Look at this engine swap 3.4 into an MG

[paintdudeluke]

This is interesting. 160hp/200tq and they are light, fit right in an MGB and are abundant and cheap. I'll bet a spider would be insane with one of these swaps.

http://www.bmcautos.com/engine-conversi ... rsion-faqs

[paintdudeluke]

here's the drivetrain

http://spacecoast.craigslist.org/cto/4239564380.html

[narfire]

There is a fellow in the next town up the highway from here that does the same thing. I was talking to him a week ago when he was down this way and he mentioned he is 18 months out doing these 60 deg V-6 engine swaps in the TR6's and MG's. There is a MG in this neighbourhood that has one of his swaps and it is VERY well done. Not cheap but really nicely done.
I mentioned I was thinking of building a 2L up and he tried to talk me into the 3.4 swap. He figured the spider would work well, should not be an issue with the single pan underneath compared to a TR's having a frame. Not cheap, upwards of $20,000 or more by the time he is finishes with the ford 5 speed tranny, corvette brakes, ford rear end, exhaust ect.

[AndyS]

I would think the under built front ends on the Fiat spiders would really limit success on any powerful engine swap on these cars. The cross member, control arms, stub axles, etc are already marginal in dealing with the stresses from the stock power plant. Abarth knew this and threw the entire front ends of these cars away and did a full re design on the 124 Abarth Rally cars up there. Those cars do not use any of the parts the street 124's have on them--its a completely different set up.

Probably blow up the difs as well.

[paintdudeluke]

I put a rotary in a 914 for about 1800- and did a full bronco drivetrain swap into a wrangler for about 2k. If a guy is a decent mechanic with a decent shop its not too hard. You have start from scratch and rebuild the thing as you go, modify as necessary. That firebird link ..at $900, a guy could complete the swap for another 750- maybe for a driver, more if you want to build it sexy, but everything is there, its just a transplant and a little (or more) fabricating. 150hp/200tq would make one of these haul ass. The other site said the 3.4 weighs 25lb more than the MG engine. If I did one, I'd most likely leave it pretty stock and just enjoy it. A 40% HP increase with a 100% torque increase would be hella fun. You could run 3.08 gears w/posi and it would be an awesome road trip car bone stock.

[RRoller123]

How about a 427 in an MGB? Saw this at the Easton MA Cruise last year. Owner says he took it to the strip ONCE and it did sub 10 quarters. Required complete drive train mods as would be expected. Actually a very clean, but tight installation. I asked him why he did this and he said that he has had the car since the early 1970's and he "just got bored".