dr. gonzo

what would you guys consider to be the easiest, quickest and cheapest motor swap? i have less than 2 months, and around 1500 to work with, maybe 1800, no more.

custom13B

need more info,what series of RX-7?

gnx7

iTrader: (10)

'87-93 Ford 5.0/T-5 combo

dr. gonzo

S5 Gtu.


So The Ford 5.0? Why Would That Be The Most Efficient In Time And Money? Dont You Pretty Much Have To Have The Same Kits And What Not From Granny's Spped Shop And Stuff?

digitalsolo

iTrader: (2)

Ford 5.0/T5.

With an 1800 dollar budget you're not going to do any kind of swap WELL. You can find a 5.0/T5 combo for a 200-300 bucks, mounting kit for the same price and have another 1000-1200 to get the rest of the parts you need to not make it a complete death trap; assuming you can fabricate simple stuff.

That's a pretty slim budget for a swap, you may want to rething doing the swap, or wait until you can afford to do it properly. With that budget you're looking at a ~200 RWHP car.

dr. gonzo

Alright, So Where Can I Find This Mounting Kit For Around That Price? Is Grannys Speed Shop The Only Place To Find The Mounting Brackets?

Nihilanthic

www.grannysspeedshop.com

digitalsolo

iTrader: (2)

With the budget you set forth, perhaps you should look for friends with the capablity to build some mounts, that'd put you a couple hundred ahead on the swap.

custom13B

Also post some of your unneeded RX-7 parts on ebay. Your going to need more $$$$.

dr. gonzo

thanks alot guys, help is needed.

Merc63

Really?



I had about that much in my swap.

Jason Kleckner had a total of $2000 into his V8 RX7, based on an anniversary edition car, and that included the cost of the car to start with...

http://www.grmotorsports.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=8757



I think you need to rethink what you mean by being done "well" and "safe..." Both these cars are well done and safe. And FAST. (mine ran low 12s, and Jasons runs high 11s...)

digitalsolo

iTrader: (2)

If you do all the work yourself (or friends that work for free/beer money) it can easily be done in that price range; especially if you already have an engine.

With an 1800 dollar price limit, it's going to get eaten up instantly if you can't do damn near 100% of the work yourself.

Decent exhaust is going to run 250-300 dollars, add another 150-200 to that if you want to be street legal in the United States; 100-150 for a driveshaft; another 350 for mounts; 150 dollars for a radiator and materials to fabricate it yourself. Another 250-300 dollars for misc. parts; That's ~1100 out of 1800 without the engine, and that's doing everything but exhaust and mounts yourself. It certainly can be done, but it requires someone with fabrication experience, or access to someone with fab experience.

90% of people on this forum (maybe slightly less so in this section) are not qualified to do the amount of work necessary, with the skill necessary for it to be a safe vehicle.

Hell, I do all my own work (minus buying a set of mounts I reworked) and I'm at 10K+ in my swap (not counting all the combinations I didn't end up using), and it's a lowly FC.

Edit: Oh, and if you guys have some line I don't know about on 600-700 dollar 302/T5 combos with enough power to put an FC in the 11s and look as clean as the ones in those pictures, let me know, I'll buy as many as you can sell.

Nihilanthic

Same here.

treynon

FB 5.0 T5 done

Merc63

That's a given. The whole point of staying on budget, whether it's working on cars or houses is doing work yourself. And to me, the point of doing this is because you don't want to/can't spend on a new high performance GT like a new Z06 or Aston. And if you can't afford a new car, you better know how to fix/work on/build the car yourself.

But saying a car can't be built fast and safe for that kind of money is incorrect. it can, and many people have. Just becweau you have to do it yourself is not a bad thing. And in fact, for those of us that do it, that's half the fun of the hobby. We do it becaeu we LIKE to build cars ourselves.



Depends on where in the US. My car was fully street legal where I built it and lived, but had no cats or emissions of any sort, as they weren't required there.


My front driveshaft yoke came with my $100 parts car that supplied the initial engine and trans, and and cost me $70 at Kitsap Drivelines to have the Ford front yoke welded to the Mazda driveshaft and balanced. the Ford yoke is the same diameter as teh Mazda shaft, so it was easy, and it never failed even in 5 years of autocross launches.

my mounts cost $20 in materials. Fabbed them myself. http://www.freewebs.com/adesso/mounts.htm

Both are readily available if people stop hanging out with ricers ewho think that boilting on something from a catalog is "building a car." and start hanging out at racetracks with people that build cars in tehir garages, or at hot rod events with guys that fab up everything on very low buck tradtional rods. How the hell do you think guys like me figured out how to do it? We weren't BORN able to build a car. it took having an interest and learning. But it didn't take money.

It takes very little to learn the skill. Merely the attitude that buying the latest, greatest, newest trick parts off the shelf is not a necessity, and that a mig welder can be your friend. Even if you have to borrow/rent one. And that you need to take your time and not rush it.

