Maserati-Ferrari motor into e30

[mbonanni]

Bored at work, bear with my rambling... I came across an old mustang with a v8 from a Maserati Quattroporte m136. For those of you that don’t know this motor is essentially the same one used in a Ferrari California, and a few other platforms. The owner of the mustang had a shop custom fab a setup to mate a t56 6 speed to it since this motor normally runs a transaxle. Seeing as the t56 is used with the LS swaps so often it got me thinking how doable would this setup be in an e30? So I spoke with the shop and they want roughly $4000 for the adapter kit which includes Adapter plate, flywheel, clutch, hardware, bell housing, spacer, etc. $7200 gets you the kit with a brand new t56 6060. The motors go for around $3-4000 on eBay, so someone could realistically get the drivetrain for around $10,000. Based on the pictures it looks like it will fit, but idk exact measurement. It has a dry sumo too so subframe wouldn’t be a huge issue. Height of the intake may be? Now these motors do make similar power to an ls1, which would probably be cheaper and a bit more reliable... But how cool would it be to see one of these things in an e30?!

[rturbo 930]

Weight and physical size would be my concerns. DOHC V8s don't tend to be light, and they also tend to be huge.

[jeenyus]

if they can fit something bigger in a BRZ, then you can fit that in an e30. It would really only be worth the cool factor though. For 10k you could smoke someone with that engine, with over-night parts from Japan.

[mbonanni]

The price of the adapter kit definitely puts the price point a bit high, I wonder if it could be remade. An adapter plate really shouldnÂ’t be too difficult to duplicate, and I wonder if a standard t56 clutch/flywheel would work or if the ship did some fancy machine work to the custom one they include. I think if the t56 adapter kit was cheaper, and the engine dimensions were within limits this would be a decent swap for the e30. I read that the motor weighs roughly 350lbs, not sure if thatÂ’s fully dressed or not.

[e30davie]

Nothing is impossible. keep removing metal until it fits, and put back enough metal to make it safe and strong.

[varg]

Besides the obvious issues of width as pointed out by others, I'm looking at ebay right now and those things are going for $4,000+ not $3-4,000, and they don't even come with an intake manifold for that price. There's one on there for $2,500 but it has 111,000mi on it and I'll bet it is not quite ready to go at that price. It's not happening for anywhere near $10,000 when you're spending $7,200 on just the transmission and clutch and $4,000+ on the engine. You also have to sort

• brakes
• engine management
• wiring
• cooling system
• exhaust
• accessories
• mounts
• crossmembers
• intake manifold
• incidentals

Call it $20,000 if you do everything yourself. That's a lot of money to spend for 400hp and a blingy set of ignition loom covers.

[DrJosh]

What varg said.

For 10k you could have a monster LS swap. For the 15-20k it would cost to swap in that V8 you could have a mint touring with a LS.

[DOC-K]

350 4 bolt Chev.... lots of "stuff" available.. and fix it anywhere...
We put a 350/350 in my 84 Jag XJ6 all parts readily available, became a monster...and ran beautifully till........(long story about a paint job)

[mbonanni]

Well for one I never said the whole swap would cost you $10,000 I said the “drivetrain” aka Engine, trans, adapter kit..

Not sure what eBay you’re looking at but I see quite a few of the motors for sub $4k and with intakes. Hell, there is a 2007 with 30k miles on my local Craig’s for $2000 including everything. The adapter kits is ~ $4000, and yeah if you want a BRAND NEW t56 6060 it will cost you an extra $3500 but a used t56 can be had under $1800. In my scenario, a used motor, used trans, and the adapter kit would set me back ~ $7800. This honestly is not far off from a low mileage LS motor and t56 trans. Given all those things you listed are going to be standard for any v8 swap, the biggest difference in cost will be the up front cost of the motor/trans.

I understand an LS can be done for a few grand less and is more reliable, easier to maintain etc, but honestly just isn’t as cool. I’m not looking to do either swap, just thought it was cool to see the Ferrari based engine in other cars.

A few of you have mentioned the width would be an issue - I’m curious, do you guys know how wide these engine are or just making a guess it is too wide based off the pictures?

Also $15-20k for a mint LS swapped touring? Now that’s just not true... A “decent” LS swap is going to run $12k at lleaassttt, probably more. And a “mint” touring is going to cost you $15k alone (look at the Laguna green one for sale in the classifieds).

[DrJosh]

Also $15-20k for a mint LS swapped touring? Now that’s just not true... A “decent” LS swap is going to run $12k at lleaassttt, probably more. And a “mint” touring is going to cost you $15k alone (look at the Laguna green one for sale in the classifieds).

There are plenty of tourings available in the world for sub 10k. LS' are also cheaply available and will typically set you back 1-3k for one in good shape. T56 + clutch and plumbing ~2k, and a harness + ecu another $800. Misc bits, lets say 2k.

Sure you can do things expensive with a brand new crate engine and a brand new tremec or you can junkyard dive and do it for even less. And you'll end up with a nicer and more powerful car than if you messed around with a novelty swap.

[varg]

350 4 bolt Chev.... lots of "stuff" available.. and fix it anywhere...
We put a 350/350 in my 84 Jag XJ6 all parts readily available, became a monster...and ran beautifully till........(long story about a paint job)

600lb+ engine does not belong in the nose of a 2,800lb car that came with a ~420lb motor.

[2mAn]

[mbonanni]

There are plenty of tourings available in the world for sub 10k. LS' are also cheaply available and will typically set you back 1-3k for one in good shape. T56 + clutch and plumbing ~2k, and a harness + ecu another $800. Misc bits, lets say 2k.

Sure you can do things expensive with a brand new crate engine and a brand new tremec or you can junkyard dive and do it for even less. And you'll end up with a nicer and more powerful car than if you messed around with a novelty swap.

Okay yeah I gotcha. Yes you could probably buy and swap a touring for 15k, but that touring is not going to be “mint” and even if the touring was free I doubt someone is swapping an LS in any e30 cleanly for less than 14kay. Sure go ahead and cheap out - get a truck motor, don’t regasket it, make your own mounts, and make your own harness. Well if that’s your argument you can do the same with the f136 swap, get everything as cheap as possible and fab everything yourself..

The parts you just mentioned above add up to $7800 as well (given the LS sets you back $3k which is more realistic than a $1k LS). I’m thinking LS1/2 here. The engine management, exhaust, mounts, harness, brakes etc etc should all be about the same for either swap. Whether they’re fabbed personally or bought.

For what it’s worth the f136 motor has lots of testimonials online for how reliable it is. The fact there are many iterations of the motor in multiple different platforms(like the LS) makes the parts a little bit easier to find than if not and one could easily get more power swapping different parts over between the various models or FI.

I would really like to see someone do this swap, I think it would be cool. Hell, if I had more experience/knowledge I would pickup that motor locally for $2k and give it a try. I’m surprised you guys resort to “too expensive, this is better”. Like damn, daydream a little bit. It would still be cool to see, a lot cooler than any LS swapped e30 I would say.

[slammin.e28]

I build my cars for the internet. You gonna get internet points for a swap everyone does in their backyard or for a ridiculous swap? Ferrari engine in an e30 would be cool as hell....sure there's better....but I'm the guy that put a 5.0L V12 into an e34 touring instead of doing some turbo M30 deal...

[mbonanni]

Exactly! Shit, I bet if there were two identical coupes, one with the f136 and one with an LS, almost everyone would pick to drive the f136 swapped e30 over the LS swapped one.

And yes, doing it for the internet clout as well.