1.3 Swapped 1987 Suzuki Swift

[Theunnamed1]

For a while I had been talking about getting a Swift. More common here as a MK2/3 body style Geo Metro with a 1.0. Very rare to find a GTi. The MK1 body style is also rare to come by here. It is badged as a Chevy Sprint. It came with the 1.0 in both N/A and turbo. The turbo got GTi styling. The MK1 GTi is pretty much impossible to find in the U.S.

So with a generous budget after selling the Samurai, I started looking. Though I wanted an MK1 I was willing to settle on MK2/3. Many are rusted out and not well cared for. I had a few interests here and there. But after 2 months of looking I finally found the perfect one.

A clean nearly rust free 1987 Chevy Sprint non Turbo. What makes it so perfect? It was already 1.3 swapped. A G13BB to be exact. A SOHC 1.3 was my exact plan for a fun daily driver. Problem is that it wasn't for sale.

I found the photo of it first. Found the owner and was extremely excited to find out he was only 4 hours away. We talked a lot about it since it was what I intended to do to whatever one I ended up buying. After a while I think I gained his trust. He threw me a number, which is certainly on the high side for one of these cars. I think he was very surprised when I told him I had the cash. To me it was worth it for something that already had the hard work done. No backing out now.

We met at the halfway point a few days later and I brought my new Suzuki home.

Never before have I been so happy after a car purchase. The drive home was filled with laughter as I experienced a fun balance of power and weight.

Just because this car has the engine swap I wanted doesn't mean that its done. You may first be asking yourself "If you're going to go through the hassle of 1.3 Swapping an MK1 why not just go right for a DOHC?". Well, as I mentioned before, they are hard to find here. It was a fluke that I found the one for my Samurai. Second, I've done it already in a Samurai and I want to try something different.

Once again, you may be asking yourself "How different is a 1.3 SOHC?" The answer comes in 2 parts again. First, This one is already unique enough with MSD ignition and a Mazda 323 ECU. That would already be a good start for adding low boost to have heaps of fun with. But more importantly, I have a billet quad carb adapter for the 8v G series head. I think that is what will make this a fun and unique daily driver.

Some may see it is a step backwards to lose the 16V head and EFI. And really it is. But again this not about making huge power. This is about having a unique and fun to drive car. Whats more fun than the engine sounds you get from quad carbs? Whats more fun than the confused faces you get when you open the hood?

In the meantime while I work on sourcing the rest of the parts for the quad carbs I will be working on cosmetics. Making the car my own.

Purchased a set of Datsun 280zx wheels. Still deciding if I like them. I also have to finish upgrading the rear studs to 12mm before I fit them. The front already has GTi brakes thankfully.

And also installed some Acura RSX-S seats as they have a very similar look to the MK2 GTi seats.

I also have some turbo skirts on the way and a grant steering wheel.

That's it for now.

 

[Theunnamed1]

Here is the Grant steering wheel and MOMO shift knob. Just waiting on a Grant 4510 adapter.

Another thing I did over the weekend was remove the rest of the A/C box under the dash.

And I lowered the driver seat another inch or so by cutting the seat frame down and welding on new tabs. I will only do this for the driver side. The passenger side height is fine for sitting but just did not work well for the driver side with the steering wheel and pedal placement. It is much better now.

 

[blueturbofly]

hey I gots the same color and year! saved it from the crusher, runs good. 1.0 5spd
slowly gathering parts for it--random parts ordered from Australia and new Zealand...

found a nice blue textured vinyl to re-cover the interior panels, and made custom panels for the rear interior 1/4 panels....

yours must haul ass with that 1.3 in it....hmmm
I have an extra 1.3 dohc w/ trans.....actually, a complete gti , minus the body....

yours looks like a nice sleeper car- clean classic mk1 body lines, no real external mods to let people know what's lurking under the hood :devil:

 

[Theunnamed1]

The turbo skirts may ruin that sleeper look.

I like that blue vinyl you got. I am going to go all black on the interior.

 

[Theunnamed1]

Finished painting the wheels.

Which means that it is time to upgrade the rear studs to 12mm

The drum material is much softer than I expected. A stepper bit ate right through it with no problem. The knurl is 13.05 which means you should technically use a 13mm drill bit. but I dont have one and they are expensive. I used a 1/2" bit which is 12.7mm. I was originally just going to dremmel the hole a little bigger but after seeing how soft the material was I figured the stud would have no problem being pressed in.

