Engine Swaps and Diffs

[RSmith]

If you were to do an engine swap on a car (I'm thinking about a 4L V8 Jag engine & auto box into a Nissan 300ZX) would you just shorten the prop shaft and use the existing diff or try to get a diff from the donor car?

 

[dpsubaru]

shortening the prop - by cutting and welding?, doubt it would be strong enough, you would need to get a new one made up to your specified length. But if your going to use the prop and the diff (proving the front end fits ok) wouldnt it really depend on the difference in the width of the track? Suspect the Nissan is narrower so you would have to modify the arches etc and handling might be interesting with a narrower track at the front than the back.

 

[RSmith]

There's a company not too far from me who do custom props, might get them to give me a hand.

You say the handling might be compromised with a longer track at the back, so would it be more sensible to just have a custom prop made so I can run the Jag transmission straight down to the Nissan diff and rear setup? Might the Nissan diff break due to the extra power?

 

[BAD63R]

Just out of interest. Are you going to use the engine from a Jag XJ8 or similar? If so, I remember my fathers XJ8 Sovereign and it didn't have much guts and I would imagine it on a auto box to be quite slow. Have you thought about getting hold of a Jag XJR (very similar to the Sovereign but alot newer, not the silly Mondeo rip off) engine??? 4.2 V8 Supercharged My father now has one of these and its a pretty damn quick car as far as those type of Jags go (have nothing against, I do actually really like em ) The difference being that the XJ8 will do 0-60mph in about 8 seconds, the XKR will do it about 5.6 seconds. I know what I would do, enlarge the supercharger cog to make it spin up more, remap, bigger brakes

 

[RSmith]

The difference being that the XJ8 will do 0-60mph in about 8 seconds, the XKR will do it about 5.6 seconds. I know what I would do, enlarge the supercharger cog to make it spin up more, remap, bigger brakes

Sounds epic. The only thing that's stopping me is budget. I'm setting myself a limit of about £2500 to make a custom car just for myself. If I can get my hands on one of those engines in budget then awesome... but it was just the best engine I could find in my price range!