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Lets all look at the Rotary RX...(56K die!)


WJM
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Neat. Those are fun engines (my other car is a RX-7). I'm not sure I'd want one on an AWD vehicle that spent a lot of time crawling in the mud/snow. They really don't have much torque down low.

 

Related, it snowed in Chicagoland today. Silly me, I made the run from Iowa to Missouri to Illinois (picking up my brother) in the RX-7, leaving the Subaru in Iowa. Should have taken that one... the '7 in the snow was *not* fun.

 

-=Russ=-

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it is very cobbled together, and VERY rusty up there (not much rust on the rest of the car). the car was driven in the winter before it was parked (about 6-8 years ago) and then it sat till I bought it from the guy (which if you look for the thread that the guy made about selling it, it took 8 months after that, for me to purshiche the car). Not sure what flywheel the used, he just said a "custom flywheel and clutch" and I haven't taken it apart yet my main focus was just trying to get it running, it is an adapter to the stock RX tranny.

 

 

corky, thoughts on the cooling setup?

 

and I was indeed doing my job, was there from 12:30/1:00 today to about 12 tonight :( but not in the rolla from about 3 on, the CVs went out (I think, look for the thread in off topic)

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corky, thoughts on the cooling setup?

Yea, we talked about this before, but until I saw these picture, I couldn't really get an idea of what he had done. Boy, the is a tough one. I think he tried the best he could with what he had. When I did the V8 in the Corvair, we actually used two radiators, one on each side of the engine, they were small radiator from a VW I believe (it's been over 15 years since then, but the car is still running). I'm not sure if that setup would work here. The problem that I see is that even with the two fans, there is not enough air flow through the radiator. If somehow cold air could be forced to flow through the radiator, it might work in that location.

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thats one wiered looking MC, is there aluminum foil wrapped arround it??

and those wires, its looks like a uh...um... a wire manufacturing plant blew up in there. lol ;) anyway, yea that corrosion sure looks nasty, id hate to work in that. Has that bad boy been overheated? id sure be worried about that. have you thought about just getting a new short block from a JY and started from scratch? or are you just planning on getting it running, or to where it should be runing, then yoink it out and rebuild it?

 

anyway, its a great lookin project, now get it running already!!! :)

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The corrosion on the exterior of the engine and in the bay is superficial. How many of us drive a perfectly running car with rust on it?! Or white funky aluminum engines?!

 

I agree that an aluminum rad is all you need, with a good fan. I had an 80 RX7 with the same 13b rotary in it for a short time, and the rad in it is NOT huge. I wonder if there isn't another problem that caused it to run so hot. I had mine to swap the rotary into my Isuzu lowrider project, but because it sat for a few years, the apex seals were toast. The cost of a rebuild kit prompted me to back up, and regroup.

Good luck

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Hey,

I don't know much about RX-7 as I've only owned 2 of them, and never really did very much to them but........ Are you sure thats a 13B? It really looks like a early 12A out of the first gens.... One reason I say that is the oil cooler.... later cars had a filter mounted coolers, early cars had the type you have. I know for a fact that the 1980 Rx-7 did not have a 13B, but a 12A as one of the reasons that they are not allowed into spec 7 racing is because of rules concerning stock cats, and the 79 and 80's had thermal reactors. I had an 80 that wouldn't pass emissions, even had a little sticker under the hood that said it wouldn't pass beyond 3000 feet, but the E-guy was an rump roast. Anyhoo, why doesn't it run? Does it crank and crank, or is it like in the pics and need an intake of some kind? The reason I ask is cause theres some "tricks" to diag rotary cars. One thing EFI 13Bs would do is have leaky injectors. The fuel would load up in the engines and push the apex seals back, killing all compression. There were two soultions for EFI cars. On mine I rigged a switch that allowed me to kill the fuel pump, and thats how I shut the car off. No pressure, no leaky. Another way was to gain access into the intake manifold, put some light oil into it (MMO, atf) and let it sit for a bit... like 5 minutes. Then try to start it. That also worked on mine, and would at least get the car to start if it was lacking in compression. As far as cooling goes... why not just cut a big ol' hole in the hood and put on a scoop? One thing I noticed with my 2nd gen is that it ran REALLY REALLY hot. I mean the engines like a cracker jack box in size, and even the legendary taurus electric fan mod couldn't keep up with it when I got on it.

ok, I'm done

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