Piston Slap: Can Psarhjinian A-Ford a Caterham?

TTAC commentator psarhjinian writes:

Thanks to the terrible economy, I’ve recently been given the opportunity to pick up a project car on the (very) cheap. The catch: the project car is a Caterham SV, sans powertrain. Googling around has given me all sorts of options, from four-cylinder Zetecs to small-block Chevvies to Hayabusa powerplants. I’m sure some madman has shoehorned a Prius’ drivetrain in there, but thus far I haven’t turned up the requisite Youtube video of it.

To say “I don’t know where to start” would be an understatement. What I’m trying to figure out is what kind of powertrain would be good, given a perfect storm of cheap, quick and easy for someone with not a lot of tools, experience and time to work on.

Oh, and I do have young children. So as not to invoke my life insurance policy, I think we can skip anything that’s too far into “Death Car” land.

Sajeev writes:

Fascinating project! Fear not the Grim Reaper because an LS-X swap is your only choice. Okay, I might be kidding, except when I am not. I mean, seriously dude. LS-X FTW.

Not convinced? I’m cool with that. Go with a Duratec four-banger for several reasons: common usage on this platform makes for easy answers to installation questions, replacement parts are plentiful at local junkyards, surprising refinement for the price and, most importantly, easy and affordable EFI tuning to get it running perfectly.

So get the goods from www.car-part.com, a local LKQ car recycler, or rent a Focus with full coverage so you can strip that shitbox clean! Just kidding! I’d get an early Focus ZX3 from Craigslist, pull the powertrain plus the wiring/sensors/computer and try to save some of the emissions parts to remain legal, if necessary. Whatever emissions parts (EGR, all four O2 sensors, fuel vapor recovery, etc.) you don’t use might upset the engine computer, but that’s where the tune with a dyno-hacker comes into play.

Once the Caterham runs and you’re certain the donor Focus is pointless, sell the body for scrap. Done.