Northstar or 350 chevy swap

[Radiate]

Hey! I own a 1981 delorean were the engine is in pretty bad shape. I also own a 1982 delorean in mint condition. (the 1981 was purchased by my fathre right off the lot). I want to do an engine swap on the 1981 and i saw a 350 chevy in one delorean and a northstar in another and now the buick v6. Which will be the easiest swap? What am i getting myself into? I'm seventeen and willing to learn and can recieve some help if needed but i wanted to consult some experts.

-Devin

[Rich W]

Devin,

You did not give a specific reason for the engine swap other
than the original engine is in bad shape. If you are looking
for the "easiest" swap, the best thing to do is to install a new
High Peformance Delorean PRV engine from DMCH in Texas.

If you are looking for the easiest and least expensive option,
install a good, used Delorean PRV engine. If you are looking
for increased performance and a low expense engine swap,
install a normally aspirated Chevy V6 or Buick V6 engine.
You will spend more money to incorporate a turbo charged
or supercharged V6, both in engine purchase and the install.

If your engine swap is to create the most raw horsepower
and attempt to harness it, this can be costly in the purchase
and constant maintenance to fix everything the V8 breaks.
It is very difficult to fit a Chevy SB 350 V8 engine into the
engine bay of a Delorean without heavy modifications. The
Northstar V8 has been installed with some modifications, but
I have not seen that setup "driven hard" and I personally
think it could benefit from additional engine support/bracing.

I would recommend finding a good, used Delorean PRV V6
and do that engine swap first. You will learn a lot along the
way about the stock Delorean components and will not need
to fabricate things to make them fit. The nice part of this
swap is that you can always take out this engine, sell it and
move on to another swap at a later date, when you have
more Delorean knowledge (and probably more spare cash)
to do an engine swap with a major HP improvement.

Later,
Rich W.

[Radiate]

Thanx for the advice. I wasnt sure wether the manual transmission could handel the 350 chevy and I guess it must not be able to. I think i might go with the 4.3L chevy, just to get a little more horsepower . What about that bellhouse converter that someone said they bought? Thanx for the advice. O ya, the roof of the 1981 delorean has a lot of rust. It looks pretty weak and I would assume it needs to be replaced. Im must find someone to i guess weld on a new roof. Additionally, one of hte torsion bars is cracked. Will it be hard to replace?

-Devin

[Rich W]

Devin,

You have a lot of unrelated items in one post, but I will try to
adress each one a little and hope it helps.

First, if you attempt the 4.3L Chevy V6 install, a website to
study in advance would be Duke's website:

http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/H...48/master.html

He has some info about a custom bell-housing that he used,
but this install has been done with an adapter plate as well.

Not sure what area of the 81 Delorean roof that you refer to
as being rusted and weak, but since you also mentioned that
you have a broken torsion bar, it sounds like it may be the
area of the roof below the SS roof T-panel that is rusted.
If this is the case, replacement is difficult but not impossible,
but you may opt for repair and reinforcement over replace.

As for the torsion bar, this can get really tricky for a novice
and is also potentially dangerous for both owner and car if
the proper care is not taken. I recommend having another
Delorean person familar with torsion bar procedures assist
with any torsion bar work or leave it to the Delorean service
specialists. Torsion bars are also rare and expensive.

Later,
Rich W.

[Radiate]

Ya sorry for the wide range of questions just trying to get em all in Thanx for the advice about both subjects!

-Devin