ok before i get started here i know im probably goin to catch hell for this, so i guess fire away . but with my motor on its deathbed and no waranty i dont have to many options. I happen to have an ls1 that i can obtain easy. so #1 has this been done yet #2 yaa think it will fit. i love the whole rotory thing and all beleive me but when it come down to it a turbo v8 that wuld be rather cheap for me to build would be fun. ok so fire away

Turbo V8? What's that tomato juice with tabasco in it?

Been talked about to death. No one has done it yet since the car is so new though many wouldnt mind way down the line. As the saying goes.. "They shoehorned the engine is.." I'm sure the same will be said with the 8. If you decide to actually go down this route (many have talked but none have) we'd love to know of your progress and troubles along with tons of photo's of course btw.

yes it will fit. With twin snails hanging off it's sides it may not, you will probably have to get creative with turbo placement.

And yes, it will cost three times are much as buying a used Renesis.

^As with any swap ;)

pretty much

why would u destroy the 8's awesome handling by putting in a turboed v8?
thats what I think the supras and rx-7s are for

^and RX-7's don't have awesome handling??

lol yeah but the 8's suspension is better IMO

8 handling is better than 7 handling :) not alot, but still better

:icon_no2: way more than a little!

the problem with V-8 swaps in FD's is you have to mess up the FD's perfect steering over anything else.

But handling isn't automatically thrown out the window

Either way if people want a v8 go buy a camaro or mustang, the whole point in these crs is to be different than all the others, Rotary. Much more fun when a Mustang or Camaro guy asks after you beat him...
"What do you have in there..." and you say "a 1.3 ltr" Just get an FD motor, probably be cheaper in the end than a v8

i must agree that this car is in a class all its own ( and just for the record i hate american made cars) if i wasnt in the situation that im in with my engine about to take a dump on me beleive me i wouldent have even put two seconds of thought into this. but considering i work at a bodyshop and i love doin crazy things to cars it was just an idea. im hoping that i can resolve the runnig problem im having and just turbo my rotary and be happy. but my #1 rule is always have a backup plan.

Your main problem will most likely be electrical, not body shop issues. But if you can shoehorn it in there, then that's half the battle

weight of both engines full dress should be close, very close actually. Anything can be accomplished with enough time and money, I say go for it, it might make a bad ass car.

well it looks like certain death for the wankel. Their isnt a whole lot that i can or want to do to replace or rebuild this thing stock, the price is just retarded. So to manys dismay im ganna try this whole v8 thing. its gonna be fun but it seems i have a good bit of support with making this work. so if your gonna hate me (oops) but if ya wanna check out things as they go i will keep things posted either on this thread or start anew, either way its time to have some fun.

One solution is replace the 13B-REN with a 13B-REW. This has been done by a few.

The REW is well known, and doesn't always destroy itself when eating a seal.

Failing an easy LSx install, and if you refuse to do a used REN (which really is not a bad idea, call around about prices), the REW is the only good option I see.

20b 20b 20b 20b 20b 20b

Hit up the v8. Someone needs to do it first and ive been dying to see it as is plenty of others. Yeah the block will fit, but as said earlier hairdriers maybe not. Id say stick to a fully done up na block but a blower might be an idea for later. Dont let the haters tell you no. The handling may not be as good but I really dont think it will be affected too much. It will still be much better then any mustang or camaro so telling someone to go get one of those cars is a dumb argument. If you really want to do it, go for it! It would be awsome!

Amen

As the old man on the forum and the most experianced at engine swaps I'll have to tell you that it requires lots of experiance and major facilitys.
The further you go from race car to everyday street machine the harder it gets.
The blown big block into the Avanti was easy, it pnly had to go fast.
The 928 was major because all the luxury accs had to work. I'm fussy and wanted all the stock AC, PS, Alt, Ign and more to work.
It did make a nice car out of it. I drove it 9000 with a Porche engine from new and 40000 more with the Chevy.

For my next trick I will put a Merlin into a Mini Cooper

One solution is replace the 13B-REN with a 13B-REW. This has been done by a few.

The REW is well known, and doesn't always destroy itself when eating a seal.

Failing an easy LSx install, and if you refuse to do a used REN (which really is not a bad idea, call around about prices), the REW is the only good option I see.

What the hell is a 13B-REN? The Renesis engine code is 13B-MSP

A few have done REW swaps from 3rd gen RX-7's, but it still isn't for the faint of heart, and has some big electrical issues. You can kiss your DSC, ABS, and other convinces away.

experience????? mmmmmmmmmmmm ok

Do it. You know you want to. Stick a turbo LS1 in that bad boy and go to the track to crush some unsuspecting 13 second ass hat. I would pay to see that.

Oh, here's your twin hairdryer kit
http://www.airpowersystems.com/ls1/ls2/gto_3_4_rear.jpg

Hot

Would the instrument cluster work, since from what I can tell it gets all of the info from the ECU?

well time for the bad news... today i took my car to the shop and we started to measure things up, this is where the biggest problem lies. problem #1 If you like our wonderful powers steering system and want a v8 your screwed, because of the location of the rack and its dimensions its makes it almost imposible to fit the engine without cutiing an ls1 sized hole in your hood. #2 with the way the unibody structure is constructed (mainly the frame rails surrounding th rear of the enigine) you would have to do a lot of cutting to fit the enormous bellhousing of the tranny. And take it from me i do heavy collision work everyday and an rx8 is not a car that you want to go hacking up the structure that keeps this car from floding like a taco. as trivial as it may sound these are the two biggest initial problems with this swap. now if you want to go absolutley crazy and make a bad ass drag car cut away start fabricating and have fun, im gonna go back to the main road for now and find a way to make the wankel run right.