Had another look over it tonight with a fresh set of eyes. The starter, steering box and (custom) headers all want to share the same space. Might work but it will be very, very tight. The booster is OK there but would be much nicer if I were to go for a remote booster and update to dual curcuit. Passenger side headers will have to be custom as well. Oil filter will need to be a remote item, No big deal, as it is there is an oil filter extension housing thing there that can be removed.
Water outlet from the rear of the motor that housed all the sensors in it will have to be custom as it wants to point out the rear about 150mm I think it goes to the heater core. Bottom front water outlet with the thermostat in it will be easy. Top front water outlet might foul the bonnet, or at least get in the way of any sort of intake manifold that faces forward.
Sump will need to be converted to mid type, problems here are the oil pick-up as it bolts to the front of the engine, near the oil pump, so that part of the sump will need to be a bit deeper than what I want to accomodate this.
Cross member will have to be sectioned to allow motor to fit lower, they are very similar to early Crown type, made from more metal than needed and just plain bulky, although they have to support the suspension... If I could fit a bellhousing to the motor, I could get a better idea of how far back I can push the motor. As it is, sitting there, it might be able to be pushed back an inch or two, then the sump will go very close to fitting down in the space I have, allowing less mods to the cross member.
Intake. Grrr. This one is probably the biggest issue. There really isn't a great deal of height to be had. It would be a shame to get the engine in and lose performance due to a shit intake design. When I first thought of doing this, I envisaged twin throttle bodies feeding three runners each, on each side of the engine bay. I might just have the height....
Haven't even looked at how or where an exhaust would run under the car...
All food for thought. The exrta weight is a concern although I think I can get just over 50% of it behind the front wheels and lets face it, an RT-81 never really has a chance of being a great handling car, with its truck suspension!!
Please feel free to discuss/comment/add advice ;-)
Cheers Brad.
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