Engine swapping - putting the heart of a 430 in a 360...

Hi guys,

Short background first; we are a racing team in Denmark, primarily racing Ferrari 360 Challenge cars. We worked quite extensively on the engine of one of the cars, doing heads, intake exhaust and converting it to E85 fuel - good results, we ended with around 500 horsepower from the 360 engine, but the E85 were hard to control, ruining the low and mid-range power. And in the end, it blew the engine.

So! We have a 360 challenge car with no engine, and we have just snatched up a totaled 430 with extensive front end damage. The project begins.

Do anyone of you know of a similar project? Or have experience in this?

Making the engine fits wont be much of a problem - the 360 and 430 are basically the same cars under the body panels. We figure the real challenge lies in getting all the electronics to work and getting the manettino functions useable with the challenge steering wheel.

If anyone is interested i will try and throw you a few updates now and then. Don't expect a blindingly amazing build thread - i simply dont have the time for that, but if there is interested, i will snap a few pics for you now and then.

The car is going to continue life as a race car. We hope to make it about 100 kgs lighter in the process, essentially making it a 1.200 kg car including fuel and driver, with around 550 horsepower from the 430 engine.

 

No but this sounds interesting! Good luck with your project.

 

An engine simply doesn't blow up because of the fuel used in simple terms. Something happened, have you dismantled the engine to find the failure? What was done to run e85?

 

Very interesting project. Please post pics and good luck

 

Now this I gotta see! Good luck with this project!

 

I got some pics for you today.

The challenge car. All bruised up from previous battles on track, and missing its heart... In dire need of some serious love. Fortunately, it is getting it this winter.

 

Donor car.

Picture from pickup. Extensive front end damage. Engine bay okay, and only 25.xxx kilometres. Perfect car for this.

Pictures of the engine coming out, the rest of the torn of front wheel and brake.

 

I know i know. I didnt blame the fuel alone for blowing up the engine. I just stated that our journey for more power ended with a blown engine. As you can see, it has taken part of the cylinder sleeve out, causing major damage to the inside of the block and crank. A rod or two is bent and broken, and the bottom of the oilpan is filled with grinded metal from when it happened. What excactly caused it? No idea.. Its not my role in the team to figure those things out, and as it stands, we havent talked much about it either. We are looking forward, and are now working with the new engine - but dont worry, we wont experiment as much with this one.

 

Do you have any sort of a data logging system? Can you look at the oil pressure at time when the issue started? Very interesting swap. Can't wait to see it finished.

 

We do have telemetrics, but it happened almost two years ago. The challenge car has been in the corner since, just coming out to get its new life now. Since its been so long ago, im not sure we still have the data. I will have a look for it though.

I'm a driver in the team, and when the engine blew, i was busy trying to get the best out of my car - so i werent that involved. My teammate with the car in question and the mechanics handled the issue in the way they wanted, i focused on my own car and racing - seems i had the best tactic as i went on to win the series that year