why would they do that to those poor engines!?!

The peaple that do this sort of thing are so wastefull.

I have access to a rx7 with the rotory, I was thinking about putting it in my 71. But i dont know anything about em.

Bill, don't do that. Keep your Datsun all Datsun. I considered putting a 13B in my 64 L320 because of the small size of the engine compartment but went with a less powerful J16 because it is a Datsun engine and it basically bolted in. I've never regretted that decision.

Im in the middle of rebuilding a L26 with round tops. Im going to stay Datsun with my Datsun. Ive got a 82 or 83 model zx 5 speed for it to.

i luv rotarys have 2 of them in std trim there fun with porting and a weber they are awsome but would never put one in a zed man the engine bay would look huge

Mick

It would also be too light on the front end!

Adding weight where you want it to be is fairly easy.

We have one member here in the Bay Area of California (Alex F) who is completing just such a tranplant.

That just defeats the purpose.

Lets face the facts, Rotery engines where not designed for s-30 cars. If Nissan wanted to fit a rotery then they would have designed the car around it.

The RX7 is much lighter than a standard zed.

Originally posted by Zedrally

That just defeats the purpose.

Lets face the facts, Rotery engines where not designed for s-30 cars. If Nissan wanted to fit a rotery then they would have designed the car around it.

The RX7 is much lighter than a standard zed.

Same thing could be (and is) said about V8 swaps, but they are done successfully all the time, so that isn't a valid reason to not swap engines. Properly built, a Turbo Rotary (what Alex is installing) will do just fine in an S30, IMO. How much does an RX7 weigh? Less than 2300 lbs?

Weight doesn't have to be added, I just mentioned it since you seemed concerned that the car would be too light. As for stability, an Air Dam can be (and often is) used to help "plant" the front end on OEM 240's.

Originally posted by Bambikiller240

Same thing could be (and is) said about V8 swaps, but they are done successfully all the time, so that isn't a valid reason to not swap engines. Properly built, a Turbo Rotary (what Alex is installing) will do just fine in an S30, IMO. How much does an RX7 weigh? Less than 2300 lbs?

Weight doesn't have to be added, I just mentioned it since you seemed concerned that the car would be too light. As for stability, an Air Dam can be (and often is) used to help "plant" the front end on OEM 240's.

the problem isnt front end stability , its the weight balance of the car, a tiny rotory sitting far back in the engine bay of an s30 is alot different to an L sitting in there. adding weight is defeating the purpose becouse by the time you get the balance right you can put a different engine in there (eg RB series) that balances better and reliably puts out more power.

its a fun project but by no means ideal

The RX7 weighs just over a tonne. That's not much lighter than a Z if at all......

Originally posted by Brett240

its a fun project but by no means ideal

Few things in life are ideal and no one ever said that this swap or any other was "ideal". Most if not all engine swaps involve compromises of one form or another

PS it isn't so hard that it isn't feasible to put the car on a scale and calulate how much weight is needed and where to put it in order to balance the weight distribution.

and as for purpose, well we never even got into what was the pupose of this swap, someone seems to have "supposed" that they knew what the pupose of the swap project was, without it even being mentioned.