umm... tech greek... no MR2 was ever air cooled, all were water cooled. anyway, you want more power in your mk1, just do a 3s-gte swap, it's about 2500 for a rear clip and you can do the work yourself, or there's a shop in PA i know of that would do it for you, let me know if you want the info

 

I vote for the 3S-GTE swap;

Wow that must of been the reason my MR2 kept overheating then! Oh well

 

!!! I just had a ******* idea when I saw this thread...

Search the lounge for Rotary Honda... There was a lime green Civic hatchback from New Zealand with a transverse 12A... When asked what gearbox he used, He said it was from a Toyota Corona...

Well, Honda, Subaru, and others make fairly easily interchangable engines and drivetrains... Why not Toyota.

Corona Gearbox with Transverse 12A (13B should be that much harder)... Spark plugs would be a BITCH to get at though. Pipe coolant to a front mounted radiator... Sounds sexy.

 

tech geek, what was the reason your car kept overheating? what year did you have/what engine?

 

1985 Toyota MR2 N/A...I don't remember the exact engine name because I only had it for maybe a month before it was taken away from me permantly [ :'( ]

The reason it kept overheating is the same thing as RX7's at idle, you're trying to suck a little amount of air through a small spot and at idle it just doesnt work...

- Tech

 

WOW.. For this being the Tech support sub-forum, there sure are alot of people here who have no clue what they are talking about.

First and foremost is that vg30dett, you have NO IDEA what you are talking about doing. First it would seem that you don't understand the basics of drivetrain components. 2500 is not nearly enough money to do the swap. You clearly have no fabrication skills so you would have to pay some one for ALL of the custom work. There WILL BE ALOT of custom work to get it done. I would estimate at least doubling your budget.

You will need:
-custom engine mounts/possible custom subframe/subframe modification
-a TRANSVERSE tranny that will work/trans adapter plate. If you understood the basics, you won't ask me WHY the RX-7 driveline wouldn't work.
-custom axleshafts if MR2 trans isn't used
-custom down pipe & exhaust
-custom IC piping an IC
-possible aftermarket springs for added weight.
-aftermarket ECU & tuning. might as well at this point.

A 3SGTE into a MKI MR2 will be just as expensive. You cheapest swap will be the USDM 4AGZE that came from another MKI MR2. If you don't want the TII, I'll take the car off of your hands.

I would assume that since you say that there is little aftermarket for your engine you have a 3ALU (carbed) powered car. If you have a 4AGE powered car, then you just have no clue, as there is plenty of aftermarket for this engine.

Tech_Greek, you have no technical knowledge, stop posting.

 

Wow, what a thread.

Ok, the MR2 has it's fuel tank where the RX7 has it's driveshaft. You can move the fuel tank, but it costs money. Space is in such short supply in an MR2 you'll probably be able to carry maybe 8 gallons of gas in the rear truck area and don't get rear ended! The MR2 has a trunk up front where the RX7 has an engine. You can cut out the trunk, reinforce the chassis, upgrade the suspension, upgrade the brakes, install miles of wiring, and on and on. More money! Probably the easiest thing to do for the rear end is build completely custom mounts for the RX7 differential and connect the diff to the hubs with custom axles. Cha-ching! In the end all you're going to end up with is an RX7 drivetrain under hacked up Toyota sheet metal. You'll be throwing away most all of Toyota's and Mazda's hard work to create a bastard car that likely won't handle as well as either the MR2 or the RX7. Have you ever compared the tire size between a Turbo II and the MR2? The car will probably never run and you'll end up destroying two cars.

If you want a fast MR2 go join an MR2 forum and they'll guide you down the path to a fast MR2. If you want a fast Turbo II RX7 then visit the 2nd Gen forum and knowledgable folks will help you.

 

Clearly it is not an option to install a rotary engine longitudinally in a mid engine or front engine configuration in the first gen MR2 without huge chassis modifications.

I really don't know the weight comparison between a rotary engine and the supercharged 4AGZE engine. Those two are about comparable in HP.

I can't imagine how you could fit a turbo because that is almost exactly where the drive shafts need to go on a transversly mounted rotary. It'll be hard enough getting a header that will clear the drive shaft.

A supercharged rotary? Maybe but that's just another level of complexity.

I already own each of these cars and I am facinated with the idea. To me the big difficulty is mounting the rotary to a FWD tranny. The MR2 turbo tranny looks pretty good, it has the starter motor in the correct side of the flywheel and it also has the shift linkage already relocated to the front of the tranny.

But unless I had an MR2 turbo tranny in front of me, I have no idea how difficult it would be to fabricate an adaptor plate. It seems the only people who have done a rotary on a FWD tranny are in New Zealand or Australia and they haven't really supplied much info.

Maybe start with a transverse rotary on a gocart as a test bed if I ever have the time.

(hell, I'd like to put a transverse rotary in the front of an original Mini Cooper but that's a whole nother story)

ed

 

Why does he have to use the stock transaxle? Can't he just rip out the trunk behind the engine bay and use a VW tranny? Rear Engine, Rear Drive. I think that might be a bit easier. But then again, I've never owned an MR2. Or a VW.

 

I haven't done the measurements but I am fairly sure that the distance from the center of the wheels to the MKI MR2 firewall is probably shorter than the distance from the axles to the tip of a 13b with a VW bug transaxle.

So you'd have to cut up the trunk and move the firewall. I consider that "major fabrication".

(and I wasn't talking about the stock transaxle - that was the transaxle from the MKII turbo)

ed

edit - oops, I thought you were talking about mid engine with the bug tranny. Rear engine with the bug tranny would probably fit but I wouldn't be happy with the weight distribution.

 

The only real reason, in my opinion, why someone would put a 13b rotary or 20b rotary in a MR2 is because they have a passion to raise the bar in engine swaps.

For example, some people dream to put a RB25/26 Skyline engines in an RX-7 yet the fabrication and money put in to it make them only dream.

Crazy engine swaps like a Rotary MR2 is pure **** for me. The Rotary engines are my second favorite engines, behind the RB26DETT, because they are light weight and powerful. however the maintenance, lifespan, and money put into those rotaries are expensive.

If I had the money, time, and determination to do this project, i would certainly do it just because im one of those people who like to raise the bar. Who knows, maybe i will do a RBX7 or a MRX7 one day, but for now, i can only dream...

BTW, i heard 20b rotaries are easier to swap than a 13b rotary.

Haha i just realized how old this thread was, ah well

 

Back from the dead.