Cuzzynz

I have a 89 RX7 with a carborated 302 and t5 tranny, now i did not do the swap. i sold my FB because it was starting to fall apart. and i found this car and the guy wanted 1000$.. car is in great shape just needs cleaning and updating of some parts. full grannyspeedshop swap kit. this winter im going to redo the suspension, all the bushings and arms and swap out the crappy open end diff and put in a nice turbo2 LSD, and if i can afford it ill put some coil overs and nice White XXR rims.

CobraPowered87

Best of luck, man! Let me know if you need pics of anything. I have an '87 with a '93 Cobra motor. It's fuel injected, but all the mounting, etc should be the same.

Cuzzynz

id love to do a fuel injection swap to it when its all done, i just got a isky Mega cam for it, and need to replace the headers since the ones i removed were hacked up to fit
im hoping to post up some pictures soon but i havent found alot of threads on this swap nor does anyone seem interested in mine lol

CobraPowered87

Yeah, not the most popular motor to put in, but I still don't see why lol! Weighs less and doesn't have a distributor sitting under a water pump. I have the stock manifolds on right now and they fit great. I was going to swap them out for some nice longtubes, but really not seeing a need as far as my own taste for speed goes. My best advice? Don't join Norotors lol! Bunch of ****** over there, just use the site as an extra database. The people on this site are much more helpful and humane (I had a different account for years). If you need a picture of clearance with stock manifolds, let me know.

Cuzzynz

yea i have a norotor account and i have found that most people are not very helpful. even the local group im in, they are all about ls swapping or 2jz and if you dont do it there way ah.. so just do my own thing.. like rx7´s sold fb found this was like ill try it out.. gunna try some shorties and then fix the mounting of the giant rad and fan. how did you do that? my griffens rad is to thick for the fan to be positioned behind it so its actually infront of it blowing air thru which doesnt work causing the motor to over heat at dead stop.. plus thinking of running fuel injection how did you manage this?
gunna try to post some newer pics tonight after work

CobraPowered87

The wiring I only finished, thankfully. The guy before me took the whole harness from the cobra. There are a couple of circuits you have to take with you from the cluster. Alternator and something else. I'll ask Jorge if he remembers tomorrow. I'll get a couple shots of the radiator bracket tomorrow. Don't laugh when you see it lol! I need to put an in-line fill higher up, so I can drop the radiator a LOT lower. As for clearing the crank pulley, I rub a touch if I hit a good bump. Your best bet is to get a set of pulleys etc from a late 90's 5.0 Explorer. They bring everything quite a bit closer to the motor. Which lets you angle your radiator a bit, giving you more hood clearance. I'll get pics tomorrow

CobraPowered87

Jorge said only the charging circuit needed to be taken out of the cluster. Here's a picture of the clearance I have (did not install the Explorer setup yet)


To make a radiator bracker, take the two sides from the car it belongs in, drill holes and mount where your stock rad goes. Unless this IS the stock (I only plumbed it), but I don't think so
If you need any other pics, or angles, let me know. Always happy to help.

Passenger side


Driver's side


Here's the factory manifold clearance. Don't mind my "drip pan" lol Tiniest drips from my tranny dipstick. :p


Passenger side (sorry, hard to get a good angle)

Cuzzynz

factory manifold clearance looks good might do that

Cuzzynz

here are some pictures of it

Cuzzynz

here are some pictures of it

Cuzzynz

also have the front calipers from the turbo2

86svo9l

That is tight clearance for the fan! Does it stay cool with the fans positioned like that?

Love the Ford swap, always been a Ford guy. Hurt my insides to do an LS swap with mine. Really wanted to do a 4.6 DOHC, but it just was not going to happen, lol.

Cuzzynz

no motor doesnt stay cold, actually cooks the coolant.. trying to figure out a way to re position the can and rad

CobraPowered87

Yeah, I was afraid the manifolds would choke her a bit, but for what I need they do plenty. But I do prefer my speed on two wheels; makes me more cautious. Beautiful job getting it all under the hood! Seriously envious lol! Good idea with the brakes. If I keep mine, that'll be the next upgrade when I get my vacation check. Weird about the coolant; mine stays reasonably cool with about the same clearance. Of course, no long trips yet. Sorry if I'm rambling or a bit scrambled; finally gave in and took a pill for my injuries lol. Let me know if you want shots of anything else. I might get time on the lift in a couple days.

Cuzzynz

ha, short trips.. 15 mins its cooked.. and its cool. looking to run a small turbo.. goal is to drift and road course it.. dont care about speed just torque and noise and handling

Joshw02

Turbo!

Cuzzynz

turbo woukd be sweet but then i have to some how run pipping and a set of upside down manifolds.. so much things in small area

86svo9l

In comparison here is the space an LS swap accomodates. This is the main reason I went this route, the LS is surprisingly smaller than the Ford small block. Never a bad idea to think about down the road. It is expensive though.

I have seen a couple swapped RX7's that had the radiator in front of the radiator support where the hood latch is and they used hood pins. May be something to think about.

Cuzzynz

put that battery in the trunk or the boxes behind the seat and you will have more room under hood, mines behind the passenger i also still have full interior, shitty but still all there

79v8fb

Is your fan set up to push ? If it isn't a pusher you not only need to reverse the wiring but the fan blades as well . Another thing is timing , it will run hot if you dont have enough at idle and the exhaust will get super hot . Only thing i have found with a pusher set up is that when on the freeway is the fan blades actually slow the air flow down so it cools much better with the fan on . Thats a 16" slim line pusher . Works awesome in hot weather in traffic .

Cuzzynz

tried to reverse it and it didnt work.. blown head gasket it whats my moneys on

Cuzzynz

mega cam with 0.517 lift

79v8fb

Thats a nice cam not ideal for a turbo though. But definitely a good mid to top end power.. Just one more thing on your over heating issue. Make sure you have the correct water pump . 5.0 ltrs/302s have different rotating water pumps. I seen guys use later water pumps on early engines and over heat because of having differnt impellers.

Cuzzynz

block is from 90's so the water pump should be from the right block.
and the cam is the same as on my buddys car he ran a pro charger so im hoping ill be fine with a turbo but for now the n/a result matters more.. car wont be turbod until the suspension and drive train is done.

Levelride Concepts

Nice build..!