13b Into 89 Hilux 2wd  

metalhead

Firstly, how heavy is a hilux? I'd assume reasonably heavy? You may be better going with a 20bt conversion. I assume you were intending to go turbo. The 13b will never give anywhere near the low-down torque of the 20b, and if you are pulling a reasonably heavy car, and especially if you intend for the ute to still be used on occasion for pulling loads, that will make the 20b a much nicer engine for your use. Certainly it will cost a bit more initially, but it'll be worth it. I'd be surprised if there was a kit available to fit a rotary toa hilux, I would expect you'll need to fab up some custom engine mounts.

Wakin'

Yeah i was thinkin the same about the issue of torque. Its only a single cab with an alloy tray, weighs about 1200kg so no too heavy. 20b would be a better idea if i stick with the rotary.
Cheers.

Rancher

Rotories arn't really designed to create loads apon loads of torque. Otherwise you'd never get anywhere. And the guys down at bob jane would know your first name, your account number and pin.

20BT might be a bit extreme for that kinda conversion. Seriously. A 13BT would be just perfect for a ute like that. There are no "kits" per say, but engine mounts and such arnt too hard to make. You'd still be looking at around the 10G mark to get it running in your car.

There are better engines to fit into those (SR's CA's) etc. SO weigh your options before you go ahead with the 13BT option.

Hope that helps.

metalhead

1200kg isn't too bad, Fc Rx7s weighed more than that. A 13bt will still go very well, though as I said before, it wouldn't be as good for carrying loads or towing as a 20b, as they create a lot more torque down low. If it's not a work ute any more though, if it only carrys lightish loads or you don't mind a decrease in performance when carrying a load, then a 13bt will still make it move very rapidly at 1200kg.

I don't see how a 20b is overkill, but maybe I'm just inclined towards a bit of overkill.

It shouldn't be a difficult conversion, rotary engines are very easy to mount, so even if there are no off-the-shelf kits, engine mounts should not be difficult to fab up or have fabbed up. Due to the compact size of the engine, manifolds and other engine bay items should be easy too. As for there being 'better engines available', that is all a matter of opinion.

As for budget, it all depends how much you can do yourself, and how far you want to go. If you did everything yourself, and bought smartly 2nd hard or discounted new items, you could probably pull it off if really pushing it for $5-6k (with aftermarket turbo and computer). However it won't take many items being done by other people or parts breaking, or a 'good' engine that was really dead before you'll be up around the $10k mark. Just make sure you budget everything out carefully before you start, and make sure you have more money available than you think you need.

Also, there are a couple of people on Ausrotary who have done this conversion. It would be worth putting up a post in the technical section there and seeing what you can find.

Good luck whichever way you go.

slipps

1uz have plenty of torque and u could easily blow away your mates ecotec , ive seen many of these done , probably wouldnt been to much fab because of toyota breeding.

gl