[jdk81]

Throttle body injection (tbi)

Converting a sierra or vitara carby motor to tbi is more work than doing full efi
Converting to tbi (using whole swift 1.6 motor, ecu, loom and dizzy mods etc) would be the same work as mpfi, but not as good.

A vitara g16b or coil pack baleno are the two best options.

If you can't do the efi thing, just get a g16a. Its still better hp/$ than most other "performance" mods, itll be good, but not great.

[Weiry]

Thanks mate,
Can't access that website for some reason

[Weiry]

Thanks jdk81

[Gwagensteve]

Ack, I'm aware you are very knowledgeable in relation to what works in the US, but over here we have a very different set of vehicles and options available to us. Your posts are likely to be quite confusing for someone who doesn't have detailed knowledge of the vehicles and configurations available here.

We never received the Sidekick/Tracker (Vitara) or Samurai (Sierra) in 2WD. There's no 2WD RWD gearbox to find here.
We never received a TBI EFI in a rear wheel drive configuration at all. There are TBI swifts ( I think in 8V and SOHC 16V) and while it's a slightly less involved swap than a MPFI EFI, it involves a better understanding of how EFI works as you have to swap distributor internals - there's no RWD TBI distributors here- etc. There are a tiny number of TBI Escudos imported privately from Japan.

There is no need to fit a vitara transfer case if you fit a vitara gearbox. The gearbox and transfer are sealed separately so it's only a matter of sliding the transfer off the back of the gearbox, sliding the (shortened) jackshaft on and opening the tunnel, basically the same as running an AW-4 or TH-180 with a Sierra transfer case. I would recommend running the vitara gearbox behind a 1.6 if the owner insisted on a manual for some strange reason.
I agree that running a Vitara transfer might be viable for a diesel converted Samurai, but diesel conversions aren't viable here and the added complication of low range gearing, centred rear diff and steep rear driveshaft angles rear their head. along with the chain life under high torque. J20 Vitaras with transfer gears seem to be able to stretch the chain.
Samurai high range is 1.409, not 1.49. not sure if that was a typo or a misunderstanding.

In short, for Australia, the best "bolt in" conversion options for a 1.3 Sierra are, in order,

G16B Vitara
G16B Baleno
G13BB Jimny
G13B GTi

This takes into account ease of fitting, torque, availability and gearbox options - the optimum swap being a G16B Vitara because of the ease of finding one already attached to an AW-4 automatic.

[Weiry]

Thanks for clearing that up Gwagensteve.
I'll be on the lookout for a G16B Vitara

[prickle]

Interesting topic ... so what is the diff between a G16B from a Vit and from a Baleno??

[Weiry]

The G16B in a Vitara is mounted north-south obviously and has a distributer and thermosat housing that clears the firewall
The G16B in a Baleno is mounted East-west and may not clear the firewall when mounted in a Sierra.
Correct me if i'm wrong

[prickle]

ok .. so the Baleno is mounted e/w in a Sierra ???

[Weiry]

The g16B is mounted east-west in a Baleno

[Weiry]

And i think you have to modify it to fit north-south in a sierra

[Gwagensteve]

Sump, oil pick up and thermostat housing/water piping are the only substantial mods required to swap the E/W Baleno motor to North/South.

[Weiry]

Do you have to do any of those mods to a Vitara G16B?

[Gwagensteve]

Depending on where you or front axle and bumpstops are, you may still need to swap the sump and oil pickup from the Sierra. There is no need to do any work on the water piping- the sierra radiator hoses line up with the vitara motor.

Steve.

[Weiry]

Do you have to modify the tunnel in a Sierra to fit an Automatic gearbox from a Vitara or is that only for the manual?

[Gwagensteve]

Both Vitara autos and manuals require tunnel mods.

[Weiry]

Are there any good G16B Sierra conversion threads besides cairnszook's?

[Weiry]

Sorry if these questions are a bit annoying. They've probably all been asked before

[sideways]

Gwagensteve wrote:

There are TBI swifts

I'll add that they're also quite rare.

G13bb from a Jimny is the easiest conversion. It already has the right sump, it bolts up to a 1.3l Sierra gearbox, no need to change mounts or anything, radiator hoses are in the right spots. Just bolts in. No clearance issues. Down side is it's still a 1.3l.

G16a from a Vitara is pretty simple. Almost no wiring. You will probably need to swap the sump which involves chopping/welding the pickup tube. You might need a body lift to fit it depending on how your engine mounts were done. You'l certainly need a 1.3l bonnet if you don't have one already. All G16s need an adapter plate to fit to a Sierra gearbox.

G16b from a Vitara is probably the next easiest. Same as above but with EFi wiring, pump ect. The problem with Vitara engines is they all seem to crack blocks and heads at high KMs and they're expensive for what you get. It's also quite had to find a decent low KM example now (especially G16as).

G16b from a Baleno needs the sump cut and welded so the CAS fits with the Sierra sump. Also need to fab up a pipe from the thermostat housing (at the back of the engine) to the radiator or swap to a vitara inlet manifold. These don't seem to have the cracked head/block issues that vitara/earlier engines had. You need a coilpack baleno motor (1998 onwards I think?). Early Balenos had a dizzy which wont clear the firewall. You can pick up a whole running car for a few hundred dollars.

G13b from a swift GTi bolts up to the Sierra gearbox and needs the sump swapped (bolts on). Depending on the year you either need a rather expensive right angle drive adapter or a mazda 323 dizzy cap and rotor. Also need to do water piping stuff. These come up for fairly cheap but finding one that isn't a thrashed out POS could be a challenge.

Because you've got a Suzuki built tray back you can't just swap to a coily sierra tank (so you can bolt in a fuel pump) but with a bit of fab you can slot an 80 litre Jackaroo tank in behind the diff (Or a vitara tank, but they have lass capacity). You could just run an external pump on the original tank too.