To me, cross brand swaps are going to be expensive either way. Whether you go Lsx, 302, Honda J or K, it's not going to be cheap by the time all the bugs are worked out. At that point, the couple hundred/couple thousand saved here and there doesn't make much of a difference. What you save in one area, will be made up in another. As a caveat, I don't have much experience doing this, so take this with a grain of salt.
Keith Tanner wrote: I think it also has to do with the typical suspension mods. The Monster setup uses front springs in the rear and something odd in the front. It's a clever reuse of parts, but possibly not ideal. It's also difficult/impossible to fit a front sway bar and the steering rack gets moved as well IIRC. I've also seen more 302 setups with oddball wheel/tire combos, usually tall tires in the back aiming for maximum contact patch.
Good synopsis of why the 302 is not a good swap into anything with rack and pinion steering. The oil pump placement means everything is in the way of everything else.
Heck, a lot of the Fox Mustang's suspension issues center around having to compromise the steering and suspension around an oil pump placement decded when Fords had rear-steer recirc ball setups. Notice that the Mustang chassis handle much better once they no longer had to be designed around that? They could move the roll center up and move the rack back.
Good thing I moved the oil-pan behind the rack!
The monster miata conversions do not move the rack; a modified oil pan straddles the rack with the oil pump being about 6" ahead of the rack.
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