Looking forward to this. Don't forget to re-update your first post.

Do you not need the under tray anymore? Sorry if I missed that mentioned elsewhere. Also, post some pics of the sides and the back!

Undertray isn't big enough to attach to this bumper. I'm not going to have one made until the 20b is in the car.

Team, Here's the coutout fenders
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...2ce690b1ff.jpg

Lol... you really need to seal those wells man. Keep me posted about the gauge pod.

Yeah, I liked how these guys did it, go to 11:40 to skip all the hokum



Wish I could get those in flex bumper material instead. FRP and autox cones aren’t going to jive very well. :uhh:
.

Lance,
You're not wrong... hahaha once the motor's ready, I'll start doing more body work again. Want to pull all the subframes, powedercoat everything, and replace every rusted bolt under the car. Lots of little things to do for sure.I'll probably look for a nav hood in about a week after I get paid again. Were you running the 51mm prosport gauges?

Team,
Yea, that's normally how you would do it. That's how I told them to do mine, but they welded in new sheet... The place was a joke. They messed up quite a few things, and they advertise themselves as a "customs shop". They wont get any more of my business. My new guy seems to know what he's doing. These would probably crack after a couple good hits. Maybe metal fenders like I'm going to do? I may even have my carbon guy mold the fronts off the metal ones once they're done. That would be dry carbon though.

Will probably just do the 4” wide rubber jdm hoops for weight purposes. Won’t look so stylish, but will do the job for a comp car

This is true... probably the best bet for what you do.

Engine is out. 20b is supposed to be delivered at the end of the month. Going to be cleaning up the engine bay while I wait.

Wire tuck is done except for some clean up after the motor is in and a few new wires run to the ECU. I'll start shaving the engine bay and stripping out seam filler this weekend. Will paint the bay in 3 weeks.

Also some new plans. Since DGRR is canceled for the year, I'm going to go ahead and get the 370z trans installed. Also going to have a custom aluminum front subframe made to offset some of the 20b weight. Since the motor isn't resting on the subframe any longer, there should be a lot less stress on it.


https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...9d99773349.jpg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...70cc271eaf.jpg

Not sure I’d agree with that. I don’t see much weight savings without sacrificing flexure. A fabricated aluminum structure like that will also need some serious heat treatment to be both strong and stiff enough.

You may be right. I'll talk to my fabricator about it all once we get to that point, and we'll make an educated decision then.

I only mention it from less than positive experience. I get the weight freak deal, lol. It will have to be thick to have enough rigidity, but you won’t have the option to make it out of stampings or forgings either. All that welding heat will result in the material being annealed and weak. The only way to address that is with an appropriate heat treating process.

Question on an engine ECU Swap
 

Ok so i am doing a swap in my rx8. I am putting an 13b s4 NA into my rx8. i was told i could use the rx8 front engine cover onto the rx7 engine so that way i could use the rx8 engine harness and ecu but i am not able to because it doesn't work so i have to use the rx7 front engine cover so that means i have to use the rx7 engine harness.

well my question is with the rx8 having the electronic steering i have to buy another ecu. I know of the ADAPTRONIC S1 MAZDA RX8 PLUG N PLAY ECU that is $1,439. But i am limited on funds. Is there any other ECU's i would be able to use on the swap without paying that much for an ecu?

Thank You.

I dont think that Team's comments in the tuning thread was recommending picking a random thread here to ask in. You can indeed use a renesis front cover, and wiring harness on any 13b. It requires modification to both the font cover, using a certain version of the 12a counterweight. Carlos Lopez in Miami is the one to talk to about that. You can also use an FD (REW) front cover to use a hall / cas sensor.

I kind of think you're greatly underestimating the cost of an engine swap. It is usually close to $15k to swap any other rotary into an RX8 ($30k plus for a 20b). @Tuned By Shawn replied to your comments in the Adaptornic thread you posted in. I would highly recommend the Adaptronic if you want your car to work correctly, and take advantage of someone like Shawn's expertise. You seem to be a little inexperienced with what kind of huge project an engine swap is.

sorry Red, lol

HAHAHA I don't care... I just thought it was a really weird comment on my thread until I saw his other post.

Just to give an update, engine bay, and dash have been stripped. Next is a complete chassis rewire including relocating all the fuses and ECU into the cabin. After this the car will have all holes in the engine bay welded up and ground down smooth for paint. I'll post pictures once there's something to actually post.

Slow roll project is slow... hahaha

Just read through the thread . Glad to hear you are going back to an N/A engine . I think one of the major reasons to even do a 20b is the awesome sound track the engine provides . To slap a turbo on it takes too much of that awesomeness away imo.
Interested to hear more on what is required (engine internals wise) to rev it out to 10000 ?

I agree with this. I actually looked hard at buying the 20b FD that was on rx7club for 6 months. Had multiple discussions with the owner. I just couldn't get over the horsepower limitations of the A series and pre-A series blocks. With the fat iron going for 5k, I just couldn't stomach blowing the engine and having to source another. The beauty of a 13b is you can source any part of it for a few hundred and get up and running. Saying all that, keeping it NA is the smart choice from a financial and longevity standpoint.

My understanding is those limitations are easily resolved by the use of dowells or studs ...which you would do on any high hp block anyway ?

Yeah answers were all over the board on trying to modify an early block (A, pre-A) for high horsepower.

The consensus answer was "if you are going to build a high horsepower 20b, you may aswell use a later C and D series block that came with a stronger crank and irons"

The thought of paying 30k for a car and immediately having to send the block off for modifications and a rebuild (5-10k) to safely push more than 500-550 wheel horsepower only to have an iron failure because they are known to be extremely weak was just too much of an investment. If I come across another 20b I would make sure it had a later series block for piece of mind.

NA is only going to be a temporary thing. It will be supercharged. Should be around 350WHP if i had to guess in NA form.

I have a B block, and a full 17 piece full length titanium stud kit, and a solid dowel. Due to the fact that my eshaft is so out of straight, the motor will have a redline of about 8500RPM.

If you're wanting 10k RPMs though, you're talking about a perfectly straight eshaft, or one of the billet 3 piece shafts. You'll also need to lighten and clearance the rotors, and obviously balance everything to minimize as much shaft flex as possible. I'll build the NA 20b all billet aluminum for my MR2 hill climb car. have to get the 8 done first.

In case anyone is still interested... https://www.rx7club.com/images/smilies/lol.gif
Just got the rotating assembly back from the machine shop. Hopefully the motor will be stacked soon.

Welcome back!! :p: