Congrats on your FB build. It must be a severely neck whipping experience when you roll on the gas in first gear, or second, or even third.

 

It is ...cannot be described with words. Soon you will know exactly what I mean. First gear is too low I dont even use it anymore (too much wheelspin). Its automatic but with all the torque it dosnt matter much IMHO. Im now looking into making it quieter,dont want it too be so obvious it has a V8 under the hood. Im currently using a flowmaster muffler and it seems to resonate at highway speeds. Its one of those fancy internal baffled designs and sounds great until you take a road trip. Im now looking into a cheap midas muffler thats quiet. Not concerned if I loose a few HP I cant use it all anyways. Im hoping to make it whisper quiet like a stock LT-1 caprice. Otherwise everyone wants to race me at every stoplight and Im just not interested in that. Please keep us posted on your build-up,Shawn

 

Check out what just showed up in a UPS box:

 

Sweet! You must be excited now! Roller rockers too....very nice. Will the stock valve covers fit still? Knowing you something special is in order.

 

shiny fo sho

 

man, those arent cheap heads. . . must be exciting. . .

 

Might as well go for the best, right?

 

Oh no you didnt...

Going for one of those 400 hp stock cam type builds or something else?

 

interesting build, how many engines have been in this car now? something like 47?

good luck!

 

The stock rotary was #1, then the first rebuild with parts from two other rotaries was #2, then that was rebuilt and reported several times until a rear iron cracked at the dowel pin hole, so I swapped in a rear iron from yet another rotary which makes #3, and now the V8 is #4. As far as how many times that engine bay has been empty over the past three years, I'd say about 8-9 occasions by now. Hopefully this motor won't come out again for a few years.

The purpose of this build is to have fun and stay smog legal, or in a state of illegality that could be so easily reverted back to CARB compliance that passing smog every two years in the illegal immigration state wouldn't be much of an inconvenience. I'm pretty sure my cam grind will technically be illegal and the exhaust sound will give it away even if I can tune it to pass.

It would be fun to hit 400hp but there isn't much reason for it in a car that will weigh 2600 pounds with a 4.11 rear axle ratio with street tires. I'm a little concerned that the fear of death could be overcome by the thrill of speed if the car is too fast.

 

Your right to be concerned. Its easy to loose track of your speed with a lot of power and a great handling car. It just dosnt feel like your going as fast as you are sometimes. And when you stomp on it to pass someone and go faster than expected. My 7 is a Fb and the entire car shakes ever so slightly at idle. It just begs to be driven hard. Its up to you to exercise self control and to use good judgement to stay safe. I added bracing in a lot of places and built mine to last...but still its a heavier engine in a very small car. I hate to think of what would actually happen in a high speed crash. The car is almost scary fast. If I get wider tires I would not hesitate to race a corvette or almost anything else on the track of course. Your a smart guy just dont let the other guys talk you into racing on the street and youll be fine.

 

Here is some mild progress:





The machine shop grinding my cam and balancing the rotating assembly is a little busy and won't have them done for this weekend, but I guess that gives me more time to sort out the stock Mustang wiring setup that I have, and get all the little missing gaskets, dowel pins, clutch release bearing, etc. for the final assembly and drop-in.

In hindsight, an LS1 would have been a better choice because this motor is going to cost about the same as a used LS1 for the same power. Only difference between the two is less torque from the 5.0 (not a bad thing in a 2600lb chassis with 4.1 rear end ratio) and a getting a fully rebuilt motor with cheaper aftermarket and oem parts. I'm pretty sure 350-400 peak horsepower will be more than enough to get me in trouble anyhow.

 

Looks nice! Dont stop and figure out the costs involved,you'll just become annoyed with yourself. Think of it this way...youv built a car with a power to weight ratio of a Viper for a lot less. Once you drop the engine in place youll see the end is near and spend every spare minute on it until it runs. At least thats the point where I really got motivated with mine. looks great though basically your going to have a new car!

 

Well thanks for the encouragement. Hopefully I won't be a slave to this POS now that the rotary and all its troubles won't be a part of it anymore.

 

Well said my friend!

 

So my local auto machinist finished balancing my rotating assembly and grinding my cam. I guess my budget class 500hp capable rods were heavier than stock, lol, and it was necessary to weld up the stock balance holes in the crank throws, as well as drill some new holes opposite the counterweight in my flywheel.

