Probably not cheap and deffinatly not HAMB friendly but, for gobbs of power in a small, light package you might think about a GSX1300R Busa or a Kawasaki ZX-14. It'd scream in a car that light. Add a little shot of laughing gas and you'd have a real rocket. Plus the sound would have everybody scratching their heads.
The V8 looks like it will fit as in the pics with a little work. Go for it, but that is just me, I have a SBC 302 in my Porsche 914. Thats a tight fit too, and not very HAMB friendly, thats what the 35 Chevy is about. Mark
I doubt it... The Bigger Healey's had seperate Chassis, the Sprite/Midget's did not. A Ford 1600 ( Kent ) swap was popular for those in England, but even for that engine it needed modifications to the Firewall. This is still one of my favorites...
Moss makes a supercharger for some of the larger Austin motors but they are not cheap and do not really add much power. It would be cheaper to swap in another motor.
Not a Sprite, but here's my dad's Austin Healey that he shoe-horned a 426 Stage III Max Wedge into in the late 60's. It ran the 1/4 mile in the 9's. He reluctantly sold it to some rich kid in Portland OR and then lost track of it. The last he heard of it was the kid street raced it around the Portland OR area. Sure wish I knew what happened to it.
Spend some time in here also: http://www.mgexperience.net/phorum/list.php?3 Sprite and Midget same basic car. Pretty small for a V8 transplant. Lot's of MGB's with V8's but they are bigger then the Sprite/Midget and even they are tough to do.
Not so. The big Healeys were a semi unibody. All the outer skins were removable, but the inner structures were part of the chassis/tub. There was no conventional frame as we are accustomed to. I once worked at a shop that restored and serviced Healeys as well as having owned two of them
Thanks for correcting me. I did not know that... I thought they were seperate because Healey parts have ended up under Glass bodies like the Jamacan, Devin, etc. Is that the same for the 4cyl as well as the 6cyl big healey's ?
I have seen photographs of a Hemi/sprite (probably not for the timid.) Miata with turbo (easy reliable 230-250 rwhp) makes the most sense. Don't forget to upgrade the brakes/suspension . . .
I think it was the other way around. Ken Costello built V8 MGB's using the BL version of the Buick 215. British Leyland had him show one of those and then made it difficult for him to get any more V8's After that they started selling their own version ( the MGB V8 GT ), and Ken Costello kept building his by buying bare Buick Blocks in Belgium Junkyards ( and rebuilding those with Rover guts ) At least that how I remember the story from one of the Brit Classic Car mags..
Sprites are unibody . No chassis as such. Any V8 conversion in the 21st Century should start like this in the pic with a full chassis and a decent suspension. Sprite suspension was designed in the 1940's and is OK for resto guys ,not for a performance car. I've driven one with a genuine D type jag engine but it had fully modified suspension designed for the job . I would urge any one doing this to merely use the body as shell and not attempt to just drop in anything like a V8 . You will die finding out about chassis dynamics.
Thats Correct and MG only stopped selling RV8's in the 1990's. They were mostly sold in Japan so you won't see too many in the USA . The ones in Europe etc have been imported from Japan. The BL Rover V8 only 'looks' like it's Buick ancestor but is a vastly better engine with lots of speed gear available in any style ( carbs injection etc ) . Lots more here ; http://www.mgcarclubsydney.com.au/documents/rv8story_july08.doc"
The RX7 swap is fairly easy. When I did one years ago, it was not bad. The Mazda front mounts will work with a bit of modification. A 5 speed will require some trans tunnel massage but the 4 speed will work. The trans mount will need to be fabbed, but it's easy. If you use the carbed engine, the R/H foot well needs a notch to clear the intake. The Racing beat holley intake uses up a little more room if you would want to plan on that. The heater can be moved back if you move the battery to the trunk. The outlet tube under the heater will need to be totaly reformed, but it can fit around the bell housing with room. A small bump in the R/H side of the left foot well will be needed to clear the starter. A new fangled gear drive unit may get around that, though. The exhaust will need to be fabbed the whole way. If you're careful, the tubes cn go through the oval hole between the "frame rail" and the R/H foot well. Use oval exauhst tubing about 1 5/8" tall. There is barely room for that when two folks are in the car on a crowned road. the pipes will be straight routed under the rear axle, so consider your muffler carefully. It will be LOUD. Sporty loud is good. Ricer loud is well...... The rear will need racing axles or a shortened RX7 rear. There's more, but it really is straight forward. Yuo will retain foot room and three pedals when it's there. Even a mild 150HP 12a will make the thing scream as it will weigh under 1600 lbs. I need to replace my Sprite.
Dirtynails is wayyy right! I had a'59 bugeye in college and the front end was marginal even for the TINY 975 c.c. engine that was in there. Also, there isn't a lot of room back there for a rear end big enough to work with a V8. You will almost have to use an automatic because after you cut out almost all the floor to make all this fit you won't have room for your feet, much less the pedals! Now, how about a radiator big enough to cool a V8. A mustang will JUST fit, but by the time you get this done You're not going to get me to change the plugs! It's kind of like learning to rebuild automatic transmissions. By the time you've learned how, you will never want to do it again. I did the measurements when I should have been in class, the small block Ford is narrower, but longer, and having the dizzy in front is a plus. The 215 is a little smaller, but still used the same transmissions. Sure you can do it, do you really want to? Ask Dirtynails what a bump up from less than a liter to maybe two and a half liters did for the little go kart. The Ecotech Chevy would be more than the drivetrain could stand, but way easier to get in there and make boucoups horsepower with. Mike
Yup. All Healeys were built pretty much the same. There were 3 basic designs, the 100-4, the 100-6/3000 roadsters and the 3000 convertibles with roll up windows and a folding top. The 100-6/3000 roadsters were divided into two and four seat models The Spridgets were the early roadster types and the later convertibles. You can fake people out and put a Bugeye bonnet on a late car
Sprites are the shit. Mine when I first got it. After a few months. and the 1275 / 5 speed '59 with a 1275, 5 speed datsun trans. Tons-o-fun. I had a '66 Sprite that I was going to put a 350 Chevy in but after looking really close at what I'd have to do (and I owned the shop), I decided that the money that I'd have to spend to put a 350 in it wouldn't make the '66 any more fun that my '59 already is. Of course, I may have been wrong and your may end up having more fun than I ever have.
wow! heaps of closet sprite lovers!! i JUST took out my '63 Mark 2A last weekend for the first time in a couple of years. leaks from EVERYWHERE, has pretty nasty bump steer, shock absorbers that seem to actually CREATE bumps, and spiders everywhere... fuck i had a good time. i've been scheming about what to do with it ever since, and as someone posted above, i reckon the 1200-1400cc motorbike engine with sequential 6-speed sounds about right. then i guess you'd just have to decide what to do with brakes and suspension (oh, and reverse gear...)
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