car tuning Car tuning is the modification of a car to optimise it for a different set of performance requirements from those it was originally designed to meet. Most commonly this is higher engine performance and dynamic handling characteristics but cars m ...

culture, an engine swap is the process of removing a car's original

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ...

and replacing it with another. This may be a like-for-like replacement, or to install a non-factory specification engine. Typically an engine swap is performed for performance, swapping-in a more powerful engine; however, an engine swap may also be performed for maintenance, where older engines may have a shortage of spare parts, and so a modern replacement may be more easily and cheaply maintained. Swapping the engine may have negative implications on the cars safety, performance, handling, and reliability. For example, the new engine's different weight balance over the axles and the overall weight of the car can adversely affect the

vehicle dynamics For motorized vehicles, such as automobiles, aircraft, and watercraft, vehicle dynamics is the study of vehicle motion, e.g., how a vehicle's forward movement changes in response to driver inputs, propulsion system outputs, ambient conditions, air ...

. Existing brakes, transmission and suspension components may be inadequate to handle the increased weight and/or power of the new engine with either upgrades being required or premature wear and failure being likely.

Insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

companies may charge more or even refuse to insure a vehicle that has been fitted with a different engine to its initial configuration. For instance, in jurisdictions such as California, with strict, arbitrary

smog Smog, or smoke fog, is a type of intense air pollution. The word "smog" was coined in the early 20th century, and is a portmanteau of the words '' smoke'' and ''fog'' to refer to smoky fog due to its opacity, and odor. The word was then int ...

rules, it may not be possible to register a late-model vehicle with an engine swap, even if it can be proven to produce less pollution than the original engine (owing to "visual inspection" rules).

Types of engine swaps

Swapping to a diesel engine for improved fuel economy is a long established practice, with modern high-efficiency diesel engines this does not necessarily mean a reduction in performance associated with older-version diesel engine swaps. For the particular application of off-road vehicles the high torque at low speed of turbo diesels (combined with good fuel economy) makes these conversions particularly effective. However, older non-electronic fuel injection diesels were well known for their reliability, especially in wet conditions. An engine swap can either be to another engine intended to work in the car by the manufacturer, or one totally different. The former is much simpler than the latter. Fitting an engine into a car that was never intended to accept it may require much work and money; modifying the car to fit the engine, modifying the engine to fit the car, and building custom engine mounts and transmission bellhousing adaptors to interface them along with a custom built driveshaft. Some small businesses build conversion kits for engine swaps, such as the Fiat Twin cam into a

Morris Minor The Morris Minor is a British economy family car that made its debut at the Earls Court Motor Show, London, in October 1948. Designed under the leadership of Alec Issigonis, more than 1.6 million were manufactured between 1948 and 1972 in ...

or similar. A common anecdote among tuners in the United States is that the easiest way to make a car faster is to drop in a more powerful engine, such as the General Motors small block engine as used in the

Corvette A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the slo ...

. The

Chevrolet Vega The Chevrolet Vega is a subcompact automobile that was manufactured and marketed by GM's Chevrolet subdivision from 1970 to 1977. Available in two-door hatchback, notchback, wagon, and sedan delivery body styles, all models were powered by an ...

(and its Astre,

Monza Monza (, ; lmo, label= Lombard, Monça, locally ; lat, Modoetia) is a city and ''comune'' on the River Lambro, a tributary of the Po in the Lombardy region of Italy, about north-northeast of Milan. It is the capital of the Province of Mo ...

