[Gwagensteve]

Reliability is a broader concept than whether a block cracks though. There's heaps of G16B's out there that are trouble free. The one in my own car has shot valve stem seals and a questionable service history for the last 10 years or so but runs fine. It has 215,000km or so on it. Many have clocked far more.

A sierra driveline with 30" tyres and a G16B will be pretty reliable. However, a sierra driveline with 130KW and 250Nm won't be, and every bit of work you do to make the sierra last with that much power introduces a new threat to long term reliability.

The truth is that there are very, very few sierras with over 100kw that are daily driven or used where "reliability" is an issue. Mostly they are comp/recreational toys that do very few kilometers and are likely to break lots of driveline components through their use, or be built up until they don't really have any suzuki parts in them any more.


So whilst CA18DET's have been put into suzukis successfully, and I too think they are a very underrated motor, I don't think anyone would claim that overrall, the end result is more reliable than a sierra with a G16B in it. You still need to take into account that every component in the car, right down to spring bushes, has to deal with 2.5X the torque the manufacturer intended.

Steve.

[datso]

Nissan CA engines are perfect for a zook, perhaps the most lightweight of all the iron blocked jap engines even lighter than a 4age.

Although the ca18det is great if you can engineer it, otherwise a stock ca20e with 4g63 rods will go on forever and the torque is very good.
There are pintaras and other CA20 engines with over 350,000kms in all wreckers and they just need headers and small ignition mods.
The nissan boxes are common and you can get cheap pintara running gear for a couple of hundred bucks.