This is my first post and I am totally new to rotaries. I have a sandrail that right now has a 1915cc aircooled VW engine with a non-intercooled turbo on it. I want to go rotary, but don't know what to buy and most importantly where to buy a motor from. The car weighs 1400 pounds and with the gearing in it I am doing 60 mph at 4000 rpm in 4th gear. 1st-4th are all super close together. I am a firm believer in the keep it simple philosophy. So a carbed NA setup (using premix) would be my first choice. Probably with a Holley offroad carb. Right now my VW will only rev it out to 5500 rpm.

Which motor should I get?

Which port job type should I get?

Who should I get it from?

 

welcome to the board.

non turbo 13B definitely. you can get a Weber setup for it. porting will really depend on what kind of power levels you want and what your tranny will handle - 60 MPH in 4th kind of makes me uneasy for an engine capable of 8000+ RPM. anyway, you would need to know what neighborhood of HP you want, then decide on which port.

on a sidenote, why not just work on tuning the air-cooled VW engine? you'll keep weight down right off the bat by not having to deal with an extra radiator (i will assume you have an oil cooler on it somewhere, if not, get one) and all the fluid and piping it will need. parts to hook up old Dub engines are pretty inexpensive if you do the work yourself.

either way, looks like a cool project. have fun. be safe.

 

The stock Holley carbs don't work well on rotary engines. See the Racing Beat website for their rotary-friendly modified Holley carb kits.
http://www.racingbeat.com/FRmazda1.htm

I think any of the 12A or 13B models would be fine as long as you get one with the higher compression non-turbo rotors. Support for the 12A is starting to fade, so everything else being equal I would maybe opt for the 13B.

Porting increases peak output and shifts the powerband up the rpm range, so unless you plan on installing a really expensive transaxle, you may want to stick to the stock ports.

Are you looking for a fully-assembled rebuilt engine, a used stock engine, or what?