[Ace]

Burn me if you will, from what I can understand they are boat anchors but.... my Q is how far forward would the front diff have to be moved (in theory) to part-way balance out the car? I tried the search function but after 7 pages of commy shocks and eng mounts I lost interest

[Scrawny]

Just mid mount the motor then you won't have to worry

[atari4x4]

about this much

[Ace]

Yeah but im in Christchurch, the south Is of NZ. Its snowed the last few years more than once / me like heater core... I have recessed a firewall before but its a fair bit of shaggin round.

[Ace]

atari4x4 wrote:

about this much

Sounds like its a hot topic in OZ.... kinda like a sheep in a bikini

[Scrawny]

What tracks do you drive mainly Ace? Will it be a road car? I think you might still be pushing poo uphill with this idea.

[Ace]

Honestly I am kickin tyres, I know its been done before. Have had a talk with a dude / peeked under the hood / with the v6 auto and lux diffs that love it but I know theres a lot of back lash against it. I understand its heavy but was hoping for some positive feedback regarding a stretch for balance / lack of dive under brakes.

[Parry]

If its for a comp truck build yes good idea, for everyday driving not a good idea....

[Scrawny]

Fatzook or Gwagen might be along shortly with some info for you

[alien]

theres a thread on "best engine for a sierra" and the commodore v6 is near the bottom of that list...

IMO your best bet is a g16 efi engine... it'll do everything you want and very reliably... otherwise, stick a J20 and vitara auto in it if you want more power =)

[Ace]

If I could track down an 8v 1.6 carb for a reas price let alone a 16v efi I would be all over it.. the trouble is its a popular conv and the vits are getting long in the tooth/fkd so they also need replacment engines and the price heads upward accordingly... call me tight but I am not spending 500 on an unknown con "long block" and then have to find the other bits to make it run and possibly have to recon my new purchase. Heck even old buggered vits seem to fetch top dollar

[alien]

have you checked pricing of importing one from australia? they've not THAT big/heavy, so you might get away with it???

look at the baleno as well, they also have g16 in them.

[SierraDan]

In a buggy where major driveline and axle movement can be achieved without too much sacrifice. Good idea.

Otherwise, get a different more available 4cyl.

[pezz]

Nz has its fair share of jap imports.... sr20?

[Ace]

Importing, interesting but we do get stung with gst over 400. I have had my eye out for gti swifts and also balenos - our market is very different to OZ and both of these are very thin on ground, I chased up a 85 gti eng but the guy wanted a grand for it / mate its 25 years old

[Ace]

pezz wrote:

Nz has its fair share of jap imports.... sr20?

Tempted but its a long box. Been eyeing up mx5 motors

[Scrawny]

What about 4A-GE?

[pezz]

On the mazda front.... do you have kia sportage's there?

[SierraDan]

Ace wrote:

pezz wrote:

Nz has its fair share of jap imports.... sr20?

Tempted but its a long box. Been eyeing up mx5 motors

use a different box.
C4 is short.

[Ace]

Scrawn wrote:

What about 4A-GE?

They arnt worth it.. just recently flogged a rwd 1 a fwd 1 an aftermarket housing and a w series box to go with it plus a lot of other bits for far more than I paid - those bits are for the "jap classic" crowd. I was still missing around 600 bucks worth of stuff to get it running in suzy - plus me making mounts etc. The trick is to find something unpopular - may have to run the tape over a na SR and auto.

[Ace]

SierraDan wrote:

Ace wrote:

pezz wrote:

Nz has its fair share of jap imports.... sr20?

Tempted but its a long box. Been eyeing up mx5 motors

use a different box.
C4 is short.

Will have to look into that I do like the SR's in na form. Also we have the Kia's I just havnt paid much attention to them

[pezz]

Kia is a maz 2ltr dohc 100kw from memory.. and i think it runs a aw4...

I have a shit memory tho

[Ace]

would 50 odd mill be enough / or nowhere near it? looks like the inner guards could handle the chop before looking for smaller / squarer headlights. I may have a lead on a 16v 1600 but not holding my breath.


Still looking into the steering box side of things but I am sure it can be figured out. Just found a new car for the wife so I wont have to drive the SJ daily for too much longer....

[Gwagensteve]

Mazda BP series engine (MX5) has been used in eleventy different products, including the Kia Sportage, which, as per pezz's comments, did come with an AW-4 as far as I know. That would be my pick. If the prices of old sportages are anyhting like Aus, they should be cheeeeep.

There are mazda BP to AW-4 bellhousings, but they are hard to find. They were only used in the MX-5 AFAIK. Most other mazda's used Jatco autos.

It is possible to fit an SR20 with a manual or an auto. Use a skyline rear housing on the silvia manual if you have three legs, a silvia auto if you dont. The transfer has to come back a bit for the auto, but no all that much. AFAIK, the auto is pretty close to an AW-4 in architecture.

By the time you run a commodore V6, T700 auto, hilux/LT230 transfer, hilux/60series/rover diffs and stretch it out, you'd have been better starting with a hilux form the get go, because there's no advantage in starting with a sierra at that point.

Pulling the front axle forwards 40-50mm is cool. Full RUF nets 40mm of stretch and it helps with climbing heaps. The car balances much better.

Steve.

[Ace]

Really, really appreciate the input from those that have done it before. Sound like I have a lot of homework to do, from google the aw-4 auto was fitted to a yank 4cyl but it sounds like much more as well. To be honest a few years ago I purchased a 3.2 nissan ute as I was sick of fiddling around with cars and to be fair they are fairly capable - but the mod bug bit me again so here I am.....

Thanks for putting up with me,

[Gwagensteve]

AW-4's have been used in just heaps and heaps of cars, and the Toyota A-340 (I think) is basically and AW-4 too, and that's been used in heaps of toyotas.

Jeep XJ's used AW-4s too, and with 180hp and plenty of torque you can see why they last well behind a 4 cylinder.

The hassle with using an AW-4 from another application is shifting it. AW-4's are completely solenoid shifted (electronic) so unless you run one with a TCC, and get that to talk to the ECU, it won't shift. There is the Radesigns Baja shifter which eliminates the TCC, but it's a hokey solution as you end up with two shift levers, one for PRND and one for 1234. don't like the idea of that at all.

Steve.

[alien]

Gwagensteve wrote:

two shift levers, one for PRND and one for 1234. don't like the idea of that at all.

does that mean though that if lever 1 is in Reverse, that you can select 4 speeds backwards? lol cos that does sound pretty fun =)

[atari4x4]

.

[31zook]

Just do it keep is low, and mid mounted. With a small stretch in the front you should be able to run a Sierra/lux/LT230 case and keep it looking fairly stock.

Do it why not I rekon.

[Mattmorgo]

I'm kinda liking the 3.8 motors more and more there $50 motors to start with and there everywhere. Then I saw the picture of 11_evl combo it's actually shorter then the g16b auto combo. And I was looking at one yesterday inside lj chassis width and its actually a pretty good fit.