You're using a late model engine, right? I see the list of costs where an engine and trans runs $4k. I bought a used drag race Ford 302 for a grand, and the buddy I bought it from let me make payments of a hundred a month. I built my car while working on a $10/hr wage. It was safe, fast, reliable, and I spent less on the whole car than you did on your engine. Yes, it required me doing everything. That's the point. Take the initiative, learn the skills, do it yourself, and have pride in what you accomplish.


Just look around and be ready to snap them up. Buy them in parts cars, ex-race cars, etc. BTW, my car used a B&M kitted AOD automatic. The trans is only a $100 unit, and the shift kit was $50.

As far as cleanliness, a few cans of Gunk engine brite, and a couple spray cans of paint when the engine is still out of the car does wonders.

digitalsolo

iTrader: (2)

Your car isn't legal anywhere in the US if it originally came with cats and you pulled them, that's federal law, which supercedes any state law or statute, period.

That said, I'm assuming your aiming your comments as a general statement and not toward myself; I've got experience in fabrication on everything from CAD/CAM to hand working steel. As I said, everything on my car was done by myself, excluding the mounts, as the cost/benefit wasn't worth spending my time on them. My total time in the car over the past 3 years is somewhere around 1000 hours, including research; it probably needs another 800-1000 hours before I consider it done.

Most of my experience comes from working for/with top fuel racers and crew chiefs, both car and motorcycle; as well as studying materials and electrical engineering (Purdue) and just simple experience.

It's impressive you managed to scrounge the parts to do your swap for that price range, no doubt; and you're right, I've got more in my engine (actually, just in my nitrous kit) then your car; that doesn't particularly bother me.

I still stand by my opinion it's not easy to build a well sorted, safe V8 FC with any appreciable power for 1800 dollars or less; especially with 2 months and no prior experience (that being the thread starter and the direction of topic at which all my previous statements were aimed).

Merc63

Ok, yeah, whatever. It was built, it was registered, it was insured, and driven on the streets in plain sight of the law for 4 years like that, then inspected and registered in at least 4 other states after I sold it, as it travelled around the country. Don't give a **** about federal law. If it can be registered and street driven after being inspected, it's street legal. You can argue semantics all you want, but that's the way it is.



As I said, everything on my car was done by myself, excluding the mounts, as the cost/benefit wasn't worth spending my time on them. My total time in the car over the past 3 years is somewhere around 1000 hours, including research; it probably needs another 800-1000 hours before I consider it done. [/quote]

that's becaeu you , like many people feel that making the car the equivalent of a new exotic is teh only way it can be considered "finished." I know that teh car is going to be a used car from teh moment it's built, and in a year, even that trick engine is going to be a used engine. if it's safe 10 years down the road, then it's safe if the same part used is already 5 years old. proven with many milions of combined miles on many, many completed cars from a lot of builders and car owners.

I built my car over a 2 week period after work, in a carport.



You saw the plans I made for the mounts. Cost benefit was $20, a couple hours, and savings of over $300 from the way you did it, and the only real cost timewise was time I woudl have been using wtching the Simpsons or something. it's my hobby any time spent on it is not wasted, and the build is as much how I like to spend my time as anything else. Most of us that build cars like this at the grassroots level feel the same. it's the same as the age old traditional hotrodding mentality.

of course, when I built the car, mounts were not available as no one else was doing this. But, I still wouldn't buy mounts now. That money could be better used going towards things I can't fabricate, like the engine itself. And the overall savings in cash QARE worth it to me, as I can then spend that saved money on my family, something new for the house, a acation, etc. and I'd STILL get the car I want. That's where the cost/benefit ratio really shows up.

That and the fact that I was driving the car in two weeks instead of waiting 3 years and putting in 10,000 hours.

I'd only agree with the condition: "with no prior experience." But, by asking the right questions and using our knowledge base, you can do it for the budget, and just take a little longer. For example my motor mounts will work, and they WILL only cost $20 and a couple hours to make and install. And they will still be vastly cheaper than $350 if you have a welding shop duplicate them (I've got quotes from $100-150). And that's only the start.

As was proven WITH a little experience it CAN and HAS been done, so saying categorically that it can't is denying cars that were given as proof. And that, to me, is no different than the average rotary enthusaist arguing that a V7 RX7 WILL be nose heavy and have it's balance ruined even after pictures and videos are shown that prove that not to be the case...

wingsfan

Nope. It's not. There's an EPA guidline that's supposed to be enforced by the state. Just because your state or any other state chooses not to enforce it doesn't make it any more legal.

And just because you're not cited for something doesn't make it legal either. I wasn't cited for speeding on my way home today, and I was able to renew the registration on my car despite not running a front plate. That doesn't make either of my actions legal.

digitalsolo

iTrader: (2)

I love this forum, I must say. I've caught **** from people before regarding myself having a lack of funds for certain projects (my finances are good, but far from infinite), and now I'm catching **** for being an elitest and not "grassroots".

I'm not sure where you're going with most of your points (or if you're even going anywhere with them) but I'm very familiar with the grassroots world from circle track to monster truck to motorcycle, and worked on all of them. I think the primary issue here is simply that your definition of completed and my definition of "half-***" share the same space.