I have a 1987 Fiero GT I am getting ready to do an engine swap on. I'm looking at putting a rotary of some kind in there, maybe a 20b or a 13b-renesis. I'm leaning towards the 13b renesis because two cars with renesis is better than one (I have a RX8). I need some help though. I found a place that will make an adapter plate for the engine/tranny, but before I get all excited what I really need to know is if the rotation of the driveshaft is correct. Anybody know? Also, anybody know of a good place to get an rx8 computer so I can run the motor with fuel injection? If this project seems too hard I'll do a gm 3800 series 2, but the coolness factor won't be as high.

 

First off, awesome idea for a project, i am trying to narrow down the body for a renesis or 13bt swap, thats one of four I have in mind. As for your actual questions, i dont know much about the renesis specifically, but i can tell you that any other 13b rotates counter-clockwise when looked at from the front (of the car), so theres no reason for mazda engineers to go and switch it for the renesis. Plus, ive seen some 20Bs in RX-8s... i dont know if they used the same transmission or not, but having to reverse the direction to work with the rear end was not mentioned anywhere.



good luck with the swap!

 

So you're looking at doing a Fiero with a rotary too? Maybe we can put our heads together and come up with a kit. I know there are a lot of Fiero fans out there looking to do motor swaps. In my original post where I said driveshaft, I meant crank shaft. Do you know which direction that rotates. I think GM motors are clockwise when looking at the front of the motor, but I'm still doing more research.

 

yea, im just about positive its counter-clock, ill check that in a few min

 

If you are looking at the front of a 13B then the crank shaft rotates clockwise, not counter clockwise.



Awesome idea for a motor swap though! I'd LOVE to see pictures of this project once it's finished! I'm always racking my brain to try and think of a swap car that nobody has done/tried to do. I wish you the best of luck with this bro!!



Zach

 

cant wait to see pics

 

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Thanks for the info! Knowing that I should be able to do the swap. All I've done so far is look at where the intake/exhaust sit, and the measurements of the 13b compared to the gm motors that others are doing. I'm still early in the process, still trying to decide if I want to do a 20b souped up or just the renesis stock. Either way the Fiero will perform much better with a rotary than a 2.8 GM v6. I'll post pictures when I can, but there will be nothing to exciting for a while. In the mean time I'm attaching a picture of the car I'll be working on. It's in excelent shape, not a tear on the seats or anything. I'm working on the sound system now, but didn't take any pics before hand so I'll wait until it's a finished set up to upload those too.

 

are you planning on upgrading the suspension and brakes to those on the 88 fiero? it figures that gm would only give the Fiero the suspension that had been designed for it in its last year of production, instead of slapping on some chevette parts and saying "good enough"

 

I'm probably going to do this.



Other planned upgrades include:



Aluminum Radiator

AC Compressor hooked up to electric motor in area where spare is currently rather than on engine (this should help the weight ratio and reduce load on engine at same time)

Add electric power steering (from lotus or mazda)

Do something about tranny, probably just make it stronger

 

13bt > renesis and would be probably an easier swap