Last night on PowerShift LIVE, Brian and I discussed some crazy engine swaps and was was wrong and/or right about them. Swaps like the 426 Max Wedge Engine that was found in the Barn Find ’57 Chevy drag car. Or the 2JZ Toyota that was in the Camaro. How about the guy that puts an LS engine in a Mustang? Or lets get crazy. What if someone put a Honda B Series 4 banger in something like a real deal Ferrari 308GTS? The possibilities are endless, but think about it for a minute. What would be the most hideously sacrilegious combo you could possibly think of? Is a small block Ford in a real deal Rolls Silver Cloud better or worse than a real Shelby Cobra with a 4G63 Mitsubishi motor powering it? See? The possibilities are endless.
So…What Engine Swap Would Be The Ultimate Sacrilege?
A Yugo powered Corvette.
An Iron Duke in a Corvette. I actually got a little nauseous typing that.
A GM LS (“LESS”) into anything but a trash compactor or a melting furnace.
I might be tempted to say this is:
http://www.streetlegaltv.com/news/twin-turbo-ford-powered-%E2%80%9968-camaro/
Some stuff is just oddball like the 2JZ Camaro or the RB26DET swapped Mustang. Others are more racing practical like the Max Wedge or early Hemi shoeboxes, nailhead falcon, or pretty much any Willy’s. And while the Chevy in a Ford thing has been done to death, there is something especially irksome about the idea of a 5.0L Ford in a 1Gen Camaro.
Now being that I’m a Buick nut and hate seeing Chevies poluting up the engine bay of cars that had cool motors to start with, this brings a smile to my face in a “sucks to have the tables turned, don’t it” kind of way. All in all I’d rather see people do something with engines of the same Brand than cross lines but I’ll admit there are cool results from time to time. Oh and put a Buick in anything and that’ll make me smile.
cheers
If you don’t like a SBF in a Crmaero , you will probably not like an LS in it either… firing order, head layout.. put some flowbastids on it and you have a 5.0!
A ricer motor of any kind in a 63-67 Corvette.
Take a ’57 Chevy with the 283 Fuelie and replace it with a mid ’80s 305 TBI smallblock. Why is that blasphemous? Because there is no logic that could be behind such a swap other than a lazy attempt to keep the car running with no appreciation for its historical value. This commits an even worse blasphemy than desecration: It’s the blasphemy of apathy.
Hit it out of the park!!
I have a retired friend that bought a new 57 Chevy coupe with a fuelly V8. He said that the car would run ok for a few months, and then just quit in the middle of the road. He had it towed to the dealer 20 times the first year he owned it.
In that context, I guess a modern engine swap wasn’t such a bad idea. That is, unless you’re looking to make it a museum car or trailer queen.
An electric motor into anything that came with a V8.
I was once told about a guy in the Tampa area that had swapped a slant 6 into one of the wing cars..Daytona or Superbird, I forget whitch, but that sounds horrific.
What makes an engine swap a bad one? Anything that:
1. Makes the car slower
2. Is less reliable that the old engine
3. Is too expensive to be practical
4. Destroys any valid historical value.
This discussion started because I had to defend myself from a certain forum member because of my plan to swap a turbocharged Chevy GenIII motor into a ’66 Thunderbird. Sorry, but the ’66 T-bird is not rare or special by any means. The 390 FE is a heavy boat anchor that will cost cubic yards of dollars to make anywhere near 600+ wheel horsepower and live. I would end up spending more on the shortblock and cylinder heads than I will on the entire install and turbo system I will be doing. The GM motor has factory EFI, which I will be using, lives to 1,000hp easily, and it was dirt cheap. Also helps that it is sitting in my garage with headstuds and ARP rodbolts already installed.
I knew a guy once that put a 454 in a 63 T-Bird. When he was asked why his reply was that he liked to go fast. He was the asked then why a chevie?
That’s a very good question. Why a Shoveie?
i read a story many moons ago about a 71 hemi charger that had a datsun 6 swapped into it when the gas shortage hit- thankfully it was reunited with its elephant on the resto…
That reminds me of a guy in my dad’s flight group who pulled the hemi out of his ’70 Challenger and replaced it with a 2 bbl 318. This was in 1975 after the second gas crisis. Last I heard he sold it shortly after for a more fuel efficient car.
This was his daily driver then. A thought that would be insane to do this today. In ’75, it was just a used car that got crappy mpg.
Several years ago there was a huge write-up on the web with photos of a guy who put the largest Caddy engine ever made in a VW bug. Can’t find it any more… 🙁
A Caddy engine is better than a Shovey ‘chevie’ engine.
But If it ain’t Mopar it ain’t no car.
Putting a SBC in place of a Hemi in a ’71 Hemi Cuda convertible.
That would be “The Ultimate Sacrilege”
A SBC in a Hemi Cuda? Get a rope.
chevy build with a chevy
ford build with a ford
mopar build with a mopar
It makes me puke to see a cross breed !
I’m with ya. The only cross breeding that should be done is with something like a Studebaker, Henry J, Willys, or some other car that isn’t made anymore and there’s not any performance engines or parts for them.
Then they need Mopar engines.
I agree with you Ron,and arrow1100.
a Honda 4 cylinder motor in a T-Bolt.
How about a Subaru EG33 into a Porsche 911SC…………….
http://www.precisionchassisworks.com/subaru-eg33-powered-porsche-911sc.html
How about a wankel rotary in a ’65 Mustang Fastback………………..Oh, that’s right Ford already did that with a RC2-60 powered ’65.
A Shovey tin can engine into anything.
Why put a weaker, slower engine in a Studebaker. One of the most powerful and dependable engines ever made, Fastest production American car record was Studebakers from 1957 until 2005. 299 cid and 223 mph at Bonneville with 60 year old iron. Some of the best design tricks are being worked out for Studebaker engines as I write this. Have you seen the 9 second Avanti? 299 cid and single four barrel. Home made intake and exhaust. Leave a Studebaker all Studebaker and have the other guys scratching their heads trying to figure out how that old iron kicked their a**. Oh check out the Pure Stock Muscle Car Drags. Six if the seven Studebakers won their races. Kicked some big block a** along the way.
putting a Ford engine in anything!
A buddy sold a really nice Henry J drag car with a 440 to a guy who immediately had to change it out to a hemi. After 15K he had a car that went slower, but, he got his hemi.
once knew a guy that put a 396 in a original Z28 because the 302 “wasn’t big enough”. stupid!
A flathead V8 60 w/twin strombergs in a ZR1 corvette
I once bought a 69 Camaro drag car with a slopar 440 on it. SOld the 440 for a 100 bux and saw it in the paper next day for 500. My bad.
OK, I’m totally serious here. I think that GM should sell a factory 4 cylinder corvette. Something like the base engine for the Sonic would be about right.
They could call it the “Empty Nest Special”, for all the moms that drive them because they :”look sporty”. My alternative name is the “Menopause Special”.
Really, most of the late model corvettes that I see are driven by women with college age kids, and I never see one driven hard.
There is a very elderly couple here in town that have a late 60’s vintage stingray coupe. I see them driving it on occasion. They drive very sedately, but I’m totally fine with that; they look like they’re well into their 80’s.
The reason they ain’t driven hard is because they’d blow up if they were. I mean we are talking about chovies hear.