And so the journey begins

At the time of this writing, I have pretty much done a once over of all current and potential engine suppliers. Actually, there are 5-6 of them that are highly competent and proven but given my objectives and constraints, none of them were perfect for me, except one: SEO Motorsports in Melbourne, Florida. SEO's owner Ed Ghesquiere is well known in the D community and his forte over the years has been building killer VR6-based engines for the Nissan community, primarily for 350Zs. The VR6 can be found on various Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche platforms and as tuners across the globe has found out, it's the ideal base for an high output motor. Reasons why include:

• It is readily available
• It is bullet proof. ("It loves boost", like Ed likes to put it) because:
• it has a cast-iron block
• it uses seven main bearings as opposed to more commonplace four for V6s
• although narrow-angle (15 deg), the V6 layout makes it very compact, yet
• the even firing order makes it smooth as an in-line 6

How stout is this thing? Well, there are a multitude of clips of crazy horsepower cars on youtube. 1000 HP is not unheard of. Here is just one of many examples. Nuts! OK.... a third of that rage will be more than plenty for my objectives.  

Ed, a former Delorean owner himself, has indeed waived his magic VR6 wand over at least one other Delorean as well. Read all about Jeremiah's VR6 conversion right here. First start-up, right here. Now, that project involved keeping the stock auto transmission so the torque was dialled way back. And - very important - Jeremiah has nothing but praise about SEO's expertise, workmanship and professionalism.

The choice is obvious: SEO Motorsports is my engine builder of choice!

So what do I want get done on my car?

Here is the high-level scope that Ed and I have agreed to:

• Engine:
• Custom build, VW VR6 based
• SEO will source a good, lower mileage donor motor, rebuild the head, replace all seals, gaskets, timing chains and rails with new d:o. Replace stock head studs with high strength d:o. Custom, reusable turbo head gasket spacer to get the correct compression ratio
• Targeted Power and torque:
• 350 whp/350 wftlb
• Flywheel/Clutch:
• Delorean clutch with high performance wear surfaces
• Custom flywheel, Nissan 350Z based
• Pressure plate/throw-out bearing, Nissan 350Z
• Adapter to mount stock bell housing to engine:
• Custom
• Transmission:
• Install upgraded shaft coupler
• Turbo charger:
• Garrett based and sized specifically for targeted power/torque
• Intercooler
• Fuel injection:
• Electronic, MegaSqirt III, fully customizable mapping profiles
• Exhaust system:
• Combination of ceramic cotaed mils steel tubing and stainless mufflers and CAT
• Software Tuner Studio Basic for tuning via laptop
• Other
• Three dyno runs
• High strength head studs from ARP
• Wideband sensor for optimal air/fuel ratio tuning
• Boost gauge from VDO
• New skidplate (stainless steel)

I will install on the car before I ship it to SEO:

• High-efficiency radiator
• Pedal box for manual transmission
• Clutch master/slave cylinder with all the lines, reservoir, hardware etc
• Shifter + mechanism

So, if all goes as planned, the engine bay will go from looking like this:

To something like this:

Pretty straightforward, right?