It's 2018 and im sure there must be hidden gems people still haven't tried out yet.
1JZs, 2JZ, etc are quite heavy and old engines. Since it's a fairly common swap on majority of cars, the prices too have gone up and quite difficult to get one locally!
Are there any new reliable light weight turbo engines swaps done that make good power? Preferably JDM?

 

Throw enough money at it and you can do pretty much anything. Have you seen Mad Mike's 4 rotor FD with the RX-3 front?

Aventador to FD. Get er done.

 

A built Honda K-series engine would probably work well

 

Theres a plethora of alloy block v6's that get close to 100hp per liter N/A these days and would fit the bill in terms of low weight and packaging.

 

Where are we drawing the line to define "modern"?

Anyway, with the RB gone, I'm a huge fan of the Nissan VR38. I like the VQs, too, but the VR is a monster! I don't know how light they are, but I also don't much care.

I really dig the Honda J-series engines.

I would like to get some research done on the new Toyota V6s, but I have not made the time to see what they're up to these days.

 

Okay i should've shortlisted it.
Engines that weigh as much as the 13b (to keep the 50:50 weight distribution) , Reliable, makes reasonable power (on par with the rotary or more), does better miles per gallon than the rotary.
I love the idea of the K-series but i think the cost for forced induction, adapter plates, etc will be quite expensive.

 

I think the most complicated and usually expensive hurdle with swapping modern drivetrain is the gearbox. More and more new cars are transverse and automatic. One of the nice things about the LS swaps is that you can find manual-shift robust gear boxes relatively easily (although more expensive than 5 years ago). Also, the engine controls on modern engines is MUCH more complicated and more integrated into the body wiring than older cars. Extensive use of CANbus and proprietary CAN language make it more difficult. And with popularity of direct injection make it more difficult finding (and affording) aftermarket ECUs to control DI engines.

 

Im actually interested in a K24 Swap. Any thoughts as to what's needed to mount it to the FD3S gearbox?
I've seen it on many RX8's but only a couple or two on the FD and no one has bothered to document it.

 

Have you looked at the S2000 box? I know they came with an F-series engine (not the old Accord ones), but they supposedly had some similarities to the K-series. I don't know if the tranny bolt pattern is one of those similarities, but that's where I would start. Outside of that, you'll need to start looking at adapter plates.