Hey all

I want to see what are the main reasons people here want to convert thier RXs to a piston engine. and i have a few questions for ya:

what where your reasons for doing so?

are you happy with your descion?

and do you think that by swapping a piston engine in your basicliy killing a rxs' soul and really negating the purpose of an rx?

id like to hear your thougts

PS im not trying to have anyone get flamed here, just wont your opinions

 

-Despite the dozens of people who quote $2k or so for a replacement rotary from a Mazda dealer, I tried over 15 dealers who all said I would have better luck rebuilding my engine after it died because they couldn't even get rotary engines. Lots of people talk about them being cheap, but nobody seems to know who REALLY has them for sale. One of my rotors and one of the housings were trashed so it was simply too expensive to rebuild the rotary for me, considering what the resulting performance would be.

-I don't regret my decision at all. My car ran mid 12's in it's maiden trip to the dragstrip, and it's bascially still untuned and I've got several things to work on that will only improve it's performance. And this is only the "test" motor I installed to make sure I could complete the swap without screwing something up. I have yet to attend an autocross or a road course race, so I can't say I wouldn't like to do that. As it sits my car isn't set up for that, but so what? Sportbikes weren't meant to be raced on a dragstrip either, and a lot more of those get ridden everywhere BUT a road course. Just because something performs best under certain circumstances doesn't mean it can't do well under others.

-Cars don't have souls. Judging from the stupid comments posted on this board frequently, I wonder if people have souls. Thousands of people install the engine of their choice into the vehicle of their choice. It's called Hot Rodding. I vote for doing what makes you happy, not what some narrow minded "enthusiast" (I use that word loosely) thinks you should do.

 

cars dont have souls :tard: they are a hunk of steel, nothing more
if you like RE's keep it, if not swap something cool in

 

i'm happy with mine. in short i wanted a reliable street car that will be competitive in any type of racing(drag, autox, road course). a car's soul? negating the purpose of an rx7? it does everything it did before the swap, only faster get a ride in one, you may like it!

 

well i talk to my car, because in some way i think theres somehting more then steel but thats me. and i havent seen any V8 rx7s in my area so i'll just have to find one.

and please more opinions

 

We talk to our cars too, but instead of cussing at it for not running right, we say things like "Oh ****, that's fast, slow down!"

 

well thats you mister fast pants.

 

This is how it usually goes and tell me that it isnt awesome:

Ricer: "so, is that your rx-7"
Me: "yes"
Ricer: "Is it turbo?"
Me: "no"
Ricer: "i bet ill destroy that thing!"
Me: "20 bucks says otherwise"
Ricer: "deal"

***both give $$ to third pary***

**start up car***


Ricer "uhh...way does it shake at idle?"
Me: "oh crap! what happen to my rotary! It turned into a 350! Damn it!"

 

excellent wonder if a 383 bored to the max will have the same effect?

 

Pretty good stuff. My problem is everyone around here already knows whats in my car and they think it's faster than it is. One of the guys in a 1st Gen Firebird wanted to run heads up last night - his car runs low 11's on motor, low 10's on nitrous. Then said I must be setting him up when I told him my car only runs 12's

 

your reputation preceeds you...

there are 50,000 people in my city and i swear to god not one of them have a positive learning curve. It rains: drive faster and cut people off. I own them: try at it again with a bigger fart can. Seriously, natural selection has been slaccking.

 

I drove my Rotary powered Rx-7 for 10 years. I like the rotary engine but decided to move on...My reasons:

I was tired of the car flooding when started and moving short distances.

Smoke on startup is NOT cool.

I wanted to be able to spin the tires without having to drop the clutch at 5,000 RPMS.

Rotary parts are not cheap.

My coolant seal started to go on my rotary so I started putting a piston engine in a Rx-7.

Negating the purpose of the rx-7. It lives to drive me to and from work that is it's purpose. My piston powered rx now drives me to and from work faster and with better MPG. Yup still serves it purpose but better.

Soul Ha. I laughed at a Mazda add with all it's current line up with the caption something like "10 cars one soul". Yup an rx-8 was in the picture with piston powered mazdas. So mazda doesn't see the rotary engine as having a different "soul" than it's piston brothers. The car I bought to put my engine in was dead anyway. I brought it new life. My sad old rotary powered companion for 10 years is the one I'll be killing. Selling it for parts or taking it to the junk.

It's fun driving a car that isn't just like everyone elses.

 

awesome responses guys keep it comin!

its just interesting to me to hear why people do what they do to cars.

 

is that it guys?? come one i want more advantages and more opinions of why you wanted to do this or is that all the people that have done the swap?

