GM V6 Conversion

[Alpine 1789]

This seller has a lot to learn about marketing, but this looks interesting:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Other-Makes...0cddaf96:g:btgAAOSwbwlXAu5M&item=141949775766

I'm not sure what "it runs and drives but needs to be finished" means, but it looks like the original steering may have been retained, which I didn't think was possible with this engine.

 

[Bill Blue]

Jim, a lot of what is and isn't possible depends on what he installer is willing to compromise on. It looks like the engine is setting higher than it really should in order to allow the stock exhaust. I believe that is what Ken Miles did with his prototype Tiger. Allows the installation, but not a good solution. But maybe I'm wrong, I'm pretty sure that has happened before.

Pretty rough looking under the hood, makes my car look good. Don't see that very often.

Bill

 

[Alpine 1789]

It looks like the engine is setting higher than it really should in order to allow the stock exhaust.

You may well be correct, Bill, but I notice that the hood seems to close without any modifications to it. It can't be siting that high, can it?

 

[V6 JOSE]

Hi Jim,

The engine is sitting high, but what allows that, is it is fuel injected and doesn´t have a carburetor sitting on top of it. To me it also looks like it sitsa bit too far forward. This will not be a great handling Alpine.

You may well be correct, Bill, but I notice that the hood seems to close without any modifications to it. It can't be siting that high, can it?

 

[DanR]

Very interesting stuff under that hood....

DanR

P.S. And they say it can't be done

 

[Chuck Ingram]

Very interesting stuff under that hood....

DanR

P.S. And they say it can't be done

Dan
With a big bottomless bucket of money practically anything can be done
They also,said I couldn't build my Lister clone.

I also agree with Jose re a poor handling Alpine

 

[Bill Blue]

You may well be correct, Bill, but I notice that the hood seems to close without any modifications to it. It can't be siting that high, can it?

Yes it can. My engine is a long stroke (requires a tall block) inline twin OHC four cylinder engine with the intake plenum setting on top of the block. While not setting exactly vertical ( 3 degree list), the plenum lacks only only about 1/4" of clearing the hood.

Bill

 

[Alpine66]

It is too far forward.
Appears the passenger exhaust manifold/header is contacting the motor mount.

 

[Alpine 1789]

It is interesting that it is so far forward, as there appears to be a lot of room between the engine and the firewall. My guess is that this was done to allow something, perhaps the exhaust, clear the steering gear. The builder could have used some of Bill's fabricating skills!

 

[bulldurham]

Does not appear to be any means of cooling the engine either; if there are any fans they are well hidden.

 

[Bill Blue]

Does not appear to be any means of cooling the engine either; if there are any fans they are well hidden.

Check out the third from last photo. You can see a pusher fan through the opening. BUT check out the manifold intake. He boxed himself in real good on that. No filter, full time hot air and no room for an air intake. "Details" like that are really what determine if a swap is good or bad. Getting the engine installed is easy, making everything work right is hard. Anybody that buys the car will have a lot of work to do. He probably says it is 90% done, when in reality he has 90% to go, because as you "fix" one thing, it screws up something else.

Talk about chasing your tail!

Bill

 

[Barry]

The attached picture is of a L32 / 3400 with the same intake manifold and throttle body mounted in my S-V. Without the distributor, the engine could go back another inch.

The engine in the Ebay car is at least 3" (probably 4") too far forward. When the engine goes forward, the crankshaft pulley has to go over instead of behind the crossmember and the front of the engine winds up at least 2" too high.

 

[Chuck Ingram]

Very interesting stuff under that hood....

DanR

P.S. And they say it can't be done

Dan
With a big bottomless bucket of money practically anything can be done
They also,said I couldn't build my Lister clone.

I also agree with Jose re a poor handling Alpine

 

[husky drvr]

The attached picture is of a L32 / 3400 with the same intake manifold and throttle body mounted in my S-V. Without the distributor, the engine could go back another inch.

The engine in the Ebay car is at least 3" (probably 4") too far forward. When the engine goes forward, the crankshaft pulley has to go over instead of behind the crossmember and the front of the engine winds up at least 2" too high.

Barry,

Just a guess, I think one of the priorities was to allow the trans installation w/o performing surgery on the tunnel and console areas. How did you achieve the trans installation?

 

[Barry]

Barry,

Just a guess, I think one of the priorities was to allow the trans installation w/o performing surgery on the tunnel and console areas. How did you achieve the trans installation?

Don,

Putting a T-5 in a manual trans Alpine requires widening the driver side of the trans tunnel about 1-1/2 inches, but there is no need to widen the console area. I don't think moving the engine & trans forward 3 or 4 inches would eliminate widening the tunnel.