First Generation Tracker 2.0 Liter Swap

In all the years I have been working on Suzuki and Geo vehicles I have performed many custom motor swaps on Samurai's. Everything from the, what is now common, 1.6 8 valve & 16 valve swaps to the 2.0 liter Vitara motor swap and even a VW 1.9 TD swap.  What all these swaps have in common are that the customers always want MORE POWER as well as reliability and still maintain the vehicles on and off-road drivability. In the case of Josh McAffee (McZuki on the BBS), his dark green 1997 Tracker needed more power and so several options were weighed in how to get the most "bang-for-the-buck" as they say. A few of the options were to swap on a custom turbo setup, the 2.0 liter Tracker/Vitara motor, the Grand Vitara 2.5 liter, or the XL-7 2.7 liter motor. After weighing the options of what is available the custom turbo setup just seemed to be too much specialty work and a long wait time for those custom parts. The V6 motors are much harder to find and salvage yards want more than the whole 1997 Tracker is worth and then you would also need the harder to find manual transmission which would increase the cost even more. So after weighing the options of cost and wanting to keep his existing 5-speed manual transmission Josh ended up choosing to swap in a 2.0 liter Tracker/Vitara motor. There was only one problem with this.... unlike the Samurai motor swap kits there is not a swap kit of any kind to install the 2.0 liter Vitara/Tracker motor in the first generation Geo Tracker...... So why not go ahead and build one? 



The stock power plant in the 1997 Tracker is a 1.6 16 valve which bone stock in the Tracker puts out 99hp and approximately the same torque. So upgrading to the 1999 on up Vitara 2.0 liter would be a significant improvement. Especially since it is conservatively rated at 125 hp and 135 ft/lbs torque! 
For a student on a tight budget this is the swap of choice.

With any swap the first thing we do is block the wheels, disconnect the battery, then drain the antifreeze and engine oil and dispose of them in an environmentally friendly way. Then we removed the four 10mm bolts that hold on the hood so it could be removed and not interfere with the removal of the engine. The battery, air box, radiator with condenser, drier and associated lines are all pulled. The exhaust is disconnected at the manifold down-pipe, the vacuum canister and associated parts are removed. The air conditioning compressor and power steering are unbolted from the side of the block and pulled up out of the way in the drivers side front corner of the engine bay to keep it up out of the way. The 1.6 16 valve wiring is removed from the motor and disconnected at the firewall and rest of the lines and hoses are removed from the motor to ready it for removal. 


Pulling the 1.6 motor is relatively easy and can be done with one person by removing the four bolts that hold it to the transmission, the braces that hold the motor to the trans including the clutch mount bracket and the flywheel cover plate. The six motor mount bolts on the frame are removed last then we jack up the transmission several inches so the oil pan will clear the front cross member upon removal. 

With a little wiggling the motor slides right out and it almost fits between the radiator support and the transmission so with a little twist it is completely clears both and comes up and out then is set on the floor of the shop. 

The engine bay looks a bit empty now....and dirty. The 1.6 16 valve had the common distributor O-ring oil leak which left the transmission extra oily and greasy!  So cleaning the engine bay and the transmission was the first order of business. Next came swapping out the stock 1997 5-speed 3rd members, which are 5.12 ratio, for the VERY hard to find 5.62 ratio that come only in the 1989 carbureted 1.3 liter Sidekick's. There are no pictures of the front or rear 3rd member swaps. Trust me it's not that exciting plus that would need to be in another write-up.

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