innerloop

Sorry to be vague, guys, I didn't anticipate the level of interest. The car is a 2000 G-Force GF05 Indy car. It may have raced in the 500, but both teams that owned it over its life went out of business so I'm not sure. You can see a picture of the engine compartment here: http://www.apexspeed.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=75513&stc=1 The Chevy emblem is on the rollhoop, the black X-brace is part of a sub-frame made to take the place of the stressed original engine, and the grey thing behind that is the bellhousing. You can just see the two silver rods coming into the picture which are temporary replacements for the coilover shocks. I'm not set on any particular engine. I just need one that is short enough, has the starter on the engine side of the flywheel and has a clutch housing that is less than 8 inches in outside diameter. Those are the parameters that are hardest to change. Nice attributes to have after that would be a small diameter flywheel and a shallow oil pan so as to not rob any of the limited ground clearance. I'll also look into the E15. Stoffregen Motorsports, I may have some follow up questions based on your past experience.

Thanks LenRobertson, distributorguy and others for the measurements, that's what I needed to know and it sounds like the engine will just fit. To supply some extra information to those interested, I'll be making an adapter plate to mate the engine to the existing bellhousing so I'll just have to include provisions for the starter mounting. I need to retain the existing bellhousing as it contains many mounting points for the rear suspension and coilover shocks. The lack of a cooling fan is a plus because of the limited space and I'll be using a sidepod mounted radiator anyway. The engine space is 22 inches long max. I figure I'll lose about an inch on the adapter plate and I want to leave a decent gap at the front behind the bulkhead so I have about 19 or 20 inches to work with for an engine. I'm doing all of this to make the car mobile for car shows, parades, etc., not racing. The original engine is too complex and way too expense (~$20k) for my needs. Thanks again for all of the measurements.

Can someone tell me the length of an A series engine from the bellhousing mounting surface to the front of the pulleys (crank, water pump, alternator)? I'm asking because I'm looking for a street car engine for a formula race car I'm working on and I only have about 20 inches to work with and I understand that the A series is very compact. So I'm looking for a small inline 4 cylinder or maybe a small V-6 that will fit. The other key requirement is that the starter needs to be on the engine side of the flywheel. I'm open to makes of engines and I don't have a specific horsepower requirement other than more is better. I'm not going to race the car, I just want to make it mobile again. It would be nice if the stock clutch housing was less than 8 inches in diameter as that's the size of the car's bellhousing. So will the A fit? Thanks in advance.