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I have a '65 AH sprite, that is somewhat apart, it was backed into while my father was driving. I'm thinking smallish V8, or maybe stay with the 1098cc and fuel injection/turbo. its currently totaled, but its free to me, has wire wheels with knock offs and ran when parked many years ago.
I'm just mainly looking for something to screw with.
What are your thoughts and suggestions?
Andrew
ls1
1275 with at small turbo and intercooler.... Like one from a Sprint Turbo small. Just make sure and put a decent 5-speed behind it.
-Rob
The A series is tough to convert to fuel injection unless you go with throttle body injection because of the 5 port head. The siamesed intakes will end up being lean as their adjacent cylinder will steal the intake charge intended for the outer cylinders. You can spend a good bit of money and get a 7 or 8 port head, but that doesn't really make sense with a free to you car. You can convert to a BMW motorcycle head so you can have a DOHC BMC A series engine, but again, unless you are a machinist with access to the right equipment this gets expensive. A 1098 can be fun in a spridget - a 1275 more so. I would just get it running with what you have first and drive the thing.
If you really want to stick some other engine in there I'd go with a 13B rotary.
Why stop at a motorcycle head? Why not a whole engine? 
Well you can burn it, bury it, or dump it. In the Thames.
Drive it off a cliff (save yourself, unless you feel you just can't leave this little guy alone. In that case, tighten your seatbelt and drive it off a cliff).
Take it from someone who knows and cares much about life and Spridgets and going fast. A 1098 or 1275 is only fun in a spridget if you are going over said cliff. That's as fast as you will ever go. With an $11k engine (read classic motorsports midget project) and thousands of hours of work, you will have a car that is as fast as a stock '90 miata. Cry. Then push over cliff, or enter a world of pain. A World Of Pain. You can read about my Midget project if you want to know:
www.home.earthlink.net/~roethler
www.picasaweb.google.com/Brust.Roethler
Teh E36 M3 wrote:Drive it off a cliff (save yourself, unless you feel you just can't leave this little guy alone. In that case, tighten your seatbelt and drive it off a cliff).
Take it from someone who knows and cares much about life and Spridgets and going fast. A 1098 or 1275 is only fun in a spridget if you are going over said cliff. That's as fast as you will ever go. With an $11k engine (read classic motorsports midget project) and thousands of hours of work, you will have a car that is as fast as a stock '90 miata. Cry. Then push over cliff, or enter a world of pain. A World Of Pain. You can read about my Midget project if you want to know:
www.home.earthlink.net/~roethler
www.picasaweb.google.com/Brust.Roethler
Might be true, but another angle is that they just want to enjoy and experience driving/owning/wrenching on a Sprite/Midget/Spridget. The Miata may put up the numbers, but it's never going to be one of those.
Put in a Ford 289, side pipes, an automatic, beefy rear, and a roll bar. I saw one a couple of years ago. Owner was going to put on a set of dual quads. It had the stock tires and brakes...
In reply to triumph5:
Rover V8? Aluminum block, and it keeps it all British, for what it's worth. Ditch the slushbox and put in a manual. Keep the rest of your suggestions. Add some better brakes maybe, and some simple suspension stuff.
When I got an almost-free Spridget years ago, my friends had all sorts of "cool ideas" to "improve" it. Giant V8s, turbos, diesels, electric, wadda, wadda.
Instead, I got another run-down Spridget ($100) and slapped both of them togethter into one mostly-stock race car. I horse-traded a roll bar, used race tires, a decent used engine, etc, etc.....all on the cheap. When I went to my first race I had little more than $1000 in the thing.
I've been racing this pile of crap for almost ten years and there is no one out there who has had more fun with a mostly stock Spridget than me.
I tend to think that when folks do all these "wild mods" to a elemental car like a Sprite or Midget, they spoil the car.....but hey, it's your car.
~This~ is what I'd do. 
I would just put it back together and enjoy it. Then again there's a local one with a DOHC Jaguar engine in it. It's a nose heavy fabricator's nightmare but cool now that it's finished.
Dan
It must irritate the piss out of everyone else on track with show cars when you pass them. Nice car, great video. That's the right thing to do. I think I went down a tough path with mine that now I would maybe change.
I wouldn't put a V8 in it unless it was all aluminum. The weight distribution will kill the handling. I say Suzuki G13 DOHC out of a Swift or the G10T either one with a Samurai transmission. It is lightweight and has more power then stock.
I'm also considering parting it out, and scrapping the frame, and buying something else to screw with. I dunno if I can bring myself to do it though.
Andrew
duratec or ecotec with rwd 5 speed
Yeah, i'm up in the air at this point on keeping it or what do really do.
aeronca65t wrote:~This~ is what I'd do.
Here's your answer.
Free is good, get it running and find out how strong the motor is. If the motor is seviceable fix the brakes and drivetrain first. If you like the payback from a mechanically dropdead simple convertible that has some family history sink more money in it at your leisure.
I like the idea of throttle body injection since it's going to be pretty low on the machining requirements and everything but the controller is pretty cheap stuff if you scrounge a little.
I'd probably spend more time on the suspension and brakes. Don't these have lever shocks? Can you get decent disc brakes up front? Unless you go with something like the Suzi G13, maybe with a small turbo, this won't be a fast car off the line so you might as well focus on the handling. And getting it straight.
My two cents of course.
My MG was a rescue operation. Financially, the smart thing to do would have been part it out and bank the money, but that isn't quite my idiom, so I went whole hog and did a 302 swap. For a sprite. I think I would go with something like twin cam japanese (or magic spinning triangles) drivetrain and enjoy. Then again, the Jefferson video just makes me want to go vintage racing...put it back together and enjoy.
First three at top pf page are Midget. Rotary Toyota and GM V6.
Lots of other neat Brit swaps.
If you decide to keep it and go with the A-series get this book. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tuning-Engine-Definitive-Performance-Economy/dp/1859606202
alex wrote:aeronca65t wrote:~This~ is what I'd do.
Here's your answer.
+1. Vintage racing is that car's best bet for glory.
I'd love to see this posted on ClassicMotorsports.net to see how the answers differ. They love the LBCs more on that side of the wall.
The problem with a V8 swap is that both you and the engine need to share the same interior volume. My 215 Frogeye would have been virtually undriveable (even had it run).
I really like 1275's but if I wanted to do more, I'd think '13b'...
