[jono165]

Hey guys, new to the forums here but have been reading around a bit.
Been looking at getting a 4x4 for a little bit and went away to the vic high country a few weeks ago in a pretty much stock vitara and loved it, exceeded my expectations. So i have been looking at vitaras and just had a few questions.

The mods i would intend to do are:
31" tyres, OME front struts, commodore rear shocks, XL7 rear springs and GV front springs, front diff drop bracket and a heim joint spacer, 2" body lift.
would there be any problems with the above mods?


I am interested to know how the 1.6 manual vitaras drive with 31" tyres fitted i assume it would seriously affect the drivability of the car and put low range gearing way out? is the only way around this to fit different transfer case gears as it already has the highest diff ratio available (5.125), however this only fixes low range?

Or is getting the 2 litre SV420 a better option and then fitting the 5.125 diff gears to it? Does this bring the gearing back close(ish) to a stock vitara? I contacted 1 wrecker and he quoted $295 each set of 5.125 diff centres would this be a good price? or can they be had much cheaper?

Is there anything else important i should know about the vitaras?

thanks, jono

[atari4x4]

welcome to auszookers!!!

the 5.12's into a manual SV420 on 31's will bring it back to stock!


the other mods would all work together, looks like you've done a bit of research. the GV/XL-7 springs might be a bit stiff but you should get a bit of extra lift out of them.

[eldo]

hey welcome to az, your member #1997

[jono165]

wow thanks for the speedy reply.

I have seen your SV420 on the forums, it looks awesome, something to dream towards

Is there a spring available thats tall enough but a bit softer? or is the only option to find something and then spacer it up a bit?

So i guess the 1.6 is a bit of a no go with 31's? Do you know of anywhere cheap to source the 5.125's for the SV420?

Also just quickly about how much should i be looking to pay for the 2 liter? theres a couple on carsales for about 7k-8k, redbook values them at about 5k

cheers

[alien]

cant remember who - but someone on outers lifted his vitara with 180sx coils - front i think? netted a 3-4" lift from memory and handled well.

[atari4x4]

people have run the 1.6's on 31's but even when on 30's the gearing is out by around 6-7%, 31's would be near enough to a 10% increase, i'd be looking at transfer gears it i had a 1.6...

alien is right, from memory the rear can be lifted using rear 180sx coils have a search for 180sx coils on here & in the Vitara bible on outerlimits4x4.

not sure on the going rate for the SV420's, Fatzook just picked up a very neat SWB softop... maybe shoot him a PM, but the 5k-8k price rage sounds about right, i payed alot more for mine a few years ago with 70,000kms. polar_bear has a LWB with a 2.5l V6 conversion that he just bought in NSW, it's currently in transit back to Radaliade.

[Fatzook]

atari4x4 wrote:

people have run the 1.6's on 31's but even when on 30's the gearing is out by around 6-7%, 31's would be near enough to a 10% increase, i'd be looking at transfer gears it i had a 1.6...

alien is right, from memory the rear can be lifted using rear 180sx coils have a search for 180sx coils on here & in the Vitara bible on outerlimits4x4.

not sure on the going rate for the SV420's, Fatzook just picked up a very neat SWB softop... maybe shoot him a PM, but the 5k-8k price rage sounds about right, i payed alot more for mine a few years ago with 70,000kms. polar_bear has a LWB with a 2.5l V6 conversion that he just bought in NSW, it's currently in transit back to Radaliade.

5-8K is about right. All the VS420's I saw that were 5.5K-6.5K were rooted. Got mine for $7.5K, which sounds steep for a 12yr old vit, but they are SOOOO much better than the 1.6!!

[jono165]

Thanks guys for all your help I'm pretty sorted on what i'm after now. Great community and depth of knowledge you have here.
I'll check out the 180sx coils sounds like a good option

cheers