MG Sports Cars

I'm thinking about buying a 1975 midget and swapping out the 1500 for something more performance oriented. However, I don't want to do any major fabricating, so I'm looking for an engine which will "pop" right in. I'd also like to upgrade to a 5 speed transmission. Any suggestions?

Christian, I'm afraid you're out of luck on this one. There's really no engine swap that I know of that will "pop" in without some fabrication. Most of the 5 speeds will reqire tunnel mods except for the Datsun 210 transmission, but those are getting rare. If you could find the complete Datsun drive train then that engine and trans makes a pretty clean swap but they're getting rare.
Take a look at the Midget and Sprite conversions here in the newsletter and also take a look at the ones shown at [www.spritespot.com] and also [www.modifiedhealeys.org]
There are a couple of cars around running a Toyota quad cam 4 and 5 speed, but I don't know how much modification or fabrication that swap required. It looks like a good fit from the photos I've seen. Here's the link to one of them. [www.home.earthlink.net]
Hope this helps.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2009 12:37PM by Bill Young.

And....those are the words of an experience modified V6 Midget owner, his words are as good as Silver, well......ok Gold !!

Well thats kind of disappointing. What would require the least modifications to fit?

Let's first assume that turbochargers aren't suitable (due mainly to fabrication challenges)...

For a car to accelerate briskly in normal traffic, torque output is more important than horsepower per se. Usually torque capacity seems linked to displacement. The Mazda Wankel "rotary" engines are lightweight and very compact, but unfortunately they're not exactly famous for torque - which is why I'd personally rather have a V8 in an MGB - but a Mazda rotary might be just the ticket for a Midget! You'll have to learn to love the horrible racket those little engines make, and you'll have to learn how to carry momentum through corners. Once you get your revs back up, you'll accelerate briskly. Your advantage is that a Midget doesn't weigh much to begin with.

Take awhile to carefully consider this rotary midget, and try to imagine a greatly simplified version without all the racecar suspension tricks and safety mods: Brian Kraus's 1976 MG Midget with 1986 Mazda 13B rotary engine

As I recall, when Brian attended our 2007 BritishV8 meet in Ohio he had with him a spare motor mount assembly he had created for putting a rotary engine in a Midget, and he was offering it for sale. (Brian also has a little business selling wheels...) Perhaps Brian could also be persuaded to make another exhaust header based on the pattern of the one he's already using. If you could persuade Brian to fabricate those two pieces, the rest of the engine installation should be relatively straightforward.

I won't post Brian's contact info here without his consent... but if you're interested you can PM me for it.

What about that VTEC swap?

How about puttin a Midget into a Jag LOL

You could try the Suzuki Swift motor. [www.ado13.com] It's like the fabrication equivalent of Monty Python's "Spam" bit It's still got Spam in it, but there's less Spam than "Spam, Spam, Spam and Spam"

Quote-
Take awhile to carefully consider this rotary midget, and try to imagine a greatly simplified version without all the racecar suspension tricks and safety mods: Brian Kraus's 1976 MG Midget with 1986 Mazda 13B rotary engine

Back in the 60's when I was in College I used to run in the Southern California autocrosses. There was a guy with a warmed over rotary powered Super 7 that was scary fast, it would out accelerate a 427 Cobra (driven by Eliot Forbes-Robinson by the way) off the turns. Point is you can have a very quick Spriget with a fairly low key rotary. If you got one of the later 4 rotor engines it would be really impressive.

Jim

Curtis, don't be misled by Brian's really clean installation, there's a lot more fabrication there than meets the eye and Christian was looking for a conversion with minimal fabrication. For almost any swap there will be some need to enlarge the transmission tunnel. The width is usually ok after any unnecessary brackets etc are trimmed from the transmission, but usually the front section has to be raised and lengthened to move the shifter to the rear and the center crossmember modified for a new type of transmission mount. For several of the 4 cylinder swaps the heater/battery mount can be left as is, but many remove it and when that happens the battery has to be relocated and you loose the heater and defrost for street driving. In addition, the rotary swap will require some removal of material from the passenger side footwell for intake manifold clearance. That's the wide point on the rotary and really can't be avoided. It's usually not too bad, most passengers can accomodate the reduced foot or leg room, but just be aware going in that it will be a bit more cramped on that side and a Spridget is already a small car. Any of these engines mentioned will usually double or more the original power and add very little weight, so they will all be screamers.
Christian, the short of it all is that you will be doing some sheet metal work on the tunnel at least and maybe on the firewall and battery mount as well. Motor mounts will have to be designed for any of these engines, there are no kits. Headers will also have to be built. As you can see from the various cars, all use custom built headers, the stock manifolds just don't fit in these tight confines of a Spridget engine bay. If you're up to that level of fabrication then make your choice of engine and have a good time. We'll be here to support your efforts if we can.
Bill

Thanks for the advice guys. I've got a friend who'll custom build the headers for me and a bit of sheet metal work won't be that bad. When I can afford to do the swap I'll be back.