Hey im new this forum and was just wondering if anyone elese had thought about doing something like this. i was planing on getting a cobra kitcar and droping in a turbo charged mazda RX8 engine and transmission. the car would be a light weight fun driver (no trailer queen). and just so you guys dont get the wrong impression i already own a 1999 s-10 xtreme with a bored and stroked 500hp small block chevy. i also own a suzuki samurai with a vw turbo diesel, so im all about doing something different. i like my vehicles to stand out in a crowd of similar cars. so if you could just give me some opinions on this project it would be much appreciated.
wow that would be sick but, 1. they aren't cheap, and 2. that engine can't be very streetable and i want to drive the car. i could get a rotary engine for alot less than $100,000+.
Cobra Make, Engine: Don't think I'll be getting a Cobra for a long time... Do have '94 RX-7 R2.
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I don't think a Cobra would sound right with a rotary engine.
I've been thinking that the first rotary died in my RX-7 at 70k miles and I'm at 130k miles now. If this motor might not last too much longer, perhaps dropping a V8 in my RX-7 would be interesting...
one of my friends has a rx-7 with a ls7 and its a pretty bad car but i like the idea of a rotary engine. in fact chevy even made one for the corvette but the car never went into production.
I raced a rotary engined car for several years. One thing you need to consider. The rotary engine is not a torque producer. They make a lot of horsepower, for their size, all at higher RPM's. Reliability is much better than it used to be, however. I was racing GT1 with a 3-rotor turbo charged engine that made 500+ at the rear wheels at the higher RPM's. I had nothing (torque wise below 4000 RPM's)
Leo
Cobra Make, Engine: West Coast Cobra w/ Centrifugally Blown Big Block, Pickles, Onions, on a Sesame Seed Bun.
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Depends...
The cost isn't $100,000.00 for an Allison 250, it's more like $25-30K unless inflation has tripled the price since a friend put one in his jet boat. If you're looking to spend $5K or less, then yes...forget it.
As far as "streetable" that depends on your taste and definition. A lot of people don't think the power train in my Cobra is streetable and stare at me like I'm out of my mind, yet I don't have a problem with it.
I'd like to build an Allison 250 powered Pantera. Someday if time and space allows, I just may. I think it would be just way too cool to pull up with a screaming turbine under the hood.
where do you find an allison 250. i looked on ebay and only found 2 one was 130,000 and the other was 300,000. and people dont think my s-10 is very streetable right now let alone once i bump up the power with a pair of turbos, but then again i dont drive it much on the street. by streetable i mean able to drive it daily on the street with no major problems.
Cobra Make, Engine: West Coast Cobra w/ Centrifugally Blown Big Block, Pickles, Onions, on a Sesame Seed Bun.
Posts: 493
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Google
Try a google search for "allison 250 for sale", or "T63-A-700 for sale" and you'll find a long list of resources.
The best deals on these engines are the military surplus outlets where they sell pull outs on pallets. When they come available, they usually have a detailed service history and are removed well before they reach end of life. In a car, you are safe to continue using a turbine with little consequence right up to the end of life. In an aircraft application, they swap them early. If you look around on the turbine jet boat build sites, you'll find the jet boat guys put tens of thousands of hours on these turbines and continue to operate them well beyond the end of the recommended service interval. They run pretty much forever as long as they aren't over rev'd or suck up debris.
The biggest issue I see in running a turbine car would be noise, fuel consumption, and exhaust heat...in that order. You'll spend considerable amounts of time addressing all three issues, but the end result would be pretty cool; definitely a conversation piece. Practical, not at all!
Cobra Make, Engine: 1989 KCC from South Africa Right Hand Drive
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I have a 1993 RX 7 FD 400 HP Twin Turbo, with most Mods. I have 13000 on new streetported motor and the car has decent enough torque to pull from 1500 RPM in 4th gear and then all the way to 9000 RPM.it has been a blast to drive,alternating with my Cobra.
I don't know about in Cobra??.....the V8's today are very light and very powerfull including having plenty of torque and then it will sound like a Cobra should!
The 3 Rotor 20B is readily available. The drag race guys put big turbos on them and do some incredible times. Several Aussie built ones from the likes of Dyson and PAC performance are running 7 second quaters.
I often thought one in a Cobra would be pretty cool but it's just a shame about the noise. You kind of expect that V8 rumble rather than the rotary howl.
Years ago I had a series 1 RX7 with a 13B stuffed in it. Great fun car.
You will probably get a lot of anti comments with this combination but who cares, build it how you want. We stuff all kinds of motors into them down here.
Cheers
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Mike Murphy
Melbourne Australia
i've been looking around and mazda did make a 26b quad rotor that was actually just 2 13b's mashed together. they are hard to find but they are out there. and they also made another 3 rotor engine just not sure what it was called.
Mazda had 3 basic rotor designs, The 10A, 12A and 13B. They are all 2 rotor designs and the main difference is the width of the rotor housings. All the early motors used side intake ports but the race rotors used peripheral ports where the intake is straight thru the side of the rotor housing.
The 20B 3xRotor is just 3 of the 13B rotor housings stacked together. In theory you could make one 4, 5 or 6 rotors long if you could machine up an excentric shaft long enough (What a rotory has for a crank shaft). The problem with the longer rotor combinations is getting the heat out of the center of the motor. They do this by pumping large ammounts of oil throught the excentric and using big oil coolers.
Mazda won lemans a few times with a 4 rotor motor but I don't think it ever went into a production car. It was an awesome machine and pioneered variable length intake runners for max torque across the rev range.
They've got a 4 rotor supercar concept out at the moment. It'll be interesting to see if it hits the show rooms.
Cheers
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Mike Murphy
Melbourne Australia
rotary powered
I think it would be just way too cool to pull up with a screaming turbine under the hood.
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