[gmichael52]

I have a 79 Midget, and have contemplated this Geo swap, primarily because of reliability issues (British cars are cool looking, but they are such gawd awful POS's)- and retain the OEM rear end and my Dayton wire wheels. JDM has turnkey Metro 1.0 liter 3 cylinders for 600 bucks- about the same price to find a 35-40 year old MG farm tractor motor block with crank that's been reconditioned and line bored by someone competent in dealing with British anchors. Samurai transmissions can be found on ebay although one can expect that the condition of the thing will be much similar to buying a British car transmission off of ebay.

I see a few potentially large hurdles to clear with this swap. Since you have it all apart and laying all over your garage floor Nimblemotors, aside from the obvious (Driveshaft, motor mounts, etc):

1. With the Metro engine now facing in the correct direction, the exhaust manifold is now on the left side of the engine. Is there enough clearance around the steering linkage shaft?

2. Metro's/Swift's & Samurais all have cable clutches. Midgets are set up for hydraulic.

3. The radiator. Can hoses be made up to get to the MG radiator? The only other low profile radiator I know of that will fit is an Audi 5000 radiator. There is not much room here. Custom builds ARE NOT CHEAP.

4. I forgot what #4 is.

5. I'm thinking the tunnel should be okay, as I did a rough measure of a Samurai 5 speed last summer when I was changing a clutch for a customer. However I didn't look at the the shifter location. These are tiny cars that fit like a shoe- a size 7.5 when you have a 9 inch foot. A few inches back may not seem like much, but you will be cursing shifting if the shifter is moved back any further than what it is- which also steals from the joy of shifting a manual shift transmission.

Any thoughts or observations?