Car Engine Question?

[gesab1]

Hi. I'm very ignorant about cars, so please excuse my question.

Instead of buying a luxury car because of its engine, why don't people just buy a normal car and then have a shop install an even better engine? For example, instead of buying that 400 HP Lexus, why not buy a Toyota and install an 800 HP engine?

Thanks.

[blackcobra487]

Putting that much HP would require some heavy modification to the drive train and other parts. Also, that isn't always an an option. I own an 03 accord with a 4cly, and I wanted to put Honda's V-6 (that you can get in an Accord) in my car. It turns out Honda uses different engine bays for the two motors, so the V-6 would not fit.

[John96]

There are numerous issues about getting one engine to physically fit in the engine bay of another car. Then with modern cars there are sensors and computers that monitor air/fuel/o2 etc that need to be dealt with. The drive train, power to the wheels, also poses a problem when using a 'foreign' engine in a car.

People usually buy a luxury car because of all it's features and comforts, not the engine. 'Motor heads' will do what you are talking about but mostly on older cars, without all the computers and a larger engine bay, in order to put in a more powerful engine. Modern cars have small engine bays and all the computer problems I mentioned above so swapping engines is much more problematic though not impossible with enough time and money,