, and Skyhawk sisters) is a candidate for a

small block The Chevrolet small-block engine is a series of gasoline-powered, V-8 automobile engines, produced by the Chevrolet division of General Motors between 1954 and 2003, using the same basic engine block. Referred to as a "small-block" for its size ...

swap; some have seen

big block A V8 engine is an eight-cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. The first V8 engine was produced by the French Antoinette company in 1904, developed and use ...

s, also. Chevrolet engines have been used in such cars as Toyota Supras, BMWs, RX-7s, Mazda Miatas,

Jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the th ...

sedans, Datsun 240s, 260s, and 280Zs, Corvairs, and others. In the Honda world, engine swaps include the Civic Si (B16A), The Civic Type R (B16B), Integra GSR (B18C), and the Integra Type R (B18C5) engines. More recently, swapping larger displacement Honda engines (such as the J-series V6) has become more popular. Swapping any of these motors into a lightweight 88-00 Honda Civic chassis can achieve greater performance. Chrysler made many turbocharged vehicles in the 1980s, and these engines share much in common with the mass-produced naturally aspirated vehicles. It is quite common to obtain an engine from a vehicle such as a

Dodge Daytona The Dodge Daytona is an automobile which was produced by the Chrysler Corporation under their Dodge division from 1984 until 1993. It was a front-wheel drive hatchback based on the Chrysler G platform, which was derived from the Chrysler K platfo ...

and swap it into a

Dodge Aries The Plymouth Reliant and Dodge Aries are mid size cars introduced for model year 1981 as the first " K-cars" manufactured and marketed by the Chrysler Corporation. The Reliant and Aries were the smallest cars to have the traditional 6 passeng ...

. The Mopar Performance arm even offered a kit to upgrade the Dodge Daytona to rear wheel drive with a Mopar V8. Engine swaps are also somewhat common within the

Volkswagen Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German Automotive industry, motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a ...

tuning scene, often placing Type 2 (Bus), Type 3, and Type 4 (Squareback) engines in the Type 1 (Beetle). Water-cooled engines, such as the GTI 16-valve four,

VR6 VR6 engines are V6 piston engines with a narrow angle between the cylinder banks and a single cylinder head covering both banks of cylinders. Volkswagen Group introduced the first VR6 engine in 1991 and VR6 engines currently remain in productio ...

, or 1.8 T are commonly swapped into the Mark II GTI, Jetta, and Corrado. Less common is the swap into a Mark 1

Golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

or Cabriolet, giving an amazing power-to-weight ratio, even with minimally modified powerplants. Porsche engines are also very popular one of the most popular is to take the engine from a Porsche 911 super 1600. Vintage VW's also take very well to the Subaru EJ "flat four" engine, which also has a factory turbo-charged variant. In the

Super GT Super GT (stylized as SUPER GT) is a grand touring car racing series that began in 1993. Launched as the , generally referred to as either the JGTC or the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship, the series was renamed to Super GT in 2005. It is ...

racing series, engine swaps can be considered a way of life for the upper tier GT500 cars, most of which are provided with specially modified racing engines from the manufacturers. GT500 class rules themselves allow for any engine to be swapped into a car as long as it is from the same manufacturer. Notable examples include Toyota swapping in highly tuned 4-cylinder engines originally from the

Toyota Celica The is an automobile produced by Toyota from 1970 until 2006. The Celica name derives from the Latin word '' coelica'' meaning 'heavenly' or 'celestial'. In Japan, the Celica was exclusive to the '' Toyota Corolla Store'' dealer chain. Pro ...

into their

Toyota Supra is a sports car and grand tourer manufactured by the Toyota Motor Corporation beginning in 1978. The name " supra" is derived from the Latin prefix, meaning "above", "to surpass" or "go beyond". The initial four generations of the Supra were ...

