Trevor Boicey wrote:
>
> John and Chris wrote:
> >
> > I have a buddy that has had a Jenson Healey sitting beside his house
> > collecting rust. It has the Lotus engine in it. A week ago or so I asked
>him
> > if he was still planning a restoration on the car. He said no, the rust was
> > much worse than he thought. He then mentioned that the engine would be fun
>in
> > a Spitfire.
> >
> > So does anyone know what the specs are on this motor. I know it has dual
> > sidedraft (Mikunis I think). Anyone know the hp.
> >
> > Now the big question. How hard are parts to find?
>
> Rebuilding a Lotus engine can be as expensive as rebuilding
> a Ferrari engine.
>
> I would recommend highly against it. If you are going non-original,
> you might as well have an engine that won't cost you seven spitfires
> if it needs an overhaul some day.
>
I'd second this. IMHO (having done one spit engine swap) the effort
will be about equal for most moderate sized 4 bangers and small
V6s. Unless you choose something really small and simple, that
happens to line up well, you will have to do a fair amount of
cutting/welding/fiddling.
Given that the amount of work is equal, you might as well go for
something that:
- has good/cheap parts availability.
- is well supported with speed equipment and aftermarket.
- is reliable.
Of course, (to steal a phrase from Dave Williams of
fordnatics fame) free is a virtue overcoming many faults ;-)
The old lotus motors are impressive, and sound great,
but many of the features that made them special back in
the day have been incorporated modern mass market engines,
with greater reliability and economy.
This page
http://www.grumney.freeserve.co.uk/jensen/jensen.htm
lists the jh as having a 140 hp 2 liter.
This is the same as the all aluminum nissan SR20DE,
or a mazda rotary. (both of which are also available in
200+ hp turbo versions, have good aftermarket support,
and should last well over 100K miles with minimal maintenance.)
--
Email: rfm(at)redshift.com or rfm(at)portalofevil.com
Home page: http://www.redshift.com/~rfm
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