jdunmyer

I have an '89 GTUs that smoked some when first started but otherwise ran ok.
I decided I needed a new project so I took a ford 3.8 with a t5 and made it fit.
it just didnt have the power that i needed so I rebuilt the engine with a complete port and pollish, an isky high lift low duration cam, a holley 500cfm race carb, polished and cc'ed combustion cambers, I then made a set of turbo headers and threw on a couple of turbos off of a ford probe, which i found fitting due to the fact that a probe is a ford made by mazda and my mazda is now powered by ford.

i still need to balance the driveshaft, but man oh man does this thing haul !!!

i also need to find a tire that will fit and allow me to hook it up.

Merc63

I had had many rotory powered cars through the years, most of them for autocrossing. I had actually been looking for a Porsche 944 to go autocrosing with when A guy wanted to trade me his FC for a 44 truck I had. Turned out to be an '86 Sport with all the good suspension and brake bits, but no power accessories. Very light. I autocrossed it for a year in rotary form, and won it's class for the season.

The following year, I was going to continue that way, but the engine died (locked an apex seal into the exhaust port, and destroyed both the front and middle cast iron ohousings and the front aluminum housing). I was going to rebuild it myself like I had with my 12as in my RX3 and SA RC7. But, the days of a $300 rebuild were long gone at that point, and the cost of rebuilding the 13B was going to approach $2500. Whi9ch was too much money for a 143 hp engine, and more to replace it with a newer engine or turbocharging it. At the time (1994), anything over the stock power levels was really a time bomb waiting to happen.

While the engine was out, I was noticing how big the engine compartment was, and was comparing the Ford 302 we were setting up for my broither's '62 Mercury Comet, and realized it woudl fit easily. So, using that engine, I fabbed up some engine mounts, and picked up a buddy's nearly 400 hp drag 302 (he was swapping out to a big block) for a grand. Put a low rise intake and matched cam into it for streetability and a modded AOD I had laying around behind it.

After corner weighting it to check spring rates and alignment, I found that balance had actually improved slightly, and overall weight only went up to 2720 lbs. (and part of that weight increase was in the AutoPower 6 point roll cage I installed). So I drove it regularly and autocrossed it successfully like that for the next 4 years. Total cost of the swap was about $2k for a much more reliable and powerful engine.

I love the RX7 chassis, styling, and ergonomics.

Because it fits easily, and I took a week of evenings and a weekend to complete the swap once I decided to do it. And I fabricated everything because there were no kits for it when I did it. Motor and trans mounts cost me all of $20 and a couple days of measuring/cutting/welding.



I wish I could find this car again. Last I heard it was in Louisiana and the owner had added nitrous.