In a message dated 23/07/99 9:57:33 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
vscjohn@huntnet.net writes:
<< I would ultimately like to build something that will capture that same
character--a 3.5 built to turn serious revs and stay together, less torque
but
plenty of top end power, and it will have that one special characteristic
that no
4 or 6 can give.. It will sound like a hot V8. >>
John, another option might be the GM Quad cam DOHC version of their 60 deg.
V6, which revs like a fiend, and looks like a Maser motor underneath the
shrouds. Apparently some of the Grand Prix GTX fans are getting pretty good
power out of them, and using the right chip they redline at 7000.
If you think exhaust is a problem on the B, you should see my other stuff.
The Fiero engine bay is chock full of turbo and exhaust system, and set the
trunk carpet to smouldering before I added a heat shield. The Twincam race
car has headers that barely clear the frame member that goes from the
firewall down to the front suspension - I have seen people cut these out
doing swaps on A's, but feel that they are pretty important structurally. Saw
a V8 conversion in a TR3 once, where they left out the front cross brace to
clear the 283 - the two suspension towers were slowly folding in to meet each
other!
The MGC is another one that we made headers for - twin 2" pipes out the back,
and no real room for silencers any bigger than small glasspacks means that we
don't boot it in populated areas. It's OK at low rpm and other than wide open
throttle (although it does have a tendency to set off nearby car alarms when
you fire it up in a parking lot), but if you floor it, when it passes 3000
rpm, birds fall out of the sky and strong men swoon. Fortunately, it is
she-who-must-be-obeyed that drives that one, mostly, and she tends not to
give it much stoick, most of the time.
Several V8 conversions I've seen on MGBs ran the exhaust out the front of the
motor and thence under and back, rather than attempting to negotiate the
narrow firewall area, though I guess if you can get factory manifolds you be
ahead of the game there.
Your point about how much the frame can accomodate is well taken, but using a
high tech smaller 6 or 4 can give you as much power as an 8, but without the
frame twisting torque that accompanies it in a V8, and so you can actually
get away with a little more top end power, if that's what you are after.
As for me, the killer C and the Twincam race car are about as crazy as I get
(with MGs, anyway - ask me about Jensens sometime). I've been meaning to put
a big dollar sign on the Twincam tach after 7500 - best engine BMC ever
built, IMHO, when properly fettled (*note that I said BMC, as the later rally
cars were pretty interesting indeed, but built by others).
Now wouldn't a B with the new Honda S2000 engine do it for you, as a modern
day equivalent? Rev it to 9000 rpm, and 250 bhp in a car that weighs 2000
pounds? More my style than a hulking (or in the BOP case, perhaps simply a
squatting) V8.
Have a nice weekend.
Bill
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