Vauxhall engine

[Hopefuldave]

Stick a v8 in it

The usual in the CF was a Rover V8 or small-block Chevrolet (there are probably bellhousing adaptors still to be had), that big interior engine cover made access quite easy - it'd been designed for the OHC V8 that was killed off by the OPEC crisis, two 2-litre fours on a common crank (if you look at early Vauxhall blocks you can see where the other bank was meant to go...). The cranks are pretty strong, being designed for it!

Dave H. (the other one)

 

[frank horton]

OK thanks for that
the car is on island about 4 hours away, transport no problem.....

eng history,
the owners dad ran it out of oil and coolant till it stopped.....
he's inherited the car and wants it back on the road.....no rust anywhere......
was just hoping something semi modern/GM would fit.....
no probs to make an adaptor plate.....made a few in the past.....
happy to modify exhaust and sumps etc....
as for big engines, here they are pretty much taxed to death and quite rare....
I need something that has no ECU so late 80's-mid 90"s would do....
Hardly any GM products around anyway other than modern shoe boxes.....
be easyer to find a 2.0lt Toyota petrol eng.....
ta........

 

[Cato]

OK thanks for that
the car is on island about 4 hours away, transport no problem.....

eng history,
the owners dad ran it out of oil and coolant till it stopped.....
he's inherited the car and wants it back on the road.....no rust anywhere......
was just hoping something semi modern/GM would fit.....
no probs to make an adaptor plate.....made a few in the past.....
happy to modify exhaust and sumps etc....
as for big engines, here they are pretty much taxed to death and quite rare....
I need something that has no ECU so late 80's-mid 90"s would do....
Hardly any GM products around anyway other than modern shoe boxes.....
be easyer to find a 2.0lt Toyota petrol eng.....
ta........

For cost and simplicity is swapping the engine and gearbox an option? That would open up options for him, something like a Ford Pinto would tick the boxes they aren't hard to find and can be had as a pair for a few hundred. Then there are Opel, Volvo etc. similarly easily available for reasonable money.

 

[mr haynes]

Merc OM602/603/605/606?

Saab B204/234 still simple and robust and GM

 

[Blobber]

OK thanks for that
the car is on island about 4 hours away, transport no problem.....

eng history,
the owners dad ran it out of oil and coolant till it stopped.....
he's inherited the car and wants it back on the road.....no rust anywhere......
was just hoping something semi modern/GM would fit.....
no probs to make an adaptor plate.....made a few in the past.....
happy to modify exhaust and sumps etc....
as for big engines, here they are pretty much taxed to death and quite rare....
I need something that has no ECU so late 80's-mid 90"s would do....
Hardly any GM products around anyway other than modern shoe boxes.....
be easyer to find a 2.0lt Toyota petrol eng.....
ta........

I think youve answered your question you either need to use whats plentiful and easy to source like the 2.0 Toyota or strip what youve got and see how bad it is, ive built many of the slant 4s and still run them so does droopsnoot so between us we should be able to point you in the right direction of whats rebuildable, if its been horribly overheated its probably cracked the head

 

[droopsnoot]

Thats the problem you wont do a cheap rebuild on a slant 4 now, pistons are £500 a set, bearings will probably be £200 for crank/big ends, oil pumps dont exist and unless you have someone that can bore the block correctly it will give problems, I think if an engine swap is on the cards you need to see what is plentiful in Greece if thats where the car is?

Pistons are dear, you're probably about right on bearing prices, oil pumps are available on an exchange basis but they're all high pressure pumps now. It's a job I've got to do soon on my project car. Four of the five crank bearings are the same as a Lotus engine, but the back one isn't. Does it actually need pistons? Only if the block is bad and needs to be bored out.