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BigJimnyMeet (North) 2024 (12 Jan 2024)
BigJimnyMeet 2024
14th July 2024
Parkwood Nr. Leeds
14th July 2024
Parkwood Nr. Leeds
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Tim's 1.8L Jimny
26 May 2013 12:24 #71770
by tim80z
Tim's 1.8L Jimny was created by tim80z
Hi, I'm Tim from Australia and this is my 2006 Jimny. When I picked it up a little over two years ago it was completely stock, now it is far from stock.
My original plans were quite modest as I was only looking at a 2" lift, an ARB bar and some decent rubber but plans have a way of changing. The car is now powered by an M18A from a Suzuki Liana and has an 80mm Tough Dog suspension lift, ARB bull bar, TJM snorkel and 215/75R15 BF Goodrich All Terrains on 15x7" -13 rims. A bit different to the original plans.
What's been done so far:
* Suzuki Liana M18A engine
* 80mm Tough Dog lift kit (springs, shocks, adjustable panhards, caster correction bushes)
* 215/75R15 BFG A/Ts on 15x7 -13 rims
* ARB winch bull bar
* TJM Airtec Snorkel
* Jimnybits rear shock relocation brackets and extended brake lines
* Diff breathers
* K&N Air Filter
* 2 DIN fascia with upgraded head unit and UHF plus rear speaker install
* Rear seat removal and flat floor install
* Smokey side indicators for extra rice
Still on the to do list is:
* Rear drawer system (in progress)
* RTC steering damper
* Replace caster bushes with caster corrected arms
* Winch
The list above is never ending, every time I tick one small item of the to do list two more items go on.
Here are some photos and notes from the build process.
TJM snorkel installation:
I highly recommend these more detailed instructions, the TJM instructions included in the kit are OK but the difflock ones have far greater detail and better picures.
Inner guard removed. Looking up at the vacuum canister and air cleaner intake tubing.
Air cleaner box and battery removed.
Drill template in place.
Drilling complete. I couldn't get an 81mm hole saw so a 79mm was used.
Snorkel body fitted.
Battery reinstalled and snorkel protruding into the engine bay.
Air cleaner assembly reinstalled. Can anyone guess what I've forgotten to do?
Excess parts.
The finished product!
ARB bull bar installation:
The bar I picked up was second hand and didn't include mounting brackets. If anyone has ever wondered if an ARB bar fits in a Jimny, it does, just.
At the time I didn't know about the slightly different front chassis rails on Jimnys up to 2005 versus 2006 and on Jimnys (mid 2012 and on are now a different arrangement again). It turns out the bar I bought was for a pre 2005 and not directly compatible with my 2006 Jimny.
The bar I have is an ARB 3424020 which is the older version, the newer bar has part number 3424030. Each bar has its own mounting kit, 6171381 is the old fitting kit number and 6172495 is the part number for the newer fitting kit. The individual brackets are part No. 3756172L & R. The newer mounting kit is suitable for mounting either bar on either front end, while the older mounting kit is only suitable for the old front ends.
Here are the differences in pictures:
A 1999 Jimny with the newer ARB fitting kit installed:
My May 2006 Jimny for comparison:
The brackets from the ARB fitting kit suited to pre 2005 Jimnys only.
The red circles indicate the shortened fold on the bottom edge. This is required to clear the tie down bracket on the left hand side of the car.
The purple circles shoe the difference in the front of the chassis rails between the two models. The pre 2005 has a flat front with the bumper mounts set back and at the top of the rail whereas the 2005 and later have the bumper mounts centered vertically on the chassis rail and protruding forward.
The green circles show the different cut out in the mounting brackets. This change is to accommodate the protruding bumper mounts on the 2005 and later Jimny's.
Finally the yellow circles show a change in the captive nuts at the top of the mount. Pre 2005 fitting kits have nuts welded on to the bracket whereas the 2005 and later mounts use a cage nut.
Making the old bar fit on the new front end requires either the front end cap of the chassis rails to be removed or a small section clearanced from the bar itself as I did below.
And again with the section that I removed highlighted. I used the mounting bracket as a template, as it turns out it is not necessary to remove that much.
Finally I got the bar installed:
New tires:
With the Aussie dollar so good sand the US dollar so bad it was cheaper for me to buy my tires from tire rack in the US and have them air freighted via FedEx. I bought 215/75R15 BF Goodrich All terrain tires. At that stage I was still only thinking small lift and an engine swap was a "maybe but probably never" dream mod. If I had decided on the higher lift etc back then I probably would have gone for 235/75R15 tires, but then I would probably have to deal with gearing issues.
