stole this from another board, was kinda wondering the same thing... Just curious as to if my '96 Tracker has a "zero clearance / interference" (?) engine?  A friend of mine used to have an old VW Rabbit & almost as soon as the timing belt broke, his engine basically ate itself.  Just wanna find out all I can to ensure I have this baby as long as possible.
 
     Also, are there conversion kits available for these engines to switch them over to timing chains instead of belts?

Your engine is a non interfierence engine, so was
your friends old rabbit, unless it was a diesel

No you need a 2.0 to get a timing chain

Your engine is a non interfierence engine, so was
your friends old rabbit, unless it was a diesel

No you need a 2.0 to get a timing chain

Thanx Wild I'll pass on the info...

Ok Wild why does my chilton's say otherwise?
Here is the quote
"The 1.6 16-valve engine is known as an interference motor, because it is fabricated with such close tolerances between the pistons and valves that, if the timing belt is incorrectly positioned, jumps teeth on one of the sprockets or breaks, the valve and pistons will come into contact.  This can cause severe internal engine damage.  Therefore, it is vitally important to inspect and replace the timing as indicated in the maintenance intervals charts in section 1."

I know you must be speaking from experience.  Are the tolarences not that close, but close enough to not rule out the possiability engine damage?

It also says that the 1.3L and 1.6L 8-valve are not listed by Suzuki as interference motors.

what i got told when my engine shot the rod the 8v 1.6 are non interference and the 16v 1.6 are interference

Most 16V engines are, I tested my 16V engine,
it was not, test was done as follows

rotate piston #1 to TDC, turn cam by hand, no bumping

Sorry to all those who might have a different expierience,
and I suppose that if you lost a belt at 6000 RPM, you might
contact a piston and a valve, but it would have to be floating
at the time to do so.

Now if you had a high lift cam, you might hit, the engine I tested
was a 95' 16V that I got and tore down, which is now going to
be the new turbo engine

As far as Haynes or Chiltons, I don't know, I have found more
than one or two wrong things in those books, yes, they are
better than going it without one, but don't belive all you read,
you just might get a surprise

Wild

I have broken timing belts on both 8V and 16V motors with no damage to the Valves or pistons. I know without a doubt that an 8 V is non-interference, because the first belt I broke was at high RPM in the middle of the Melt Rally race :'( A new timing belt later and she ran fine. The 16V broke while idleing at a red light, and also had no damage.

Zig