I recently spotted a beautiful TVR on eBay with a rotary (looks like an RX-4 13b) conversion. (Possibly a REPU or Cosmo power train, but I'd bet on the RX-4 as they were more readily available with the 4 speed and all of the early RX-7's I've seen with a 4 speed were the 12a engine.) The pictures and description show a Holly carb swap for the stock Hitachi. A good choice, but the Holly doesn't have oil injection from the oil metering pump. (Usually removed and blocked off in conversions of this type.) I sent the seller an email to let him know about the problem so he could start mixing oil with his gas and to let buyers know that they would need to continue the mixing or fry the engine. Lack of oil injected into the chambers doesn't cause an immediate self destruct, but causes premature wear and overheating of internal parts with a resultant slow loss of power as friction increases over several thousand miles of operation until the engine finally won't start or run any more.



The following is the text from my email to him followed by his response. Note that I was trying to help, being an old rotorhead who has owned and raced rotaries since the early 70's. (some with aftermarket carb systems like the Delortos from Racing Beat, that required premixing.)



"The engine is definitely a 13b carb version with the old dual points system. (2 sets under 1 cap) RX4?



The stock HP was 120 with the Hitachi 4 bbl. The holley adds a bit of hp and if the engine was ported and has headers and low restriction exhaust it could be pumped up to close to 200 hp. The problem with the holley is that there don't appear to be any oil injection lines. The rotary injects oil with the gas for internal rotor lubrication. No oil lines = no oil injection and means the oil has to be mixed with the gas in the fuel tank ala 2 stroke engine or the engine is not getting proper lube and will be wearing very quickly. Check the front of the carb for 2 small clear plastic lines that go to an external oil pump.



The Griffith was the model Vixen you have with the Ford small block 289 CI and heavier front suspension. Great car and one of the reasons for the Cobra introducing the King Cobra w/427 Ford big block. The Griffith could blow the doors off of and out turn a 289 Cobra.



- dallenmarket"





His response:



"Dear dallenmarket,



Does not require mixing oil with gas, thats a bit far fetched. Perhaps you are well intentioned but dont really need any more info on the car, so no more emails please unless you want to buy the car."



Needless to say I will not bid on the car and I just wanted to warn as many rotary enthusiasts as possible to avoid this car unless you have a spare engine to swap in.Too bad as it is a beautiful, great handling, light weight car that would have been a fun ride in S.C.C.A. competition.



The current link (It appears he ended the auction early with no bids. Fried it or found a sucker to buy it?) http://cgi.ebay.com/...RTQ:MOTORS:1123

 

Welcome to nopistons, and thanks for the heads up!

 

Very cool car. Too bad the seller seems to be clueless about the rotary engine in it.

 

And THIS is why the rotary can get a bad rep sometimes. People don't take time to understand the engine before nodding or even using and it gets destroyed. I've actuallyheard the later 13b's have internal oil injection instead of the leads into the carb. He might have that but idk if u could throw a carb on something built for fuel injection. Beautiful car though.

 

Meant to say modding not nodding. I hate when my iPod corrects me.

 

74-75 13B! car looks like it needs a LOT of work...



premixing isn't so far fetched, my Tr3 manual says its ok to do it