Which engines go with which cars?

[EivlEvo]

Howdy squad...

New boy here and have been keeping my eye out for one of these for a bit.

Came across one with a blown/ceased motor. Car is in (seemingly) rough shape, but I'm mildly interested as I suspect I can get it for nearly nothing.

The question is... which motors would go with which cars/transmissions? The car is a 5 speed 1978. Am I able to source a junkyard or "other" motor from a different model year and bolt it in or what am I up against here?

Thanks!

[EivlEvo]

I suppose it's worth asking if there's a guide or someplace I could read up on "Definitely don't buy the car if it has this wrong with it" type of thing?

[Nanonevol]

Here's a good read on buying a vintage Spider:
https://www.mirafiori.com/faq/content/buyspid.html

[EivlEvo]

Thanks Nanon... I had read that once, but I'll jump through it again.

Basically, I'm looking at a car with a locked up motor. I've got another fellow that apparently has an extra motor (both of these are local somehow)... so I was just wondering if the motors are all "interchangeable" or what? I understand there are obviously carbed and FI versions that would require electronics... but are there more nuances than that?

Are they all using the same transmissions? Motor mounts? Etc...

[narfire]

If you are anywhere near Summerland BC, I have a 1800, 1602 and a 2L block here......

[Nanonevol]

I think for the most part you will have no trouble with interchangeability of Spider motors. What year/motor is available to you?

[EivlEvo]

The guy who has them doesn't seem to know. I'm in NC though.

There's a car for sale that looks pretty rough, but I suspect the price is right. If it's in good enough shape, I can probably work it over into a solid runner... maybe a track car that's nice enough to not get laughed out of the local car meets, but crappy enough that I'm not going to feel guilty thrashing it around the track or a drift event etc etc.

Step 1. Acquire car
Step 2. Acquire (some) motor
Step 3. Be awesome?

Dunno... seems not a bad way to entertain myself for $1000 bucks?

The fellow with the car says it has a motor that when he was driving just locked up. Seems he recently bought it with similar intentions as myself, but with a locked motor and no where to store it it's become a bit too much of a nuisance for him maybe?

Dunno though... you lot are the people that would be the best at talking me into or out of it. So uhh... someone yell at me about something.

[Nanonevol]

Go for it! They're fairly easy to work on and lots of fun.

[chrisg]

they are all interchangeable. 2L engines were original to 1979-newer models and can fit a bit high on earlier cars, but they do fit (i've owned several & currently own one) in earlier cars. Mirafiori also somewhere has a good reference you can use to ID heads & blocks by casting/part #s. if you are starting with most of nothing, a 2L block with a 1.8 head (hey, look, yet another option) is a nice plan as it affords a modest increase in compression at relatively no additional cost vs. prepping any other block & head. have fun. rusty cars with good engines, transmissions & rear axles, used to be not so uncommon to find & usually much more affordable than simply buying an engine.