Rotary power thread! [Pics]

[Kershaw]

http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/mld/cto/5560855116.html

Buy this dumb looking car and pull the motor and transmission out of it. Swap it into your FB. Put one of the m70s you have laying around in the now gaping hole in the engine bay.

Edit: Or even better, buy this one http://fredericksburg.craigslist.org...596503722.html and just swap the motor.

[slammin.e28]

You know I can't do a turbo.

That'd mean I'd be able to actually DO burnouts. Taboo!

[Exodus_2pt0]

When you say carb, you mean big ass turbo, right?

[slammin.e28]

BUMMMMMMMMMP

So, as most of you know, I've taken a dive off the deep end and bought a 1989 FC. This dumb thing won't start. Great compression. Has spark. I timed it up as well as can be expected just turning it over with the starter and using a timing light. Had good fuel, new pump I put on.

I'm thinking the injectors are clogged from sitting, or not activating at all. Of course, the damn primaries are under the upper intake. So, I'm going to dive into that and take it apart.

Now I'm thinking....why not just get a mani and slam a Weber 48 DCOE on it? The harness has been dicked with. Who knows what kind of tom foolery has gone on in there. I'm seeing a few places with heat shrink and some splices....hell, it was missing the main power wire from the battery to the main fuse box 100a fuse.

Figure delete all that shit....carb it, and make it fucking run.

[Kershaw]

Sorry for the fat bump but how was it? I've been considering saving for up for one some day..

I loved it. Fairly quick and a great suspension design. I sold mine for $8k with 80k miles. Fully loaded. Red and black interior too. Driving it was a blast. But I bought a house and I sold it to finance the bathroom renovation. Heated seats became a heated floor. Mine had good compression when I sold it, the one thing I noticed that killed engines were higher mileage oil type switches. 50k miles Dino then switch to synthetic would kill the engine within a year or two pretty regularly. Saw it happen a bunch. Or maybe it was random. I ran synthetic from 19k miles and rang it out often.

In my opinion, the weak point of rx8s are not the engine, but the transmission. Not the most durable transmissions. I put a pucked clutch in there and once killed a transmission in 10k miles of light drag/autox/fun.

If I found one for a really good deal, I'd pick one up for sure. In similar mileage/condition e30s are worth more, part of the reason I sold when I did, but they are definitely better than e30s in nearly all regards except mpg.

[varg]

Those prices are for high mileage early models though. Ticking time bombs, probably low on compression, and sloooowwwww

[Nesset]

shouldn't take too long to do that - don't know what the rx8 market is in washington, but they can be had here on the east coast [running and all] for $4k all day. they're getting to the point where they're more reasonably priced than e30s

That's the exact reason I have been considering one over an E30 lol. And I've always taken a liking to the braap braap of the Wankel.

[jalopi]

I've been considering saving for up for one some day..

shouldn't take too long to do that - don't know what the rx8 market is in washington, but they can be had here on the east coast [running and all] for $4k all day. they're getting to the point where they're more reasonably priced than e30s

[Nesset]

I had an rx8 for 7 years before I sold it.

Sorry for the fat bump but how was it? I've been considering saving for up for one some day..

[Kershaw]

I had an rx8 for 7 years before I sold it.

[lambo]

Rotaries are cool. I don't think I could own one unless it was a fire-breathing monster, though. Like, stock RX-8's are super meh to me.

[FunfGan]

Maaaaaaan I love rotories so much.

So much amazing noise.


On a side note, FD's are the only cars I get a little pained when I see engine swaps in- especially v8's.

[Nesset]

Found a RX7 FB in town... Sorta' abandoned and stripped. Sad sight but someone could save it..

[Jims5543]

You are preaching to the choir. My partner had a Rexie Chumpcar that did a few 14hr races, but had other issues such as fueling. I have no idea why these guys have the rotor on the work bench every race, but they do. The car is fast, but it also has made my kids jump when visiting the paddock. :(

I thought there were decibel restrictions, I know it causes headaches even for the quieter rotary guys. Or it used to since it is apparent that is no longer enforced.

As far as why they rebuild every race, it is easy they are cheap which leads me to believe they are dumb too. They prefer to rebuild over and over using crap / used parts rather than building a good solid engine.

The engine in my FC was built by a very small indy shop and when it was finished, the engine alone cost me $10K. Much of that cost was performance upgrades like an aggressive street port, intake runner porting, the throttle body was custom modified to be 20% larger as well as the intake runners. Then dowling the engine to make it stronger. Etc.. I essentially built an engine that could handle 20+ PSI then ran 15 PSI in it. Hence it still being prefect 8 years and almost 30k miles later and trust me I beat the snot out of that car.

I hear people say all the time, man those engine always blow up, yeah, they do for 2 simple reasons, bad tuning, cheap engine build = used parts that should not have been put in there.

My friend had a bone stock TurboII only oil changes and tune ups he had 210K miles on it. My brother had a non turbo FC and it had 240K miles on it when he sold it, it too was bone stock.

If you go in to tune them, especially FI cars, you better know what you are doing.

[TwoJ's]

From an ME's perspective, WANKEL engines are very cool in theory. Mr. Wankel was very innovative and I admire the design that he came up with. I've never owned one, but from what I gather, they are not quite as cool practically. If someone could develop a Wankel engine that could offer the same kind of service intervals and reliability of piston engined, it would be awesome. They offer great specific power output.