"Still makes me want an LS1 FD, though, so I can make an FD my daily driver and not worry about her dying on the way to work."

Let's reach a consensus on the reliability of the STOCK FD engine. From what I've, read, observed, and learned from Rick, Jeremy's Dad, remember him. The FD engine is pretty reliable as a stock engine, engineered for around 255 HP according to a 93 sales brochure I've got. The HP maybe a little optimistic but that sales for you. The trouble comes with the twin turbos. According to Rick they tend to go first and take the engine (apex seals) with them by shedding parts into the engine intake manifold. Its a different story when the mods start and the hunger for HP and the need for speed takes over and crowds out what is needed vs. what is wanted. Then the demands placed on the engine insure that a highly engineered machine is stressed beyond its capabilities and it goes first.

The same thing will happen to an LS1 but it can take the same stresses for much longer, but at some point of modification the demands made upon an LS1 will cause it to be no more "reliable" than a heavily moded 13B. If you bought a brand new 1993 FD with stock engine and properly maintained it and rebuilt the turbos every 60K - 80k miles it would be as reliable as any well maintained 13 year old car on the road and a heck of a lot more fun than 97% of the cars on the road today regardless of the make and model.

At least that is my take on rotaries, reliability and modifications. Things break when you put more stress on them than they are designed and engineered to endure, Rotaries are no different.

 

Since were gettin all technical. My thoughts

I think it all boils down to turbo v/s na, when you turbo a car it like the the turbo compresses the air and says "take that bitch". thats in stock form. Now when when you start cranking up the boost the turbo says "Take that bitch" and then punches her in the eye, and if everything isn't just right. boost controller, waste gate, fuel, timeing,ect Thats when she rebels..... and turns you in to the rebuild police.

Johny

 

the maintanance required to keep a stock 13b twin turbo running correctly with its OVERLY complicated twin turbo is much more than any other NA, or turbo vehicle(including the TII). at the 13 year mark, and well before, pretty much everything needs to be checked over, and most likely replaced. even then the chances are that a stock 13b will quit on you well before 100K.

if you setup the 13b with a small single turbo setup, keep her around 250HP you can probably expect about 80K miles before you need to replace the engine, if, you have a strong rebuild, you don't overheat even a little, starve it for gas, and change oil EVERY 3K w/o fail. in other words, if everything is ideal you might make it to 80k.

on the other hand, i have seen stock 350s take the abuse of, poor maintenance, overheating, driving w/o remorse and still make it well over 100K.

it is not a matter of opinion, it's a matter of physics; producing HP creates stress. the 13b has less area to dissipate the stress, so it is more likely to fail, since the stress is concentrated at those points.

to argue that a rotary is anywhere near as reliable as a LS1, or even an equally sized 4banger, is ludicrous to me. i understand loving the wankel despite its shortcomings, but let's not pretend like they don't exist.

however, you can never take away the rotaries genius design, it is internal combustion at it's simplist. few moving parts, one side of the trochoid doing a task at any point in the revolution, always spinning in unison. it is a thing of beauty. it truly is an amazing design/concept.

That is like saying that at some point a rich man can be as financially stressed as the average guy. while being true, it doesn't make sense to compare the levels at which this happens.

 

I agree with it being more related to the NA vs turbo. I guess I should have added that caveat to my above post. I am talking about turbo 13BREWs more than any other rotary.

 

My 1989 chevy truck 5.7 206k and still going strong. only repair was to rebuild the tranny. Now thats reliable.

 

A guy ('85GSL-SE) in this thread I was reading yesterday, on page 13 post #192. Although it's not turbo, read that. There are so many factors and so many different things that can happen to cause an engine to go. May be something as little as UNPLUGGING THE FANS and forgetting to plug them back in (LOL), or it could be a bad seal or a bad headgasket or something in an LS1. There's just too many variables to really get into this. There certainly seems to be more piston engines that last longer, but there are the few rotaries that, when properly taken care of, can last as long. I read the article in the new Sport Compact Car yesterday, and yes it made me want to get an LS1 just because of less maintenance, but I think it'll be a while before I turn my back on my lovely Wankel (tee hee). I just love that it's different and we're a rare breed, not just the car, but those that own them.

