Well they'd have to do something to address the flooding issues(can't believe I didn't really think about this) and change the gear ratios of course. Much taller gears as well as final drive. Ours is 4.44, I think they could do well to make a 3.0 or 3.2 ratio gear, the Corvette's is in the high 2's I think. I guess I didn't think about it enough, I guess the masses would probably be hassled too much as this is not as "easy" to maintain as your standard piston engine. Lame

 

Well 4.44's in a Vette would have it running like 120's, if not higher, down the 1360 :D . Doesn't the Mazda 3 currently run a 4.something final drive anyway?

 

has anyone even done a rotary conversion ever before in the miata...i've heard of turbos SCs and even a couple LS1s into a miata but never any iteration of a rotary. Still though RX-5 has a real awesome ring to it...and after test driving the MX-5 id say the only thing that car needed was straight line oomph, and id be trading in.

 

Well some of those problems could be solved with an oil reserve tank in the engine bay, that would generally only need topping up at oil changes. Also, they could change the ECU to rev the engine up to 3k and then cut off; that would solve 99% of the flooding issues right there.

 

Yes, virtually every engine you can imagine has been put into the NA (90-97) Miata, including the 13b and 20b. There is a kit that exists to put a 13b into the NA Miata, but its still a lot of work. It is substantially easier to put in a Ford 302 (with a kit).

Rumor has it that the NA Miata (and hence the NB, since its the same chassis) was intentionally designed to make a rotary swap hard. That makes sense, given that the FC convertible was being sold at the time.

 

Yes, there were some rotary miatas at the last sevenstock. Might be this year too! Another reason to go.

Ford/Mazda has a lot more money tied up in the MZR/Duratec motor and a much better return on profit margins by using that motor. The rotary would lower the profit margin on every miata sold in costs of labour (hand built) and costs of parts (smaller production lines).

If they did do a rotary miata though, it would not be a problem the 8 market since one is a two seat roadster and the other is a hard top 4 seater. If anything, people like me would buy both.

 

The real killers for the rotary in a non-sports application are torque and gas milage. I get about 20 mpg shifting under 4k, so I doubt changing the redline will help. Even running the engine leaner will only gain a few mpg; probably same for putting it in a 500 lbs lighter chassis.

As for torque, well I don't know if you'll ever see if at low rpms in a rotary, and certainly not at sizable numbers unless its FI.

 

I know someone with a turbo'd 20b miata and that thing flys. I think he dyno'd around the 600 mark after everything was finished. It's a monster...I've been wanting to put the 13b in one just to see how fast it'd be.