LT1's are ridicously reliable, and I'm sure ls1's will prove so as well. Unfortunately they've only been around 6-7 years.. so I've never seen any over the 100k-120k mark. I have HEARD of an ls1 vette with 250k.. but never actually seen it in person. I however, have owned 2 lt1's.. one with 145k, and the other with 130k. So for comparisons sake I'll show the previous model v8. This site has many guys over 150k.. some over 200k.. and some still spraying nitrous or running modded motors at these levels.

http://web.camaross.com/forums/showt...s&pagenumber=5

http://www.motorsporttech.com/custom...whatley01.html

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You can also increase their displacement, and actually LOOSE weight in rotating assembly. This guy gets 21mpg out of a semi-mild 434. The s1 cam is not a huge cam for this motor.. but still somewhat agressive. It makes 525rwhp, and ran a 10.6. Daily driven 200 miles per week.

- They run excellent even on stock blocks, we have guys in the 10's with stock bottom ends and heads/cam/headers. Raughammer being one of them.

- They run excellent even with boltons.. we have a top 50 list of guys in ls1tech.com with 11 second bolton cars.

- They get excellent gas milage, mine gets 27-30mpg in 6th gear. Even the average heads/cam car gets mid 20's on the highway.

- They aren't "that" expensive to mod.. a good exhaust with heads/cam is very capable of 440rwhp-450rwhp on a stock motor.. This will more than likely last a while too

- Strokers come with 2 year, 24000 mile warranties.. and often will make 500-600rwhp if not more.. Warranty is voided with forced induction.. but a forced induction stroker could very likely make 1000hp.. and it wouldn't be *that* expensive. Imagine a 200 shot on top of his 525rwhp. Many nitrous kits are rated at the wheel, this would net 725rwhp.. and still get 21mpg. There are also more agressive cam/head setups which could easily boost the car much higher if all you care about is peak power, and not drivability. Colonel (owner of ls1tech) has a 434 now that revs to 9k (as if I care where it makes power at, but just to please the folks who like high redlines).. It will more than likely be an 8 second all motor car.

- They are relatively cheap. Although its $20,995 installed into an f-body for the 427 package.. Which includes, clutch, headers, airbox, gears, catback, underdrive pulleys, tuning, etc. It could be purchased in short block form uninstalled for ALOT cheaper. Or built with your own parts, installed by yourself, with somebody knowledgable doing machine work for even cheaper.

- Alot of 9 second all motor street cars are not completely stripped. They weigh in at 3400-3500lbs usually. "We are the home of the First LS1 based 9-Second Street Car which we equipped with our ARE 427 CID LS1 and ran 9.51 @ 142.97 MPH, straight motor weighting in at 3450 lbs." from Are's web page.. Imagine that motor in a 2800-3000lb car. Now imagine that it won't gain much weight from the swap... therefor making it still have handling.. A 143mph trap speed is not bad power, imagine over 150mph+ with some tweaking and a lighter car. This will cause for you to need a parachute at the track.. Now imagine nitrous Course this would not hook very well on the street, therefor making all that speed unnecessary unless its well prepped pavement with huge slicks. But still, the power is there.. still getting 20mpg+. There are cheaper methods of power with nitrous, supercharging, and turbocharging.. but nitrous would be the only one not to affect weight..

Just some rambling Its pretty cool to get a 2 year warranty on a 525rwhp motor.. That's not even setup that radically as far as cam goes and still makes 600hp at the motor.. The S1 cam w/ that many cubic inches isn't that big. And its hydraulic, not solid roller. Which would net much more gains if you decided to go with a bigger hydraulic, or solid roller cam.

If you wanted, an lt1 is pretty cheap.. and could be made light with the right parts.. and a regular sbc motor is dirt cheap (think around 2k for 450hp+). And thats on ebay.. freshly assembled with all good parts.

I'm sure rotary motors can be made fast too.. but how does it stack up in cost, reliability, and mileage? I'm not the most knowledgable person about an rx7, but I have read your forum for over a year now.. I definately appreciate the rx7, and eventually want to buy one. Me personally, I just want to raise the boost on a stock rx7, and put a blowoff valve on it with a full exhaust.. That will be in my future.. I do like the RX7.. but I don't think putting a v8 in one is necessarily a bad thing In some cases fun, different. They have their good points. Who's really different? The guy putting a rotary motor in his rx7 like everybody else.. Or the guy trying a new combo.. like a v8 in an rx7 I think their would be far fewer of the latter. Just thought I'd put some information on here about v8's which some people might not know! I just hate watching these experimenters being flamed Grats to those who have truly bettered the performance of their car.. No matter which way.


