Engine blown in my RX7, rebuild or V8?

[Johnerz]

i think the cost comparison regarding getting to 400bhp would be very interesting to see, but wouldnt be a valid test as such

it would be hard to be accurate as the rotary is built for the car, and you may (or may not depending how you work it) have to include, the subframes, gearbox, rear end modifications (of which there are many schools of thought) plus all the required ancillaries in factoring the cost.

[rx7veilside]

Fail !!!
Go do one to your scooby forum, this is a club for ROTARY enthusaists.
An unbiased view ? Don\'t make me laugh you have probably the most biased view because you couldn\'t get an engine right.
And get used to seeing rx7\'s in front of you because a well tuned one will always be regardless of what you do to your scooby.
My mate has a 400bhp scooby and couldn\'t keep up with a rx7 running 330 bhp, and now the scooby has engine problems and the rex is fine.
And when you tune your scooby, or an evo, or a skyline or supra, lets see how reliable they are ... you are a muppet if you think they will not require a rebuild at some point after being highly tuned.

thanks for that highly intelligent quote
i wasnt trying to get the engine right i never touched it myself left that to the tuner and all the talk of my mate has this and my mate has that is pointless
so a well tuned rx7 will be in front regardless of whats done to the scoob another load of nonsence originally my 7 was 400rwhp and to be honest i didnt think it was that special whereas the scoob will give u a kick in the back every time
however i didnt post on this thread about the virtues of a scoob versus a 7 i posted that a well sorted v8 was more reliable better mpg better emmissions and arguably better sounding
someone else decided to bring the scoob into the equation not me
read the posts all i have said is that the v8 is more reliable gives better mpg and better emmissions
a 400hp rx7 is a ticking bomb a 400bhp v8 is barely even breathing heavy at that level of tune
take the blinkers off and i dont see why u need to start insulting i havnt

[Spartacus]

I have spoken today to a U.K. based company who can supply the LS2 engine (the LS1 is an old engine)the ecu/loom inc. fly by wire throttle a TKO 500 gearbox plus air-con for £7855 plus VAT all brand new this is a turn-key package.
How does this compare with stateside prices?
P.S. I wont consider s/h it\'s a potential mine-field.

If I were you and wanted new I\'d have a look/search on LS1tech.com. From my limited experience LS3\'s now look the way to go.

[ro284]

Originally Posted by David Wiltshire  
I have spoken today to a U.K. based company who can supply the LS2 engine (the LS1 is an old engine)the ecu/loom inc. fly by wire throttle a TKO 500 gearbox plus air-con for £7855 plus VAT all brand new this is a turn-key package.

Bad luck David, Personally i will stick with the unique engine that is designed for the car. i don\'t know how fitting a V8 affects re-sale value, or higher insurance costs,etc. ( i can\'t see spending 10K on the car will increase it\'s value by 10K)  TBH if you allow say even £3K.ish for a rebuild, you are paying 7K in advance to save a few miles on a gallon, Plus IMHO limit the cars
 re-sale market, and to make it \'arguably\' sound better! Surely if you are prepared to spend 10K (does that include a diff/suspension etc.?) you could get 3 rebuilds from that, and stick with the well balanced rotary engined car that makes the RX7 the special car that it is,
Iv\'e done 15K on my rebuild (new parts used 4 years ago) and it\'s brilliant !feels as though it\'s only just run in! it has never flooded or backfired, never fails to start /re-start hot cold or only run for 10 seconds! and was only rebuilt because of water seal failure after 11 years with no corrosion inhibitor in the coolant. (which kills a lot of 7\'s! and which could effect any engine, but the rotary design gets the blame as usual!)
Probably been said before, but i hope you find out the true reason that caused your engine to blow in the first place, ignition failure fuel pump, or whatever, because it will happen again, and then the rotary engine will unjustly become the target yet again!
I bought my car knowing the seals had gone, but personally i view a Rebuild as an investment for future trouble free driving.(which i still have) Of course some anciliary failure can catch you out, (applies to any car) A rotary rebuild really is not a big deal, IMHO. i have rebuilt several V8s, (now that\'s a big deal!) Hey, you can even get a rebuild with 2 year warrenty, Which will increase the re-sale value of the car! Personal choice of course matey, and wish you all the best with whatever way you go,
Bob

[Hi RX7]

Point taken, I usually get bored with a car after three years or the tax man decides to send me a huge bill and I have to panic and sell my current unnecesary indulgences. Just of recently its been the three year boredom thing but the RX is at this moment in time has a lot going for it plus I don\'t really think they are that easy to sell quickly.
I agree about the number of re-builds you could have for the price of a conversion but as I have said before I will not pay for another re-build although my greatest regret will be losing the 1300cc road tax bracket which is all part of the big smile these cars impart on the owner.

[Hi RX7]

If I were you and wanted new I\'d have a look/search on LS1tech.com. From my limited experience LS3\'s now look the way to go.

Had a look the LS3 puts out 480 bhp and its the very latest engine but its £7-800 dearer than the LS2 and with buying new its raising the price. I may have to consider second hand/pull-out after all.
If I have a good year next year (my specialist part of the construction industry shows no sign of the recession hitting it yet) then I don\'t mind throwing the money at the car as I probably wouldn\'t want to sell it after having all this work done anyway.

[Nik da Greek]

Jeez, with the prices of even good Rx-7s the way they are now, you could buy a couple of entire spare cars for the 10k the conversion would cost, and keep them in the shed for when the current one goes bang again!

[Hi RX7]

You said it, bang again, don\'t you feel real disapointment when this happens, now why on earth come back for more and I feel if it does it again I will be forced to do a Basil Fawlty and one of my friends or my wife will catch it on video and there I\'m forever branded.
I have spent a bit of time browsing the U.S. site and the cars that have this conversion look really good and I mean really good.

