One sweet ass swap...

[kidcamaro98]

So my buddy has a MINT 89 RX-7 he just picked up for dirt cheap....its by far the best condition rx-7 i have ever seen for the year it is...it was garaged for its whole life...Its dark blue with black aftermarket rims...well anyways, he was gonna do the ever so famous LS1 drop....but i got some ideas sturring up in his head. I told him, he could pick up a used 3.8 motor with tranny for like $800 shipped to his door.....and ontop of that, i will build him a turbo kit once the motor is in and everything.....So in spring, thats his initial plan...hes gonna put a stock 3.8 with a auto tranny in it...and im gonna fab up a turbo setup for him...were prolly gonna go with a T61....I think it would be a pretty sick ass swap...it will be one of a kind, and a Turbo 3.8 in a car that light...that car should FLY....

[pontiacfreak142]

That would be really sweet. Ive always been curious to see what a 3.8 could do in a lighter car, other than a fiero that is .

[Forced_Firebird]

Lot's of people have put N/A 3x00 along other 60*'s. They are fast, 3500's can be had for about the same price :D

[Stg747]

wow andrew your gunna be busy building two turbo setups for the same motor:P

[Tinman]

He wouldn't be the first. My daily driver is an 89 RX7 GTUs that I swapped a 3.8/T5 into from a 98 Camaro. The goal was to build a fun to drive car that was reasonably quick and would deliver good gas mileage for as cheap as possible.

The swap was pretty simple. I fabbed the motor mounts and tranny crossmember from stuff I had laying around the garage and wired it in the same manner as the more common LS1 RX7 swaps. The engine just barely fits under the hood, I trimmed the under hood bracing to clear the TB and alternator and used a front wheel drive fuel rail that allowed me to move the engine almost 2 inches further back than the f-body rail would allow. I wasn't able to use the f-body exhaust manifolds due to clearance so I bought a set of pacesetter headers. The passenger side required a slight ding to the firewall to fit but the drivers side required a complete rework. I also swapped the 4.30 gears for a set of 3.90s. Because the 4.30 gears are worth their weight in gold to the rx7 guys, I was able to trade them for the 3.90s plus cash:cool:

As for performance, she went 14.40 at 94mph at the dragstrip and is an absolute joy to drive on the roadcourse, not bad for less than $2000 including the car.


http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t55/tinman_015/100_0291s.jpg

http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t55/tinman_015/100_0285.jpg

http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t55/tinman_015/100_0954s.jpg

http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t55/tinman_015/100_0956-1.jpg

http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t55/tinman_015/100_1005s.jpg

[kidcamaro98]

thats awesome...nice to know someone on the local board did it...

As far as a turbo goes, is their gonna be room under the hood to fab up a turbo kit??

[Tinman]

There is all kinds of room under the hood for a turbo and piping. The engine block itself sits behind the front axle, the harmonic damper/crankshaft pulley sit directly above the rack and pinion. If this was not my daily driver, I would be fabbing up a turbo setup myself.

[iGoRa]

Im looking at nice low miles 92 RX7 TT. Was thinking fun little car with twin rotors and twin turbos. In specs says 320hp stock. Should be fun to drive? why would you swap for 200hp v6?

[Tinman]

Im looking at nice low miles 92 RX7 TT. Was thinking fun little car with twin rotors and twin turbos. In specs says 320hp stock. Should be fun to drive? why would you swap for 200hp v6?

The 89-91 RX7 came with either a 160hp n/a rotary or a ~200hp turbo rotary. The 3.8 puts out far more touque than the turbo and more hp under the curve. This was built for fun daily driving, when it's time to go fast I hop in the 540rwhp V8 RX7 sitting next to it.

[kidcamaro98]

I thought the TT 3rd gen Rx-7's only made like 260hp??? I know they deff. dont make 320 lol

And my buddys rx-7 has the stock rotory motor in it....it only makes like 120hp its a turd...so a 3.8 in it alone would be a huge upgrade performance wise...I know what my car can do with my setup...i couldnt even image my setup in a car weighing in around 2300lbs...it would be retarted

[supercharged05ss]

i don't know if it would fit,but a ls7 would be awesome in that car.or a buick grand national turbo 3.8 thats been built

[kidcamaro98]

both those would be expensive swaps.

[Rising_Phoenix]

Sounds like a cool project. A buddy of mine had an RX7 like the one pictured above. It used to be pretty quick, but after going through a break-up with a girl (he took that pretty badly) the car suffered from his anger. Sad to say that the car is just a little cube now and he's driving some cheap 4 door.

[Andrew_99GTP]

That looks like a fun little project. An Rx7 is pretty close in size to a Fiero isn't it?

[MyFirstCamaro]

take lots of pictures. . . . i still think that year/generation rx7 are hideous

[streetcar]

I'll be damned, Tinman made it over here.

Great friend of mine and a complete badass when it comes to anything that is metal or associated with going fast and turning.

:)

[Grimm]

l67 swap?

[nfswift]

Going from a pinner lil 13b wouldn't this swap be a lot more weight up front??
Would move pretty well though... A DOHC would suit the car a bit better I think, more rev happy. But who would wanna do that swap, ugh.

[Tinman]

The 13Bs are pretty heavy themselves. V6 and V8 swaps add little to no weight over the front wheels. My V8 powered RX7 with a cast iron block even, weighs less than it did from the factory. The 3800 powered car should be in the same range. There are a few guys with LS1 powered RX7 that have corner scaled them and found less weight on the front axle compared to when they were rotary powered.

[dmw319]

looks sweet!