I looked on the forums to see what options I had for fixing the engine and exactly what I had let myself in for.
I've rebuilt quite a few different vehicles over the years, but never messed with a rotary. My old REPU was dead reliable, so I never had to tear into it. I pulled the 12A and tore it down. The rear housing was scored and needed replacement. After searching for a while I found that it is becoming quite hard to find decent 12A housings and parts (at least anything I'd want to use). The 13B FC parts are still relatively plentiful so I looked into going that route. After all, how hard can it be to replace a 12A with a 13B right? Shows how much I know!
Well I located a rusty rear-ended 87 GXL from Dukes770, on the other forum, in Olathe, Ks. He needed some of the body and interior parts for his TII. He didn't need the NA drivetrain. This sounded good to me and a good running NA 13B would have about half again as much power as the stock 12A did. So, more money and a trip to KC, and I now had a running, stripped out FC sitting in the yard. Sorry no Pics, you wouldn't want to have seen it anyway, as it was pretty ugly.
I started stripping down the 87 and decided to keep the EFI for the better economy. I needed to get my feet wet with computer controls anyway. I've mostly only messed with carbureted setups. I've been pretty impressed with what some of you guys have been doing with the programmable engine computers. Well one thing led to another...
I swapped the complete FC wiring harness, engine, transmission, fuel tank, and radiator. Yeah, I'm a glutton for punishment. I decided to keep the stock computer for now. I had it, and a standalone is out of my price range at this time.
Time I have, money's a little harder to come by. Later I'll get a good computer and commence playing.
I also decided to do a custom dual exhaust, since I don't really care for the look of the big single exhaust out the back. From reading up on performance mods here, most people say that a free flowing exhaust is one of the most important mods you can make on a rotary. So I ended spending a lot of time and money on this part of the build. I figured it was a good starting place. If I go forced induction later I'm going to need all the exhaust capacity I can get.
Well..., I bought an FB 13B cover and pan from Fong, on the other site, and fitted the engine and transmission to the SA. Everything went in without too much hassle. The 79 driveshaft even fit. I kept the shifter in the FC position as I'm short and the SA position was too far forward for me. Needless to say I had to modify the trans tunnel. Cut it out of the 87 and weld into the 79. I'm not the world's greatest welder. It all stuck good and I tried to always weld both sides just in case. I have a variable feed MIG welder. It varies the feed speed to whatever it feels like, which makes pretty welds rather difficult. I used more wire on my MIG than really necessary but I didn't want parts falling off going down the road, that's always embarassing.
Finished shifter position:
Build13 by
GySgtFrank, on Flickr