Closer to home engine options!

Black Bug

Well-Known Forum User
What with all the V8 talk going down - in particular American blocks - I've been been wondering about the other options, perhaps from closer to home. It strikes me that there are 3 hybrid engine camps. Big US Iron, High Tech Japanese and Misc. It's the Misc that I'm more interested in for the sake of this thread, particularly engines that are vaguely commonplace in the UK.

Classic homegrown engine prowess seems to take the form of straight 6 and V12 from the stables of Aston Martin and Jaguar. I doubt there are many AM engines knocking around for reasonable cost, but Jag engines are pretty plentiful. I know of at least one Z with a Jag V12 shoved smartly under the bonnet.

Moving over the channel there's the Germans and Italians with a nice selection of 6, 8 and 12 pots. I'm a pretty big fan of BMW engines, V12 would be nice but has sump pan issues which can be worked around by using a dry sump, however the later engines are pretty damn complicated. Something that's very leftfield would be VWs W12 motor.

Only a very brief start but let's see what you can come up with that's a little different and the reasons you'd consider doing that engine swap instead of some Detriot iron!

Cheers,
Rob
 

Wes

Well-Known Forum User
There's a Z floating about somewhere with a BMW M5 motor in it. That must be scary!!

Think I saw it on German e bay

Wes
 

ZHead

Well-Known Forum User
Have seen a Viper V10 lump in one but no way would I get in it ! The welding was appalling :D
 

ZHead

Well-Known Forum User
Wes said:
There's a Z floating about somewhere with a BMW M5 motor in it. That must be scary!!

Think I saw it on German e bay

Wes
An M5 motor is approximately the same as an all aluminium Chevy LS6 engine for power and torque.

The M5 would be a terrific conversion but I guess all the elctrickery would make it quite difficult, assuming of course that it could be made to fit - the engine would without a doubt but I have no idea about the gearbox.
 

Black Bug

Well-Known Forum User
What you up to zedhead260?!!!

M3 or M5 engine would be very nice indeed. I don't think the Viper V10 can be allowed as it's American Iron and I really want to focus on 'Misc' ;) Was just reading through the BMW V12 swap by Chelle over on HybridZ, pretty excellent engineering going on there for sure!

Cheers,
Rob
 

Black Bug

Well-Known Forum User
Thanks for reposting, I was lucky enough to get a copy via email so have been able to digest it already. Certainly sounds like you've been thinking about the options for a while. The Audi lump is intriguing it has to be said. I'm sure that more than 330bhp would be available with more indepth work to the heads etc. But it's not like 330bhp is awful!

One aspect of doing an engine swap that I don't think has really been touched on too much is why? The common answer seems to be POWER!!!! And more of it!! However is that the be all and end all of doing a swap? Maybe I'm just alone and a bit odd but I'd be happy with doing a swap to get around 350-400bhp in a reliable form, using a modern engine that has good parts/service availability in the UK. In no way would I ever dismiss the SBC/LS engines as very viable options, however they're a bit rarer in the UK and so parts/servicing is more of an issue - I could be wrong of course! It's the one reason to me why a TVR level/Tweaked Rover V8 makes more sense in the UK than a SBC.

There are surely other parameters for choosing an engine as well? Ever driven a car that just felt right, soemthing just spot on about it's engine even if it only produced xxx bhp instead of xxxx bhp? I absolutely love my BMW 325 Diesel, goes like stonk, extremely smooth power delivery, great economy... that would surely make for an interesting if off the wall swap. It wouldn't ever be the fasted car obviously (although it would be faster than a stock L24 car) is that so bad though?

Cheers,
Rob
 
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