I have sort of a hypothetical/opinion question for the list.
We talk alot about modifying the cars we drive. But when you try to
boost the output of your engine, it seems you can 10% or 20% increase
without much hassel, but anything beyond that and the cost per hp gained
goes through the roof and the reliability gets bad. So for a spitfire
owner that really doesn't leave much room for improvement. Perhaps you can
bring
an 80 hp engine to 100 hp - you've brought the car to what the factory should
have made in the first place. Now, how about the question of 'real' increase?
You quickly run into a wall where the original power plant just isn't
good enough.
What are your options now? Its seems to me that the 1500+ dollars
spent in bringing the 1500 engine to 100 hp would have been much better spent
retro-fitting a GT6 engine which has 100 hp from the outset.
So it is with this in mind that I ask "are engine swaps worth it?"
Certainly I'm not the first person to think of this. Why don't we make engine
swaps instead of dumping dollars into performance carburation or radical cams?
It seems to me that people sort of hush their voice and speak with reverence
about the person who did a swap. Can it be that bad? When I talk to the 'old
timers' they would swap engines all over the place in the big americans.
How could you find out if a GT6 engine would fit in the Spitfire?
Better yet, how about the Buick/Rover V8 from a TR8? Is there some sort of
source where you can get dimensions and weights of different engines?
Woodruff@caen.engine.umich.edu
(perhaps the performance marketeers own us and we don't know it!)
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