Years in the making: Franken Wankel! 1986 RX7

okay not much progress has been made, lots of things have been put on hold due to house stuff, IE: I bought one and I had to pack up shop and move, quite literally.

It is a 27'x35' garage, with a 14'x8' shed w/ electricity behind the garage. I'm pretty sure the two spaces combined are more square footage than then house. Okay so what I bought was a garage with a detached house.

Once I get the electrical hooked up on the lift I should be good to go, I have a few little things around the house then time to build a workbench for Dr. Rotorsteins' laboratory.

Also I just aquired a parts washer, so that should help.

Nice!

Get to building me a motor!

Nice, and it looks like you bought the right sort of shop^Whouse.

wvumtnbkr wrote: Get to building me a motor!

I need to get gutters installed on the house (it only has 1 for whatever reason), get an electrician to wire up the hoist, see whats going on with the dryer and well pump (it keeps cycling, maybe waterlogged?, I dunno I grew up on city water this well water biznas is new to me)

Then build the work bench and unpack. August is lookin pretty good :)

Whatever you do - DO NOT MOVE THINGS INTO THE GARAGE if you want to do any work to the garage.

Don't ask me how I know...

Well time to prepare the new workspace!

this is how it starts (with help from frankenburban)

Then add LED lighting over said work bench location. I work in vehicle lighting so I had to go and do this. I might add a 3rd too...

oh and throw up a tag for the pseudo company

Basically make a frame out of 2x4s and add 2x6s for cross bars then screw it to the wall, let it hang then add legs!

and repeat!

Get a friend to help you drink beer and measure things, then add the mini shelf.

Finish the bracing, add a backboard and use paint that was not be used to protect the bench.

The under table top shelf is about 4" wider than a rotary engine so there is plenty of storage for my boxes of spare parts that have remained untouched from the move. The small shelf is high enough and the garage doesn't flood so that I can store more rotary parts underneath!

Also this workbench is built to fit me so short people will have a hard time using the bench unless they get a step stool.

There

Suite!

The garage is 95% complete, I will upload a completed photo with the workshop in order. However that was on pause for some last minute car prep towards the end of last week for rallyX GL Division nationals! aka regionals! MR class was 100% GRM members aside from my co-driver.

Took 1st (barely) and was a great weekend, very close all weekend long - you could not ask for better racing or conditions. The course was a blast but I could feel the car struggle at times and I knew it was from the power vs gearing. For those who were there saw/heard I never left 1st gear, and here is why!

So I made this chart to demonstrate my current setup vs future trans and if I added a GTUs 4.30 diff My current setup is the one all the way in the left column. Then the others show my future option and future ideal option as well as some weird E36 M3 with an AT rear end or NA trans (which, like Pete, I will break just not as awesome breakage as he has)

I was crossing the finish line at about 9600-9900 rpm WOT.

I gotta double check my tire size but I do remember them being rather large, and I was running on my smaller diameter tire, the mud tires are even bigger.

Ford 8.8 IRS from an early 2000's Exploder will be indestructible, cheap to change gearing and lovely affordable LSDs.

Tricky part is mounting. There's a kit that's a little pricey. I'll be building a new subframe for mine.

There aren't really any lovely diffs for the 8.8. Nothing as good as the Mazda diff.

Now, on the other hand, I have heard good things about using a Detroit Locker as far as turn-in is concerned, and you definitely can get those for an 8.8. But it's not proven for rallycross so you'd be taking a big, heavy, expensive gamble.

Eaton True-Trac has good rep with road racers.

Eaton True-Trac = Torsen.

You can pick up Ford Motorsport Torsens for silly cheap. I saw one for $195 Buy It Now on eBay.

I want to try a Torsen, but I have a feeling that I have a bit more rear suspension articulation, so lifting a rear wheel is generally not a problem for me...

DaveEstey wrote: Ford 8.8 IRS from an early 2000's Exploder will be indestructible, cheap to change gearing and lovely affordable LSDs. Tricky part is mounting. There's a kit that's a little pricey. I'll be building a new subframe for mine.

