alright, i dont have a camaro, but i found this site on an internet search and thought you could help. alright, well i have a '58 austin healey's sprite (bugeye) that i'm restoring. i am gonna make it into a racing car. the thing is extremely light-two people can pick the whole thing up (minus the engine and tranny). i think it would be nice to put a bada$$ chevy 60 degree v6 into it. i'd go for the 3.4 liter, and possibly have it bored out as much as possible. i'd really like to get ahold of one of the aluminum blocks but they're like 3500 bucks and i'm poor. i need to know if anyone has any suggestions to go about building the thing into a monster (over time as i get money). it's gonna be fuel injected, can i still put a blower on it? i heard there's probs with that but i am an amateur and dont really know what i'm talking about. how high do you think i could get the power output, how much would it cost, and would it be street driveable. what's a good compression ratio that i wont have to buy special fuel with? sorry for all the wacky questions, but can you help me out. i'm trying to learn this amazing sport. been tough so far cuz i'm only 15 (years) with little income, but i want to build this car to its PEAK, little by little. and anything that i can do myself at home is that much i dont have to pay for. anyway, i really need some help and suggestions on what to get and do. thanx

Call your local GM dealership and inquire about the heavy-duty/casting iron V-6 block. Extra thick castings for the race folks for excessive boring. I have a V-6 book describing most of this stuff, I'll take a look at it tonight and give you more info. I may even be able to photocopy it and send it to you if you want. Mail me with your address. It's basically race-oriented, and covers 60 and 90 degree V-6 blocks from most manufacturers.

If you want a V6 why not use a 4.3 liter. These are derived from the small block V8. Many internal parts interchange, and it would be cheap. If you use your head I bet you could get built for the cost of your aluminum block.

Steve R.

Too bad your on the other coast, I have a marine 4.3 Vortec engine, with a cracked block. All it needs is another std. block, an intake and everything changed over. It has 18 hrs. on the engine. It is the new style with the balance shaft in the lifter valley. That's the route I would go, find a 4.3 Vortec.

well, the reason that i wanted to go with the 3.4 is that it is a 60 degree block and it is light. i dont know much about the 4.3, but it sounds interesting to say the least. i suppose i could even go with a 289, but i'm not sure it will fit. if you know the car i'm talking about (austin healeys sprite bugeye) then you know that it is tiny. but the engine bay is pretty large. the stock engine is a 946 cc motorcycle engine! and it was still fast in its day. in fact, there was even a racing circuit dedicated to the little car. it's gonna be awesome when i'm through with it. are there any good sites out there about engine building? or books (prefer websites)? thanx

Years back I had a friend with a built 350 stuffed into a Bugeye Sprite. It was incredibly fast and absolutely unstable on the street. The excess weight up front destroyed the handling and braking.

You may be on the right track with the V-6. Other alternatives might be the 4 banger and manual trans out of a Pinto - they're cheap and plentiful and can make gobs of power - espcially with a turbo! Or a Mazda rotary motor - those can be screamers and they're almost free also.

Sounds like a great project - but these cars are so small you can easily ruin the handling and overtax the brakes so just be careful it remains driveable and safe.

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Scott
'69 400SB, Richmond 5-speed; '99 HD Road King Classic
www.geocities.com/sdenning1 (http://www.geocities.com/sdenning1)

It's all about power to weight ratio and getting traction anyway, so anything with decent #'s should move it down the road just fine!

Check out the sports car club of america, SCCA, they have autocrosses and in the modified class there are a lot of cars like yours running with different engines. I've seen rotary engines work well. You need a light engine. I saw a guy put a old olds V8 in an MGB with a jag rear end. The jag rear end crossmember bolts to the trunk, the trailing arms go where the leaf springs were attached.

I beleive you would be a lot happier and would benefit more with the 4.3L engine you would get more bang for the BUCK in every respect. Good luck.

71 Camairo

Bodhi;

I've owned both a mark 1 (bugeye) and mark 2 sprite. Other than the cost of parts, loved both cars.

I'd recommend that you find a rear wheel drive toyota corolla with five speed transmission, and buy the whole car (find one that was in an accident)

The straight four cylinder would fit in a lot easier! The five speed toyota transmissions shift great! You wouldn't ruin the balance of the car.

Get the rear-end shortened and weld on brackets so that it will fit (I doubt that anybody on this board knows what semi-eliptical springs are). Some of the corolla's even came with rear disks!!

Be sure to put the front disk brakes off a newer Sprite on it also!!!!

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Wes. Vann
Technical Reference Section

Wes Vann, Give us some credit ... I am sure there are more people out there than you think that know what "semi-eliptical springs" are. I have to be nice because of the web page agreement .... hope your big head still fits through the doorway.

The bugeye has quarter eliptical springs not semi.
(no offense)