300hp, Small, Lightweight.

SR20 can do around 300whp with an OE turbo from the S14/15 motors. Or just buy one of those. You'd need bigger injectors from an STI or aftermarket, a300zx MAFS, ECU flash, and intercooler and plumbing obviously. They're pretty robust and easy to work on and get this power from though. Tons of parts availability.

Toyman01 wrote: Engine is the next question. To be competitive in E-modified, it needs 300+ hp. One way to do that would be a turbo rotary. The car is already set up for a rotary so that would be the easy button. But, rotaries are getting pretty pricy and that whole "boost in, apex seals out" thing. So I'm looking at other options.

A friend on another forum clued me in to something that circle track guys are running in some classes restricted to unported heads, stock cranks, and 2.4l.

2.5l Duratec with 2.3 crank, direct injected 2.0 head (not the Ecoboost, the regular one), good rods and pistons, good cams, induction and header, way over 300hp.

Sounds like a lot of fun.

Never underestimate the throttle control of a naturally aspirated engine, or forget that turbo engines require more radiator, and intercooling.

I keep going back to this idea, keep trying to poke holes in it but can't.

^That sounds awesome, but it sounds expensive. I imagine lots of $$$$$ parts. Crazy high compression and 100 octane too?

Seriously, USAC midget motors. 350 hp, pushrod and thus tiny, inline 4 cyl.

DaewooOfDeath wrote: Seriously, USAC midget motors. 350 hp, pushrod and thus tiny, inline 4 cyl.

Esslingers, mopar, toyota and gaerte midget engines are Super expensive (no really some are like $40,000) and fragile. Awesome but im assuming out of budget.

Esslingers are pinto based, gaertes are half a small block chevy, toyota and Chryslers are half a nascar motor iirc.

At least that's how it was when I was running an autocraft powered beast midget.

Hehehe...GRM always cracks me up. Someone posts asking about really small, light, narrow, powerful engines, and a few might suggest Hayabusa, or fairly small fours like SR20 of 3S-G, and then here comes the flood of over-400-pound massive turbo Ford Lima suggestions, plus the various really berkeleying wide OHC V-6 suggestions, and nearly three-feet-wide (!!!!!) Subaru suggestions, not to mention the berkeleying massive 3-liter and 4-liter inline six suggestions!!!

I hate to stifle creativity, but for the love of all that is light and nimble, can we set some reasonable benchmarks, please? Like maybe 20" or less back of block to front of the pulleys, under 350 pounds fully dressed, and what should we say for width?...what can the Abomination fit?

3SGTE is super heavy. Seriously, it's built like a tank.

I'm siding with the turbo bike motor idea. Small, light, and plenty of revs to hold through corners.

ae86andkp61 wrote: Hehehe...GRM always cracks me up. Someone posts asking about really small, light, narrow, powerful engines, and a few might suggest Hayabusa, or fairly small fours like SR20 of 3S-G, and then here comes the flood of over-400-pound massive turbo Ford Lima suggestions, plus the various really berkeleying wide OHC V-6 suggestions, and nearly three-feet-wide (!!!!!) Subaru suggestions, not to mention the berkeleying massive 3-liter and 4-liter inline six suggestions!!! I hate to stifle creativity, but for the love of all that is light and nimble, can we set some reasonable benchmarks, please? Like maybe 20" or less back of block to front of the pulleys, under 350 pounds fully dressed, and what should we say for width?...what can the Abomination fit?

To be honest, I'm surprised nobody has said LS1 or 6BT yet.

If you want an interesting statistic, Dodge Neon and VW inline fours are almost the same length/height as a 13B. Both have a 220mm deck height and fairly "small" cylinder heads. The VW engine is slightly shorter in length and is lighter than a rotary. But getting the power in a reliable and driver-friendly way may be a crapshoot, and then you have to fit it all in the nose.

Toyota 1/2zz turbo is super light (for a car engine. I can dead lift a dressed one into a full size 4x4 and I'm not in great shape. You'd have to be creative with tranny options but people have done it with fabrication

A lot of talk about weight, but I haven't seen Toyman post what the car weighs w/o drivetrain or what his weight budget is. Obviously lighter is better, but there may be room in the weight budget to get a less high strung motor/more reliability.

The car is about 1700-1800 pounds now without the fat driver. E-Mod's minimum weight is 1700 pounds including driver. I need to shed 300+ pounds so light is good. Some of that weight I can lose by changing the steel hood and trunk to composite. I honestly don't know what the 12A and 5 speed weighs. Off the top of my head, the engine is in the 275-300 range. I can throw a transmission on the scales when I get home.

I hadn't planned to do any modifications to the car prior to selling it, but if I'm going to keep it, it needs more prep work to be competitive in E mod. Weight, tires, and HP. I'm just starting the process and trying to get my head around some of the options.

I would not mind having this guy knowing I showed up at a nationals event.

That's going to take a lot of effort, because the above car is unbelievably fast.

Here is another vote for SR20DET. Theyre abuse proof. NA, they make gobs of torque (for a 4 banger), and like has been mentioned, is fairly light and compact (B13 SE-R Sentras had these NA, and are tiny in comparison to todays compacts).