Ordered some new stub shaft stake nuts. All the parts catalogs said m18x1.5 for the rear but mine were actually m16x1.5. I put them on with some Loctite for added security and torqued to 75 ft lbs.

I have some before and after shots of the wheel offset difference. The wheels are 14x6 et10. Which is kind of a lot. Scouring the forums I found very few people running this much offset so I was a bit concerned. Especially with the GTi hubs making the front wider it was already rubbing with the wheels that were on it. They were 14x5.5 et40. I think the main reason it was rubbing was because the tires were 175/65R14. I went with a 185/60R14 on these new wheels to cut down on the radius a bit. I also switched to a more summer oriented tire for better traction since right now I can light up the tires way too easy. They are Falken Ziex ZE612 copys under Falkens Ohtsu brand name. The ZE612s were a highly regarded tire before the design was discontinued.

Anyway, here are the differences.

Definitely going to need some flares and definitely going to need rolled fenders after I lower it. But I think it looks good and currently they do not rub. Unless of course I am flying over a nice little dip in the road. The tires feel great. Much more grip even in the cold weather we have here. Cornering is heaps better with the stiffer sidewalls. The left inner tie rod is shot so I ordered a set of inners and outers for both sides. I'll work on getting new poly bushings for everything else soon but those can be done without changing the alignment.

All 4 wheels and tires on the car.

Shift knob and steering wheel fitted.

The Suzuki Samurai Grant 4510 adapter fits these cars just fine. That will allow you to fit any of the 3 bolt steering wheels. If you want a 5 bolt you will have to get an adapter. Which is fine because my steering wheel needed spaced another good inch away from the cluster to be comfortable.

Doing some research on suspension. I think I have that all figured out and will be ordering stuff soon for that.

 

[macuserman]

Super cool project! Not sure how I missed this one, keep up the good work!

 

[suprf1y]

Nice car. I think the Mk1 was the best of all the Swifts, and I think those motors are a great choice. Light and excellent power with a few minor mods.

What is the original application for that motor? Are you sure it's not a 1.6? I don't recongnize that intake from any of the car applications.

If you take a stock intake for the 98-01 G13 you could probably cut it off shot and use it for your carbs. I have really nice cam profiles for either G13, 8V or 16V

 

[Theunnamed1]

It's a 1.6 16v intake and valve cover. The rest is definitely 1.3 stuff. I have also considered swapping in a whole 1.6 and keeping the Efi. That way I dont hsve to change the header. But I have had this one off carb adapter for a while and I really feel like I should use it or it will keep sitting forever. Maybe a complete 1.6 8v swap and the carbs? Adapting the trans is the easy part but not so sure about the axle carrier mount. Thats tricky. The engine mounts should be easy to figure out too.

I am really wanting that nasty motorcycle carb sound and a tucked engine bay. Best way to do that is carbs and 8v head so I can get rid of all the wiring, relocate the battery, etc.

Definitely going to need a higher rpm cam once the engine work starts so the carbs can work where they like to be.

 

[Theunnamed1]

Little change of plans after talking to a few people and doing some research to make sure it is possible.

I still have the goal of doing bike carbs. but it does not make sense to do all the work for what would be a lateral move. The 16v head flows so much better than the 8v head.
Which is why I am going to attempt to do bike carbs on the 16v head.

I didn't want to do this originally for 2 reasons.

1. 16v head has a computer controlled distributor.

2. I already have an 8V adapter.

Both of these problems can be quickly solved by throwing money at them. That is something I can certainly do but that would extended the project several years while I slowly gathered the funds.

As I said earlier, some research helped me realize it was possible without dumping a lot of cash or time into it.

First thing I stumbled upon was this build:

https://www.redlinegti.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=52725

and it had me drooling. That is the EXACT look I am going for and the guy has plenty of videos of him racing and keeping up with a modified GTi.

So how does he do it? Using a MSD 6AL-2. Unlike the standard 6AL that I already have which only controls ignition voltage, the 6AL-2 can also control ignition timing among a few other things. Buying a 6AL-2 would put me at the same price as a Microsquirt which I would much rather have and at that point I would just use ITBs instead of carbs.