 

In addition to all of the above comments I enjoy doing the swap. I may have my car started today or in the next few days with its new piston engine and have really had fun doing the work.

The car does not car what engine it has, in my case it exists just to make me happy. I stopped having fun with the rotary so I moved on. I pulled my rotary engine 4 times in 3 years, spent thousands on profesional rebuilds and tuning. I am done with that and could not be happier about it.

 

I have had rotary powered cars since I was 16. I decided to put an LT1 in my car after the motor went because I was looking for alot more streetable power than I thought the rotary could give. Like it or not, there really is no replacment for raw C.I. (a turbo is just a way to get a smaller motor to breath like a larger one). When I was younger and had just gotten into cars my rotary was cool. It was LOUD, fast and different. Back in 1995 the "import scene" (I despise this term) did not exist, and there were a thousand little kids with imports running around acting like idiots. I also got used to driving something with torque everyday.

I was against doing the V8 swap, till I rode in one, now my next car will be a LS1 powered wether I reswap my FC or get an FD to add to the collection. The list of pro's/cons FOR ME I have come up with that made the descion to swap my car final.

Pros:
Improved Drivability (from increased torque)
Improved MPG
more HP/TRQ
6spd transmission
parts costs/avalibitiy
upgrades cost/availiblity
reliability at increased HP levels in a uncontrolled street setting
lower exhaust volume (my wife would not ride in the car with the rotary and large turbo it was obnoxiously loud, and even more so when the WG opened)

Cons:
decreased redline (cammed built LT1 is only good making power to 6500ish)
sligtly increased weight (easily compensated for)
4.10 rear gear not optimal for the V8
125mph top speed in 4th



I ended up spending NO money to get this done with a built LT1 bottom end, Spec Stage3 clutch, fidnazda 10# flywheel, T56, headers, and a hotcam kit for the motor. The motor has already made 340/340 with the cam kit NA and the bottom end it build as such I could add a small amount of boost (compression limited) or a good bit of N20, my motor with some worked heads and a slightly larger cam has dynoed 575rwhp/680ftlbs on nitrous. After driving the V8 cars I drove, other than the sound and difference in "revvyness" you couldn't tell it had been swapped. THe LS1 FD i rode in was pure gold, it is simply the best car I have ever had the luck to ride in.

 

i hear everyone is complaining about having 4.10 gears here, what is the deal? wouldnt this make the car accelerate faster? or is it TOO much acceleration, tires like to loose traction?


i am going to do the swap once my TII engine gives out

ALSO were you guys able to keep accesories? and the factory electronics? what could/n't you keep with the swap?

 

As long as we keep it civil, this is a great thread.

My 371whp rotary popped while doing a u-turn. I could have been doing a 3-wide with an '03 Cobra and Z06...but NOOOOO! It had to pop at walking speed

I've wanted to do a V8 swap for a LONG time in an FC, I just hadn't run across a good shell to do it with. Now that I had the perfect shell and the rotary popped, it was time.

100%. The only thing that will make me happier is when the swap is 100% complete. I have A/C and cruise left to hook up.

PROS:
Linear torque
6 speed
parts availability, both OEM and aftermarket
no rotary exhaust smell
no more adding two-stroke to the fuel
"WOW" factor when you pop the hood at car meets

CONS:
No more huge fireballs out the exhaust (Hmm... is this a pro or a con?)
No progressive power curve
No more HUGE FMIC to go along with the huge turbo

The RX-7 is a production line Japanese sports car designed in the 80s. They were not hand assembled. The interiors aren't draped in rich Italian leather. They did not come with a matching luggage set. They don't have a soul. A Ferrari? Yeah, I would really have a problem with someone dropping an American V8 or Supra engine in a Ferrari. But... I know RX-7s and I know a little bit about Ferraris - I'm here to tell ya that RX-7s are not Ferraris!

What about the AC Cobra? It started life as an AC Bristol 2.2 Inline six that someone decided to drop a 260ci (4.2L) Ford V-8 in. 2.2L inline six is quite snappy for a car that size, but even the anemic Ford 260 made an incredible difference in the car.

Were the AC purists claiming that they were ripping the soul out of the AC Bristol? Some probably were. The AC Cobra became such a hit that everyone recognizes AC Cobra, but if you mention AC Bristol to a lot of folks, you get a blank stare. In this scenario, the Cobra became the soul of the AC Bristol.

You've got em!

 

Personally, I think the 4.10 gears are perfect with the six speed. Around town it's great and in any gear you'll move pretty decent if you have to nail it. On the highway in 6th gear, you're turning 2200RPM @ 70MPH.

