Seeing as we've had countless instances of P-F thread drift into cars, I figured it ought to be consolidated to preserve data integrity of other perfectly good threads.
The starting topics are:
[MENTION=13538]blues[/MENTION] misses the Grand National; so does everyone else with a soul. It is the high polish blue Colt Delta Elite of the car world and it's somehow still awesome despite its character that other folks mistake as shortcomings.
[MENTION=9985]RevolverRob[/MENTION] has a Sunbeam Alpine that's pining for Non-British and actually reliable horsepower. No, we already tried to talk him into smallblock V8 Ford with a 5spd manual trans sort of combo with a Dana 44 behind it... But some guy named Shelby beat us to the punch about 50 years ago, because that Shelby guy had a bigger shoehorn (welder) and could do all the elaborate fab work and custom parts to make it all fit. So we're thinking of various lightweight 4 cylinders like a Honda K-series, Toyota 3S-GE, Nissan SR20, Maybe a Ford 2.3L Ecoboost out of an S550 Mustang?
[MENTION=11419]OlongJohnson[/MENTION] has an E36/E46 on the mind, toying with the idea of an ultra lightweight 4cyl engine swap (Honda K20 or K24 at the moment) and a 'because racecar' track day style build to properly scratch the itch that a Miata hasn't been able to; The Germans do steering and chassis rigidity like nobody else, though engines and electrical systems leave much to be desired. Why not build the best of both?
[MENTION=12978]Doc_Glock[/MENTION] and [MENTION=13759]HeavyDuty[/MENTION] are enjoying stock cars!
Let's encourage them to stay happy, be jealous of their happiness with stock vehicles, and remember that money spent on car projects is money that could be spent on ammo, training, more pistols, or trying to build that inevitable house out of barely-used holsters.
[MENTION=11419]OlongJohnson[/MENTION]: E36/E46 swaps fall into two categories; race car only, or something that can still wear a plate and be street registered.
First things first, for a race car build I personally believe you're making the science projects into bigger issues than they really are.
While the NB Miata engine + turbo almost makes sense on paper, only the earlier E36 chassis can really be carved down to that kind of weight in a sane manner, and you run into problems because simply doing a turbo Miata will be cheaper to cage, maintain, keep alive, keep tires/brakes/consumables on, and it'll almost certainly be faster than the same engine/HP in a BMW shell. So to take advantage of the BMW chassis, I'd suggest aiming for a streetable build and more HP that isn't so hamstrung by the weird Miata aftermarket like the NB 1.8L.
K24's are comparatively cheap and even a TSX K24 with the RBB cylinder head is a ~170-180whp engine left NA on stock cams with tuning, etc, and turbo setups are simple and plentiful to tune with K-pro, which can combine with a retained EGR system and catalytic converter to maintain OBD-II compliance on the Honda PCM if needed for a '96+ BMW that you want to put plates on.
The K24's stock oil pan is really the only downside vs the NB 1.8L. The K24 makes more power and torque everywhere in the rev range, has better throttle response, it's wonderfully Honda-reliable, has mountains of aftermarket parts and plentiful donor Acuras/Hondas stateside to support Hotrodding hijinks. Plus the intake and exhaust sides are opposite the Miata engine so you don't need to worry about turbo setup clearance with the LHD steering shaft, etc which turns into a problem on SR20DET/RB25-26 swaps in LHD E36/E46 builds.
I think it gets down to two main questions; do you want any HVAC, and how much HP is enough?
If HVAC can go, you can cut the firewall to accommodate the K24's stock oil pan and simply set the engine as far back as it needs to go, and decide on a gearbox from there once your total flywheel-to-shifter distance is known. That will do wonderful things for your weight distro and frees up tons of front end real estate for a big radiator/intercooler setup.
On HP; A simple single turbo setup and Kpro on a Honda PCM should do everything you need it to do with the stock engine. 350-400whp on unopened TSX K24's is fairly common so keeping it around 325-350whp on a small turbo will spool fantastically well and wonderful Honda cylinder heads don't need boatloads of boost pressure to make decent HP.
If you want to stay NA, ITB's and a custom header with some big cams can get the K24 into the mid-high 200's at the wheels and it sounds incredible, but it will cost significantly more than a modest turbo setup.
Wildcard/random idea; The Toyota 1UZ-FE 4.0L V8 is an all aluminum, DOHC 32V engine that makes ~220-230whp with open exhaust and everything else stock, including the PCM. If that'd be enough horsepower for your projected E36 build, an OBD-I E36 and OBD-I Lexus SC400 donor engine will be rear sump and set up for a tighter I6 engine bay.
Adapters for Toyota W58, R154, and Nissan CD009 transmissions are plentiful. It'd be profoundly reliable, torquey, and sound pretty good too. Even better? It'd be relatively cheap if you cherrypicked the combo as deals came up.