Tom,
In Australia ... it depends!
Things were easier in the past so there are Alpines with older swaps of Jap
4-cylinders, and even one with a GM 3-litre STRAIGHT six in it! Nowadays,
swaps are not common except maybe for the odd 289 Ford into an Alpine to
make a club racer (light blue eastern state car - Russ do you know it?). The
cars are now old enough and valuable enough that the engine swaps of the
1970s are being reversed and original engines put back in place - there is
at least one example of this that was done a year or two ago. One approach
being taken by one club racer in my home state (South Australia) is to graft
fuel injection and an engine management computer onto the Rootes 1725
engine. He has used the GM J-car injection system, with mixed success.
Roadworthy rules are another whole can of worms. They still vary
state-to-state, although they are slowly converging. Rule of thumb is that
if you put a more powerful engine in the car you need to prove that you have
also engineered the rest of the car to cope with the power. For an Alpine
that could mean comparing brakes, steering and chassis to a Tiger would let
you put in an engine rated up that of a Tiger 260. Or not... Depending on
the minutia of the rules. In most cases you need an engineers report to say
that the systems are correctly engineered to work. Emissions are as you
stated, emission equipment at least as good as the year of the chassis.
There is also the fact that many (most?) Alpines and Tigers in Australia are
now on historic (classic) registration, which requires that a car be mostly
original. In my home state an engine swap will rule out historic rego
immediately, and that is about a $300/year difference in registration costs.
Vic, Russ, can you comment about NSW and QLD?
Cheers,
Paul.
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