i was just curious if anyone has attempted a rotary powered fiero?? any info would be much appreciated.

I asked the same question a couple of years ago. Someone was working on such a conversion but no other information has surfaced.

It's been brought up a few times, I also recently asked about it. The main issue was that the exhaust ports on the wankel come out right where the shaft is for the transmission. I had a few ideas to get around this but had trouble finding the dimensions I needed, and I wasn't going to shell out $$ for an engine until I knew it would work.

so a rotary fiero is just a theorization, there are no accounts on this site of one acctually moving under wankel power? i'm not sure i understand what you mean; the exhast port is right were the tranny shaft is...

Take a look at this pic of a rotary shortblock (basically):
http://www.wankelkim.net/rx7/fb/13bpport.JPG
The two holes on the top are where the intake comes in (along with some other secondary holes hard to see in the pic). The two holes on the bottom are where the exhaust comes out.

This works fine in a longitudinal tranny like the rx7, but not in a transverse setup like the fiero. The axle coming out of the fiero's tranny will cross right in front of those holes, making it impossible to put piping there.Theoretically you could put a half inch of pipe with a 90 degree bend, but you'd be so restrictive it would be pointless, if it would hold up to the pressures at all.

[This message has been edited by kwagner (edited 01-14-2006).]

Maybe a longitudinal tranny setup in a fiero would work... There are a few longitudinal fieros runniing around...

seems like the cost/performance ratio isn't too hot. anybody's who done it probably did so because they either had a kickass rotary motor already, have some sort of fetis for them, or wanted to be different very badly.

personally, i think rotary's are really cool motors. but i wouldn't put one in my fiero, i'd just buy an rx7 to mess around with, probably be cheaper to buy the whole car anyway

Now to bolt that engine up to a Fiero you'd need to fab a tranny adapter plate, right? And that means it would be a simple matter to drill the holes anywhere you feel like, right?
So why not tip the entire engine forward slightly, enough that the exaust clears the axles?

Sounds reasonable. You could also tilt the trani slightly in the opposite direction to get the clearance you need. Might have to raise the front side of the trani and tilt the motor so that the exhaust ports clear over the axels.

A twin turbo rotary converted to a big single turbo in a fiero would be pretty awesome. Small light engine, also good for the CG.

[This message has been edited by crzyone (edited 01-15-2006).]

i had the same idea to just tilting the motor enough for the exhast to clear the axle; it sounds as if this swap would not be too much more envolved than say a 3.4dohc or an SBC other than the reason that it sounds like there are not many resources? a low CG, high power to weight ration ( i think the 13b weighs about 100lbs less than the 350lb iron duke), wide rev range, and huge power options make this motor perfect for mid engine application, hell, mazda won lemans in '91 w/ the 4-rotor 787b. i would love to hear an stories of a wankel fiero. i am new as a fiero owner, and have not done a motor swap before, and just wanted to exercise my options for the best possible candidate for such. maybe my first swap project i should attempt somthing easier?

[This message has been edited by major_alex (edited 01-15-2006).]

quote Originally posted by Jax184: Now to bolt that engine up to a Fiero you'd need to fab a tranny adapter plate, right? And that means it would be a simple matter to drill the holes anywhere you feel like, right? So why not tip the entire engine forward slightly, enough that the exaust clears the axles?

Because you have to line up the crankshaft centerline with the input shaft of the tranny.

------------------

quote Originally posted by Jefrysuko: Because you have to line up the crankshaft centerline with the input shaft of the tranny.

...what?

You could rotate the engine around the crank centerline, keeping the same centerline as the tranny input shaft centerline. You would need to fab up a new pan for the motor, custom pickup, etc, to make sure oil only went where it was supposed to, probably even have to do a dry sump system.

Be a lot of work, not sure how meaningful it would be other than bragging rights.

JazzMan

I suggested that before, someone came back saying that the mr2 guys had tried such a thing, and there was a problem with the oil circulating properly, or some such thing. Not sure I believe that or not. I know there are some airplane guys who have converted to rotaries and have them sideways instead of up and down (with a highly modified oil pan and circulation system). Depending on the dimensions of the engine, that might work.

Edit: Additionally, the stock wankels aren't that impressive power-wise. You have to start modifying right away if you want any horsepower improvement over a stock v6. And those mods aren't cheap; a standard engine rebuild (essential to any power mods) will run you a grand at least. Then you start talking upgraded turbos and bridge ports, and you get into debt quick. I love the wankel, but there's reasons some of the rx7 owners swap in v8s.

[This message has been edited by kwagner (edited 01-15-2006).]

quote Originally posted by Jax184: ...what?

Sorry I read your post wrong. I thought you meant that you wanted to move the engine forward with respect to the transmission which will obviously not work. You could rotate "tip" the engine though but would be challenged with proper oiling of both the engine and or transmission as others have stated.

------------------

If you back up to the index of that page and start looking through the pics, the oil pickup is nothing more than a tube with a screen over it, laid out horizontaly, twards what would be the front of the Fiero, also the oil pump sits horizontaly in the front of the engine. The oil pickup sits so high it almost looks like the bottom of the engine is supposed to be submerged. If not it wouldnt be too difficult to modify the pan so that it wouldnt go too high

------------------
Boost is like Venerial Disease, one night of passion can result in weeks of pain (and work.)
http:\\www.myspace.com\keeptherubbersidedown

I have researched this a bit, one of the best ways to do it would be to mount it longitudinally with a porsche tranny, there is a company that makes tranny adapter plates for porsche to rotary. Probably would involve extending the wheel base a little bit. The tilting suggestion has been brought up in the mr2 forums and the problem comes to oil circulation which may be possible to fix. It is very much possible to get it in there but unless your pockets are extremely deep it would be very difficult to complete. I love the Rotaries especially the power you can achieve out of them, with very few mods to a stock turbo 13b you can have 300 rear wheel horsepower in a turbo rx7, that would be amazing power for the fiero out of a lightweight motor and car relatively speaking.

Again another draw back is the lack of low end torque out of rotaries, but they scream in the upper range.