The question is still how do I do this within a reasonable budget?

The other option I had thought about was swapping to a G16B cam instead of the G13BB cam. The G16B cam has a gear on it which would allow you to use a pre 95 Suzuki truck distributor which does its timing without a computer. It uses a combination of vacuum and centrifugal force. These can be easily converted to do all the timing on a fixed curved by grinding a little out of the weight slot and disconnecting the vacuum diaphragm.

The problem we run into with this is that the distributor would run backwards on the 16v heads, causing it to actually retard timing instead of advance it. So that is not an option either.

More reading about bike carbs on things like the 4AGE led me to a discontinued MSD module part number 8980.

This works in conjunction with the standard MSD 6AL. You lock your distributor to desired total advance. Lets say about 32 degrees. The 6AL will tell the 8980 that the engine is running under 1000 RPM and the 8980 will retard ignition timing by 20 degrees. Which puts the initial timing at 12 degrees. This will help with starting and idling. Once RPM increases above 1000 the 8980 will increase timing gradually on a fixed curve until it is all in by 3000 rpm. Old school.

You may be wondering why MSD discontinued this 8980 module? The 6AL-2 now includes this function and more. I am sure MSD would much rather sell that.

I found one of these for a very reasonable price on ebay from a gentleman who was actually using it on his 4AGE to run bike carbs. After hearing of his success using it I decided to purchase it from him.

Using this rudimentary method of a fixed timing curve will not make the most power. Nothing will beat a specific to your engine timing map for max power. I also would not use this on a budget boost build. It's just too broad a setting to expect that it will keep your engine from pre detonation under boost. However, for my intentions this will work well.

Problem 1 solved. Onto Problem 2.

This is a simple fix really. When looking at other examples of bike carbs on car engines. Specifically the VW crowd. You will notice that a lot of them cut the plenum off the intake and use boots to secure the carbs to the runners. Fortunately the 16V SOHC engines share the same intake bolt pattern and were used in a few different Suzukis with different intake designs. This gives us a good selection for an intake that will be easiest to modify.

The one we are after is from a 98-01 Chevy Metro LSi. I am not sure of the year range or model name for other countries but in the U.S the 98-01 LSi came with a hand made intake manifold very much like the Cultus manifold. Smooth, tubular runners are what we want.

This is the one I purchased for this project.

Still have to look into the best place to cut the manifold and what else would need modified on it but I think this will give me a close imitation of the build linked earlier.

More to come.

 

[Theunnamed1]

Got a good bit done over the week since I had it off for vacation that got cancelled due to the virus.

First off got some ebay universal flares fitted to the front. I plan on replacing these fenders as they are pretty beat up so these were just a rough fit on the front only
for now to see how I like them. The driver side flare cracked the very next day. So not sure what to think about them.

I got the intake cut up and ready to be modified. It was easy, only took about an hour with the angle grinder. Just waiting on the carbs so I can set angle and spacing.

I got my MSD timing control module in the mail and decided to get it wired up. I got my timing light out and confirmed the engine is currently locked at 20 degrees.
This causes some poor idle conditions and probably some top end power loss as total timing should be around 35 degrees by 3-4k rpm not 20.

Unfortunately, the module did not work. I was not getting spark. It is supposed to ground the output wire to the ignition module when it sees the signal from the distributor.
Confirmed it was getting 12v. Confirmed that the distributor is not the issue. Did this by simulating a signal by shorting the positive and negative wires that would go to the magnetic pickup.
This did not ground the output wire. Next is to test that the magnetic pickup circuit wasn't at fault. So I switched to the "points" style signal input wire.
You would use this if you were using an external igniter like and HEI module. The way to simulate a signal for this is to just ground the wire.
Unfortunately, this also did not work. Double checked the ignition module itself the same way. when I short the the magnetic pickup wires it fires a spark as it should.
Same for when I ground the points wire. Nice clean spark. So this pretty much confirms that the timing module is bad. I will have to order another one or send this one in to MSD for repairs.

I don't know if this is information you care to read. But I always like to provide some in depth info when I can especially if its something I had a hard time finding myself.
Never know when someone else might need it.

Also worth knowing is that on some vehicles technically you can get a timing curve with the MSD 6AL by reversing polarity on magnetic pickup wires.
It does work on this G13BB engine. It's a little jumpy. Maybe 3-4 degrees at times but you do get about a 20 degree advance timing curve. Idle has to be set a bit higher it seems.
However, being that I currently have a Mazda 323 ECU controlling fuel it seems like its running out of fuel at higher rpm when the timing curve is different than what
the ECU thinks it should be. Its more stable when the timing is fixed.

May try it again when I get the carbs on it since they wont care so much.

The real fun I had last week was removing the dash to paint it and also cleaning up all the wiring while I was at it.

First the seat and carpet came out.

The carpet is in great shape. No wear through spots or majors stains. Needs a little cleaning though. I plan on stripping the insulation off the back
to make it lighter and cutting it down so that it is easy to remove. Like a floor mat. Then It will get dyed black.

Steering wheel and cluster out.

and finally the dash out.

I left the firewall insulation in. Typically it is made of fire retardant material for safety. I don't know if that is the case with this but if it is I think it is safest to leave it.
I am trying to find a balance of saving weight and leaving it somewhat enjoyable to daily. Which is why the front speakers will stay but the rears are gone. Balance

A lot of the wiring where the Mazda ECU and MSD Ignition were added is just a bunch of wires twisted together with electrical tape wrapped around them.
I fixed all those joints with solder connectors and re wrapped in electrical tape. In the process I cleanly re routed wires along the existing dash harness for a cleaner install.

Previous owner also had an aftermarket tach and water gauge on the A-pilar. Since I have a factory tach instrument cluster I wanted to use that so I wired it back up.
I also attempted to wire the cluster water temp gauge but I think the sensor may be aftermarket and not the right resistance so I will be purchasing an OEM one soon
in hopes that it will fix the cluster reading.

Dash is stripped and cleaned.

And painted black with matte black VHT high temp plastic spray paint. "Guaranteed not to chip or flake." It laid on really nice and even. I am impressed with the coverage.
No runs and a surprisingly glossy but not too glossy, like factory finish when dried.

Installed back in without carpet for now.

It looks so dang good with the Grant steering wheel.

Next time I will make new black door panels and have the carpet dyed.

 

[jamalspelling]

Nice work. Thank you for sharing.
I appreciate the MK1, as I have 13 of the T3's.
I design them old school as well, and to run on OE systems,
with mostly mechanical mods. Mainly for interchange between
vehicles when needed. It's a fun and easy rewarding challenge and
HP gain is much easier on a boosted setup, though the powerband
can get iffy, the 'afterburner' effect is a hoot.
Glad to see another enthusiast making some current headway,
I wish there were more out there keeping these rides alive!

 

[Theunnamed1]

I got a lot done over the quarantine time as most are.

I cut up some door panels using thin textured plastic. Still trying to decide if I like them. I may end up going with an ABS style plastic instead.

I wrapped the upper part of the door in carbon fiber vinyl.

Then I wrapped the speaker mounts in some black cloth.

Same for the a pillar covers.

And on up to the headliner.

Unfortunately, after trying 2 spray glues I can not get the headliner to hold. Maybe some rubber cement will work?

Next was to fit the new Corbeau seats.

The bottoms are flat and the holes line up with the stock brackets front to back. So you only need to fab something up for the correct width. The height is near perfect.

Finally got around to dyeing the carpet. I tried liquid dye first and I could not get it to set. Probably because the carpet is very synthetic. Which actually makes it a great candidate for the spray dye.

It took 2 cans. Spray it on heavy and work it in with a nylon brush as you go.

I broke my 30 year old aftermarket sun roof latches So I cut some poly carbonate and glued it in.

Also, my other wheels were rubbing way too much. So I got another set with a better offset.

A few days later my exhaust manifold broke.

I spent some time making it nice again. There were a lot of pin holes around some of the previous owners welds. I patched those all up, high temp painted it and gave it some exhaust wrap.

Not bad for flux core welding I think. My welds should hold a lot better. I hope I haven't had any break yet.

The exhaust sounds so much better after fixing the small leaks. Including the one at the head since there was no gasket there when I removed it. :shock:

Really hoping to move onto the engine soon as the interior is wrapping up. I want to figure out a better position for the shifter if possible. I am tired of reaching so far for it.

 

[macuserman]

Don't know how I missed this project, but looks great man looking forward to more updates on this.