Hey guys, im new to the whole rotary scene and need some advise. I was planning on fitting a vtec motos to my old school mini but plans changed and i started thinking why not make it fr setup, the 13b turbo immediatly pop to mind cause of its size and power. The only thing that worrys me, this build will be used as my everyday car and it might see the occasional track day, not likely more than once a month, how reliable would a stock 13b turbo motor be(only mods would be a proper exhaust and induction kit)?Whats the feul consumption like? Looking at a power2weight ratio of about 285bhp/ton.
Hello and welcome. I have the may 08 issue of miniworld that has a rotary powered mini, its a spaceframe setup with an na 13b 225hp. Theres alot of fabrication work gone in to it if you ask me. Stick with the honda transplant or the hayabusa setup. The 13b block is heavy, hevier than an A series anyway. They are reliable if you look after them!
Vtec being 170bhp and fwd sees you strugling with traction till about halfway through third gear ,hoping to eliminate that by making it rwd, and getting a 13b turbo saves me the trouble of turbo\'ing the vtec later on.
sounds like a interesting project, the rotary engine can be very reliable if treated right, if would probably be worth changing the ecu for a aftermarket one such as the apexi power fc which if well mapped will give you more power and be very reliable. if you were looking at a 13b twin turbo from a FD they are 260bhp standard and a little more for later models. I had mine running near standard for a few years and never had any problems with the engine itself the only issues i had was with the turbos, they are controlled by a whole load of tubing (known as the rats nest) which is a common problem with them where if you get a split or whole in any of the tubes you get boost issues.
seen a few 13B Minis done, very quick.
Personally I would get a stock FD 13b rew put a smallish single turbo (T04e) on it to simplfy the setup run an Apexi ECU.
Hello and Welcome to MRC,
Try doing a search in here and the internet as I know that I have seen "build up" pictures of a Rotary Mini somewhere a while ago
Thanx alot for all the comments guys, I will most likely run it on a aftermarket ecu but we only have a few available in sa, gotech pro mfi, mr turbo efi, motech and dictator, id most likely go with the gotech pro mfi,as for the motor I can only find the early 13b motors with the single turbo making 185bhp, but slapping on a induction kit,bigger turbo and proper exhaust should see me with decent amount of power(would 200bhp be setting my hopes to high?Need to keep in mind it will be my daily drive aswell) seeing as the body will be less than 700kg. The exhaust will be a once off custom piece,what size works best for a rotary? Most turbo cars in sa run a 67mm exhaust.
The later series 5 FC single turbo engines produce 200 as stock, the series 4 FC engine u have there produces at that, if you port the engine a bit and put a better turbo on then you can get some big figures, im aiming for about 400bhp out of my series 5, the thing with rotarys is if you can get the fuel and air into the engine its going to give silly power as there is no valve train to imped it :)