I DO like that idea but its far out of my budget at this time and the far foreseable future.

New order of business.

1. Exhaust

2. Front shock assemblies

3. Finish engine/trans swap

4. Front bodywork/headlamps

Came back from nationals and finished the shop! Mid-West Wankel is now "officially" open for business!!!

I finished assembling the wood bench and assembled the metal shelves, had to clean/sand and paint them then anchor them to the wall but they are sturdy and nice now :)

I acquired a parts washer and raised it to be more ergonomic like my bench.

store all the parts!

Each section is broken down by engine build essentially.

soooooo, when can I send my turbo engine to you for rebuildage?

When can I send my good condition low mileage S5 engine to you for portage and rebuiladage?

I am not sure when I will exactly have funds for both, but the turbo needs done so I can put it back into the car and have a car again.

well maybe I spoke too soon. I'm just going to be spending the next 2 weeks likely just enjoying summer outside on the kayak and/or bike. Then I really need to finish porting my engine and assemble. Problem is I don't have an air compressor but I'm likely to purchase one in the next few weeks.

On my engine I have to do the finishing touches on the center iron and port the rear iron entirely. Then I must do the rotor housings, which actually go pretty quick. re-clean. acquire a few parts then assembly :)

October would be pretty good. Is it s5 NA? PM me and we can start discussing this later this month and I can plan accordingly, then we can also go over build specifics and application etc.

Sorry, 2 different engines there.

The one I need done first is a TII engine. I don't remember at this moment whether it is S4 or S5. I think S4.

Just needs a rebuild (I think). It got hot at a race and I shut it off hoping to save the engine. I know it had about 100K+ on it at the time. Been sitting for about 3 months now.

Have the coolant seals failed? Is it burning coolant? can you pressurize the cooling system with the radiator/heater core out of the equation? If its a simple cleaning and reassembly with new O-rings should not be too bad, if it did overheat checking for warpage will be critical.

If it has been sitting for 3 months with water in the combustion chamber you may need new rotors, they like to rust side seals in there easily. Sometimes you can get them out, other times you end up with bricks, which are the 3 on my shelf up there. It wasn't a coolant seal failure but moist garage storage for 5 months.

Sweet.

I have no idea if it holds pressure. I took it out of the car and it is sitting on the floor of my garage.

It definetly overheated.

How would you go about pressurizing the system out of the car?

In reply to wvumtnbkr:

Simple!

You can buy one of these!

Just remove the water pump housing and plug the rear iron coolant lines with a rubber vac cap and hose clamp and install it where the water pump housing would be.

You can also make one for under 10 bucks, pick up a Schrader valve, find some flat steel and a small section of DIY cork gasket and drill holes for the waterpump housing. Then just use a bike pump and pressurize the Schrader valve to 20psi, (25psi for a new built engine w/ upgraded water seals FYI) and see how much pressure you loose in half hour. If it is a big enough leak you should hear bubbling at the failed location. You don't need to install a gauge on it just get a tire gauge on the valve you installed and it will be good enough. I've done this when I built my engine before I purchased the pineapple racing guy. Slowly I am acquiring rotary handy specific tools but I still will not press in rotor/main bearings, I hate using hydraulic presses, but I digress...

Or if its totally blown...

If you cant put any pressure in it something is def wrong, could be water jacket or VERY swollen seal. Another key indicator is when you put pressure in from an air tank (might not be able to pump so fast with a bike pump) and you have the oil filler cap off and you hear rushing air. Likely the iron has lost at least 1 water jacket wall and the seal is ripped or protruding through.

Another visual check is to remove the exhaust manifold, grab a flashlight and rotate the engine, if water/coolant comes out its trouble. You should be able to see the condition of the apex seals as they pass the exhaust port and if they look rusty its another indicator.

I always use rotary aviation o-ring kits in my builds, I constantly run my engine at 210 and I never loose a drop of coolant.

BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD!!! It is time to re re re re-design/fungineer my headlamps. I didn't like the way they were going before with a custom bracket and having to custom make an enclosure, it felt like I was trying to re-invent the wheel. Hard part with a custom mountain bracket is vibration and having the light beam bounce around which is bad and likely illegal. Also making a waterproof enclosure was tough from scratch, probably easier to modify something. So I decided to go to the junkyard and grab more J30 headlamps, this time... intact ones...

Here is a picture of the modified guts (on the prototype bracket) next to a stock one without a lens next to an intact stock one. The colors may seem funky because I see a lot of reflections in my tie die shirt lol.

Reasons? 1. Multiple Easy mounting locations 2. Its already a lamp! 3. Existing aiming/fixing functions 4. Datums exist there for this design to hold everything in place properly under vibration.

So here are the guts back in their housing using existing hardware.

...and the back side (next to do is fiberglass enclosure of some kind where I can toss a cap on the back to reach the HID bulb) Nevermind the gorilla glue, I broke a mounting tab, its messy but it fixes the issue lol.

I did not want the flashy chrome bezel, but the bezel is required because it also works as a curtain to block light leaking from surrounding areas, so I thought it would be cool to paint it black!

However I did mask the inside of the chrome ring because the hardware that mounts over the projector lenses is chrome too. But you can't really tell...

Here is the bench test making sure the circuit works, (and it does) this was an old CPU and I don't think it is very strong because my goal is to turn the high beam bulb on with the same circuit as the solenoid for the bi-function HB actuation (shade actuator) but every time I go to ground that circuit my lights go out, unless I already have the non HID bulb on, might need a relay in there but that is still a work in progress on how to neatly and properly wire it up. The good news is that all functions function functionally.

Here is a shot of it with the lens "on" and unit assembled.

I would rather be porting/assembling my rotary but I lack a compressor at this time and this needs to be done. This simple project has become into a regular project lol.

Next up: 1. Seal the back side

1. Mount to the vehicle

2. Integrate into vehicle wiring

3. Adjust aiming

So at GLDRX I exploded my exhaust gasket from the high heat (very early on) and I am not allowed to run DET rallyX events until I quiet it down. So I added a resonator, also while doing so I had got redone the majority of the exhaust!

step 1. start over (kind of a common theme recently)

step 2. Add runner length.

step 3. Add resonator

step 4. add tape?

step 5. stop and compare (while still tacked)

step 6. re-install, inspect for leaks (NONE!)

Oh and I also snagged this and plumbed the garage the other weekend :)

3 cyl, 60 gal, 2 stage, 18cfm @ 90psi, belt drive.

Now there is an autoX on Sunday that I will be taking this too to verify if the sound got better or worse or if I can break the engine, if I can't then I have a potential 2 day rallycross on the other side of the state next weekend with a non SCCA affiliated group.

Spill beans. How quiet/not quiet is it?

My Power Pulse kind of fell off at Nationals and I need to re do the exhaust. I can bolt on a new one for $350 or so, but then I'd want to put a new mid pipe on and those are freaking expensive. Or I could make a new mid pipe out of a bunch of mini Magnaflows and cap it off with one of those rotary mufflers.

It is quieter with the addition of the spiral flow however, inside the car you can't tell. With the runners longer you hear each rotor pulse more distinct, which is neat. The moroso spiral flow was a nice touch. I still think I will want to wear ear plugs when breaking in the new engine. The muffler alone is just too loud. Also when I extended the runners I used 14 gauge steel, I figured the thicker the better for sound retention.

oh did I mention I made some progress? I made some progress, need to finish the rear iron and 100% of the housings still.

The autoX was merely to test the exhaust, and I also discovered my new seating position is painful on the knee for a half hour drive so I absolutely need a new steering wheel to bring closer to me to free up knee room. I drove with blown front shocks, and no sway bars on bald tires. Highlarity ensued:

at the finish was a 90 left turn and my car would tripod the inner rear wheel. I would mat the gas, the RPM goes up but no forward motion and for a few seconds and no smell of clutch.

spun twice the 1st run, then the 2nd run I spun about 5 feet from where I spun the 2nd time. Naturally I just pinned the gas down and let her rip. the course was small so I just wound out 1st to 9k or so, again. Observe: