Rotary Engine Swap

[N.Senada]

Has anyone put a rotary into an MX-3 before? I think it would do pretty well. There would probably be a lot of modifying involved. Tell me what you think.

[bmwm3guy]

not worth the money whatsoever... it'd be cool, but what a waste of money.

[firefly948]

It would be really tight to see! I don't know if it wouldn't be worth it...It'd definitely be faster then anything else on the street...so, if you have the money, go for it, but you're in for alot of work!

[bmwm3guy]

Meh.. get a KLZE, slap a turbo on it (and obviously a few other necessary mods) and you've got the same product for thousands less.

[lone_night_fox]

The Rotary in a MX-3 would be like having a FF RX-7, and if you have the cash go for it. it'll lighten up your car alot, mainly because the simplicity of the engine, but I recomend the Renissis Rotary, the older ones had major problems with seals and also when not equipted with a Turbo they lost Gas mileage...

[firefly948]

If you can get a hold of a 20b, you'd be pushing 550 hp. And it's alot lighter than the KLZE or the BP-T. I don't think anyone has ever had 550 hp in an MX-3...it'd be like driving a 800hp supra! Also, you'd probably get better handling, cause you could set the engine back a little more, thus achieving a weight ratio closer to 50/50.

[MXmadman]

i think someone has done it before(converted to RWD)....if you go to mx-3.com and search the message board im almost positive there is one. dont know if he's running a 20b but it's cool.

realistically, you'd be droping a good 10-15k easily. but the output would be well worth it i think

[lone_night_fox]

well the cool thing about rotary engines is that they can be stacked. if you can get a hold of two renissis rotary engines you could (extreme modifications involved) make a 20b out of it... older 20b's have the same problem as the older 13b's out of the RX-7s. The intake and exhaust ports are mounted closely together and are on the wall where the seals rotate, you loose fuel air mixture if not equipted with a turbo. The Renissis has the ports on the side wall and far enough apart that you don't loose air fuel mixture. that's why a NA 13b Renissis cranks out 250hp without a turbo while an older NA 13b would only crank out about 160hp

[firefly948]

I was actually looking at the message boards yesterday after I posted, and found a link to a website where a guy had an 11 second MX3. It was a 4cyl BP-T. that's what amazed me. This guy ditched the idea of forced induction on the KLZE for a 4cyl! Apparently what ever he did worked. It said he ran an 11.1 sec 1/4 mile. Makes you wonder what you really could do with a 13b or a 20b!

[firefly948]

where did you say you saw that guys rwd MX3? I looked but couldn't find it...maybe you could post a link!

[MXmadman]

i think this is what youre looking for

...it's the best i could find

http://www.mx-3.com/downloads/mx3_drag.zip

[firefly948]

Thanks for trying...but my comp wont run the video. It says something about there being a data reference that my comp doesn't suppport.

[ShortyDTP]

It would be wate of money putting a rotary engine in a Mx3

we will start with the engine: a rotary engine rotate in different direction than a piston engine. , so the only way you could put a rotary. engine is if you do your mx3 a rwd . which mean you have to put rear differencial driveshaft custom work etc etc.

About your 50/50 weight ratio , just by putting a rotary engine in you mx3 doen't mean you are going to have a 50/50 weigh ratio .

posible to do it but worthless, just leave the rotary engine where they belong .

[lone_night_fox]

well considering the MX-3 has about a 70-30 ratio right now, most of that takes into consideration of the V-6, which adds around 200+lbs more than a rotary, so no it wouldn't be exactly 50/50 ratio but it would be a whole lot closer, this would also let understearing be less a problem. and the rotion of the drive shaft is the same wiether it's a FF, FR, or MR. it's just how it connnects to the transmission.

[firefly948]

I think that if you really worked at placing the engine correctly in the engine bay, it would be possible to achieve a perfect 50/50 ratio.
The rotory engine is small enough that it can be set back far enough to achieve this...
as to the driveshaft...I'm not completely sure, but I think lone_night_fox is correct. The driveshafts do turn the same direction.