Swap thoughts: Small car, big engine compartment

Streetwiseguy said:

The last turbo RX7 is a very natural home for one.  Lots of strength in the differential, lose the melty doritos, all good.

The diff is not very strong.  Anything over 800HP can break it.

Given how cheap and easy it is to make that kind of power with an FD, I would not consider a V8 swap that made less than that.

If you're looking for 'small', there is a large group of folks obsessed with putting all manner of V8's in to MGs.  Can't get much smaller of a car, and there are enough build threads out there to answer any question.  http://www.britishv8.org/Photos-MG-Conversions.htm'

However, for me, I'd second the Z32 idea. 

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

Streetwiseguy said:

The last turbo RX7 is a very natural home for one.  Lots of strength in the differential, lose the melty doritos, all good.

The diff is not very strong.  Anything over 800HP can break it.

Given how cheap and easy it is to make that kind of power with an FD, I would not consider a V8 swap that made less than that.

Sir, it's puff-puff-pass. Stop bogarting the blunt. In what world is a diff that can handle 800hp, "not strong?"

That's literally hundreds of hp past the point a car becomes no fun to drive on the street unless you're one of those people that takes videos of "highway pulls."

I drove a friends Fox-body with a supercharged 331 making around 600hp. You could roll into the throttle in 4th and lose traction. It's giggle inducing at first, but gets old quick.

In reply to z31maniac :

In a world where 4 digit power figures are easy to get with an LS anything, 800hp is not very much.

And yeah, I have experienced that on the street.  It is no fun.  

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

In reply to z31maniac :

In a world where 4 digit power figures are easy to get with an LS anything, 800hp is not very much.

And yeah, I have experienced that on the street.  It is no fun.  

I know it's easy. I'm just saying a diff originally built to handle a 255hp rotary, being able to handle 3x that, isn't weak. 

In reply to z31maniac :

I think it actually started life in a truck.  It is an 8" ring and pinion.  I have heard that the gears themselves are interchangeable with RX-8. The Turbo II used it but it had a really long pinion.  It was also used in 929s and some other things... SoloMiata had a good drivetrain page detailing Mazda drivetrain history.

The interesting thing is that what breaks is not the gears, it physically blows the front of the housing off.  This may be an FD specific failure because its housing is FD specific for powerplant frame reasons.

If you want to go by originals, the Ford 9" started life behind, what, 272" Y blocks?   

1st gen RX7 

Any older bitchin Camaro or equivalent 

BMW 318ti with a v12

Big block in an E7 Corolla....