I have a '68 850 Spider that I bought from my dad in 1984 and drove through college and a few years after until I blew up the engine and couldn't afford to fix it.

I had purchased 2 wrecked donor cars, so I have a lot of extra parts (except for the rear drive axles, which seem to strip out fairly quickly), so if anyone needs anything please let me know.

I want to put this car back together and make it reliable enough to use as a daily driver with significant Interstate driving. I found that I could order a new engine from Italy for about $5K, but it would only add about 20HP compared to the original.

Has anyone had experience performing engine swaps using more common American engines and transmissions? I've heard of putting Mazda RX-7 rotary engines, VW engines and Pontiac V6 engines in: however, I have no experience with rotary engines or VW air-cooled engines, and it seems that I would need to find a reverse-rotation camshaft for the V6 to make it work. The body is in good shape and my interior pieces are in excellent shape. I blew up the engine racing, but now I just want to build a daily driver - one that I could pass on to my son when he's old enough.

Please advise.

Thank you,
David Butler