great work! This is one of the best/unique builds I've ever seen!

I do inspection on welds ranging from boilers, to natural gas pipe, to pressure vessels, etc. Never seen welds that clean, ever.

You work with Phil? lol

This is amazing! I can't wait to see or hear it!!


Obviously this thread just made it to Vegas... lol

epic thread, i need to weld like you now

Finally finished cleaning up the old welds that I was worried about. I washed the engine mounts and 4-link cradle witht the Tig. Now I'm not woried about this thing falling apart from under me.

We also picked up the most recent batch of powdercoated pieces including the oil pan, intakes, piping, ducting, etc. Everything turned out really nice. I was really stoked that you could still see the weld dabs on all of the welded aluminum pieces.

nice project

boy that should get a few huffs and puffs from the chevy crowd :D

me and my bud simon wanna do a 3 rotor shelby cobra...just to make the ford guys clench hehe

he already did a 13b turbo 911 porsche...those porsche guys get really offended over stuff like that....

very nice project...one thing you will have..is plenty of room under the hood :)

I wanted to say that I love your idea its great the only thing that ever made using a muscle car platform a problem was the weight which you have solved and now get to reap the rewards of lightweight and ability to fit a huge rear tire something fd owners are plagued with often when they get into real high power levels.

Also I noticed LILHOMO decided to finally leave I just wanted to say after listening to the stupidity that he vomited up I couldn't help picture him as one of the rednecks on south park that are always saying, "they took our jobs!"
and for the record thats coming from a jack daniels drinking cigarrete smoking federal firearm weapon owner so dont give people crap because you think that to be a man you need to resemble the marlboro man.

good luck with the build man. I hope i get to see it someday

"They tuk er jawbs!"

we need update! lol

I've been working on the car, just been bad about posting. I finally finished the brakes. I already had all of the lines made and installed, but when I tried to blead the brakes, every steel fitting leaked like crazy. Turns out steel fittings aren't as forgiving about the quality of the double flares as brass fittings are. So, I ended up having to remake all of the brake lines! (if you haven't redone it four times, you haven't wasted near enough money........) I wasn't taking any chances with the Auto Zone special flare tool again, so I sucked it up and bought a professional double flare tool from Eastwood. It was the best $200 I've ever spent! It turns out perfect flares every time. I also took the oportunity to throw in a line lock to make burnouts easier for the driving impaired (me).

I also finished screwing around with the secondary fuel rail. I've got the one from KG Parts, and I have to say, I'm really disappointed with the quality of it. The mounting bracket holes were off and I think they intended for the injector O-ring to seal by smashing it into the bottom of the intake. I doubt it would have worked though because the injector wasn't inline with the injector boss using their mounting bracket. So........I had longer injector sleeves machined and epoxied them into the manifold. Now the injector O-ring seals against the bore of the sleeve instead of the bottom of the intake. The injector is retained by compressing it between the fuel rail and the sleeve. I added an additional o-ring in between the sleeve and injector to cushion it a bit.

Alan has all of the engine pieces machined, and I believe the porting and lapping is almost done. We're going to get together at his place in Kerville early January to assemble the engine. I'm really pumped to be involved with the build! We went with RX8 stationary gears, stock 2mm apex seals, and a half-bridge. The housings ended up being borderline, so Alan ordered a new set of TII housings.

Other than that, I've just been installing block off plates, reassembling throttle bodies, and cleaning up powdercoated pieces.

This is just an awesome project and I can't wait to see it done. Quality stuff which raises the bar for all project guys. I'll be following this one!!!

Pics!!!

Will do...........

I spent this Wednesday and Thursday with Alan in Kerrville building the motor. I've gotta say, anyone who would take two days out of his life to help someone he barely knows build a motor is all right in my book. He and his family were very hospitable and even let me crash on their couch overnight.

The engine went together with very few issues, primarily due to Alan's extensive knowledge of rotary engines, and his uncanny ability to "just happen to have" all of the parts that I forgot to buy or bring with.

My lessons learned.......
1. Damn there is a lot of taping involved in painting the irons and housings!
2. Before building another one of these, buy stock in 3M!
3. Clean, clean, clean, and more clean.
4. Have your own NAPA to build engines in. It saves a shit load of trips to the store.
5. Everyone needs a giant ass belt sander.
6. Heatguns and positive vibes can perform miracles!
7. You can take a rotary engine home in tupperware.
8. Jack in the Box now has sweet potato fries...........tell your friends.