I've got a v old ( 32 years ) Spider that is in good condition although I notice the boot lid and the bonnet lid are starting to rust underneath. Anyhow, this ain't my problem.

That 1.8TC is a fuel guzzler, and pollutes considerably. At todays fuel prices I just can't even drive it more than once or twice a year!

Being inspired to think about this by a kit car discussion on the Panda thread I was wondering how hard ( or possible ) it would be to take a low power lump in the FIRE series ( perhaps the 1.3/4 from an UNO donor ) that is transverse mounted and rotate it 90' to mount it inline with the diff and use that, and it's gears to drive the donut ring? Would it be a total nightmare?

Or should I just sell the Spyder to someone who can spend the time on it that it deserves?

Hell, if they can do it on Scrapheap Challenge in a few hours...

1.6/1.8/2.0 16v twin spark engine from an alfa 145/6 seem to be a regular conversion for peeps with very old GTV's and such (not the big v6 powered one, the smaller jobs).

Just how bad is the fuel consumption? Can't see it being that bad and if it is I'd say there was a fault somewhere in the engine making it eat more fuel.

Your biggest hurdles are engine mounts and mating it with the original gearbox.

Liam

Bad. 13mpg to 27mpg ( long run 30+ and absurdly high 45 once when it was running too lean ). Once or twice Ive got 75 miles out of a tank.

I was hoping to avoid mating gearboxes, and was thinking of connecting at the donut ring.

Go for a 1.8/2.0 twinspark lump as this is the engine most people use when converting the older Alfa spiders or the 1.8 16v from a Punto HGT or Barchetta.

It is basically the same block and IIRC the newer twinspark engines still have the same points in the block to fix engine mounts inline or might be the V6, the sump is different but only because of the orientation of the engine in front wheel drive - i also would see a problem with mounting the gearbox as the block hasn't changed that much either, you could swap bell housings possibly as well.

Uprating the clutch and internals of the gearbox to handle more torque could be an issue though.

I reckon looking at a 1990> Alfa Romeo spider might be your best bet -

Inline rear wheel drive still
2.0 engine + fuel injection
Would need very little mods to fit if any.
If you could get engine and gearbox would just join at propshaft.

Dim question...but whats the 'donut ring'?

Its what connects the propshaft to the gearbox - when you look at it it looks like a donut :yum: .