Larry,
Sorry I missed the flamefest. I understand your point though. When my 1500
motor died in '89 there was a strong temptation to try to fit an "alternate"
powerplant. The one I was inclined to pick was the Mazda rotary. Short and
compact, powerfull with a willingness to rev (up to 10k in autocross trim!).
And it's been fitted to other lbc's before, so someone would know what mods
need to be made. Grass Roots Motorsports is (slowly) doing just that to a
late 1500, if you're looking for published ideas.
If you are going to change to a different powerplant then it'd help if the
engine came from a front engine/rear drive platform. That way the motor
mounts would be on the sides of the block, not on the ends like the typical
transverse front driver. From there it'd be a matter of going to a good
boneyard with a tape measure to see what would fit in the stock space with
the minimum of mods, within your budget.
My only other question is how the price of your spit motor got up to $3k?
My first motor (new +.020 pistons, Kent cam, crank cut, head redone (but no
hardened seats :-( , new oil pump, etc. ran me about $1200 for parts and
machining. That included paying $300 for the head job (should only have
been $150, my friend mistook my question of a "good" shop to mean a "quick"
one!). I've found a better local shop (only 50 miles away!), and so a stock
rebuild should run right at the $1k mark, depending upon what parts specials
I can latch onto!
Jim Gambony
too many lbc's to list!
> -----Original Message-----
> From: larry hooven [SMTP:dirty_howi@yahoo.com]
> Sent: Sunday, April 05, 1998 10:20 PM
> To: spitfires@autox.team.net
> Subject: swapping engines, the real reason
>
> my point was that one could get a nippon engine relatively cheap here
> in the states, be it honda or whatever...and it turned into a flame
> fest...not that i mind the warmth right now...(been cold) and if you
> could find one that went the right way to begin with, then it might be
> cheaper than the close to 3 grand i spent on just acquiring parts for
> my spit....was looking at it from a limited pocketbook pov.....but
> keep flaming, im learning alot from the sarcasm....and you guys got
> nuttin compared to my drill seargent.
>
>
>
>
>
> ==
> larry, 1979 spitfire fm99248u currently up on jackstands.
>
> on the web at http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Speedway/9311
>
> murphys 4th law of combat: don't look conspicuous, it draws fire
> this is why they call aircraft carriers bomb magnets
>
|