Engine Swapping Question

[Jtschick]

Hi. I have a question for y'all. Is it possible to take the engine from a 84 RX-7 GSL and put it into a 88 RX-7 Convertible. I believe the 84 was/is the 1.2 and the 88 the 1.3 right? Anyway, Thanks

 

[Familia323]

I'm pretty sure there is tons of work invovled considering you are taking a Fuel Injected car and putting a carburated engine in it.

 

[Aricjm15]

all of the 13B's bolt up to each others mounting hardware, manifolds included
if the 84 has the 12A your screwed

 

[JOS3]

the 84 gsl had a 13b

 

[Focus]

You need to get the transmission and ECU and the wiring harness. You are talking about doing a major swap. To save yourself headaches, source out a Series 5 engine.

 

[Aricjm15]

You need to get the transmission and ECU and the wiring harness. You are talking about doing a major swap. To save yourself headaches, source out a Series 5 engine.

the engines are phisicaly the same, and she/he should already have the ECU and stuff in the 88, it should be a direct swap, he/she just has to swap the manifolds and bolt up all the sensors and all should be well.
All rotary engines share the same bell housing, if you wanted to you could put an RX8 engine in that 88, to bad a new rx8 block is $4,000

 

[UnNaturalinc]

the 84 gsl had a 13b

The GSL had a 12A. The ONLY 1st Gens that have a 13B are the '84 and '85 GSL-SE. They were also the only 1st Gens with EFI. Everything else was a carb'ed 12A


I can't see any reason why that swap would be a good idea. Get a TII motor if you are going to swap it. If you're interested in a complete TII shell with all drivetrain/engine components let me know, I've been trying to sell mine for well over a year.

 

[txrxs]

why would you want to swap a 12A into a car that has a 13B anyway?

 

[Focus]

Wouldn't he have to use the flexplate/flywheel from the new engine to keep the internal balancing ?

the engines are phisicaly the same, and she/he should already have the ECU and stuff in the 88, it should be a direct swap, he/she just has to swap the manifolds and bolt up all the sensors and all should be well.
All rotary engines share the same bell housing, if you wanted to you could put an RX8 engine in that 88, to bad a new rx8 block is $4,000

 

[Familia323]

why would you want to swap a 12A into a car that has a 13B anyway?

or for that matter a vert?

 

[Jtschick]

where were at

Hi. I am a she..Thanks for your replies so far. Our '84 has a 1.1 B. Heres where we are right now. We picked up the car yesterday, it has been sitting for a year and a half.. ugh.. Before jumping into the engine swap we are going to see what the problem is with this bad boy. So far installed the new battery/sparkplugs. rehooked up some wires that were chewed. Drained the gas tank and refilled. cleaned her up and gave her a go. She wants to start so bad I can feel it. The man we bought her from said she was blowing out white smoke so he assumed <a style='text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 3px double;' href="http://www.serverlogic3.com/lm/rtl3.asp?si=22&k=head%20gasket" onmouseover="window.status='head gasket'; return true;" onmouseout="window.status=''; return true;">head gasket</a> and stopped driving it. Now since it doesnt have that we are thinking intake gaskets? Before we do anything else big we are going to work on getting the compression back up and see if shell start. So anyway thats where we are

 

[Jtschick]

RX 8 enginge

Drool.....

 

[Familia323]

The man we bought her from said she was blowing out white smoke so he assumed head gasket and stopped driving it. Now since it doesnt have that we are thinking intake gaskets? Before we do anything else big we are going to work on getting the compression back up and see if shell start.

(boom01) sounds like he knew how to take care of his car.(hand) Chances are you will need to rebuild the engine.

 

[Aricjm15]

uh oh, no compression may mean the apex seals are bad. If the guy you bought the car from didnt regularly check the oil and add oil (as rotory engines are supposed to use oil) I would say the engine is gone and its time for somthing new

 

[UnNaturalinc]

uh oh, no compression may mean the apex seals are bad.

It could also mean it's flooded which is always an issue w/ the rotary.

You can turn it over with the plugs out and throttle down.... If that doesn't help you can pump a little oil into the combustion chamber. (I'm not sure if there's anything different with a carbed version, but that's how we do it with the 13B's.)

 

[JOS3]

LS1 swap drag car............j/k

 

[Jtschick]

Compression

If that doesn't help you can pump a little oil into the combustion chamber.

This is what we will be doing tomorrow evening. We'll see how things go. To answer the why I was going to try to put my older cars engine into the new one is because I dont have all the money atm to buy one. Since I had the '84 anyway and the '88 was only $500 I said what the hell get it and see what you can do lol. Guess I ought to start saving just incase.

 

[Jtschick]

Im back with more news on this car!

Hello all. Im back. Ok over the last couple weeks we got her running! I was sooo excited the day she started. Just to refresh so noone has to look back this is my 88 RX-7 Conv. The only noticable problem was some white smoke in the mornings (oil burning off perhaps?) Still trying to figure that one out. We replaced the temp sensor and did a coolant flush. It ran fine...until two days ago. The add coolant light came on and it overheated. Replaced the thermostat, radiator cap, and water pump (it was in bad shape afer sitting so long) Still overheating. No heat. Now we are back to flooding everytime we try to start it. Add that to overheating right after getting it started. And I mean right after. About 1 min after starting it its overheating. Ugh Im exhausted hubby went to get some tools from the shop so we can go at it again. Im so not sure what to even try next. Could a therm. housing cap cause this? or the bypss thermostat? The fan is working how it should. and the coolant is flowing so im sure its not a clogged radiator. It just seems like there is way to much pressure in there for the short amount of time that its running. I dont know maybe well get it figured out. Guess Ill update later. And all your prev suggestions were great, if you got anymore let me know

 

[Pele]

1.) If that engine is constantly using coolant and overheating, it needs rebuilt. The rotary is built of layers of Iron, Aluminium, Iron, Aluminium, Iron... When they heat up too much (overheat) they expand at different rates and warp, breaking the seal between them. It'll need to be torn apart and have the coolant seals (At the very least.) replaced.

2.) The 2nd generation RX-7 mounts the engine using the center housing. One side mounts using one of the oil pan bolts on one side, and the side of the center housing on the other side.

The 1st generation mounts the engine using a cross beam and the front cover. Not to mention that the 12A is 20mm shorter than the 13B. The swap is possible, but not practical by any means.

I reccomend contacting Kevin Landers of Rotary resurrection. http://www.rotaryresurrection.com