Thanks Mac for your words of advice, I'm sure you mean well..As for NOT doing the swap, it's impossible to NOT do it now...with all caution thrown into the wind we are head on with this project...

 

good luck.


post pics.

 

urbanlegendrx8,

I too am in a similar scenario. I bought my rx8 when i was young and well..dumb..I will admit it. I had a custom shop turbo my renesis and it was fantastic at first!! the extra power was nice..but being young and dumb i didnt take care of it the way i should have. a lot of things happened and 3 years later im stuck with a gorgeous machine.......that doesnt run!! Now i didnt go back to school right away after high school but i am now, attempting to earn a degree through the Ford Asset program...anyway the point is i am older now and smarter. i have been torn between either buying a rebuilt 13b (most likely from atkins rotary..?) or doing a 20b swap (assuming my current 13b is shot).

If you are serious about doing this, after reading tons of threads, i can see that the people on this site can offer you some of the best advice you can find regarding rotary engines. any advice useful to you is useful to many people and thats what makes this site so great.

keep us updated. and best of luck

 

Urban, NA 20B tuned right will get above 350 WHP, this motor is can more than double those numbers done right. Who knows, you might end up with 500-600hp easily and it won't hurt it much. 20B is a very powerful motor.

 

you realize the rx8 came out 5 years ago right?

 

OMG that's so funny!

 

^Maybe the guy got caught up in his own words...... JK, lmao, 3 years later after from what, 2004 lol, so he had a turbo in 04 or something....

????


EDIT: Maybe he went FI in 06-07, sorry

 

exactly. I was being hard on myself for the decisions I've made that led to my rx8 failing. I re-read my post now and it is somewhat funny sounding..I suppose if u find a guy venting off his frustration funny. It's unpleasant when you're wheels can't move

 

bump

 

Gentleman...sorry for the absent but I was waiting on some parts...I'll get some pics posted when soon as I can...

 

Ok everybody here is where we are at...

So far we have taken the engine out and mated the 20b to the RX8 trans.

Sub-frame will have to be extremely modified. Part of this modification will eliminate the factory steering rack and sway bar. The firewall will need to be cut to fit the intake manifold. At least a couple of inches is needed. Might get away with just putting a dent on the firewall. The engine will need to relocate the filter housing.

There is no room to fit a filter where the engine needs to be. An oil filter relocation kit will work here.

For an ECU we located a Electromotive TEC3 at a good price but I was wondering if anybody had any other suggestions???

Another question I had for the RX8 community: Are there other routes to go about doing this without having to cut into my firewall and/or replacing steering rack?? Is there such a thing as an aftermarket steering rack, tie rod end and extension for the existing steering rod out there for the RX8???

An Oil Relocation Kit will also be needed b/c the filter will not fit, but I have no problems with that.

For turbo we decided on a gt 35r...known to be good for 600hp...plenty since at the end 400-450 usable hp is what we are shooting for.

If i haven't mentioned before my car will be daily driven with exception of some time attack runs...an over all balanced track car is what i'm looking for...

Thank you to all again for any and all advice and help.

Churchill

 

You do realize that there are at least 2 other people who have done this, don't you? Rgonza and Angeljoelv did not cut or dent the firewall(btw it doesn't dent for ****-trust me I know). Nor did they eliminate their power steering. A better route would be to shorten the lim in height so it can fit-because lengthwise it fits(go to post #89 https://www.rx8club.com/rotary-swaps-217/13bre-swap-159291/page4/ ). As for the GT35r-it's worthless for this application!!!

 

Yea...kinda think of it the guys that did the same swap didn't do any kind of cutting or banging of the firewall...nor did they replace steering rack. I'm gonna have to put the brakes on first until I get a chance to stop up and see them.(I live 3 hours away)

gt35r is no good??? Ok...i know everybody's gonna ride me for not trying to find out first but for sake of time I'm just gonna ask, "why is it worthless????"

Thanks for the heads up!

if anybody else has something to add plz do soooo......

Churchill

 

subscribed... i'm interested to see where this goes. good luck, you're gonna need it!

 

Well if you want more info you should go onto the RX7 site under the 20b forum for which turbo to use. I had a gt35r on my fd, made ok power for back then, but then it took a dump on me because it's too small. It's ok for a 2rotor-chokes a little in the higher rpm range(especially the T3 1,06a/r that i had). I would never never never think about putting it on a 3rotor-way too much exhaust flow. Btw what did you do for engine mounts? Or did you not make any yet? If you're going to use the stock tranny(probably are), you can leave it in the stock position-that is if you're going to cut the subframe and move everything forward like rgonza and angeljoelv did. So you won't have any problem with clearance. I didn't want to cut the subframe which is why I chose to go 13bre t instead.

 

Ok..we've got it mounted however have to finish the final welds.

 

Couple more....

 

Looking at those photos it appears you didn't have the 20B opened and rebuilt??

 

Actually you're right...as foolish as it might seem I am hoping that all is in good running condition. The guys that are doing the swap suggested doing a rebuild but let's just see how far this one get without it. As long as we have mounting and fitments down I'll be more than relieved.

I know, I know....it'll more than likely cause damage to the motor. I kinda like doing things the hard way, haha. We'll keep you posted!

 

your setting yourself up for a major disaster man... why would you do that?

 

I'm just curious...and it's not like anybody will hesitate to tell me anyways, does everybody else agree that we should do a rebuild with the 20b prior to running it?? Reasons are being? And what's the likely hood of a catastrophic outcome without a rebuild???

 

You are installing an engine that is 15+ years old, increasing it's power by at least 50% over stock and do not care what the insides look like? You have no idea about the history of that engine so doing a rebuild while its out of the car makes sense based on its age and how you intend to modify it.

 

you spending all that money to get it done, why not spend the extra 3k in getting it rebuilt?

 

i was really cheering for you. thinking that just maybe its possible for someone with out much rotary knowledge being able to pull this off. learn quick take advice etc... and to prove them all wrong.

its seeming unlikely now. the fact that you want to use this as a dd, didn't rebuild the engine. the only thing left for certain disaster is has this shop ever done a 20b swap into a rx8 before?

 

Well Nate thanks for the high hopes, I guess. Lol nah just kiddin'....ummm well actually we are not all locked in or anything like that. Meaning the motor is not at it's last stage of completion. Rebuilding the motor before the actually mounting and installation is complete was something I was considering anyways.

To answer your question: The shop has never done a 20b conversion before however like I've said in my past post, I've know the owner for quite a while now and most importantly I trust him. Trust meaning he wouldn't bulls*it me if he really didn't think he couldn't get the job done and/or done correctly. We are more less seating the motor in first and making certain modification(trimming intake, relocating sub-frame, etc) So regardless, the motor will be taken in and out a couple of times before it's last phase.

On another note Going back and reading my posts and responses to others, I've noticed is that I'm a lot more humble on the forum than in my real life. Maybe b/c it's the first forum I've taken apart of and I just don't know how to properly display myself...Ehh maybe I should consider it a good thing b/c the real me, who seems a little bit savvy and confident, could come off as arrogant or cocky... haha...anyways...I'm sure after I submit this i'll go back and read it and be like "WTF was I talking about???" nevermind.......

For all that it's worth Thank you for your replies and comments. Yes even the smart *** ones!