Which engine?

[fraser.innes.3]

We put a 1.6 16 valve toyota engine/gearbox in a spitfire in the late 80's. God knows what it came out of as it was in a pile of engines in a shed at the local scrappy. Used to spin the wheels in third up hills. Sold it to some nutter who came over from Holland and drove it back!

[Sir Snipes]

Corolla GT Coupé, presumably.

[fordperv]

Mmmmmmmm I'd love a 4AGE engine

[twosmoke300]

Ive just had a F4RT

[spartacus]

Fiat Fire engine? 50bhp, non interference, carb or injection.

[SiC]

Fiat Fire engine? 50bhp, non interference, carb or injection.

Would it not just be better to run the herald engine instead - surely not a lot of power difference between?

[spartacus]

That's what I think really, but the OP was looking for something with a similar power output I think. There's a 1300cc version with 75bhp I think but that would probably need a brake upgrade etc.

[Noel Tidybeard]

maybe a rev happy 16v/twin cam is the wrong direction and the torque curve of 8v would be more in keeping with th ferald character

[Lacquer Peel]

Would it not just be better to run the herald engine instead - surely not a lot of power difference between?

 

Parts scarcity and reliability. Not to speak for Seth but if remember correctly he installed the MX-5 engine in the Herald after the umpteenth original engine rebuild.

[Yoss]

Ive often thought my Skoda Favorit engine would work well in my Triumph but as mine is FWD any sort of replacement is a no go really as the gearbox, diff and sump are all one big, stupidly heavy cast iron lump on which the engine sits so it has to be a proper oil tight fit and the crankshaft has to be perfectly in line with the input shaft at the top of the gearbox.

 

So whilst the Skoda engine is only slightly more powerful than the 1300/Herald and in fact a bit less than the 1300TC/Spitfire its all aluminium so you're replacing a big lump of cast iron with a big lump of cast aluminium which has to be a good thing.

 

And as both are 1300 OHVs the characteristics are similar but the Skoda lump is much more reliable and happy to be thrashed for long periods without breaking. And it's unlikely to break the Heralds existing running gear.

[Yoss]

Parts scarcity and reliability. Not to speak for Seth but if remember correctly he installed the MX-5 engine in the Herald after the umpteenth original engine rebuild.

There's certainly no problem with parts for the Triumph engine but I'd agree about reliability, mine's been rebuilt twice in the last ten years but it does get thrashed. Trouble is of course most of the parts now are remanufactured with all the fun that entails. You're never really sure what sort of quality you're getting.

[vaughant]

Saab engine from 80's/90's?

 

Turbot would be a bit too cheeky but non turbos must be about 15pence to buy now and are of course based on a triumph lump so there could be a mild degree of compatibility into the old girls.

 

Another thought is a good old Vauxhall 2.0 8v engine, lovely old things, bags of torque,rwd gearboxes etc are available, certainly wouldn't look out of place in the bay? Not sure on cost/availablity now but it must surely be better than the triumph motor?

[Cleon-Fonte]

Daihatsu E-series inline triple. A 989cc EFi version would just about beat the original Triumph motor on power and torque, which means you absolutely must go out and find an early 547cc carb version instead.

[Honey Badger]

Would an IS200 Toyota G straight six work in there, not a massive torque or hp monster but already set up for RWD, don't know if the weight would be an issue.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_G_engine#1G-FE

[seth]

Parts scarcity and reliability. Not to speak for Seth but if remember correctly he installed the MX-5 engine in the Herald after the umpteenth original engine rebuild.

 

Sort of.  I didn't rebuild them but got through three good second hand 1500 lumps in four years or something.  The second hand MX5 engine has been in there over seven years now.

[Yoss]

1500s are a whole different ball game. Bearing in mind it started life as something like an 803 the 1500 was a step too far. It's the same bore as the 1300 but a longer stroke. They don't like revving at all. It's not too bad if you have an overdrive box but hopeless otherwise. I have a 1500 FWD gearbox in my 1300, mainly for the uprated input shaft but it is slightly higher geared. But that's still only 16mph per 1000rpm which about 4500 at 70 which the 1500 can't really cope with.

 

 

I've just read that back and it just reads like a paragraph of random numbers. I feel I could have been a little more succinct. To summarize 1300 good(ish) 1500 not good.

[M'coli]

The FIRE engine is a good shout, the 750MC have been using them coupled to the Reliant gearbox in their race series for 14 yeas or so, and they say they get 100BHP out of them. http://www.750formula.co.uk/forum/

 

Also, I'm sure someone on here mentioned that soeone else had couples a Suzuki Swift engine to a Jiminy gearbox, which soudnds like a very light package to fit.