M16a swap

I am looking at buying a Jimny for my first car but have done some reading and heard that the 1.3 in them doesn't have enough grunt in them for motorway use after upgrading to larger wheel sizes such as 33"

I am wondering what is required for me to change the 1.3 to the m16a found in the swifts and lianas as I have found some engines with reasonable mileage for decent prices.

I plan on keeping the 1.3 in it for a year until I fully passed my test and carry out some modifications but then after upgrading wheel size, i would look into engine swapping. as it will be my daily car I feel the engine swap will be required as the 1.3 doesn't have much high-end power.

can anyone tell me what I will need to make the swap happen, I have access to a garage on the weekends which has endless amounts of tools and a few 2 post lifts and a 4 post ramp lift as well.

If you are planning on running 33s the engine swap will be the easy bit! I'm sure if you do a search on here you'll find the right information but its basically remove 1.3, swap ancillaries, manifolds, sump, rocker cover, thermostat housing onto the 1.6, remove oil filter housing and replace with short thread (buy this from Suzuki) then fit the 1.6 into your Jimny.

With such big tyres you will still struggle to sit at motorway speeds unless you alter the gearing to compensate for the larger radius of the tyres.

Thanks for the advice mate, If that is the case I may look at running slightly smaller tyres such as 31 or 29 AT's then.

do you know of any bigger engines that are easy to fit the Jimny, maybe 2.0 diesel or something that wouldn't be too much hassle to change as I'm looking for a project but not a headache?

The easiest engine swap in any jimny is going from an m13a to m16a since it's without the need of conversion kits, mounts and such.

but why not get the Jimny first, drive around in it and then decide what you need?
You'll read tons of rubbish on forums and facebook about what you need for the Jimny. But in reality in standard form it's actually pretty good offroad, and somewhat decent onroad

okay, it has just been a thought in my head as I will be driving a lot on road but after thinking about it I will keep the original wheels and tyres for long journeys on the road.

I've been looking at jimnys from 2001 to around 2004 for my price range.
is there any budget mods anyone can recommend me?

Not sure why you want to mod it?
Budget mods are usually cheap for a reason.

For a properly useable every day Jimny first I'd fit some good quality tyres (BFG, General, Cooper, Yokohama, Kumho, Maxxis) in a sensible size (195/80 or 215/75 fit nicely and give you a bit more clearance) and see what you think or it. Good tyres, a 1.6 and ARB locking diffs are all you need to make a very capable Jimny that will go almost anywhere without driving like a bus. To make a Jimny work properly as an everyday car on 29"+ tyres involves spending a lot of money on suspension, gearing and the associated parts. You might be able to throw something together with budget parts but it will be rubbish to drive on-road and only marginally better than standard off-road.

Jimnys as modified as mine are;

a) very expensive & time consuming to do & maintain,
b) crap to drive on the road (despite all that expense!). Motorway speeds for example will suck a tank of fuel in 130 miles, 170 at best. sitting with the wagons will get you 200 miles. Handing is a joke on bumpy back roads.

Dont get me wrong, I love it, it will go literally anywhere ive tried and with ease, but perhaps that takes a bit of the fun out of it?

Busta & Tom are right about quality is best. Start with some nice tyres and leave it at that. Think about insurance as well. As a newly qualified driver you would be restricted a fair bit.

I dread to think what your insurance will be after a few mods as a new driver..
Just adding a snorkel eliminates you from every insurance company you can find on compare the meercats and confused !
That leaves you to the mercy of specialist/custom insurers that charge crazy amounts just because you have made a few alterations.
From chatting with many insurers it seems just one non standard addition and boy do they charge, but add another 10 and it stays around the same as one modification.
You can change the tyres for a bit more dirt orientated as long as they are the same size without any issues, so try your jimny in stock form as suggested and see how you get on with it.

rappey wrote: I dread to think what your insurance will be after a few mods as a new driver..
Just adding a snorkel eliminates you from every insurance company you can find on compare the meercats and confused !
That leaves you to the mercy of specialist/custom insurers that charge crazy amounts just because you have made a few alterations.
From chatting with many insurers it seems just one non standard addition and boy do they charge, but add another 10 and it stays around the same as one modification.
You can change the tyres for a bit more dirt orientated as long as they are the same size without any issues, so try your jimny in stock form as suggested and see how you get on with it.

Really??
Nothing like this in Norway, no-one asks for modifications. However if you have to claim your insurance and the car is not MOT'ed properly or in any other way illegal you may not get full coverage, or if your mods caused the accident you may get sued. Never heard that this has ever happened here though..
Any additions to your cars value may not be covered fully by the insurance but in most cases it will be covered by the insurance here.
Only if you have done large expensive (legal) mods you will have to get a special insurance if you want coverage for it.
And almost no modifications is legal in Norway so..
Anyways most jimnys are so low in price that any insurance other than minimum traffic-coverage will be pointless here.
Insurance pays for anything i hit but does not cover my own car. (Low cost option is Glass/Fire/Theft coverage)

cannot find the link for information what is needed to make the change to 16 can anyone help pls