Anyone run a 215 Alpine?

[motormouth]

Is anyone out there running a V8 Alpine? My brother lives in CA, has an open garage stall and has been talking about a British roadster. He always liked the Alpine's looks, though he'd rather have more power and a more robust sound than the 4 makes.

I've got him intriqued by my 215 TR6--and I have a spare 215 stroker.

Specifically, I'm wondering if the 215 goes easily into the Alpine engine bay to produce an aluminum-8 Tiger....

Thanks for any thoughts.

Kris Palmer, Minneapolis

[NixVegaGT]

Is that your stroker on ebay? That's a really good deal for the bottom end. That's about cost. I'm surprised nobody jumped at it yet.

I had a friend whose dad had a Tiger. It was really nasty. TINY car. The 289/302 is about 2" thinner. I'm pretty sure the length and height is similar though. If the frame rails are similar to the MGs it's going to be a squeeze. I think that would go a long way to building really nice weight distribution. I think it would be pretty hot!

[rficalora]

There's a great comparison of the common V8 swap motors on the newsletter portion of this web site... http://www.britishv8.org/Articles/motors.htm.  Based on that, the 215 is 2" wider & 1" shorter than the ford 289/302.  

No matter what the difference is, I have to believe the Ford 302 would be way easier if you're talking about a Sunbeam Alpine since the 302 is a later variant of the Ford 260 and that's what went into Sunbeam Tigers.  It's not uncommon for Alpines to be converted to 289's or 302's so you can probably find more info on that swap.  This one looks particularly nice as an example... http://www.britishv8.org/Other/RobWiseman.htm.  There are a bunch of Tiger's listed there too.

[Moderator]

This might be a good question to get-the-ball-rolling on our Sunbeam message board.  Someone's got to break the ice! (I know we've got Sunbeam-owners surfing our site... I get lots of e-mails from them.)

Kris, you might want to ask specifically about steering modifications because that's one of the big areas where Tigers differ from Alpine's. If your brother doesn't want to mess with steering issues, I think he'll find it hard to complete a V8 installation. There are, however, kits available for bolting the narrow Ford "Cologne" 60 degree V6 into an Alpine. (They leave the Alpine steering intact).

[NixVegaGT]

Interesting... I was going to continue this but I'll post it in the Sunbeam board. LOL!

[hoffbug]

NixVegaGT Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Is that your stroker on ebay? That's a really good
> deal for the bottom end. That's about cost. I'm
> surprised nobody jumped at it yet.
>
Nic. The stroker engine belongs to BOB. He is the guy that I went in on the parts lot with to get my 4.6 block.

[motormouth]

Hey, Thanks for these ideas and sorry for the sluggish response. Wife and I are taking some time this week to venture back to Philly for my 25th HS reunion and trying to clear out the schedule for that has been crazy.

I hadn't considered steering difficulties. I'll hone in on that and will also flip over to the Sunbeam page.