x19 lido 1978

hi all , new here. im looking at a x19 lido and was wondering what would be the best engine swap to do as the car will be my only car and i'll be doing aporx 60 miles a day!! any info would be good. thanks. matt

If your car is anything resembling good condition I would steer away from an engine swap. The Lidos are quite easily the best limited edition models in X1/9 history.

On the other hand, if you really, really want to change the engine the "best" option depends on what you want out of it. You could go for the later 1500 without any real trouble. Being a '78 you should already have the cutout in the n/s rear wishbone so it all pretty much bolts in.

Moving on from that I would recommend the MkI Uno Turbo (if you can find one). Again it is the same basic engine but with more bells and whistles. It is a more complicated engine swap due to a bit of mix-and-match but doesn't require any real fabrication work.

Beyond that it is pretty much anything goes as long as you can make it fit! I've seen everything from Big Alfa V6's to noticibly smaller Mazda Rotaries. In general the hardest problem (beyond physical size) is the gearbox so try to find something that has a mid-engined application and you should find it much easier since the linkage for the associated gearbox is on the right side of the engine bay!

so it would be better for me to keep the car as it is. its been restored to almost contors condition. all i have to hope is im not gonna lose any money and it will be a worthwhile investment. ill try to post a photo or two! thanks for the info.

Hiya, as Jimbro says, the lido is a sought after ltd edition, and you could have a good compromise by tweaking the 1290cc motor very easily. I have had a few 128 3p's with this engine, and by simply swapping the cam for a piper 285 or kent fast road etc, and perhaps the weber 34dmtr/34datr carb, you will see big improvements. Upping the compression ratio a tad/ and larger valves will see 100 bhp easy in addition to cam/carb mods, and more importantly, it will be USEABLE power. I would personally steer clear of twin webers/too wilder cam etc for a road car. You will lose low/med powerband if you do. (Been there,done that lol) If you do these mods, you could still keep the 'standard' components in your garage, incase you need/want to return to standard spec. One other humble opinion...Don't buy a classic car and hope not to lose any money on it! If you don't lose, great bonus, but if you do, at least you can appreciate/enjoy a piece of italian machinery to justify it!