hi I'm from Auckland New Zealand. Just wondering about the different datsun engines, and if i could put one in a mini? and how easy would it be? I know the datsun engine are pretty bullet proof, which is why i'm interested in it. If anyone could give me details of what engine would work best, what mods to do to it, and how much hp and torque it would produce, and roughly how much it would cost. I had a figure of over 100hp mayb 120? depending on how much it would cost, i dont have much money. How i would go about mating it up to the mini gearbox, or is there another engine you would reccomend?

A series engines in british cars is a common practice, you can get advise on engine HP and engine mods to the A series(A 12, A13, A14, A15), but about how to adapt it to your mini transmission/gear box, that is a question for a Mini club, MG club or Sprite.Good luck with your project, if you have pictures of your A series engined Mini, bring them in.
Jaime.

Cant recommend any other engines but can recommend a car that raced in its class and beat it always with its 1ltr beating the mini coopers 1100 at bathurst every year. The 625kg datsun 1000 which was known to produce 130hp at 10,000 in full sprint tune. If youre gonna keep that thing the box will crap itself like any small pom box does and also you need 3 main bearing design to miss your intregal box internals. Then if you like front wheel drive and old. Try a rare 120a with an a15 or e15 swap but dont fancy your chances as I got my eye on the only one known in Australia from a 74 year old dude who loves it so much (he drives it 80-100 ks a day and hes retired!) he imported it from malta in the 1970s.

Hey Spunky Monki are you a member of the Mini Club in Auckland? I know they have a couple of Mini's with 1600VTEC Civic engines in them. Anything is possible in regards to fitting engines...in England there are several MInis with Lotus Twin Cams adapted to the 4 speed Mini box. I remember a guy down this way building a brick with a 100A or 120A motor and gearbox and it was a good hillclimb car. The problem is finding the bits these days. If you throw a measuring tape over a Datsun A12 you will see they are longer than the pongo A series by 100mm..that makes it a squeeze in the engine bay unless you front mount the radiator which probably means using a Clubman front to give you some room. I hate saying this but it would be a lot easier to build a Pommy A series 1400+ to get the HP you want. There are plenty of guys in Auckland who could do it for you , Lynn Rogers springs to mind or Richard Gillies at Chequered Flag here in Lower Hutt they both build strong Mini motors..

I have also heard of the Ford cross flow conversion, and I've heard of whole Austin maxi running gear being shoved in the front, and strangest of all I remember seeing a CCC magazine with a BMW (K-series I think) motorcycle head adapted, it used a purpose made gear drive for the cams.

Apparently there is a 12a powered one as well?!
still with front wheel drive and i've seen pictures of the rover 3.5 V8 as well!

tell you what would be funny an rotary powerd mini rwd

That is funny..I had one!!! It was based on a rare 1071 Cooper S. It ran a 10A and 4 speed though to a Ford Anglia diff and springs hung off the original rear subframe. The front was stock with the Cooper discs. The fire wall had a hole cut through above the floor and there was a hole though the rear seat pan for the driveshaft. The gearbox cover was bolted to the Mini floor pan. It was a sweet little sleeper and caught out a lot of fast street cars in my boy racer days. The look on peoples faces watching a Mini light up the rear wheels was priceless. I ran it down the quarter at Thunder Park (long gone now) and netted a 12.9 1/4 mile. When I was feeling suicidal I dropped a full race 10PP engine in and popped wheelies in the street outside my old workshop....I sold it to a Mini nut who was going to restore it back to original, it was pretty rough after me and more than a few mates had thrashed it. I could probably find some pics but this is a 1200 site isn't it!!!!!

THis i wanna see! it was rwd and tiny at least!
By the way Smac how many hp from the PP?? I always wanted to know what they got in NZ.

What's a 10PP? I looked on google, but only found 10 pages and 10 pence.

Yeah, minis don't belong here ... but maybe you could drop a photo in the Off Topic forum ... small, lightweight and rwd. what an idea!