The SVX enginge swap has already been done. Naturally it was by one of those gonzo Aussi offroad racers. He put it into a very cool Gen 2 Brat with remote reservoir shocks, cage etc. I'm pretty sure he kept it mated to the auto tranny and raced it that way. There should still be pics around if you peruse the BYB website.

will the chassis be able to cope with the torque of the svx motor? Those EA81 chassis' seem quite soft, you might see yourself twisting it out without added support.

 

Mark,

I feel I need to set some things straight here, first off, the Hatch Backs never came with EA82 engines in them, they were EA81s all the way to their last year 1989. Like CraigGT stated, the H-6 3.0 is pretty close to the same size as the H-4s, the 3.3 H-6 in the SVXs were longer then the 3.0, but would have the same width, and possibly that same heigth. The biggest parts of converting to an EJ22 would be fabricating a tranny mount (I can explain what needs to be done if you go that way), shortening the driveline, and of course that wiring.

 

The SVX engine could be installed into a hatch, but you would probably have to relocate the radiator to where the spare tire normally goes, which has been done before, and seems to work well. The problem is that the SVX engine is probably the rarest of the engine available.