Hey guys. Just did a few searches and got curious to see if anyone had ever thought about doing a rotory swap in a 3rd gen? It's a bit of an oddball swap but it is a light-weight, cheap engine cranking out a decent HP in a small package so I wanted to see hypothetically how hard would it be and if it could be done.

If you want to keep it FWD then I want to say that the transmission would block the exhaust ports.

Honestly the idea was to convert to rear wheel drive, even though that would take a ton of time, effort and money. My real concern is would everything line up alright and how to go about fabricating the mounts. Another issue is building up the rear to accept the conversion and hold and axle, then finding a shaft that will reach correctly using the s1 from the RX-8.

JORGE AGUIAR wrote:Hey guys. Just did a few searches and got curious to see if anyone had ever thought about doing a rotary swap in a 3rd gen? It's a bit of an oddball swap but it is a light-weight, cheap engine cranking out a decent HP in a small package so I wanted to see hypothetically how hard would it be and if it could be done.

Any powertrain can be swapped into any vehicle it just involves time and money, and skill if you plan on doing it yourself. First thing I would do is locate a rotary powered Mazda whether it be an XR7 or 8 and use the engine & transmission and then have a ford 9 inch customized to work in the Cavalier.

This is one of those swaps that I personally would say is more trouble than it's worth.

If you want a rotary, just buy an RX-8. You can find them for cheap these days, have decent power (as long as you don't get one of the earlier automatics) and they have amazing handling.

(not to mention I'm biased because I own one)




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