The Infiniti G20 also had SR20DE stock from the factory. MotoIQ has been campaigning a BOOSTED P10 INFINITI in time attack, and it has barely uttered a whimper. And theyre not throwing cubic media money at it either - theyre taking a pretty sensible approach. Given the age of the motor (orphaned now), the aftermarket is still STRONG.

Theres a reason that they say a couple of Nissan SR20's would pull a premium one week before race wars.

How does a 4G63 compare to an SR20?

In reply to Toyman01:

Well, there you go- that is a tiny british car with a turbo rotary right? Looks like a proven formula to me

If you're not sticking with the spinning doritos, I'd look at bike engines- although the only way you're getting 300hp in a stock package will be if you can get your hands on an H2R engine, which wouldn't be cheap. If you want to turbo a bike engine or couple multiple engines together that's an entirely different can of worms.

Also, is there a ballpark budget? If you want a really silly but readily available lightweight engine, there are plenty of companies that will sell you 350hp turbo Harley drag racing engines for $8k- you'd still need to figure out a transmission, but you'd get to ditch the radiator and cooling system and have a hilarious sounding idle.

SRT4 Neon with a jeep bellhousing and sky/solstice trans. K series with a miata trans and a K miata adapter. Run a KA Nissan since those tend to be discarded to swaps? What's the plan for running the new engine, I assume efi and some sort of ecu?

You know now that I think about it more, in another year you should be able to find wrecked fiesta STs with the smaller eco boost and the ecoboost mustang is RWD.....

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote: Also, is there a ballpark budget?

Ballpark would be under $3k to buy a engine and transmission. Add another grand for installation hardware. I can build a lot of necessary hardware from scratch for pretty much $0. Add in another several of hundred for tuning.

EFI is a requirement. Simple EFI would be a big plus. I'm not a computer guy, but I wouldn't mind learning it. There is a local tuner shop that has a dyno. I might need to stop by and talk to those guys and see what they specialize in. Having a local company that speaks the language might be a big plus for when I get stuck.

thatsnowinnebago wrote: What if you added a third rotor? Everyone loves a 20b.

Seriously if the Rotary fits in the engine bay just use the easy button. No need to swap transmissions and honestly a well built rotory will make 300hp reliably for at least a few years of track work if you do the prework.

They tend to blow up when built by 18 year olds looking for a magic dyno number with cheap parts.

Appleseed wrote: How does a 4G63 compare to an SR20?

4G63 engines are parts should be more plentiful in the US at least. Might even be overkill, a stock 4G63 should run 300HP all day long without issue.

I'm not familiar with SR20's, but the oiling system in the 4G63 may be an issue at higher cornering Gs.

For as much hate as the 7-Bolt later gen 4G63 get for crankwalk, they do have much better torque delivery due to the better head design, turbo, and slightly higher compression. Would be very cheap to find a 7-bolt engine, wiring harness and ECU, run on DSMLink engine management and drop it in. Only problem would be transmission compatibility, you would need to get a bell housing or adapter made, which is where the SR20 would definitely have an edge.

Toyman01 wrote: The car is about 1700-1800 pounds now without the fat driver. E-Mod's minimum weight is 1700 pounds including driver. I need to shed 300+ pounds so light is good. Some of that weight I can lose by changing the steel hood and trunk to composite. I honestly don't know what the 12A and 5 speed weighs. Off the top of my head, the engine is in the 275-300 range. I can throw a transmission on the scales when I get home. I hadn't planned to do any modifications to the car prior to selling it, but if I'm going to keep it, it needs more prep work to be competitive in E mod. Weight, tires, and HP. I'm just starting the process and trying to get my head around some of the options. I would not mind having this guy knowing I showed up at a nationals event. That's going to take a lot of effort, because the above car is unbelievably fast.

300 pounds? Maybe the driver needs a diet too?

I believe the sr20 is lighter than the 4g (has like 25lbs of brackets anyway) and making the 4g rwd requires a trans adapter and sometimes you have to relocate the coolant parts from the rear based on your firewall, and at the minimum get the intake manifold flipped or run an aftermarket one.

I didnt know this car already had a rotary, I would just stick with that. You can get a 20b from almost any japanese importer.

For that budget, Id be on the hunt for a Solstice GXP part out. 260hp/260tq stock. A bunch more power easily/cheaply available. Lightweight 4 cylinder with factory 6 spd.

A turbo rotary makes sense too since it could probably be done with minimal change to what's there.

In reply to STM317:

I was just looking at those on Copart. There are 5 of them within 200 miles of me.

For that budget, Id be on the hunt for a Solstice GXP part out. 260hp/260tq stock. A bunch more power easily/cheaply available. Lightweight 4 cylinder with factory 6 spd.

The AR5 trans in the Solstice is a 5 speed - on the turbo version, at least, the power band is so broad that you really don't need extra gears or really close ratios.

Getting 300 bhp from a GXP engine is trivial.

I know some Honda engines can do 300NA without much issue if built for hi rpm. Another way is going with the small 1.6L Honda for weight then turboing it, those engines have an enormous aftermarket.