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I am a retired Petroleum Landman. To those who never heard of this job, a landman represents the oil company and/or drilling contractor who bores exploration/production well(s) by finding, contacting and leasing the landowners and mineral-owners of the prospective area. I only recently became interested in the rotary engine. When they were first introduced, I scoffed at the funny-named engine that smoked and had poor gas mileage. I was also one to hang on to my BIG American car(s). Fast forward to a couple years ago, I began looking for a small truck to go back and forth to Home Depot for stuff to repair the house. The Kei trucks are a pain to license to drive so I decided on another little Japanese vehicle, the Samurai. Perfect size and it was fun, although I soon found it to be really weak even though the previous owner had put a larger 1.6 engine in it. At my age, I wanted an automatic, too. So, I started scouting around for a small engine that could quickly get the Samurai around with an automatic trans while keeping the 4-wheel drive. I spotted a Rotary-powered PR Samurai that really sounded good. It shot flames out the side and did a wheelie as it ran a 7.770, 165mph/quarter mile! I was hooked! That's the kind of engine I want in my Samurai. I began researching the rotary and ended up buying a 13b Renesis JDM that I am readying to have swapped into the Samurai. I plan to have it running before the end of the year. Here's my Samurai with an 85hp 1.6 Suzuki Engine, just waiting for the smaller, but more powerful 200hp 1.3 Renesis.
If you are swapping a Renesis engine in, you'll need to keep pretty much everything else that comes with the car in the engine bay. I would recommend using a 13b-REW instead because they are easier to mod. The problem with the Renesis is it works best in the RX8 itself. If you strip the engine out, you'll need nearly everything else it's attached to for it to work properly. I admire your build but believe you chose the wrong engine for this application...
Last edited by CaymanRotary; 04-09-2021 at 11:11 PM.
Only if you plan on using the stock RX8 ecu will you need all the CAN stuff especially
Otherwise the Renesis will be great...
Things to think about... in an aftermarket ecu
Ignition and injection?
OMP? Premix?
Can the ECU control the APV and other intake valves?
DBW throttle control?
Other than that it's basically an engine
I am a retired Petroleum Landman. To those who never heard of this job, a landman represents the oil company and/or drilling contractor who bores exploration/production well(s) by finding, contacting and leasing the landowners and mineral-owners of the prospective area. I only recently became interested in the rotary engine. When they were first introduced, I scoffed at the funny-named engine that smoked and had poor gas mileage. I was also one to hang on to my BIG American car(s). Fast forward to a couple years ago, I began looking for a small truck to go back and forth to Home Depot for stuff to repair the house. The Kei trucks are a pain to license to drive so I decided on another little Japanese vehicle, the Samurai. Perfect size and it was fun, although I soon found it to be really weak even though the previous owner had put a larger 1.6 engine in it. At my age, I wanted an automatic, too. So, I started scouting around for a small engine that could quickly get the Samurai around with an automatic trans while keeping the 4-wheel drive. I spotted a Rotary-powered PR Samurai that really sounded good. It shot flames out the side and did a wheelie as it ran a 7.770, 165mph/quarter mile! I was hooked! That's the kind of engine I want in my Samurai. I began researching the rotary and ended up buying a 13b Renesis JDM that I am readying to have swapped into the Samurai. I plan to have it running before the end of the year. Here's my Samurai with an 85hp 1.6 Suzuki Engine, just waiting for the smaller, but more powerful 200hp 1.3 Renesis.
Cool looking little truck.
Good luck with your swap.
If you do get it running, going from 85 hp to 200 will take some careful driving at first with that short wheelbase and high center of gravity.
CaymanRotary, I certainly can't argue your points. I went with the Renesis because it's a newer version. I am putting a lot of faith in the abilities of the aftermarket ecu. At this point, I am thinking of the Adaptronics ecu.
CaymanRotary, I certainly can't argue your points. I went with the Renesis because it's a newer version. I am putting a lot of faith in the abilities of the aftermarket ecu. At this point, I am thinking of the Adaptronics ecu.
Its definitely possible to get it working, but its going to take quite a bit of effort to get it running optimally. The Renesis is the newest rotary engine but it's not ideal to swap into another car. The rx8 has a lot of sensors and extra engine systems that are integrated with the engine itself.
Personally would think it would be better to keep the near entirety of the engine bay and run through the stock ECU. Maybe if you had an entire RX8 donor car, but the engine alone will be difficult to work properly with an aftermarket ECU. Even if you got it running, I'm doubtful it would make the power it would in a stock setup. But even if you get that far, there's still the matter of fueling, transmission, engine mounts ect. It's going to be a lot more work then just tossing in a 4 banger.
Last edited by CaymanRotary; 04-12-2021 at 08:53 AM.
this is a badass little project hehe people do way dumber **** to cars atleast this one looks good .. even if you gotta rebuild every 50k :P the fastest cars only last one run on a motor so look at it like that hahah. hope i can help with the parts!
Update on my project, Renesis-powered Suzuki Samurai.
I had trouble finding the transmission I wanted, so in the meantime, I put the Samurai in the shop to install rear disk brakes. This has turned out to be a job in itself, but is just about finished. This has given me time to collect a Mini electric power steering pump along with a cooling fan and hardware that will be installed next since the Samurai had the PS pump on the engine. I finally found the transmission I wanted, a 3-speed automatic 3N71B from a Datsun, which is several inches shorter than the Mazda 3N71B. It's now in the transmission shop getting rebuilt and set up for Renesis, which will only be a total of 2 inches longer than the Suzuki engine and trans. The already short driveshaft can give up the 2 inches. I sent the alternator, motor mounts and a few other things to be polished. Got those back and started to reinstall them. I have installed a Hummer Ig
nition coil pack w/NGK wires from Amazon and added a Sohn OMP adapter.
I decided to go with an eBay turbo, mostly for looks. Should have the big GT45 mounted by the time the transmission is finished and I can take the Samurai back to the shop for the engine install. Then I'll order the Adaptronics ecu and see if we can get it to run.
04-09-2021, 10:19 AM
