Mazda Rotary Wankel Swap Willys

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Nice!

Need to do it in reverse to see who can get out of trouble faster than they got into it......

So if the Rotary is geared say 33% slower then the rotary idle must be like 25% faster.

The real question is how much torque they each produce at idle rpms.

M38Mike has also done this. He even took it on a tour to Alaska from Colorado & back.

If you choose to do this with "Modern" batteries, build a block shop with a metal roof to keep it in. This shop needs to be far enough away from the house so that when it spontaneously catches fire, it will not burn the home down.

I know, I know, not all of them catch fire, but enough do that I would err on the side of caution.  

When it comes to mechanical stuff….I’m drawn towards things i don’t understand. It bothers me to know there are engines and things out there that I have no clue how to work on. Before my first diesel swap I had never worked on anything diesel. Now ive done 3 diesel swaps and own 6 diesel. 😆  I’ve always been a fan of trying things that haven’t really been explored. I often get lots of hate for it but I’m getting used to that haha! There are tons of 4.3, pinto, 225, 2.5 and all the other commons swaps out there. While they are all great choices I wouldn’t really be accomplishing much by doing one of them. Since I didn’t need this jeep for anything specific I figured why not experiment with it??? I already have a super reliable proven trail jeep with my tdi so I won’t be missing out on any rides if this swap doesn’t work out. The tdi was also another oddball swap that no one else had documented before and many people said it was a dumb idea…. and now I can count at least 15 copycat builds since I posted mine. So the real question is….how many rotary builds bearing an uncanny resemblance to mine will we see pop up over the next 5 years haha! I’ve always found rotaries fascinating. And the fact that people hate on them and that they are the underdog makes me like them even more! And I’m quickly finding out most of their bad rap is due to people who don’t understand or maintain them properly or just plain old rumors…. “My buddies girlfriends dad had one and it sucked” 😆  I’ve posted this build very publicly on my Instagram pages and you wouldn’t believe how many crazy comments I’ve gotten. That tells me I’m on the right track haha! And to all the “no torque” comments…..my reply would be “bring you L-head to dyno day” 😉 

As I said above I’ve always found rotaries fascinating, the swap is unique….no one has done it before and they get lots of hate. That was reason enough for me. But they are also super small and light….and have the capability to make insane power plus they rev 3x higher than an l-head so had the feeling they would be fun in a flatfender. And although they are kinda odd they are still not completely impractical like a dirt bike engine but if you or someone else wants to do the dirt bike engine swap I fully support it. 😆 No I did not have any rotary engines sitting around.