"BaZooka" M18a VVT swap into non-VVT Jimny

Here's my girl, a weathered 2004 Jimny with a sting in its tail.



Had it for a few years, she's a little rough around the edges - was originally towed behind a motorhome for a lot of its life and has the stone-chips all over the front of the car to prove it.

Head gasket went a couple of years ago after a radiator failure, m13a head was resurfaced etc.

A lot of the running gear/suspension was refurb'd/replaced last year, bushes, bearings, 2inch suspension lift, steering tie-ends, overhaul on front and rear brakes, etc - which cumulatively, COMPLETELY got rid of the dreaded Jimny wobbles! (Yahhh!)

Engine had done 350K and was getting tired, ... love the car but never been a fan of the under-powered plant.
Found it doesn't deal with NZ roads very well - especially some of the inclines and wasn't comfortable sitting on 100kms.

Had mulled over a m16a/m18a swap but been detered.
A; because of the VVT engine swap into non VVT Jimny - which I had read was a hiding to nowhere
and
B, most of the m18a motors that go on the market in NZ get snaffled up instantly by the jetboat crowd.
Apparently they mount them in jetboats, customise them with a Haltech ECU/custom loom and manage to pull way in excess of 200hp out of them! 

Lined a sweet low-K m18a VVT by chance earlier this year that my mechanic was confident he could install into the non-VVT Jimny.
Managed to snag it before those jet-boat hordes beat me too it again (too slow this time pirate scum, ... too slow!) 

Process was completed via my mechanic (who has done a lot work on Jimnys including engine swaps), a very clever auto-electrician and to an extremely modest extent, myself (fabricator/TIG welder).



Mechanic was very much against the usual "frankenstein" m16a /m18a swap.
He wanted to literally transplant the whole m18a engine with loom AND the ECU from the m18a's Liana, no injector swaps/throttle body swaps etc, no transferring injectors or functional parts of the original m13a onto the 1800 engine (apart from the obvious things like engine mounts, flywheel(to match clutch), and various mounting brackets - just the stock VVT m18a straight into the Jimny.

Plumbing was a bit of a re-route as the m18a was cross mounted in the Liana as opposed to in-line in the Jimny which was where I had to customise an aluminium hose/sensor housing, blanking it off and adding a second sensor port to it. 

Coup de grâce was the old-school auto-sparky who got the wiring diagrams from both vehicles and spliced everything into the car using the Liana ECU.

Have only just picked it up and driven it back from the mechanics.
Clutch is taking some getting used to, due both to the extra power and the heavy duty clutch I bought for the install.
Not used to a Jimny that pulls !

Will update once I've driven it for a while - very much in the breaking in phase and still holding my breath/ watching gauges. 

Next phase is sanding/priming, Raptor-coating, general cosmetic prettifycation ... and custom bumper/bullbar/ rear bumper - stuff more within this fabrication guys comfort zone. 

Hello and welcome, sounds like a nice project!

Welcome

That looked like a fun project to do, 200 bhp in a jimny would be scary haha

Always loved a whtie jimny

Looking forward to seeing more on your jimny.