Re: [DML] Modified Deloreans

[James A Strickland <ihaveanaccount@xxxx>]

I think you have no idea the bad of worms that you are opening by trying
to do a engine swap like this. You may be "solving" a high-hp oversteer
with understeer. I think a longblock in the front of delorean would be
ridiculous. You would have to do some serious modification to fit in a
square frame- there's no real room for it..?

About other (really) high HP conversions, I can only think of the 3.8
liter Buick swap (Don Steiger I believe). D-REX has a front engine,
though it is not very deloreanesque, as it is like 7 feet tall (don't
correct me, it could be 12 feet. It's just big, ok?). 

I think a sweeeeeet swap would be a mid-engine setup like the Lotus
Esprit v8. This would make the car much better balanced.

Jim

On Fri, 28 Mar 2003 21:32:50 -0600 MPolzin@xxxx writes:
> Considering I had little else to do on a Friday night I went over to 
> visit
> with my mechanic. Just to give everyone a little bit of background, 
> this my
> "mechanic" used to build monster trucks, engine, frame, everything. 
> He can
> fabricate just about anything, the resources this guy has are just
> incredible - he has pulled out the entire engine in my Delorean,
> disassembled, rebuilt, replaced, etc... Its the first Delorean he 
> has ever
> worked on, but he is fearless and needless to say has some some 
> wonders with
> my car so far.
> 
> The first thing I asked him about was frames, because obviously it 
> has been
> a concern of many people that over the long term they would rust out 
> and
> require replacement, and he assured me that he or any good 
> fabrication shop
> could put a tube frame back under that car or repair the frame if 
> there was
> anything left. He felt a frame could be fabricated at a pretty 
> reasonable
> price, much less than the option currently available. Needless to 
> say I was
> impressed (and relieved) that he felt it would be a fairly staright 
> forward
> thing to do.
> 
> This led to my next question for him, which was: What is the most 
> horse
> power you think you could jam into one of these things? His 
> suggestion was
> to pull the frame out from underneath the car, and put a boxed 
> square frame
> underneath which would free up that center area (the middle of the 
> double
> Y's) for a drive train. This would allow you to keep the car rear 
> wheel
> drive and have a front mounted engine.
> For an engine choice he likes Chevys because there are so many 
> options
> available, specifically the large block Chevys. I ofcourse asked him 
> how he
> would get that size engine in that area in front and his response 
> was
> classic, "Well, it might stick out of the hood a little."
> 
> I'm wasn't so sure if I would want to have an engine hanging out of 
> the hood
> of my Delorean, so we discussed some of the the newer high HP 
> engines now
> available with twin turbos or something like that. There seem to be 
> a ton of
> options available as far as engines go, and fabricating the drive 
> train
> wouldn't be a problem.
> 
> Has anyone actually attemped to do such a thing yet? Mounting the 
> engine up
> front would certainly do away with the front end issues (lack of 
> steering
> because your tires are off the ground) and putting some real HP into 
> a D.
> Are there any 500+ HP Deloreans out there? I am seriously 
> considering
> undertaking this project, and would be interested in feedback.
> 
> Mike
> VIN 4761
> 
> P.S. Anyone have a D for sale cheap with a rusted out frame and 
> trashed
> engine they want to sell cheap? :)
> 
> 
> 
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