i tripped over an old post about putting a rotary in a camaro , yeah it might not be the best plan but if you got the car down to about 2700 to 2800 w/o driver it would work with a 13b TT from a 93&up rx7 , stock those cars weighed in at 2800lbs with 255hp and 217ft/lbs they pulled off high 13's and awesome 0-60 back then which is quicker than a monday motored L98 on a great day.

i've seen a modded rx7 pull on an 03SC cobra (500rwhp) from a roll .

puerto rico is littered with rotary powered turbo alchohol cars running in low 7's
the last time i was at bradenton isaw a 70's rx4 running 7.80's spinning and an early toyota starlet with an all motor p'gas 13b busting 11.20's pulling the fronts 1st through 3rd shifts. granted it's all about power to weight with these small motored cars but dont bash rotary's,any hp/ c.i. comparison and you can see how well these things work .
l98 350 245hp = .7 hp / ci
13b TT 255hp = 3.18 hp/ci
to give an idea a 350 would have to make 1100hp to a 3.14hp/ci

that starlet would probably hand 1/3 of this site its ***,
so dont be a hater,
acknowledge and appriciate power from any source , take off the v8's rule the earth blinders and look around.
sorry about the tangent but i felt needed to be informed

 

Ahh ignorance is bliss, those cars that you normally see with a quick rotary weigh nowhere near 2800 lbs, 2600, or even 2200, most of them are sub 2k, add to that the majority of them sniff more nitrous than a coke head does well..... Nobody said the rotary cant make any power, more of if you are dumb enough to believe it can make a lot of power, reliably, and for a reasonable price, you have another thing coming, heres a more realistic idea of what you'd actually have to pull off, the thing is going to weigh similar to a stock LT1 for a 3g RX7 setup complete. About $3500 rough idea just for the motor / trans, add in some more $ for a box to adapt the tach, add another for the speedometer, now you are at $3,700, crossmember and or materials for it 100 on the low side, 3,800, some piping if you go cheap with steel, rubber joints and clamps about $300 and still probably the "low side" again, now you're at $4100, good luck with the driveshaft mating up to that mazda trans there goes another $200 easily, 4300 bux, add some more materials to get the tq arm bolted down somewhere under there too $100, thats 4400, fuel lines $150, ps lines $75 thats 4625, how about fabbing a downpipe there goes another $200 easily, 4825, how much higher is this gonna go before you've got a 255 HP 217 ft lb stock motor in the car ? Radiator and heater hoses $100 4925$, maybe get the a/c working so its a nice car ? $300 or so, 5225$, got to get some motor mounts to get the thing in there, say another $100, 5325, how about adapting the clutch setup ? $50 for a line if just a custom line will do it 5375$

So there we go $5400 rough idea of what it will cost you to get a whopping 255 HP and 217 ft lbs into the car, so now you "take off the blinders and look around" your efforts were cute, but you've only shown that you havent done nearly enough research.

Oh dont forget that *most* of them arent that reliable and you need to push a lot of boost through that 3g RX7 engine to make power, and arent going to do it without a rebuild here and there.

Now i could pull off an LT1 swap in a thirdgen for less than $2k, that would give me $3400 in mods to work with to make a 275 HP 335 TQ motor thats realistically a 300 HP / 345 tq toy, beat your 255 HP 217 ft lb motor, do you really think its going to be that hard for me to do ?

 

nowhere in there did i say cheap and easy my friend, how about 225k from an 86 non turbo, i'll agree with you about the circumstantial reliability, but how much can it cost to build a rotary, cam? $0 stroker crank$0 heads$0 etc.
all i was stating was for back woods type who dont see past what they drive...
that rx that beat the cobra was fullbodied car with a bodykit and a passenger though still lighter buy a good bit compared to cobra with a passenger
and yeah that starlet is lite weight compared to an f-bod i was just informing illinformed population who did say they cant make power, that rotary's arent junk.
AND! i believe i did say the proposed swap might not be the best idea.

any how cheers!.... muppet

 

no blinders here ... promise.

 

i do admit a rotary isnt best for a thirdgen


but there are tons of RX7's that are very fast and are full interior cars wieghing mid 2000 lbs. they dont have to be gutted to be fast. well over 300hp can be made and the proper rotary can be built up over 450hp without fear of apex seal blowout.

a 350hp rotary will make a great motor for a thirdgen if you want it. thirdgens weigh in around 3400lbs or so. 500 of that is small block chevy v8.

a rotary is REALLY light. i hear you can pick it up without to much effort so i would say 100-150lbs for the motor. but i could be wrong, but the fact remains that they are still very light.

with the rest of the weight reducing mods, i dont see it hard at all to get a thirdgen into the 2700-2800 lb range with the motor.

and by then, 300-350hp will put it deep in the 12's

 

How about 236,575 from a LT1 ? Still running and driving great before it was even pulled ? Crosshatch still on the cylinder walls.

I didnt say the power cant be made from them, nor did I say one cant be fast at all, its just a pretty dumb idea, whether you realize it or not its going to cost you a lot more than plenty of other viable options.

 

I respect the rotary for being different. It is a really nice design, makes good power but it has a few issues with it.


Personally, I don't like the powerband of rotary engines.
Gas mileage also sucks with them.

 

if you want a small light motor, then go with the 4G63 motor from the Eclipse....

its small, tons of aftermarket, and easy to get 300hp out of. you can make lots of power with it.

not sure how to make it into rwd.... probly need tranny from Evo with teh AWD and just convert it to RWD

but why would you do that? thats expensive and takes alot of fabing up parts and stuff.

stick to V8

 

If the rotary engines are so great and awesome, then why are so many people doing LT1, LS1 and 302 swaps in them?

Because it's cheap horsepower, cheaper than what it would take to make a rotary run 345hp.

 

i agree with you on that i personally wouldnt do that swap myself however i give props to those who peek outside the box from time to time.

 

z28***** do you frequent the gandy area ? since you hail from tampa as well i figured i'd ask

 

as far as lt-1 mileage goes i have 120k on mine, even still on the original clutch. going my 3rd opticrap though.

(blackZ with z06 wheels)

 

Been a while since i've been out to Gandy, im usually too busy working on cars, and dont even have an F body on the road right now

Heck the last time I was out there playing was back in 2000, doing speed runs on the bridge in my 94 Z.

Maybe you should stop by the shop sometime, always nice to see nice cars round here. Im @ thirdgenparts.com we're near the tampa airport.

 

You know what happens when you stick a NA rotary in a car similar to the thirdgens? you get the RX8, which is both underpowered and overweight (and overpriced to boot). Now if Mazda put the Mazdaspeed 6 turbo's 4 cylinder into the RX8 it would be respectable.

If you are really worried about weight in a car - go modified LS1 with a full body weight reduction diet and enjoy your 3100lbs with 500hp.

 

you know what, I'm gonna be a knuckle--dragging jackass and say that this has got to be one of the most useless threads I've seen. if you wanna say the rotary has potential, fine. but my n/a 383 wil still smoke 4 out of every 5 Mazdas with a rotary, b/c my car can get the power to the ground quicker and easier than they can.

 

When the rotary swap is complete, post pics and timeslips.

Until then,