Hey everyone, thought I would introduce myself. I am fairly new here though I have been posting in the Microtech forum for troubleshooting reasons (https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.php?t=653161). MaczPayne suggested I swing by and say hi. I was so caught up in my troubleshooting in the Microtech area that I didn't realize there was a West coast forum also. Very cool.

I have an 88RX7 13B motor stuffed into a custom tube chassi'd rock buggy. Here is a photo:


If you want to see more photos (new and old) check it out here: http://www.luciexyz.com/4x4/Slinky2/Slinky2.htm Today's motor is different than what you see in the pics of when it was red.

I am completely new to rotary motors and the more I learn the more exciting they become to me. I have been troubleshooting this for a little bit, so if anyone has ideas or wants to crack open a cold one one day to help figure it out, let me know. I am just in Santa Clara prepping it for another outing.

Great to see all support here on this forum. I can't wait to make it out to a local event / meet and greet.

-Sam

 

that thing is bad ***. bring it to sevenstock!!

 

Thanks man. I would love to but I have a wedding to photograph that weekend. Would be great seeing all the real RX-7s up close. I am a huge fan of the RX-7s and have always wanted one. Now I have part of one in my crawler. Maybe the next step is getting a real one someday.

-Sam

 

My friend and I have always pondered putting a rotary into a rock-buggy. We go wheeling quite a bit in the San Bernardino mountains with our Jeeps.

 

You won't be dissatisfied. If you gear it right, the motor works REALLY well. I have a Vortec V6 in my original Slinky ****** and it was a fairly torquey motor for what it was. The Rotary is very comporable. I have the RX-7 tranny hooked to a 6:1 Suzuki case with the unimog portals which are at ~8 or 9 to 1. So overall I am at 150:1 or in the ballpark anyway. I usually crawl in 3rd gear anyway until I hit the good stuff.


We are planning to go down to Johnson Valley later this year hopefully. If you are interested, let me know. The trails there are mild to wild with a lot of sand inbetween for fun.

-Sam

 

that there is a white boy haha thats ******* sick !!

 

wow

 

do all 3 of thoes have 13b's in them??

 

Actually, they are all the same vehicle, just at different times with different paint jobs. My preference was the red paint job, but I the blue is my wife's favorite. So we keep the blue

It's a fun vehicle when it works, too bad I can't get it to start yet. Getting close though...... I hope.

-Sam

 

awesome!

I saw something like this on tv before, or it might have been a magazine . But I know I seen it somewhere.

 

Is that an NA turbo motor or am I seeing things? i.e. Turbo manifolds is wgat I'm seeing

 

We've been to Johnson Valley a few times, but have only run trails once. My friend and I went with NAXJA, a Cherokee club, back then, my friend's jeep was stock cept a 4.5" lift and 32's.

We might be going again this year, in October I think, but we probably won't do the Hammers since we're not locked.

 

13b in a crawler
LS1/LS2 in an rx-7
That is very cool Sam

 

Looks like a S4 t2 block without the turbo to me.
Thanks Robert

 

The original motor as seen in the rig when it was painted red had as I recall a Turbo 13b with the turbo removed due to not enough space. The guy had some problems with the setup, but it performed well.

It now has a NA 13b out of what I am told is an 88 Rx7. See attached photo of the top of the motor.

Also, I noticed this when I was looking at the side of the motor. See second photo. I believe the middle block off plate was an oiler for the apex seals. I run pre mix in it today. However, on either side are these 2 valves in the manifold. I presume they are smog related valves? They are zip tied open I think. Any explanation for those puppies?

Currently I am trying to find someone to help me tune it. I got it running again and luckily but not so lucky, I live down the street from rotarysport2.com. Great guy for bouncing questions off of and good insight. The downfall is he doesn't have a way of tuning it. Bummer. So I am in search for a local tuner to help. I saw the posting at the top of the forum and have an email into Larson which seems to be close, but I don't know if he can tune. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. The closer the better of course.

For those that have seen this rig before, it was actually in an issue of RX Tuner. I believe issue #9?

-Sam

 

Those 2 "valves" that are ziptied open are the 6-port sleeves.

Normally there'd be two actuators linked to them; they would stay closed under 3500 or so RPM for better low end torque, and open up after 3500 for more airflow. They allow for a smoother powerband.

The reason they might have been ziptied open may have been because either:

-They removed their cat/air pump (The actuators work from the backpressure created by the air pump.)
-The actuators were stuck and not functioning.

Either way, that is a cheap fix, and you'll maintain your high RPM power, but lose some of the low end.

 

Very cool creation and killer crawl ratio. I'm surprised the lowly torque that an n/a 13B puts out is enuf to work well in that setup.

Unimog portals are incredible pieces of engineering. Always nice to get 5" of additional ground clearance vs. standard axles.

I have a '96 LX450 (LandCruiser) with factory front/rear elocking diffs. It goes just about anywhere I point it. Nice factory 9.5" ring gear out back. Currently on 33's, 3" lift, sliders, beefy rear bumper with tire mount. I don't do rock gardens/boulders like yours... but for a truck that can be a daily driver it suits my needs. Sticker was $67K... and I got it with 125K miles for $11K .

Here is a cool link to the LandCruiser nutballs:
http://forum.ih8mud.com/forumdisplay.php?f=19

I'm sure you know of Pirate4x4.com also:
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/

 

Thanks MaczPayne for the explanation. There definitely isn't a cat/air pump. So I am curius why it was tied open instead of closed. I don't see any power loss anywhere (that I know of that is). I guess if it isn't hurting anything, I will leave it as is.


gnx7 - Unfortunately your link to your rig didn't work for me. It just took me to the forum only, not your particular posting.

I definitely know about Pirate4x4.com. I used to do all the live web coverage for them for all the UROC and WERock rock crawling events around the U.S. Good times getting paid to write stories and take photos

In my old project rig, I have Early Toyota pickup axles under a 1943 ****** MB. I modified the housings to accept the later 1992 and up E-lockers. So now I run high pinion front and rear E-lockers in it which have been great. Way better than air lockers thus far anyway.

I am surprised by the torque thing as well. I don't know really how bad the torque is in a rotary, but gear multiplication helps any formula. I had my old Toyota pickup with 80 stock HP and with gearing I was able to break my rear tires loose with my foot holding the brake hard. I didn't need a clutch to get it to start moving. That was at 80:1 gearing. What a difference it made when I went to 120:1 gearing on that rig

-Sam

 

It has been a while since I have been on. Trying to get some wheeling in. The motor is alive and kicking, just not optimal. However, I did catch some video on the trail that some of you might like or maybe laugh at. Although it isn't racing, it's another 13b rotary in action.

This on the Fordyce trail in CA. It's a section they call Winch Hill 3. My vehicle is too wide so I have to take a slightly "different" approach to get up it.



-Sam

 

I remember this thread...good to see you got your rig up and running and gettin some fun out of it!

 

great video that was nice man! very cool!

 

super cool.

 

sweet.

 

Seven Stock September 26 bring that thing out!

 

Thanks guys. It's definitely a fun toy.

I wish I could make it to 7 Stock, but you guys keep scheduling it when I have weddings to photograph Do you think the wedding couple would be mad if I just didn't show up? It's for a good cause of course.

Hopefully there will be a small event / get together close to the South Bay Area some day soon so I can bring it along. Anyone know of one coming up?

-Sam