Mazda OFF TOPIC???

Mazda OFF TOPIC???

Just picked up a 99 mazda miata mx5 and had a very intresting question....

Is there a possibility of swapping out the stock motor for a 13B-REW Twin-turbo (RX-7). If so I need a link to find mounts, ect..

Wow. I am completely clueless... Try a Mazda forum man.

All right. Thought I'd give it a shot.

I don't think it's a girly car.

try mazdas247.com

i wouldn't go rotary, if i were you. there's TONS of potential in that piston motor, and the rotary would probably just blow the seals on the rear rotor, anyway. that, of course, is assuming it doesn't catch fire first.

you want gobs of power without dealing with fire and blown seals (and the headache that comes with trying to source a rotary rebuild kit since they're nearly impossible to find nowadays)? go smallblock ford V8.

Thanks for all the advise. I'll read up and get prepared.

I would agree to this as well. rotory's are a pain in the butt to maintain. They have to be maintained well stock.. if you change things around, you're going to to have to make sure things are good every other week. But if you are a wrench monkey and you dont mind tinkering with your car on a daily basis, i'd say go for it.

I can shed a little light on this. A friend of mine has been spending several months working on an FC TII RX-7. Before he even bought the replacement engine to work on it, he bought the rotary "bible" (all ~1000 pages) and read the WHOLE thing. If you take your time to learn about it and make sure you understand the engine, they have some awesome potential. Just buy all the books you can and read up on it before you make a final decision.

yes, it's more tedious to rebuild than any other motor i've encountered. you have to get the seals perfect, etc. it's easy, just really annoyingly tedious...and the 13BTT is known for catching fire because of HORRID cooling issues.

You'd be surprised how easily it is to bypass that cooling problem: LEAVE THE FAN SHROUD ON THE FRONT OF THE ENGINE! The guy that's building my friend's rotary right now said the biggest mistake people make is to take the fan shroud off. He said that Mazda put that there for a BIG reason. <img src="http://vvti.net/forums/images/smilies/smile.gif" border="0" alt="" title="Smile" />

yes, it helps. it doesn't help if the car isn't stock. trust me - i've seen it happen on a few cars.

Hrm. I've seen a few that work just fine w/ it. I guess it's just up to how much care/work you put into it (like any project, only pickier).

You know what would be a more reliable alternative? How about a 2JZ, or a SR20, or even a RB26? You can make some made power out of these.

If I'm not mistaken, the SR works quite well. You could also (if you wanted to) fairly easily drop in a 4A engine (BT, ST, GZE, etc). But the good ol' engine Mazda put in it works just fine.

well, see, rotaries are like motorcyclists. bikers all drop their bikes...it's just a mater of <i>when</i>. rotaries blow...again, it's a matter of when. there's a fine line between riding it hard to keep that second rotor moving, and beating the snot out of it.