[Nik da Greek]

You said it, bang again, don\'t you feel real disapointment when this happens, now why on earth come back for more and I feel if it does it again I will be forced to do a Basil Fawlty and one of my friends or my wife will catch it on video and there I\'m forever branded.
I have spent a bit of time browsing the U.S. site and the cars that have this conversion look really good and I mean really good.

Well, not really, dude, you\'re the one who\'s motivation for this thread stemmed from a need to investigate options for just such an eventuality. I bought a car from someone who\'d very considerately done the blowing it up and rebuilding it thing for me, so a) I don\'t need to worry, because it appears David at the late, great Rotechnics built it properly, God bless him and b) I haven\'t therefore had it blow up the first time, so can\'t realistically worry about it happening again. Cos it never happened the first time as far I\'m concerned! Sorry, Alice in Wonderland bit there, did it make sense?!

I\'ve had more unreliable vehicles than my RX-7 (hard to believe if anyone\'s actually read some of the drivel I\'ve written about it this year) but I\'ve learnt that you just need sometimes to suck it up and get on with it. The bottom line is that sh!t \'appen, and it\'ll \'appen at you whatever you drive if you do it long enough. Yeah, there are times when the Basil Fawlty routine is more than justified, but at the end of the day it solves little. Maybe my perspective is different cos I\'ve been on two wheels so much longer than four. TBH, after you\'ve had stuff happen like a gearbox drop a cog and lock up on the way down a motorway slip road at a good 70 in the rain, and you\'re sliding up the back of a queue of trucks waiting at the junction, a mere rotary engine going pop just really doesn\'t seem very scary or annoying. I\'ve had so many near death experiences, I can sleep through the boring bits of my life flashing in front of my eyes! I do try to wake up for that girl in the sixth form, though, the one with the big, erm, eyes.....:Giggle

Sorry, wandered waaaay off-message then, carry on! Yeah, I said that earlier, a lot of the conversions are fantastic bits of engineering and a real credit to their builders

[Hi RX7]

I\'m quite sure that Chris at Re-Worx has done a good job and who knows I\'m wasting petrol carefully until it goes back for a final tune and maybe just maybe it will last until the new skyline is cheap enough for me to afford second hand.
Just in case I will buy the parts bit by bit and who knows I may land up having one of the fastest Transits around or at least for a while, thinking about it I may run that past my accountant.
I would still like to know how much you would spend to get a 400+ bhp rotary I\'ll ask when the car goes back if nobody answers by then.

[Nik da Greek]

Well, I hope it\'s all good for you, geez. I\'m sure RE:Worx have done a top job and you\'ll never need to find out if the v8 would\'ve upset your handling, cos by your own admission you move cars on quite quickly anyway, so the engine may well outlast you! I\'m sure when you gat it out of run-in it\'ll put such a smile on your face you won\'t want to change it anyway

[rx7veilside]

to get 400bhp
1/gt35/40 turbo downpipe/manifold/wastegate and fitting---£2000 approx
2/bigger injectors uprated pump adj fuel reg and fitting-----£1000  approx
3/good 3 inch exhaust and fitting--------------------------£600   approx
4/aftermarket ecu and fitting and mapping-----------------£1000+ approx
depending on ecu cheaper for apexi
5/either big fmic(bad for rad temps)or aftermarket v mount and induction kit
---------------------------------------------------------£1000-1500 depending on whos kit(re worx v mount seems very good but prob at upper price band)
so roughly £6000 plus cost of porting and def rebuild to engine to ensure it doesnt go pop straight away approx 3500-4000 for a fully rebuilt ported engine
so all in all better to just see tinker 27 and get the v8:rollin:rollin:rollin:rollin
of course you could use all second hand parts and poss drop urself in the doodoo and save a few quid while waiting for the day it pops
hope this answers ur orig question about how much to get 400bhp from the rotary as opposed to 400bhp from a v8
remember tinker 27 does a 10k drive in drive out and if u sell the gearbox/prop/turbo pack rad etc from the rotary prob near 7k to get a stonking v8:D

[Hi RX7]

Thanks I was thinking along the same lines cost wise it would be unwise I would have thought to do all this without the re-build/porting. The package that I favour does now include the latest LS3 engine which pushes out a good 480 bhp (well thats what the makers say) but remember this includes all new ancilaries and a gearbox. So in a rushed coclusion this morning if my rotatry is good and working at the time I have all the V8 bits (Re-Worx will do the installation) I should get a few quid for the bits on my car.

[rx7veilside]

tinker 27 is the man for these swaps he knows all the pitfalls and shortcuts as he has done a few now speak to him and look at the various options he uses

[BlitzBoy]

To get 400bhp at the flywheel or close to it you dont need a single turbo conversion by the way guys.
To get 400bhp at the wheels then yes you do need a single turbo conversion.

It all comes down to personal choice, if you prefer a V8 noise or a rotary high reving noise. Its Davids own car and he can do what the hell he likes with it. When his car is fully run in and mapped correctly then David will decide if he likes the rotary to stick with it or not.

But in terms of out and out performance a Rotary edges it I feel imo,
This is the main reasons why the the Puerta Rico guys in their little rotaries like sticking it to the V8 yank guys and winning.

btw David you have forgotton the cost of redoing your front suspension as well to handle the V8 up front.

rx7veilside you quote
"originally my 7 was 400rwhp and to be honest i didnt think it was that special whereas the scoob will give u a kick in the back every time"
You never had the car fully mapped/finished to feel what a real rotary 400rwhp can do in a rexy, which is a shame as you are only looking it from your own ex car experiance, if im ever down your neck of the woods I will give you a ride in mine but be warned its not as plush inside like your old rx