hey , been down in the shop welding some new suspension, cant avoid the obvious any longer, ive been runnin the1.3 on bardahls no smoke and slick 50 for the last year , its friggin done, my lawnmower has more power, the dam thing wont die, it starts first click but has always been a weakling, im lookin for sugestions for a swap, no fuel injection, im a fabber not a electrician, and i dont think the 1.6 would be enough, i wheel with v8 jeeps and im tired of getting embarrased in the slick stuff, i seem to make it but dam.... has anyone slapped in a 22r?im geussin i can keep my locked axels alive and the 120 horse sounds about right, i dont need a kit, i have tools and a brain, but im open to suggestions for sure, love to hear some feedback from some people who have good and bad swap stories

Short answer:

If you can shoe-horn it in, you can do it.


Long answer:

Both the 22R and the Ford 2.3 have been discussed as upgrade motors but it seems to come down to this - both are physically too long and require too much installation fabbing for any potential gains.

GM 4.3 V-6 is the most popular large engine swap.

Another popular swap is the VW 1.6 or 1.9 Diesels (NA or Turbo).

The key to a good Samurai swap is to keep it small and light.  Small and Light is what makes the Samurai outperform the larger trucks in many situations.  Heck, you might be suprised at the results you get from a 1.6 16-valve swap!

I hope that this helps!

Tough little engine. I had one in a 77 celica. Had over 250 thousand miles on it and would still hold 120 without blowing up. I was young and stupid. Double roller timing chain. Pretty bullet proof. I didn't thint it had low end torque though. Clutch finally rusted and broke and it was time for a new car anyways so I sold it to some asian dudes that were going to make it into thier "sweet little race car". That was in 88. Precurser to the ricer ?

-Adam

The 1.6 16V with a good exhaust and intake will net you over a 100 hp.  With a good set of gears it should be able to wrap up for you.  Or you could go for a 2.8l V6.

Of course, there is the odd 302 and I think someone had a 360 conversion...

I wanna see one of those little 4cyl Cummins out of an Aussi Toyota go in a Sammy! It is all mechanically fueld and would be one bad machine! I think it would out do the Volks swap, anyone heard of this?

The 1.6 16V with a good exhaust and intake will net you over a 100 hp.  With a good set of gears it should be able to wrap up for you.  Or you could go for a 2.8l V6.

Of course, there is the odd 302 and I think someone had a 360 conversion...

im running 538 axels and a 4to1 already, the little four is just waay to weak for my use, im thinking more and more about the buick 231, anybody running that?

I know you said "no fuel injection", but I'd urge you to not dismiss it so quickly. A 2.0L engine is FI. If you don't like wiring, have someone like trail tough do it. They do great wire work, and literally make things plug n play. What you'll gain...

* 2.0L = Gobs of power to weight ratio. Aluminum block & heads with 125 HP & Torque
* FI = fantastic cold starts, great at altitude changes, better MPG, longer lasting engine, no off-camber fuel starvation issues

22re is hard to fit, but it can be done. It's also very heavy. If power's that important to you, the 4.3L Chevy V6 is a good option, but will take lots of fab time and $$$.

To me, the whole point of Suzuki is cheap & light. If you love power, you can build a Toyota, Jeep, Blazer or Bronco for less money than a 4.3L swap.

 Myself , I love the 4.3 . Now I have never put one in a Suzuki  but I don’t think it would be that hard .
I did do the 4.3 swap in my 1970 IH scout 800  , swap wasn’t hard  even though folks told me it would be and if you get an older  non vortec you can run a carb or TBI .
 I started  our with a 4 barrel on mine and then built my own TBI harness  . Like you  the thought of electronics’ simply scared the He77 out of me . But it wasn’t that hard and now that I have it installed  I  believe its much , Much better  then going carburetion.
 I wouldn’t expect the swap to a 4.3   to run anymore then  the scout did .
 Basically excluding the engine  she ran me around 500. that’s for new cross over  with  perches for the engine mounts . New input shaft  and bell housing  ,+ an electric fan   for cooling .
 Mine  with the headers , milled heads and readline cam ,  forged pistons .  was dinoed at just over  300 HP. With the stock IH 4 speed , she  will flat  make the front end light  in my little 800  when I need to .
 Here is a shot of it in my scout .
 Put it in a Sidekick  or sami and  I think  she could flat get away from you in a hurry  even if left stock .
dont forget its a high rev engine 

