The First Samurai

[LBarr2002]

After competing at Gulches with the Explorer, I decided to get something smaller:



When I got it it was completely stock except the axles. It had factory seats, carpet, basically untouched except for Dana 44's stuck under it. The front is a J10, the rear I'm still not sure about. They're 5.89 geared with spools.

I immediately sold the 315/75/r16's and went down to 285/75/r16 to qualify for B class at Gulches. I sent the Sami off for a cage, bumper, rework of the suspension, and a few other little things.

This was on the way home from Charlie's with the new cage in.




Loaded up for the first comp.


I added a plate across the frame rails and mounted a winch with the control box under the hood and hardwired controls.




I kept breaking parts and upgrading at each competion. After that comp season, I went back to 35's on 15" steel wheels. I also herculined the tub, swapped out the plastic buckets for cheapo suspension seats and added hydro assist.

 

[LBarr2002]

Today I got started on my engine swap. The sidekick is now wireless and will never move under its own power again .

 

[LBarr2002]

I can't believe its been 8 months since I pulled the harness and I haven't done anything else... I borrowed an engine lift tonight and I'm planning on pulling the motor out of the Sidekick this weekend. I've got a spare 1.3 flywheel that I'll have resurfaced and install it on the 1.6. Then, if I can get a few things sold and buy the swap kit, it'll just take a weekend to pull the 1.3, install the clutch on the 1.6, and reinstall.

 

[LBarr2002]

Are you going to have the swap done before Harlan in April?

That's my plan. I want to be running on the new motor but no other major changes for Harlan. Then I'll figure out when to redo the front springs, link / stretch the back, and swap to a fuel cell.

 

[LBarr2002]

It's out!

 

[DanStew]

Thanks for that pic of the front of the motor I am in the process of making the mount for the GM alternator and didnt know how the top adjustment arm mounted.

 

[LBarr2002]

Happy birthday to me! Things have started arriving but unfortunately the swap mounts are backordered 3-4 weeks out... This is going to be cutting it close for OSCAR. I untaped and unwrapped the harness and sent it out too.

 

[LBarr2002]

Can you not make some motor mounts to save time?

It can be put together with a combination of samurai and sidekick mounts and shims. Doing it that way sits the motor too high for the hood to shut and probably won't hold up, but I'll take the hood off if I have to .

I hope to get everything else done and then swap mounts last minute...

 

[LBarr2002]

The harness came back from ZOR yesterday and looks great. I haven't heard anything else on the adaptor plate and mounts. I'm going to start working on pulling the motor tomorrow so I can swap over the flywheel, clutch, etc and have it ready to go in when the mounts show up.

 

[LBarr2002]

Last Saturday Brooks, Greg, and Tripp came over and we got to work:

Out with the old:




We decided to take on fixing the front suspension while we waiting on other parts.


We worked until about 1:30 Sunday morning and got the spring mounts all tacked in. Sunday I finish welded everything and got the axle back under it.





When we pulled the motor I found that the pressure plate was badly worn and heat cracked, so I placed a rush order for another clutch.


Thursday the rest of my parts game in.


So last night and today I got the new motor in.



I'm extremely unhappy with the quality and engineering of this swap kit, but it's done and that story will have to wait for another day.

Last night I noticed that the transfer case mount almost completely ripped off the frame, so I've got another order in for mounts...

 

[LBarr2002]

Samurai 1.6 16 Valve swap

I wanted to go into more detail on the swap now that I've had time to slow down and think...

I'll start by saying I read a ton of swap threads. This one http://www.zukikrawlers.com/showthread.php?t=27478 was by far the most valuable.

Last year I bought a complete running '95 Sidekick that had some transmission noise. I drove it around enough to know the motor was good, then pulled the harness. After pulling the harness, it all sat until January of this year. After a club trip, I decided that the original motor was done and I wasn't wheeling it again until the swap was done. My goal was to finish before O.S.C.A.R.




I finally pulled the motor out of it and cleaned it up. Then things sat again...




The swap from a 1.3 to 1.6 is fairly simple. The easiest way to do it is use a stock Samurai 5 speed transmission, samurai flywheel, clutch, etc. The bell housings are slightly different, so you need an adaptor plate to hook them up. You also either have to run a 1" body lift, lower the engine, or cut a hole in the hood, unless you get aftermarket motor mounts. I ordered the adapter plate and mounts from Petroworks, and they were backordered so things sat again. I also ordered a 4 rib pulley to replace the v belt on my existing power steering, a power steering pump bracket, and an E2000 fuel pump.



When I pulled the original motor, I found a badly worn clutch and cracked pressure plate, so I also ordered a Petroworks dual friction clutch, and the other parts finally came in.





I was warned by another Samurai parts guy to really look at the motor mounts and reweld if I wasn't happy with them. I was pretty dissappointed with the quality. The mounts were only welded on one side. It looked like they were too lazy to turn the mounts over to weld the rest. Maybe it isn't necessary, but I finished welding everything up. I also couldn't get one of the bolts into the motor mount because the tube holding the bushing was in the way. I had to grind down a washer to make it work.



The adaptor plate itself was nice, but the instructions (or lack of instructions) were horrible. Each bag of hardware had a little fortune cookie size piece of paper that said something like 'Bottom right of plate', but they don't say whether its the right looking at it from the front of from driver's perspective... This caused us pulling the motor back off the tranny twice when things didn't fit right.



More to come...

 

[LBarr2002]

It was finally time to drop it back in. I had to rig the engine lift to lift higher.


It fits very nicely. The motor mounts turn the motor slightly to give the header just enough room on the frame rail. I could not put a stock bolt back in the header collector, but was able to use a shorter bolt with the spring and a washer.


I was able to reuse the stock air intake for the most part, but I need to get a picture of that. I used the stock Sami upper coolant hose, the stock sidekick lower hose. The only one that had to be changed was one heater hose, and we were able to cut a 90 out of one of the other hoses to make that work. I switched to the Sidekick evap canister because it only has 2 ports instead of the sami's 3.

Tripp and I got the motor running Wednesday night (8 days before Harlan).

[video=youtube;rd-ZQDaCcvU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd-ZQDaCcvU&list=UUpJl1JlPPPsfc2iD_HxhF-Q&index=2&feature=plcp[/video]

and took it for a first ride on Saturday

[video=youtube;boGZcsGrwZc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boGZcsGrwZc&list=UUpJl1JlPPPsfc2iD_HxhF-Q&index=1&feature=plcp[/video]

I got it to the exhaust shop Sunday night. The only thing he had in stock was a 2.5 inch Flowmaster



I think it sounds good, but it's too loud.

I'll have to get some 'finished' pictures and video up, but I was way too busy getting it ready for Harlan.

 

[250f4life]

I thought it sounded good and peppy this weekend.

 

[LBarr2002]

New toys

 

[LBarr2002]

Last weekend Brooks and I started planning the four link. The first step is to get the gas tank out of the way.

Fits like a glove!


And the adapters to hook it up.


The upper links need to go where my nice new exhaust is, so that will have to be redone. More parts to come!

 

[cannonball]

whose fitting's are those? i think i see FPS on them?

 

[LBarr2002]

The aluminum ones are Fragola? Got them from amazon. They are adapters to npt thread then got the brass hose barbs needed.

 

[LBarr2002]

Beadlocks have been on for a couple of weeks. I'll get to try them out at CMD.


Last of the 4-link parts came in today. Just need tube and plate.
BTF Dana44 truss kit.

 

[DanStew]

very nice!!!

 

[97TJGUZZY]

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?p=14519271#post14519271