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...=3mm+pros+cons

 

Events at The Rock this fall:
http://www.motorsportreg.com/calenda...65A3D56A29D4AB

http://www.nasa-southeast.com/2006Oct21.html

 

[mr. burns]excellent[/mr. burns]

Come to the darkside. but if you are order your hinson kit NOW!, cuz if you don't there might be about a month where you are on neither side, and instead spend your time making motor sounds while sitting in your car. LOL

 

Looks like George Samuels is bringing his 3 rotor FC 'vert to the RBQ. Thats worth seeing all in its own. There is still plenty of room so encourage even your non-Mazda friends to attend.

 

Thanks Matt, there's some good info there.

 

A good site: (check out all the pranks)

http://www.zug.com/

And a good video: (Josh your motor sounds comment made me think of these, I think the Civic one is funnier but the guy in the first one is talented)

http://videos.streetfire.net/video/9...0a003e5f46.htm

http://videos.streetfire.net/search/...3e9c9c0253.htm

 

Whoa, hold on there Darth, I said it would be a while, and that's IF it happens, haha. I know what you mean though, even though it may be a few years, I better order the kit now, haha.

 

i almost pissed myself...wait i did a little...that is funny as hell.

 

Which one?

Oh, I just bought some dual oil coolers last night from Rich (GoodfellaFD3S). 19 row Mocal with thermostat. $700 in VERY good condition. And they come with the carbon fiber ducting for the 99 J-spec front, even though I won't have that one

 

well aren't some of us fancy, with two oil coolers. LOL that was something i always wished I'd had on my car. that is a great price.

the civic on is the funnier of the two. i hated the real commercial. this version would have been much better. LOL

 

LOL, well the ONE cooler I have now has all the fins bent down, like someone kicked it, so I'm pretty sure it's not very efficient, lol. I found some R1 coolers for $350, but I wasn't sure what kind of shape they were in and I was going to send them to this company in Texas to get them refurbished, but that would be $125 for each one, so then you're looking at around $600 for a set of 10 row coolers, why not spend $100 more and get 9 more rows on each?

Yeah that Civic one is pretty funny. I like the song in the background, I wish I could find it. I think it's Mos Def. Yeah they definitely should have run this commercial.

 

what specifically are the requirements for batteries? mine is relocated, and tied down but not box(it's a gel cell), and it doesnt have one of those fuse box thingies, that go inline.

 

^yeah, good question. I'm going to have to relocate mine anyway, and if I need to have it in a box I might as well do it at the same time.

 

I have no need for dual coolers right now since I don't track the car but I sent mine out to the place in Texas. Its expensive but they did an awesome job, mine was all beat to crap and it looked brand new when it came back plus they put some kind of coating on it as well. Congrats on the good deal on the dual coolers, thats a hell of a price if they are in good condition.

 

Yeah I was reading up on another thread about that place, and saw pics of the finished product. They really do an awesome job, it's amazing what the before and after pictures show. I think they're probably better than new when you get them back. That coating is supposed to help somehow but I forgot how they said. I'm trying to post up the pics he sent me but they're too big to attach and I don't remember how to post them so they come up directly. I'm going to add them to photobucket so if someone can instruct me from there.








EDIT: nevermind, I got it, haha.

 

those are radiators not oil coolers. that is nice!

 

^Lol. I'd like to put them next to some stock ones to see the size difference. I'll take some pics when WE'RE doing the swap, LOL.

 

lol let me know when you are gonna do it. i will try and make time. damn i gotta get a job that doesn't require weekends.

 

Yeah I'll keep you informed. I was just messing with you when I said that, I don't EXPECT you to help me, but I figured you would if you could get time off. I want to help you drop that V8 beast in too. I'll take all the experience I can get.

 

You probably will want to get an oil temp sensor. I know some guys that have to yape of sections of their oil coolers to keep the oil temp from getting too low. Thats cool.