[V8] Re: 5-speed swap....it can be done

[Roger M. Woodbury]

Sure, and of course.  And if some guy has done it, and therefore knows how
to do it, then it is his proprietary information.  If the purchaser of his
services decides to tell others how it was done, AND he has been asked NOT
to tell anyone, then it is a matter that is between the guy who did the
work, designed the procedure, and the person who paid for it.

Now, I am not a lawyer, but I doubt very much that there is any legal basis
to restrict the sharing of information, unless it was spelled out in the
original documents/shop work order, and agreed to by both parties as a
consideration for the total cost of the project.

I know that there have been many swaps and changes of engines and
transmissions bought and paid for by folks, who turned around and "revealed"
what was done and pretty much, how the completion of the job was
accomplished.  The pages of Excellence Magazine are full of this sort of
thing, for example...I remember a Porsche 356 cabriolet that had had a 911
engine stuffed into the ass end, and the article described how it was done
in considerable, expensive detail.

But armed with that information, did I rush right out and have one for
myself, either by doing it or by waving my dogeared copy of Excellence in
some, poor, unsuspecting wrench's face?  Nah!

Back around the dawn of time....which in the car-fan game, is only a couple
of years....I REALLY wanted to buy an(other) Audi 200 Avant, and stuff a
Porsche 928 engine into it.  ANYold 928 engine would have sufficed, and
right up the road in a Bangor, Maine junk yard sat a fully operational, if
slightly beyond the pale, early 928 automatic.  PERFECT candidate.  I think
I could have bought the 928 for around $1000 or so, and the, then mechanic
of favor of mine, said that he could do the swap.  It was simply money.

In the end it seemed that the 928 block and head assembly was really a
little to wide for the available room, without a whole lot of work above and
beyond the obvious, so the project was abandoned.  (Now, I am thinking about
the '91 20valve project car that I have, and wondering if a better swap
wouldn't be the front clip off a V8....my body shop guy says he can do it,
if I want....it will be simply a matter of money.....)

But now that I know that there is a guy out there who is experienced in
swapping a 5-speed into a 4.2 V8, IF I decide to go and have one done, I
know where I will go.  And yes, I will probably re-read ALL of the posts on
the subject in the archives.  No, not to be able to duplicate the
information, but so that I will know what to expect when I decide to make
the swap.   Why reinvent the wheel and try to have a mechanic do something
already accomplished by someone else....nope!  I'd go to the original.

But what about the individual shade tree wrench who wants to do it himself
to his own car?  Is it stealing information for him to pick up hints off
this list, and then go out and cut into his own 4.2 litre sedan.  Doubtful.
If he wants to do it himself, all the "stolen" data enables him to do, is to
try to do it.  If he doens't have the data, he isn't going to hire it done
by someone who knows how.

Roger

P.S.  Besides, if I go and get a V8 nose grafted onto my 20Valve Avant, I
get to go to the body shop often, and watch the process.  The body shop guy
has this really nice, slim young chick who loves to work on car
bodies.....naturally the work would be done in the summer, and bare midrifts
ARE bare, after all.....

....sigh.......