Jan
I was reading Ian's September article on your Quad4 conversion.
Something that has been in my mind for a while now is that Rootes cars
were (I believe) once made under licence in Japan by the Isuzu
company. In the same way that, for example, Nissan made Austins under
licence. Now I have heard it said that when Nissan started making their
own cars the engines bore more than a superficial resemblance to
BMC/Austins 'A' series, and I know that - at least in this country - the
"Nissan-motor-into-a-Morris Minor" conversion is popular and apparently
straightforward (Morris Minors having been fitted with the 'A' series).
Now Isuzu made some reasonable OHC/DOHC motors in the 1600-2000 engine
size (eg the Gemini engine of the 1970-80s - sold in the US as a
Chevette I believe). It's possible that they may resemble the Rootes
1600 in important areas such as engine mount location and bellhousing
design etc. I wonder if anyone has any experience with fitting one of
these to an Alpine?
Before all you purists shriek in horror, I have already rebuilt my SIII
Alpine 1600 and have no intention of attempting this swap ... well not
just yet anyway....
Cheers
Vic Hughes
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