Re: [DML] "The Sacrilege of the PRV " or "To Swap or Not to Swap (the Engine)"

[Steve Stankiewicz <protodelorean@xxxxxxxxx>]

Now that everyone's tried to scare the living $hit out of you about engine swaps, I'd figured I'd chime in.  Whether it's a swap or a modified PRV, the level of effort is similar (and large in both cases).  If you can't afford to pay a shop to do the conversion, you had better be confident in your ability to (and have the tools to) completely tear-down and rebuild an engine.  Granted, you may not have to actually rebuild you replacement engine, but if you don't have the skills/equipment to rebuild one, you probably don't have the skills/equipment to pull off the engine swap yourself either.

The truth is there's unfortunately not an easy way to get significantly more power into the D.  And that's one reason many like to poo poo the suggestions of engine swaps or modified PRV's.  (It makes it easier to live with the do-nothing approach.)  Let's assume that (for whatever reason) Delorean had installed the wimpy Chevy 307 smallblock as the stock engine in the Delorean.  By now, at least half of them would have been swapped for 350's, 383's, etc. with little mention of "sacrilege".  Why should a modified PRV or a 3.0 PRV be any different?  (It's not.  They're just not as popular/available as the Chevy and therefore more costly to modify.)

When it comes to retaining the car's "essence", my opinion is the modified stock PRV or the 3.0 PRV's do that the best, BUT as long as the replacement engine doesn't negatively affect the driving experience (i.e. a cast iron Chevy big block would make the car tail-heavy and handle like crap), then I say any engine can be fair game.  (Just ask Marc about his Infinity-engined D.)  If done properly, the only difference you should notice from the driver's seat is more power (and maybe a different exhaust note).

As far as the car not being a Delorean if it has a Chevy (or some other engine).  That's just purist BS.  If that's the case, we're all truly driving Volvo's with stainless bodies.

 
Steve

VIN 2650 ("Project Delorean")
www.projectdelorean.com



----- Original Message ----
From: Rob Greenhaw <wylldshark@xxxxxxxxx>
To: dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, January 31, 2007 2:14:23 PM
Subject: [DML] "The Sacrilege of the PRV " or "To Swap or Not to Swap (the Engine)"

A buddy who owns a D was mentioned having no love for the PRV. I can totally understand where he is coming from but the statement got me to wonder about swapping engines and keeping the car's "essence" intact. This is an issue I've debated for a long time, but now is the time to bring it to the DML and ask opinions. 

The thing I've always wondered is this: if you swap the engine out, is it still a DeLorean?

We've known about the various engine swaps folks have done to their cars to juice out more power and make the DeLorean what it was meant to be. 

Sure, the name is there and the body is the same, but I've always seen the engine as a car's "heart", so to speak. If you take that out and put say, a Chevy 350, is the car not a Chevy with a DeLorean body?

That's the sort of reckoning I've always had. Sure, the PRV is weak as hell and was not meant for performance, but there are race versions out there that produce 650hp! 

I would rather extensively modify a DeLorean engine than replace it with something else unless it was something related to the DeLorean like the Alpine set up or maybe even the Esprit. But even with the Esprit engine it would be an American Lotus. The Apine I could handle, since it is the same engine block.

Anyway, you get my drift. Feel free to comment on it and maybe help me overcome that sort of "sacrilege" of replacing the DeLorean's powerplant since this is the only car I feel that way about.

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