With 3.42 gears, the acceleration would suffer just a tad (E.T.), but MPH will be faster if you ran it at the track.

Factory electronics as in what? Engine electronics and chassis electronics are completely different circuits on our cars. If you want to keep it as OEM looking as possible, you can use the rotary oil pressure and water temp senders and your stock gauges will work. I chose to run aftermarket gauges just so I could get a reference number on pressure and temps. I really don't care what they are as long as they aren't zero or maxxed out and stay consistent

Once I find and modify a cruise control unit with a longer cable, A/C will be the only thing left to get working on mine. The only reason I haven't completed the A/C yet is I plan on doing a cam swap in the next few weeks and it would be easier to do it then than have to pull the condenser out right after I get the A/C going to do the cam swap.

 

The 4.10 isn't BAD, but the car doesn't need that much gear with all the torque the V8 puts in a such a light chassis, I think the car would feel and be faster with a little higher ratio. You can never have TOO MUCH acceleration .

You can keep Ps/AC/ most of the stock gauges, etc though they will take a little work te get functional.

 

Power steering and A/C lines need to be custom made.

The gauges all work fine, but the tachometer will need to be recalibrated (DIY or $55 through Granny's.) If you run a late model tranny with electrical speedometer outputs, you'll need a converter box to drive the speedometer cable. They're in the $250-300 range.

 

Thats where "a little work" comes in

 

what where your reasons for doing so?
I wanted a fast *** RWD car! After years of driving well-built, fast and very nimble Bseries Hondas I felt that needed a RWD chassis to be faster at autox and really get the most performance out of my money. I looked into Miatas, 240sx's, S2000's, even older BMW's and I wasnt sure of what to do. I drove a friends S2000 atr a local autox and did very well. It felt great to drive RWD, so I was sold on the idea and the search began. I would actually like to start from scratch by building a Caterham SuperSeven replica or the like, but I also needed it to be reliable, replacable, easily serviced and more of a ''normal looking'' car since it would be a daily driver and an autocross/trackschool car. The LS1FC came to mind only after getting a ride in soloIIdrift's car... and holy **** its fast, nimble, looks hard as hell and was CHEAP! I couldnt believe how cheap after he told me, I felt pretty shitty after looking back at my $13,000 in mods/motorswap on my $2000 Civic hatch. Even though my Civic was wicked nice and very capable... it was just half the monster that his LS1FC was. I put together my LS1FC for under 10 grand and its still making me giggle because its near supercar performance for such little money. If I had just another 5 grand to throw at it, it would be down to 2400 pounds, up to 450whp with heads'n'cam, widebody on 17x10f/17x11r wheels, cobra diff'd rear end, capable of destroying almost anything out there on track, roadcourse, autox or street... so there's my plan for next winter!

are you happy with your descion?
Yes, oh god yes.

and do you think that by swapping a piston engine in your basicliy killing a rxs' soul and really negating the purpose of an rx?
what? are you serious?
well, to me, the purpose of an RX7 is that of any true sports car... to tear up the roads/track while bringing a sense of harmony to the driver that is dialed in to that car and knows its limits. There is a sense of bliss and gratification I get after completing an autox run or a lap at a trackschool where I was right on the edge of the limits and the car hauled *** and really was amazingly quick on course... its hard to define but its just like great sex.

The LS1/T56 is THE best choice for power and excellent power delivery when you include reliabilty and cost into the equation of building an FC for autox, canyon, drift, daily driving and trackschools.

 

What i meant in electronics was the factory logicon and heater controls and headlight switches and the like all the non-engine electroncs is probably how i should have worded it.

also what gauge setups did you end up using? retrofit the factory gauges to work? buy all new aftermarket ones? something different?

And what was the final selling point in doing this? a ride in a friends V8 rx7? videos of it?

 

Yes, everything in the body works just as it did.

I went with aftermarket gauges, but I dislike them. They look fantastic, but are impossible to read in sunlight. They are Megan gauges that I got a decent deal on (roommate owns an import shop.) They aren't very accurate either. The water temp gauge reads 10* higher when you kick on the lights. They look fantastic in low light, but the fact that they are so hard to read in daylight I cannot recommend them to anyone.

You can use the stock water temp sender and oil pressure sender from the rotary in a swapped engine and your stock gauges will work just fine.

I've had over 40 cars since I've had my license and 30 of those were V8 powered. I knew what V8s were capable of and I knew what the RX-7 chassis was capable of. I made the decision without ever laying eyes on a swapped car in person.