Lift kit installation:
At the time I bought the lift kit I had only just heard of Jimnybits and hadn't heard any feedback on their kits. Shortly after I bought and paid for the lift (and before it was even installed) heaps of other Australian Jimny owners started getting the Jimnybits 3" kit and I'd say its now the preferred kit for most Jimnys over here now. The Tough Dog kit is rough and needs the car to be loaded full of stuff before it is comfortable to drive. After a little over a year and about 12000kms, the front springs have sagged significantly.
The day after the lift went in I installed some 15x7 rims with a -13 offset to help add some width and stability along with the raised height.
Installing the lift was fairly easy and all up took a casual 4 to 5 hours.
After the lift went in I realised I would need some extended brake lines so I placed my first order with Jimnybits and got some extended brake lines and rear shock relocation brackets. It turns out that when one of the lower rear shock bolts was reinstalled after the lift it was cross threaded. Luckily I had opted to pay the extra 4 pounds and get the optional long bolts so I ended up having to use them.
The right side shock was just hitting on the panhard (you can see where it has torn the shock label in the pic). I ended up having to turn the panhard around so that the fatter adjustable part of the panhard is on the left where there is more clearance.
Engine swap:
In mid 2012 I purchased a second hand M18A Suzuki Liana engine for transplanting into the Jimny. It has 56000kms on it and at the time of the swap my Jimny had 53970kms on it, so they matched fairly well.
The swap was completed over a weekend with only a few minor issues during installation, the biggest were to do with undoing the crankshaft pulley bolts and undoing the Jimny oil filter mount. Total install time was about 22 hours with 2 people plus a few hours prep on my own.
After the swap, the first test run lasted about 20m before I realised that the throttle cable was sticking. After checking its position and jiggling around I could see that it was not seated properly. The second and third test runs were each about 1.5km long and immediately showed an increase in torque/power and at lower revs. Final test run was the 25km journey from the workshop at work back home at 110km/h and I was really happy. It held 110km/h up hills and even had some power left to be able to accelerate more if needed.
Last known photo of my M13A in the Jimny.
Hoisting out the M13A late on Saturday night (notice the printed copy of Squibby's instructions on the windscreen).
Empty engine bay.
Sunday morning. The M13A is hanging from the electric hoist in front of the car while the M18A is hanging from the green hoist behind it.
Engineering and registration:
State law in NSW says that you can't swap an engine with capacity greater than 200cc without getting engineering certification. Also the larger tyres, offset rims and lift required me to get an engineering certificate.
It is mostly an academic process with the engineer do a few basic calculations and signing off that the swap is OK. There are a few practical tests that they do to through, mainly a speedo calibration check (for the larger tires) and a lane change test to verify the stability of car after the lift.
Here is an example of a sierra doing the lane change test:
I didn't get any footage of my car doing the test (engineer wouldn't allow it) but after the test I was allowed to ride shotgun for one last pass. It is a very tight track and the car was sliding around a fair bit but did it easily.
Fraser Island trip and Engine trouble:
In November 2012 I travelled the 1500kms or so to Fraser Island to meet up with a few other Jimny owners from Auszookers.
Prior to the trip I installed some diff breathers. I just bought a cheap 2 breather kit off eBay (from seller sarichcj) for $40 including postage. Then I tapped the existing breather holes with a 1/8 BSP tap and just threaded in the hose adapters from the kit.
Jimny's on Fraser Island QLD.
A short video of a few of us crossing Eli Creek, that's me at the end.
On the way there I started having engine trouble. At revs over 3500 for a prolonged time I would all of a sudden get the revs fluctuating rapidly and a loss of power. By the time I pulled over from 110km/h the problem had usually stopped and I could continue. My scan tool showed several missfire codes, one for each cylinder. I limped through the rest of the journey at slightly lower revs and only had the problem once when I was on the island.
Talking with the other guys while on Fraser Island we concluded that the crank angle sensor was most likely to blame.
Once I got home I was able to swap the crank angle sensor out of the M18A with the spare that I had in the M13A in my shed, problem solved.
Crank angle sensor from M18A.
Replaced with crank angle sensor from M13A
Interior mods:
I bought a double din fascia kit and installed a SONY mechless head unit and an Icom IC-400pro UHF radio in it. The fascia kit was expensive and I am not overly happy with the fit but I think I have a solution, more on that in a few days if I find out more.
It seems that the opening in the fascia is too narrow. The new head unit doesn't fit through enough to have its surround clipped on and the DIN kit for the UHF din kit is too wide to fit neatly in the surround so it has to sit just in front of it.
