Engine swaps; good 'uns & bad 'uns

["DSTONE, 5-9521, BPR: 237-2322" <DSTONE@sc9.intel.com>]

     I too am intrigued by the prospect of various engine
     swaps in our LBC's, and have seen many various
     combinations with various states of success. Here's
     just a quick list of what I've seen/driven (owned!?!
     :-), and any relevant comments:

     Car                     Engine/trans              Comments
     ----------------------------------------------------------
     '62 Sunbeam Alpine       2.0l Pinto/C4          rough job
                                                     good power, 
                                                     easy to find 
                                                     parts, needed 4spd.

     '53 Sunbeam Alpine       small block ford/auto    ??
                                                     currently for sale 
                                                     in Hayward, Ca.

     Bugeye                   Mazda rotary                 NICE !

       "                      Ford straight 6/3spd.        P.O.S.

       "                      Buick V-6/auto              nice, but
                              narrowed ford rear          tons of work

       "                      283 V-8/?                   stupid

       "                      GM V6/5spd.              ugly, bad
                                                       home job,
                                                       used FI, many problems

     Many big healeys         various V-8s            nice,
                                                      if well done

     TR7                      327/4spd.               nice home job,
                                                      sleeper !

     Spitfire           327/4spd/narrowed Vette rear  This is a 
         ^^ongoing project that shows up every year at Palo^^
          Alto. Tons of fab work, but very nice & fast !
                             
     Spitfire           GT6 Chassis               seemed perfect !


     I guess my feeling is to look at the chassis you will
     be fitting something into, as well as this skills &
     tools of the person doing the installing before you go
     trying to jam your spare Allison V12 into your Berkely.
     The swaps that I've seen work well have been very well 
     thought out beforehand in addition to being
     well-executed. The horrible failures have been a result
     of design-it-as-you-go-along-engineering.

     And my all-time personal favorite dream-swap: A
     Dhiatsu 1.0l DOHC V6, the one w/a 10K redline,
     gingerly dropped into redcar. Could you imagine what
     redline must sound like ........

          cheers-
                 dstone@bonehead.engineering