Project of the Month:
 

"THE SLEEPER"

Now we have installed several 1.6 liter 16 valve engines in Samurai's in the past, but all of them had been lifted or modified in some way for off-road use. For the practical person, who merely wants a VERY quick and powerful daily driver, lifting their Samurai may not be necessary. In this case the customer wants to accomplish two main goals; to get a bigger motor which will allow him to tow his boat and to have the ability to actually keep up with traffic on the road......or to even have the ability to pass on the highway. After discussing the idea of a quick little Samurai which appeared to be stock, but could outperform your average Japanese made rice-rocket, the owner Rob Veschi decided that this was a good idea. Wouldn't that freak out the guy's with the Honda Civic's or Acura Integra's if they were smoked by a little Samurai! Anyway, so the concept of the "SLEEPER"  Samurai was born. 

The project vehicle is a bone stock 1987 Samurai JX model. It is perfect in most every way except for a major engine problem. It will not run! at all! It seems that somehow, while being towed behind a motor home, it popped into gear which made the rear wheels turn the transfer case thereby turning the transmission and the engine. The engine now turns over, but sounds like it has bent piston rods or a bent crank. At some point the vibrations even made the harmonic balancer pulley fall off of the front of the motor! What a mess! All caused by not removing the rear drive shaft before towing. The worst thing about it is that the motor only has 50,000 original miles on it! 

The interior is even in perfect condition. How often do you actually see a Zuk without any rips in the corner or seams of the original seats or a hole in the carpet where your heel goes! 

There she is, the poor little damaged 1.3 liter. Soon to be pulled and replaced with a Suzuki  1.6 liter 16 valve "Big Block". 
With any swap the first thing we do is block the wheels, disconnect the battery, then drain the antifreeze, engine oil and transmission gear oil and  dispose of them in an environmentally friendly way. On the passengers side remove the 10mm nuts and bolts holding on the air box and remove the hoses which connect it to the intake manifold and the valve cover. Remove the two 12mm bolts that hold the vacuum canister from the firewall and disconnect the hoses attached to it. Once the canister and air box are removed it is alot easier to access the starter wiring, ground at the starter, wiring plugs for the the carburetor, manifold, etc so they can be pulled back out of the way. The fuel line and the fuel return line are disconnected then plugged off to prevent leakage. I was recently asked how this was done and what I usually do is just stick a bolt into the end of the gas hose and tighten up the clamp so it cannot leak. The brake booster hose is disconnected at the steel line mounted to the firewall and then the coolant hoses that connect the engine to the heater core are disconnected und turned upward to prevent excess coolant from leaking out.

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