-Josh
99 308rwhp stock - 13.2 @ 105
84 300zx turbo (I have $800 in this car, it rules)
89 notch - built 302

Looking For:
3rd gen turbo rx7, black, low miles

 

I think you need to bump that 302 to a 347 and get the new HP Turbo kit for the Fox's.
Thier selling the entire kit for around $3700 complete and i mean pretty much everything.

Below is a cut/paste from one of the companies employes this info was taken from
Turbo Mustang.com

Includes
The turbo kit consists of 1 3/4'' primary tube headers, 14 guage mild steal. The flanges are laser cut 3/8''mild steel.The primary tubes merge into a 3'' collecter, from there a 3'' cross over tube y's into the other collecter on it's way to the turbo. The spent gases then go thru a 3.5'' down pipe which splits into dual 3'' after the transmisson cross member and then connects to any cat back that is in the factory posistion. Starting from the turbo discharge on the cold side, a 3'' tube connects the turbo to the top to bottom flow intercooler from there it goes thru another 3'' tube to a C&L mass air meter and then to the throttle body. All tubing is mandrel bent on a 5'' radius. All tubing is jet hot coated except for the tubing in the finder which is not seen. All connections on the exhaust side are made using v-band clamps.On the cold side we use 3ply silicon hose fastened with t-bolt clamps. The kit comes with a Holset/ Garret hybrid we make in house, a deltagate, bosch bypass valve, sn-95 electric fan, 255 intank pump, C&L 76mm mass air, and injectors of your choice up to 42lb.

 

this thread just won't die.

 

We are beating the dead horse

 

Isn't that about 400 (reliable) horses?

 

Easy awnswer, just see who is the fastest RX7. Is the fastest rotary RX faster than the fastest V8 one. As far as I know the fastest Rotary RX7 is faster than the fastest V8 RX7.

 

ok, how about this. The rotary is built stronger. You can rebuild the engine with stock internals, port it a bit, get a few bolt-ons and make 500 hp without having to cross your fingers that you crank, rod, pistons, trans, driveshaft and rear can handle it. oh. and you car is still the best handling car on the road that WILL run 11's.

 

Oh i can't beleive this. Why our 7's are unique cars?? What makes them exotic? The rotary engine, with all the disadvantages it may has. Now if you want a V8 why don't you buy a freaking vette and get over with it?

 

all i can say is i hope those poor unwanted 13b's & 12a's
find good homes.





brian
89 vert "turbo dreams"

 

This is a rediculous statement, what's the point of describing a bare engine block with a full engine with all components anyways?! A significant portion of the motor is beyond the steering rack. The only way to make the engine "almost" fit is to push it way back beyond the firewall which REALLY decreases safety (I've seen this first-hand). A large percentage of mass is also higher than the rotary which also affects handling. With regards to the statement about maintaining 50/50 weight distribution, how exactly was this measured?! I do not believe anyone has the means to measure this figure correctly.
Whoever says putting a huge massive V8 that'll stick out forward much further and sit higher than a rotary is clearly thinking biased. Get two identical RX-7's, one with a v8 and one with a rotary and have a pro driver drive both around an autocross circuit without noticing a drastic difference in handling, then I'll believe it. Until then, it simply doesn't make any sense at all in my head.

I plan to make 500rwhp with my engine and I plan to keep it for atleast 5 years; it's small, compact, reliable, and smooooooth as hell!

On a side note, having all that power on tap with no lag time would certainly be nice. In a racing environment you stay at a high enough rpm to be fully spooled anyways though, so it really only makes a small difference in that regard. I believe the biggest attraction to the v8 conversion (with the exception of Mr. Labreck ofcourse!) is bang for your buck in power and reliability.

ACK!!! Didn't realize this thread made a WHOLE YEAR jump in posts! ohh well, hopefully someone searching in the future can appreciate my bad *** post

 

a v8 only weights a much as a twin turbo rotary and then only if it is a kick *** aluminum block