The Swedish 405 with BMW engine is interesting, I've no idea of exact measurements but I suspect a modern BMW 6 may need some vaseline to squeeze into a Brizzy 6 engine bay. Would be interesting to visit a scrapyard with a measuring tape in hand.
I think maybe the path of engine change can be done two ways, easy / simple, (which may become difficult) or complicated / involved (which will become near impossible).
For me, easy would be finding an engine gearbox combo which can fit in the available space, with the minimum of adaption / mutilation of the car, with self contained ignition in the form of distributor and a carburetor.
Difficult would be using any engine produced in the last decade or so, which will invariably involve a whole world of pain in the form of electronic control, there are various ways of doing this, but all are complex and mean a lot more to go wrong.
I'll have to begin carrying a tape measure at all times, and see if I come across something tasty, the Japanese have made some quite nice motors, and If there's one with the ideal dimensions I suppose it would have to be considered, the rotary Mazda Wankel thing would take up little space, equally different would be the Subaru boxer. At the moment a large amount of cars have been taken off the road via the scrappage scheme, there have been many stories of excellent cars, some low mileage one owner, condemned in the belief that a nasty Korean thing is better. There are yards such as U-Pull-It with cars lined up for stripping before crushing. I'm thinking it could be tempting to put my cars original engine / box to one side, and possibly have something more powerful that I won't be scared to thrash.
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