Import engines in American cars?

[BayConRong]

other than the fact that it becomes a sort of hybrid what's the problem with it?

 

[niky]

edit:
I have a couple of points of disagreement. Mustang on a Jaguar chassis? Niky, Niky, Niky Jags have been more sophistcated than Mustangs forever. Mustangs have been rocking a solid rear axle from the get go, and have yet to change. Jags have been rocking all independent suspension and inboard brakes.

Although it has been "developed" and "modified", the basic chassis architecture for the current Mustang harkens back to the Lincoln LS, which is derived from the basic architecture for the Jaguar S-Type.

Ford actually put IRS and DOHC on the previous generation SVT Mustang... but they went back to rear beams for the current generation, due to cost, and due to the fact that the rear beams supposedly hold up better to the stresses of high power and drag racing than IRS. There may be some truth to that... no independent drive axles to snap.

A 13B in a Corvette... mmm... in that case, the original engine actually has more potential... in fact, it's often more common to swap things into an RX7 than out of it... though I've seen a rotary-powered MX3 (awesome gearbox frankensteining).

RE: in racing... "Japanese" cars use "Japanese" engines in most professional racing series... simply because rules mandate it. Japanese turbo-blocks are great for drag-racing... they can hold a ton of hp per liter.

Be interesting to see how that works out once people start drag-racing Calibers against Evos... since they share what is basically the same engine block.

That's the thing about drawing the line at country... the current automotive market is so globalized that only a few engines stand out as unique... the five-cylinder ones in Volvo (which it shares with Ford), VW's narrow angine V and W line, the GM LS-engines and the boxer fours in Subarus and the boxer sixes in Porsches. Everything else is just an engine. There are good ones, there are bad ones, there are great ones.

Again, most of the time, cross-brand swapping is difficult because of wiring, ancilliaries and mounting... but if you can find an easy way to do it... well... go right ahead.

RE: why don't we just tune the stock engine?

If the stock engine is worth anything, maybe, but if strengthening the engine and gearbox to hold up under more boost or more revs costs more than a surplus engine that's infinitely superior... which happens... a lot... swap away. That's why Mini-VTEC swaps are common...

I'm starting to think about swaps myself... A ton of money can't cover the fact that my motor has total crap for a cylinder head. ...maybe a nice, juicy V6, or a Honda K20 will do?