Paul,
I think you've covered this pretty well, things are much the same where I live.
Vic
Paul Heuer wrote:
> 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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