RWD Legacy Idea

[Falken-18c]

So i was thinking about puting an mazda 13b rotary motor and or a redtop sr20det any idea if it will work idk if ill do it just mainly wanting opinion about the idea i have seen some rwd legacy. any ways thanks im expecting bad coments lol beacuse of even thinking of a nissan are mazda motor in a subaru lol...

[evolutionmovement]

The Nissan engine isn't bad, but I don't know how well it would fit in the area designed for a shorter lower engine. You'll also lose some of the benefit of a low cg. Having known too many Nissans, I'm not a big fan, but the SR20DET seems to be a rugged engine. RWD, though, it will probably have traction problems. You're talking a lot of wiring and an unknown amount of fabrication. Somebody has probably done it.

Why would you want to put a rotary in . . . anything? Especially a fairly heavy car like a Subaru? I have no idea why Mazda keeps trying to make that unreliable, heavy (fully dressed, it outweighs an EJ22T by about 100 lbs. I've read the LS1 RX7 conversions weigh the same as they did with the 13b), torqueless, gas guzzling, oil sucking, warrantee liability, emissions problem in the first the place. The only slightly reasonable thing I ever hear in its defense is that it's smooth. So's a steam engine and a gas turbine. It was a good idea on paper, but in reality it's not even shaped well enough to be a good boat anchor. I'm not usually troll-like in my responses (or at least not often), but I hate rotaries. The damn things even put NSU out of business and made its otherwise impressive Ro80 go down in history as a failure. That said, somebody's probably done this, too. I could maybe see the appeal of one in a sub-1500 lbs. track car where the lack of torque, longevity, and mileage would be irrelevant, or at least I can see the appeal to someone else. I'm building a sub 1500 lbs. car and I'm putting in an EJ22 (though I'd prefer an F20C, but that's a shit load more money).

Hell, if you could manage to put in an SR20 or 13B, why not an LS-series engine? There definitely won't be much traction with that, though.

[MikeyMeyagi]

i had a 88 rx7. it was slow, and torqueless. it had a TURBO, and some mods too..... rotarys=fail

[Grayguy]

I've actually thought about the SR swap, or a 1jz swap, but I wouldn't bother unless I was doing it to an RS coupe. It would be an insane amount of work, but it'd be a fun project

[beatersubi]

SBCs have been swapped in, so a L4 would likely fit, although it would probably be a tight fit, height-wise.

[evolutionmovement]

That's the thing with the SR—the height. You might need some kind of hood bulge to clear it unless you dry sumped it to keep it low enough in the front, but I'm just guessing.

Idiots like to talk trash about the LSx because of its supposedly ancient pushrod tech (even though ohc dates to at least 1910. Cam-driven valves themselves are old tech. The entire ICE is old tech, but it works better than anything else for more applications and that's why it persists), but the ohv design keeps those big engines light, low, and narrow. Certainly doesn't hurt for power, either, and they handily beat any Euro exotic engine for mpg/power production. Pedestrian they might be, but they're some of the best engines in the world when you take the snob factor away. And I'm not at all a nationalist (I consider myself either a New Englander or Roman if anything), "bigger is better" kind of guy, or horsepower nut.

[Apex3]

Keep in mind this will be a LOT of work and cost a good amount of money. I've been helping my friend put an LS1 in his FC RX-7, and it's been a couple months, and he's got over $10k into the swap alone, and this is a swap that's been done before. You're going to be basically starting from scratch here.

[Grayguy]

yeah, but half his price is probably that LS1. You pay a few G's for an LS1 where as you pay $500-1000 for an LQ4. Not yeah, anything like this would take a ton of work, money, and fabrication skills

[93forestpearl]

After you bought all the crap you needed to make it work, you will be in to it several thousand over what you paid for the engine. There really is no point to it. Buy a different car if you want to run that engine with RWD in a Subaru.

Plus, the SR20DET you buy could be full of sludge and need a full rebuild. It happened to a close friend of mine.


In your case, take whatever you think it will cost and triple it. That will get you in the ballpark.

[Apex3]

yeah, but half his price is probably that LS1. You pay a few G's for an LS1 where as you pay $500-1000 for an LQ4. Not yeah, anything like this would take a ton of work, money, and fabrication skills

$3500 for the engine and tranny. Granted it can be done cheaper, he bought the engine mounts and the radiator mounts instead of fabbing them, and I'm pretty sure that cost a good chunk of change.

And I'm not trying to be the annoying "this is a stupid idea" guy, just trying to warn you(OP) that it will likely cost a lot more and be a lot more work than you might think, If you know all of that then more power to ya

[tturnpaw]

You could build a fast Subaru for that kind of money. Rotaries are heavy as stated and not very reliable. V8s are heavy and will upset the handling of the car no doubt. The only other engine I've considered for my drift supra is a 1uzfe. All aluminum 6 bolt mains and an imported engine is only $350 through engine world.

I think it would be cheaper to get a 6spd and convert to rwd