Moving the motor back...

[Irace86.2.0]

Originally Posted by DIY

I was planning to use a EJ207 in mine which I believe is a similar size to the FA20. You could certainly move the motor a lot further back than the OEM position as I have done the measurements but then ended up going with a K24 instead.

You would be looking at a custom fabricated front cross-member at a minimum, actually there would be a substantial amount of fabrication involved and unless you are capable of doing it yourself then the costs to pay someone would be ridiculous! we are talking about a lot of hours work here by the time you build a crossmember, engine mounts, trans mounts, relocate the steering rack, possibly custom sump and all the sheet metal work around the firewall. I wouldn't even consider it for a street car.

The driver’s side steering rack input shaft would hit the lower valve cover, don’t you think? Maybe the motor could be moved back a few inches, but wouldn’t it need to get raised to avoid the input shaft? If so, a few inches of clearance would be necessary to avoid impact of the motor under high torque applications unless solid engine mounts and extra bracing was used, right?

Your setup looks sweet. Are you planning to do a Pure Auto Motec solution or something custom? I’m assuming you are using a S2000 transmission. How was your clearances with shifter alignment and the oil pan?

Just FYI, I could do most of it myself, at least the welding, cutting, and fabrication.

[DIY]

Originally Posted by Irace86.2.0

The driver’s side steering rack input shaft would hit the lower valve cover, don’t you think? Maybe the motor could be moved back a few inches, but wouldn’t it need to get raised to avoid the input shaft? If so, a few inches of clearance would be necessary to avoid impact of the motor under high torque applications unless solid engine mounts and extra bracing was used, right?

Your setup looks sweet. Are you planning to do a Pure Auto Motec solution or something custom? I’m assuming you are using a S2000 transmission. How was your clearances with shifter alignment and the oil pan?

Just FYI, I could do most of it myself, at least the welding, cutting, and fabrication.

Yes the steering rack is always the biggest problem because they need to be in a certain position to avoid bumpsteer. Without having a car in front of me its hard to work out a solution but your options would be to either rotate the rack so the steering pinion is horizontal, this would mean an extra uni-joint in the column. Or you can do a linkage driven steering rack where you put the rack where it fits and then move the tie rod arms via linkages.

In my car I have switched to a front steer system along with the double wishbone conversion using Mazda RX8 knuckles, this means that my rack is now in front of the engine.

I have not decided on an ECU yet but its a race car so it will have no luxury items and a harness with just the essentials run by a standalone ECU.

I'm going to be using a dry sump which allows me to keep the motor low, the K24 is rather tall. Dry sump will be necessary anyway to keep the motor alive under high G's.

Not sure about shifter position yet.