Started Yanking Her Apart!

[sesolcSTI]

Dont listen to the haters. I have a buddy with an LS swap in an FD and its friggin nasty. You cant beat the reliability, power, and the awesome sound. His rearend didnt hold up though, haha. What kinda rear you gonna put in it? I think he was looking into a cobra rearend, but went with another stock until he decides what he wants. He has pulled 1.6 60' in it, with street tires before he blew the rearend. Saw him last week at ATCO run a 12.4 with a VERY mild launch will a 2.XX 60'. This is probably my favorite swap by far. Good luck with everything!

[su_maverick]

going with a TurboII dif when this one goes out until I decide on a final one.

[sesolcSTI]

Yeah, my coworker (95nracer), has mentioned to me in the past, that the turboII dif is a popular swap for 3rd gen guys. Good luck man!

[james_ls]

That's gonna be hawtness.

I've never seen an LS1 in a FD before (never really looked honestly), I'm excited to see the outcome!

[SoStock92]

Originally Posted by su_maverick

wow, so you are one of those people without an origional thought of your own. If you mean that people have been doing it for years that they have been doing it for 3 years then you might be right. If by changing the car's handling characteristics that it adds 20lbs to the front over stock (not modified) then you might be right. I then challange you or anyone to either an autox or a circuit track once the car is done and the suspension is adjusted.

by your throughts, doing anything to a car is 'ruining it'. Anything you change on a car 'ruins' its factory set performance. If you add different shocks then you change the dampening of the suspension. If you lower the car then the spring rate is changed. By your link you are with a group of people that have supercharged euro cars. In that sense you have added weight to the front of your cars and added hp and tq to them as well... which ruins the factory designed handling of the car.

You miss the point - I find it hard to believe you consider FI on a motor that is of at least the same point of origin to be the same mutilation as sticking a Chevy motor in a Mazda. You don't have to preach to me about how the cars do... like I said, you may not know me, but I've been around these woods. I know they do fairly well after all of the ridiculous custom work involved. Yeah it's quick etc etc I am not denying that - but where does the car belong? GM owners pull their nose up, RX7 fanatics don't want to hear it... no true RX7 fan wants to see a V8 in one... it's a freak of a car. I admire your will to do it, I have seen and done some things a little less conventional myself, but to take a car noted for its engine and swap in the most generic motor known to man is just beyond me. It'd be like taking a flat 6 out of a Porsche for a 4g63

I mean you no disrespect - the swap has been popular since about 2001 or so and yeah some guys are good with the setup at autox. However, I watched two of these LSX7's run autocross and lock the front brakes up in just about every turn. The engine may only weight ~30lbs more, but the geometry is different and it just changes the entire character of the car. Swapping a V8 for a rotary is like stealing the soul of a car.

My 0.02

[su_maverick]

I undestand where you are comming from but this is two entirely different camps with regards to automotive enthusiasts. You are a pureist. You seem to believe that you should stay true to the car's origional design and anything else would be blasphemy. I am not a pureist however. I have a goal for what I want my car to be and do and I will tear apart another engineer's designs to to that. Since this swap has been around for a couple years there is enough data out there that the swap has become plug and play. There has also been alot of R&D with the suspension to clean up any differences that might have occured because of the engine. It all comes down to how you set your car up. Just dropping in something different into the car and expecting it to perform the same is rediculous. But, that is why they make adjustable suspensions, brake bias controllers, and adjustable sway bars. As long as you dont change the car incredibly you can adjust for almost anything. As I have stated before

My reasons for doing this:
No FI: Im sorry but a NA car will ALWAYS have a more predictable power output than a FI car. FI has come along way but if you want the best throttle response then go NA

Reliability: FI on a rotary just doesnt work. I have seen NA rotaries go for 400k miles but reman 13B-REW's last for only 60k. I will build another rotary car in the future but it will probably be a NA 20B FC.

No Need for Specialty Shops: Lets face it, rotary shops are few and far between and you also have to worry about the quality. If I happen to break down on the road and the car gets towed to Jim & Daves shop, what are the chances they even know what the hell they are doing? Do I have to foot a 200 mile tow bill to get it to a rotary shop only to wait 2 months to get it fixed?

Gas Mileage & Emissions: I dont have to worry about my car smelling like a gas station anymore and popping blue flames out the back (which is a jailable offense if the cop wants ot be a dick) nor do I get 11 miles per gallon when I want to go take the car on a spirited drive.

No More Dealing W/ Mazda Shortcuts: Most people dont realize how many shortucts mazda took on the FD to save money. If they hadnt scaled back on the car then it would have been close to 70k. I dont have to worry about leaky oilpans (almost every 13B), sticking injectors, poor coolant passage design, high engine bay temps, lack of any decent intake setup, or wierd intercooler/ radiator placement anymore. I could go on about all of the 'money saving' ventures the mazda engineers did but that would take up the entire page.

The point is that I am doing this because "I want to". Im not trying to please anybody else or impress my fellow auto enthusiasts. The proof is always in the pudding. Its when I drive this thing around town or at the track and you can see what it does with your own eyes. I appreciate your views but I finally want to design the car the way I want it, not constricted by pureism.

btw- I can always put a ford engine in it considering the relationship between them and mazda lol

[SoStock92]

It's true it is your car and you only have to satisfy your own intention with it. I am not a "purist" in the most extreme sense of the word. I have no problem sticking a VR6 in a Mk1 or Mk2 GTI and turboing the pants out of it. Or pulling a 2.5L M50 motor from a BMW and putting an 3.6L S38 with a turbo - I am all for the crazy ****. I just don't particularly enjoy putting a Ford 350 in a BMW.. I would just go ahead and buy a Cobra.

And that's my point - why not just go pick up a cobra or a C5 vette? IRS, good autocross cars, stock V8, no reliability problems. Is it because you want it to be different or is there something particular that attracts to you the Rx7? I dunno - after all the money spent doing it I bet you could get something domestic with the motor by default.

[su_maverick]

the fact is
american companies make really good motors (horribly undertuned but good) but they make really crappy chassis. Until the C6, the vettes were extremely overweight. If I could afford a c6 I would buy one in a heartbeat, but that isnt in the books right now. I also would never buy ford, that was just a joke. It really isnt costing me all that much.

If I were to sell the RX-7 the way it was I would probably get 19k max for it
A C6 vette costs- $41k for a 2005
I am spending 2k over what I am selling my current parts for and that is for
LS1 conversion with new heads and cam
upgraded oil system
upgraded intake manifold
etc etc etc
widebody convesion
brand new full professional paint job (sponsored)

so that is why I went the way I did

[su_maverick]

got the heads torn off the block today and started cleaning everything. More pics soon!

[su_maverick]

Almost nothing left


Cleaning the engine bay (somewhat)


The engine build

[05Accent]

"a couple sr20 motors pulled two week premium to race wars"
-jonny tren