GT500 race cars. British sports cars (such as MGs and

Triumph The Roman triumph (Latin triumphus) was a celebration for a victorious military commander in ancient Rome. For later imitations, in life or in art, see Trionfo. Numerous later uses of the term, up to the present, are derived directly or indirectl ...

s and

Sunbeam Alpine The Sunbeam Alpine is a two-seater sports roadster/drophead coupé that was produced by the Rootes Group from 1953 to 1955, and then 1959 to 1968. The name was then used on a two-door fastback coupé from 1969 to 1975. The original Alpine was ...

s) from the late 1960s and early 1970s were attractive and light-weight cars that had excellent suspensions. However, they were known for troublesome electrical systems, modest power levels and a certain amount of unreliability. It is popular to take one of these small classic sports cars and add a more powerful engine. The original manufacturers did this when the vehicles were current with the MGB GT V8 and the Sunbeam Tiger. The all-aluminum Buick and Oldsmobile V8 engines are a traditional choice for these cars. Swapping the stock MGB all-iron 1.8L 4-cylinder engine and 4-speed transmission for a Buick 215 V8 and a modern 5-speed transmission actually improves both cornering and acceleration because it reduces the overall weight of the car by about . Power is approximately doubled. Derivatives of that classic General Motors engine, the 3.5L, 3.9L, and 4.2L

Rover V8 The Rover V8 engine is a compact V8 internal combustion engine with aluminium cylinder block and cylinder heads, originally designed by General Motors and later re-designed and produced by Rover in the United Kingdom. It has been used in a wide ...

s are also frequently used. (The original Buick / Oldsmobile, the Rover, and the related Morgan-licensed V8, are simple bolt-ins. Moreover, in the mid-1980s,

hot rod Hot rods are typically American cars that might be old, classic, or modern and that have been rebuilt or modified with large engines optimised for speed and acceleration. One definition is: "a car that's been stripped down, souped up and made ...

ders discovered the 215 could be stretched to as much as , using the Buick 300

crankshaft A crankshaft is a mechanical component used in a piston engine to convert the reciprocating motion into rotational motion. The crankshaft is a rotating shaft containing one or more crankpins, that are driven by the pistons via the connecti ...

, new cylinder sleeves, and an assortment of non-Buick parts. It could also be fitted with high-compression

cylinder head In an internal combustion engine, the cylinder head (often abbreviated to simply "head") sits above the cylinders and forms the roof of the combustion chamber. In sidevalve engines, the head is a simple sheet of metal; whereas in more modern o ...

s from the

Morgan Morgan may refer to: People and fictional characters * Morgan (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Morgan le Fay, a powerful witch in Arthurian legend * Morgan (surname), a surname of Welsh origin * Morgan (singer ...

+8. Using the 5 liter Rover block and crankshaft, a maximum displacement of is possible. Davis, Marlan. "Affordable Aluminum V8's ic, in ''Hot Rod'' Magazine, March 1985, pp.84-9 & 121.) Although the more recent "narrow-angle" sixty-degree Ford and GM V6 engines are more compact than the Rover/Buick and Ford V8's, (notably the Chevy 3.4L "L32"), they usually do not equal the power-to-weight ratio of the popular 90-degree V8's frequently swapped into smaller cars. These V6's can, however, be very cost effective and easier to fit into a variety of car bodies. The cast-iron block Ford 302 (5.0L) V8 in particular results in spectacular power-to-weight ratios for straight-line acceleration. If the Ford 302 is fitted with aluminium heads, intake, and water pump, the resulting engine only adds about to the front of an MGB, and is substantially more powerful and lighter-weight than the iron-block six-cylinder found in an MGC or TR6. An aluminium 302 performance block is available that weighs 60 lb (27 kg) less than the common iron version, and can be found in displacements of 331 and 347 ci, but those are significantly more expensive than using the common 302 internals. The Nissan

SR20DET The SR20DET is a straight-four four-stroke gasoline engine that is part of the SR family of engines from Nissan, produced from 1989 to 2002. It is a turbocharged version of the SR20DE engine and is a replacement of the CA18DET engine. The S ...

is an all-aluminium fuel-injected DOHC turbocharged 4-cylinder. This compact engine, along with the very compact, light, and powerful Mazda 13B rotary engine, have both been transplanted into too many different cars to assemble a complete list.

Common engine swaps

''Note: These are the most common examples and are not an exhaustive list, just a representative cross section.''

Types of engine swaps

Common engine swaps

See also

References

Further reading