The cam turned out much hotter than I expected. Per the cam card provided with the grind work, the resulting numbers with my 1.7 rockers are .535in. total lift, 236 degrees duration on intake & exhaust, and 110 degree lobe centers for a resulting overlap of 16 degrees. Just looking at the width of the tops of the cam lobes reminds me of the cam in one of the local redneck mud drag broncos, which lopes like a motherf#@er at idle. Oh well, it should sound nice, but it's definately california illegal, so will have to be changed if I move there later. Not what I originally had in mind but it should be a lot of fun, temporarily.

Here are the build pics:















So yeah, so far it's a 306 c.i. 89 crown vic block, generic but cnc profiled rods, KB silvolite pistons, afr 185cc smog legal heads, crane cams 1.7 roller rockers, and some backwoods redneck cam grind that is probably somewhat streetable but will probably lope conspicuously at idle. Plans for the intake are a ported TFS track heat with 70+mm TB, no air flow meter and a dyno tuned megasquirt running the injectors and ignition, and of course my ram air intake from my rotary past.

 

OMG you must like pain running that megasquirt! Engine looks great though...your patience is paying off.

 

Megasquirt, pain? Its more like a relief for me

 

Wicked looking setup. I can't wait to see the end result of the swap.

I thought you were going with the stock ECM setup. Are you planning to merely disguise the standalone setup with the stock emissions hardware and keep it invisible with black tape and flex loom?

 

Yeah I originally planned to run the megasquirt through the stock harness, but now I decided to have both the stock ECU and the megasquirt in the car for redundancy. My megasquirt never let me down before and ran the rotary much smoother than the 1987 era computer that came with the FC chassis, but you never know. I'd feel better knowing that I can switch over to the stock ecu if I fry the megasquirt while playing around with it during tuning.

How do I plan to do this? There is a giant set of plug disconnects which link the engine harness with the lower manifold harness, which has all the injectors and temp sensors in it. The megasquirt only needs injectors and an air temp sensor (it has a built in MAP sensor) so I'll make a Megasquirt -> lower intake manifold harness and just hide it when it comes smog time. Even though the megasquirt will provide a cleaner exhaust and better gas mileage, Kalifornia isn't concerned about the end result of smog devices, just the fact that their bureau of air quality certified such and such a system to pass the smog laws of its time, which, in the case of the Mustang ECU I'll use, would be the smog rules of 17 years ago.

 

Getting cars 100% smog legal is tough these days. According to the clean air act for a car to pass emmisions it must have the original exhaust system with converters. Now heres where it gets stoopid. According to the clean air act a RX-7 with a domestic V8 still has to have the original RX-7 exhaust system to bee legal. My LT-1 conversion even though Im running a converter would not pass. Now I know several shops and am able to get it inspected,but if someone wanted to be a A%% they could fail it saying it wasnt compliant. I even have a OBD connecter on the dash and a check engine light wired in. But if I moved to California it could be difficult getting past a smog test. California is one of the most controlling states,one of many reasons I'll never live there. They regulate and control everything thinking they know whats best for you better than you do.

 

I better explain this a bit further. Most RX-7's come with 2 or more converters. They are looking to make sure it still has the correct number of converters,it dosnt have to be a OEM exhaust.

 

Im moving to Florida - no emissions laws, it just has the gulf, the straight, and the ocean to help clean the air.

Can you put bullets behind headers and run not-quite-so-loud open headers that way? Heh... I dont want to break anyones eardrums, but after having my first open header experience theres no going back if I can get away with it.

And, yeah.... GG with making you use a MAF and 20 year old fuel metering strategy instead of a superior (if you tune it right) standalone with a map and provisions for spark control.

But, well, if you get an EEC-Tuner you could probably lean it out based on calculated load... but its still wont have the throttle responce of a good SD. Does the EEC let you tune in a "TPS DOT" so it doesnt stumble if you stomp it?

 

Megasquirt has TPS dot, Map dot, rpm dot for timing retard when breaking traction, and some other good stuff. It's the real deal, just not for the electronically frustratable.

 

I know MS has that... lol.

I was asking if the EEC computer had any of that so you could make up for the lag of the MAF upon quickly opening the throttle at high vacuum out of curiousity.

But anyway, when UMS comes out there wont be any question anymore... DIY EFI ftw.