thanks for the input jeramiah, ive been thinkin that one over, the buicks are getting harder to find and theres no doubt the 4.3 is a better engine what with the 3.8s oiling issues, and yea even a stock one should be friggin nasty in a 1900 pound sammi
also a huge fan of the scouts, my first wheelin was in a 800 at 13 in south dakota chasing up cows, thanks for the pics , shes a sexy lady

That reminds me.  My brothers Scout 800B with a V8 is sitting next to the garage waiting for some electrical love...

Link...

http://www.suzukiconversion.com/suzuki_kits.htm#

Two things about the 4.3 V-6 transplant:

Finding a bellhousing to match the 5-speed Samurai transmission to a 4.3 will be danged hard if not impossible.  If you look at the Lightning conversions kits in rollover's post (http://www.suzukiconversion.com/suzuki_kits.htm, you will notice that they provide you with a kit that uses a typical GM transmission like a TH350, TH200 or 200R4 behind the engine.  So plan on an engine/transmission swap.

Lightning Conversions has developed a reputation in the Samurai world that is similar in nature to Rocky Road's.  They have done some stupid stuff and alienated more than a few folks over the years. 

I personally witnessed a spectacle at one of the ZookiMelts where someone finally called the Sherriff to stop a heated discussion between a disgruntled customer and the Lightning folks.  The customer's truck was at the event and even a dummy like me could tell that the conversion workmanship was not very good.  Now their kits - installed by you or someone with decent fabbing skills - might be very good. 

Perhaps someone here can comment on the quality of the Lightning kits as opposed to Lightning's installation skills...

You might be surprised by the power of the 16v or 2.0. I think putting a heavy iron block motor in a Samurai ruins the car for anything but maybe mud and sand.

 thanks for the kind words about my scout . its been a work of love , thats for sure .

i believe the 1.6 is about 250lbs  the 4.3 is about 400Lbs  i believe, depending on what heads intake, and headers you run  of course that can be less . i can tell you that 2 fellas  one on each side of the 4.3 can lifta stock 4.3 it into and out of a truck
 as to the trany , try advanced adaptors . if they don’t have a setup  they  most likely will tell you where to go  to get one . on my scout , im actually running a  bell housing with a Chevy pattern on one end , a ford pattern at the trany   mated to my IHT18 .
 i had to replace the input shaft because it was to small for the 4.3 .all of    which is resting in a Toyota  front  bearing seal  retainer   did i say that my 800 had a 4 cylinder in it to start with ? i think i forgot that part .
 my bet that if you lightened the 4.3 up  with an aluminum intake , heads . Drop the water pump  and add a set of stans headers  and I bet you could cut the weight difference to around 100 lbs

yea that has been my thought whenever somebody brings up the wieght issue, its a couple hundred pounds. does putting a passenger in ruin youre truck for anything but sand or mud?its the same weight difference, plus youre over quadrupeling the tourque ,the force that moves weight, i think its a bs argument, the part breakage is inevitable though im sure as far as the tranny id run a gm ,their a dime a dozen, and i looked at the lightening performance, i dont need that, i have a shop, tube benders, saws , tape measure, welder and alot of mistakes that ive learned from, i geuss i was more wanting peoples experiance with there swaps the 22r just seamed like a good one, my toyotas have always been durrable, seams like anything non suzuki is unpopular to some, a parts a part to me, dont care what it came from