1.5 or 1.6 VVT for engine swap - opinions

Good morning!

I am getting my hands on a 2008 Jimny with a blown head gasket.

I hadn't realised how cheap second hand replacement motors were.

So i'm toying up fixing the HG or replace with a bigger lump.

1.5 vvt seems plentiful and very cheap, albeit it needs a little jiggery to swap it to RWD

1.6vvt seems rarer and less cheap.

I should point out at this bit I'm tight.

Is the 1.5 vvt a worthwhile swap or shall I just stick in a standard 1.3 Jimny lump and save the hassle of swapping the mounts/manifolds etc.

All pointers much appreciated.

Cheers

Ed

Cheers, I understand that Lambert.

If you had the choice of a 22km 1.3 or a 66k 1.5 which would you be putting in?

The higher mileage shouldnt be any issue, and more power the better! You should be seeing around 100hp with the 1.5. Engine swap over is pretty easy if all your donor parts are in good condition.

1.5's were in ignis sports i think. try and get the recaro seats out of the ignis if you find a scrapper one. worth a few quid them and easy to fit into a jimny

1.6 from a swift sport upto 2010 are the same work to fit, no great difference to run. Also I think the 1.6 is found in Liana's and vitaras, but check if its VVT or not (bulge on the rocker cover for the vvt bits).

1.8 from an australian or russian Liana. Rocking-horse poo in this country but basically more torque, identical swap otherwise.

Dont forget to check with your insurance before swapping the engine incase they wont cover you any more, or require other things (like braking upgrades).

Riccy cheers for the detailed response.

And thanks for the detailed write up previously that has led me down this extra displacement road!

Did you ever get the 1.6vvt with Jimny bolt on bits dyno’d?

I’d be happy with a 15hp increase on standard with minimal work.

The 1.5vvt I’m looking at is from a non sport Swift.

Cheers so far!

No I never did any dyno stuff with the 1.6 grey Jimny, just modded and drove it. The amount of mods and 33" tyres made it rather underwhelming to drive on roads, more of a laning and off-road machine.

If your car is more standard you will find a big boost as you get more torque than expected, a welcome bonus. All the various engines avaliable to swap in easily are limited by the standard Jimny's ECU, intake and exhaust systems (if you want to keep stock wiring loom, sanity and money). This means it doesnt make much, if any, difference between an M15 and a M16 or even the M18 I have.

Currently im in Ulysses with the 1.8 and thats a dream, but still slower with 31" tyres than Sniper's well looked after 1.3 engine Jimny (albeit with a lot less weight and 215/75r15 tyres). New 2.5" zorst has helped, throttle bodies and ECU are next for it and that will be getting dyno tuned. Im hoping for a before and after run to see what difference the throttle bodies make

I've been considering this type of ecu as an alternative to £800 on an MS3.......

Actually may be cheaper than a remap on the Jimny ecu....if it's even possible....just to bring the 1.6 fuel and timing into some sort of acceptable performance.....always an option to control the pwm on a vvt for a non vvt car too.

Lambert wrote: Is that like an arduino based thing then?

From the first line in the description....

The UA4C gets it’s name “Under Arduino 4 Channel”, as the Arduino Mega sits on top of the Speeduino PCB.

Non VVT jimny could have the 135hp SS1600 engine with full control of the vvt for £230

Cheers Riccy, I was just wondering how the 160cc increase would feel, but seeing as I'm replacing a blown motor, I have nothing to compare it to!

Mother in law collected a 66k 1.5 VVT engine for me while she was in the North East.

It's now at my dads bolted to an engine stand waiting to have Jimmy bits bolted to it.

I collect the poorly Jimny on Saturday all being well!

Sunday is for pulling the poorly 1.3 out of the new car and see what's what!

The Jimny made it home on Saturday, albeit on a recovery truck.

Sunday we pulled the motor and stripped the Jimny ancillaries and mounts etc.

Stripped the Swift motor, add started building it up.

It's ready to drop in now, just need a couple of hoses as some of the coolant pipes look a bit soft.

Next Saturday it goes in, fingers crossed.