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Safari buggy + Rotary engine, now converting to S2000 engine

Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2015 8:59 am
by PhillipM
As above, this is our weekend toy, was originally running a VW 2110cc aircooled motor, switched to an S1 Renesis rotary engine out of the RX-8, then adapted it to the S2 motor out of the later cars, now just finishing off a conversion to a Honda F20C engine out of the S2000, albeit the later spec UK version which seems to use lots of different sensors to the international and earlier cars just for fun :x :lol:

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Original RX8 conversion:

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Then a few years later the S2k conversion started, as you can see it had a fair bit of reworking in the meantime:

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Things are rather tight in the engine bay...

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;)

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Should be firing it up in 2 weeks.

Re: Safari buggy + Rotary engine, now converting to S2000 en

Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2015 9:12 am
by stevieturbo
Certainly very interesting...very cool project with all of the engines !!

Was going to say a nice turbo conversion would have simplified a lot of that exhaust tube work, then noticed you're hiding a blower there.

Re: Safari buggy + Rotary engine, now converting to S2000 en

Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2015 9:37 am
by PhillipM
Haha, yes indeed, eaton M112, should be just about big enough ;)
Turbo lag isn't ideal in some of the low grip bits we run in where you're constantly on and off the throttle, of course, antilag would solve it, but we don't have enough money to be rebuilding turbo's every few events, it's very much a low budget car, we fabricate or make nearly everything ourselves so we can do it on a shoestring.

We're also using a gearbox from a commercial van, so the wide gear spacing lends itself well to a PD-blower.

Re: Safari buggy + Rotary engine, now converting to S2000 en

Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2015 12:06 pm
by PhillipM
Oh, and just because I never contributed to some of the long running fun threads here - when that rotary engine first went in, not only was it running different sized injectors in twin injector mode flawlessly (using just the automatic blending), it was also running different amounts of primary to secondary injectors, as it had 3 injectors per rotor :D
Oh, and the alternator was underdriven and it used the battery compensation maps to drive the coils properly when the voltage dropped during cranking and idle speeds ;)
And it had variable idle speeds depending on how long it had been running as well as the temperature.

I shall done my Kevlar and await the burning torches and pitchforks. :P

Re: Safari buggy + Rotary engine, now converting to S2000 en

Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2015 2:14 pm
by Rob Stevens
No burning, respect. I'd have thought that the rotary could deliver loads of power,
But do you race it or what, where can you use it ?

Re: Safari buggy + Rotary engine, now converting to S2000 en

Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2015 3:50 pm
by PhillipM
Yes, we do Safari races in it, and a few trackdays for testing here and there.
The rotary pumped out 268bhp in it's final incarnation, but we had a lot of issues with reliability, which can't be helped given we were buying them out of crashed cars, but the final straw was having the S2 engine completely rebuilt so we could use it to nail down the issues, only for it to die within 200 miles due to the rebuilder going through the surface hardening on the housings when regrinding. Doh.
Anyway, the car got parked up for a while, then we thought we'd have a go with a different engine and go for some more power, the F20C has the same sort of format, 9krpm, low weight/size, etc, so that seemed the logical option to try given it works with the gearing we already had.
Add the nice big blower and we should make an easy 350-360bhp without too much strain, with plenty of overhead for another 100-150, but I don't think it could ever put it down.

Mind, we didn't do too bad with the rotary, it won the 2wd class championships 2 years in a row.

Some from the races, I have shedloads of pics but on mobile where I am atm:

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Re: Safari buggy + Rotary engine, now converting to S2000 en

Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2015 5:27 pm
by stevieturbo
That looks like pretty damn good fun !

Re: Safari buggy + Rotary engine, now converting to S2000 en

Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2015 5:28 pm
by PhillipM
It is indeed!
Although, I do now have some joint issues :D

Re: Safari buggy + Rotary engine, now converting to S2000 en

Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2015 10:02 pm
by ignitionautosport
Haha I bet. Fun little machine though I'm picking!

Re: Safari buggy + Rotary engine, now converting to S2000 en

Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2015 5:47 am
by PhillipM
Yeah, it's quite light so it goes pretty well, even considering we're 2wd with an open diff vs 4wd guys with locking diffs front, rear and centre.
It was about 920kg wet with drivers with the rotary, it's going to be a touch more than that with the S2000 engine but only because the new rear bonnet is quite heavy, we've lost a lot of weight elsewhere, so once we do a fibreglass rear clamshell it should be back down around the 920 area. The aim is to iron out all the teething issues and suspension changes this year, then start pulling more weight out of the car.
It should be easy enough as a lot of fixings and brackets have had to be made simpler just for time constraints, so there's about 30kg that's low hanging we can take out of the car over the year, and probably another 20kg with a bit more work and money after that.