Silvia Club of NSW

A friend at work has a clean CB Lancer GSR hatch (the shape before the EVO 1-3 Lancer shape), which he really wants to put an EVO engine in. I've tried to help him out with spending his money wisely, and have made a few suggestions.

Firstly that he go an older and cheaper 4G63 from a VR4, instead of an EVO 3 4G63. A vr4 half cut is around $2500 from his research, with a good EVO 3 half cut $6-8K

I argue that he would be better off getting the cheapest VR4 one he can find, and spend the money difference on making the conversion really thorough and bringing the older engine up to scratch.

So I suggest he get the VR4 4G63 rebuilt to factory specs, just a freshset of rings, bearings, etc, to make sure everything is now new and reliable. Beats paying the extra to get a low kays halfcut from the evo 3 three I reckon.

My basic costing plan for him is as follows:

Halfcut- $2500
Decent fuel pump - $200
FMIC- $400
Custom FMIC piping- $800
Custom 3 inch exhaust- $1100
Ricey BOV- $300
Decent clutch (sprung HD organic, nothing too brutal for the box)- $700
EBC- $700

So far $6700

He has been quoted $2500 labour for engine swap, modifying half cut gearbox to fit (remove transfer case), swap bigger brakes on from half cut, wiring of ECU. Basically drive in, drive out but without rebuild. THis was from a well known more expensive workshop too.

I figure add another $1000-1500 for factory spec rebuild onto that, being generous since the engine will be out of the car already, and no stuffed bearing means only machining should be shaving head and block for flat fit. Bearings and rings are a small cost goin from my own rebuild.

That leaves us with just over $10K, for a pretty damn quick, well sorted car. His max budget is $12k, but he is eager to eat it up with silly things like spending $1k on trading in one set of 18s for another. Fine if that's what he wants but since he got the loan for the purpose of the conversion, IMO that is what is most important.

Anyways sorry for long, post just wanted to see if other people agree this modification and pricing path is logical and accurate. Don't want to lead him to losing all his money and having an unfinished car.

Comments and suggestions please.

_________________
S13 Silvia Tuning - The Definitive SR20 Modifying Site

the plan looks sound,but at the end of the day,it'll still be an 80's front wheel drive,just it'll now have stupidly large amounts of power - which it will struggle to put to the ground.

I would be advising against doing it if your mate was asking me.

if he has $12k on hand,he'd be better off selling his hatchback and hunting for a relatively clean 4wd GSR IMHO.


Justin...

_________________
STI - Made in Texas,not Japan.

Yeah I agree with this, but he has some other friends with Pulsar SSS with high powered SR20DETs so he is influenced by those and my own car. He loves all of the wheelspin on command, I don't think that it would bother him that it won't hook up until the higher gears, I've warned him over and over.

Another thing is that he'd be stuck with a 4G93 and a much slower car for the money, even if the chassis was much more sorted. Thanks for the reply.

_________________
S13 Silvia Tuning - The Definitive SR20 Modifying Site

yeh id sell the lancer, and with the 12k + the money from the lancer
find a nice clean 180sx or s13

i remember silviHA was selling his 199 rwkw s13 for like 14k

cheap and cost effective

_________________

Makes sense.

The only unknown is the cost of the rebuild as every manufacturer has different rates for different parts.

Out of interest, is the evo engine form that generation lancer the 1.8 or the 2 as i know the earlier Galant engine is a 2lt.

These engines don't do much much past 6k either but are very torquey by all accounts, fairly different to the later models. I think mainly due to the galant being such a land barge in comparison to the lancer.

Something else you may want to consider is the legality of using the earlier engine, it may be worth checking with and engineer/RTA first but as a 4g63 is a 4g63 it may not matter.

_________________
meh

The Galant VR4 has the same 2 litre turbo as the evos, just an earlier version.

FYI:

4G63BT = 2 litre

4G93(BT?) = 1.8 litre from CC GSR. Same non turbo version is used ion recent CE Lancer's and mirages.

VR4 version = ~140kw @ flywheel

EVO 1-3 = ~ 160-190kw @ flywheel

EVO 4 onwards engine are flipped from sidse to side, so no go into older chassis. All make around the max 206kw with torque increasing each time.

I reckon building up a tough aftermarket turbo vr4 motor would be like building up a tough aftermarket turbo redtop SR, should make same power as newer version with maybe just some reduced drivability in comparison.

_________________
S13 Silvia Tuning - The Definitive SR20 Modifying Site

so the engine going into the car is newer than the car itself right?
Just have to use the all the emision gear of the newer engine and it will need to meet the engines emmision laws not the old cars laws.

I got shafted once fitting a series 1 3.8 into a vt that was only to be sold anyway. The s1 engine could not be fitted as it was older than the s2 engine that came out. I ended up doing a dodgy and swaping the heads manifolds etc from the block up so it looked like a s2 engine