Good job! I saw that Roadster on eBay and thought it looked like a good project.

Any modern 4-cyl will do for your engine swap. The Nissan KA24DE is good but rather large. They have been put into the Roadster many times before. Most of Nissan's 4-cyl cars are FWD, so there are not that many options. The Toyota engine is simular in design but much smaller and maybe a good option too for fuel economy.

I can get an early 80's celica donor quite cheap... From past amatuer racing experience, you can combine a early 20R (hemi) head with a later 22R block for a major compression boost (11:1 or more) and get well over the stock 120ft/lbs of torque with 99 horsepower.

(Spun the 14" wheels all the time at Spanaway Speedway)

The main concern is future parts availability, then ease of repair, then cost, then current availability.

SR20DE would be sweet, yes. But I haven't found one yet at a decent cost.

What I really want is gobs of torque for daily drivability and towing (camping)

Truck?

Now where is the style in that? (It is only going to be a small pop-up style trailer)

I got the idea from a picture I saw online of a Roadster with a matching trailer made from part of another Roadster. Looked good.

It does have a high power to weight ratio, as well as a box ladder frame, just like a truck

Plus, while you are camping, you can fly up and down those windy Northwest coastal roads during the day; sounds like heaven to me

Hmmm... never thought of that.

That would be interesting, how difficult are we talking about here? (keep in mind that I've never worked on a rotary engine before)

The nice thing is you don't open it up.  It take realy fine maching which is out side of all home shops.    The engine is about $1600 plus carburetor, and exhaust.  You can do it all but the engine.   I will send you a picture.

Let's try that again

http://www.camblitz.com/~petersfamily/Roadster/

This is what I did with my dash it called turning.

      As always.  John

Zoom Zoom.
If anything do L20 nissan motor. There are still prentiful and ez to work on if needed.
L18 pistons and a closed chamber head will give more than enought compression if not tto much (head gasket proplems and maybe Preignition proplems.
Put a cam and sidedrafts(webers 0r Mikunis) and that should be good enough.
I heard there is a conversion kit someone makes for the Roadster and the L series motor.
I think this is the ezist way to go. Most people have bigger dreams than bigger wallets. To biuild a good L series from scratch is still going to cost you 1500-2500 depending what you have and what you need not counting the fab work for the trans ect. Then body work on the car and wheels.

Nissan motorsport book says if you install the Mikunis(carbs) and the solex cam you will have a 150hp.

Put a Roatary would be cool also. (My buddy had a 225hp 510) The motor was 4K$ to build at Hayes Rotorary in Redmond)

yeah atkins are really nice people. they only do engines though, well they have paxton? superchargers too. can't remember what brand super charger but, i think its dave atkins, the dad, and dan atkins the son. might have it backwards. been to the shop/hanger they work out of and its a real trip.

They use all the Taiwan made parts that Hainz has warned us about!  hehe...