Next I got to work and pulled out the rear seats to start measuring up for a flat floor and eventually a drawer system.
Once I pulled out the trim I decided that I may as well put some rear speakers in while I have everything apart. After measuring the holes and reading other peoples threads it looked like 5" speakers would just fit. 5" weren't so common but 5.25" were so I went and bought some 5.25" speakers and set about jamming them in. I had to remove the folded lip around the factory speaker holes making the hole just a little bit bigger to make them fit.
The speaker wire need to be extended from a plug behind the left hand trim and run to each speaker. This guide was useful for figuring out how to pull everything apart and get the speakers wired up the right way. www.danbp.org/w/Installation_of_the_rear..._on_the_Suzuki_Jimny
Speakers installed (crappy late night smart phone photo)
Once all the trim was back in place I was able to measure up for the flat floor which will become the base for my drawer system.
Flat floor installed.
The false floor is made out of 12mm ply and is screwed down to the body of the car in 3 places. Its hard to see the bolts in those photos as they are all countersunk and sitting just below the top of the carpet.
And that's about it for now. I'm pretty happy that all of the major things are done now but there is still (and always will be) an ever growing list of little things to do.
- Tim.
My original plans were quite modest as I was only looking at a 2" lift, an ARB bar and some decent rubber but plans have a way of changing. The car is now powered by an M18A from a Suzuki Liana and has an 80mm Tough Dog suspension lift, ARB bull bar, TJM snorkel and 215/75R15 BF Goodrich All Terrains on 15x7" -13 rims. A bit different to the original plans.
What's been done so far:
* Suzuki Liana M18A engine
* 80mm Tough Dog lift kit (springs, shocks, adjustable panhards, caster correction bushes)
* 215/75R15 BFG A/Ts on 15x7 -13 rims
* ARB winch bull bar
* TJM Airtec Snorkel
* Jimnybits rear shock relocation brackets and extended brake lines
* Diff breathers
* K&N Air Filter
* 2 DIN fascia with upgraded head unit and UHF plus rear speaker install
* Rear seat removal and flat floor install
* Smokey side indicators for extra rice
Still on the to do list is:
* Rear drawer system (in progress)
* RTC steering damper
* Replace caster bushes with caster corrected arms
* Winch
The list above is never ending, every time I tick one small item of the to do list two more items go on.
Here are some photos and notes from the build process.
TJM snorkel installation:
I highly recommend these more detailed instructions, the TJM instructions included in the kit are OK but the difflock ones have far greater detail and better picures.
Inner guard removed. Looking up at the vacuum canister and air cleaner intake tubing.
Air cleaner box and battery removed.
Drill template in place.
Drilling complete. I couldn't get an 81mm hole saw so a 79mm was used.
Snorkel body fitted.
Battery reinstalled and snorkel protruding into the engine bay.
Air cleaner assembly reinstalled. Can anyone guess what I've forgotten to do?
Excess parts.
The finished product!
ARB bull bar installation:
The bar I picked up was second hand and didn't include mounting brackets. If anyone has ever wondered if an ARB bar fits in a Jimny, it does, just.
At the time I didn't know about the slightly different front chassis rails on Jimnys up to 2005 versus 2006 and on Jimnys (mid 2012 and on are now a different arrangement again). It turns out the bar I bought was for a pre 2005 and not directly compatible with my 2006 Jimny.
The bar I have is an ARB 3424020 which is the older version, the newer bar has part number 3424030. Each bar has its own mounting kit, 6171381 is the old fitting kit number and 6172495 is the part number for the newer fitting kit. The individual brackets are part No. 3756172L & R. The newer mounting kit is suitable for mounting either bar on either front end, while the older mounting kit is only suitable for the old front ends.
Here are the differences in pictures:
A 1999 Jimny with the newer ARB fitting kit installed:
My May 2006 Jimny for comparison:
The brackets from the ARB fitting kit suited to pre 2005 Jimnys only.
The red circles indicate the shortened fold on the bottom edge. This is required to clear the tie down bracket on the left hand side of the car.
The purple circles shoe the difference in the front of the chassis rails between the two models. The pre 2005 has a flat front with the bumper mounts set back and at the top of the rail whereas the 2005 and later have the bumper mounts centered vertically on the chassis rail and protruding forward.
The green circles show the different cut out in the mounting brackets. This change is to accommodate the protruding bumper mounts on the 2005 and later Jimny's.
Finally the yellow circles show a change in the captive nuts at the top of the mount. Pre 2005 fitting kits have nuts welded on to the bracket whereas the 2005 and later mounts use a cage nut.
Making the old bar fit on the new front end requires either the front end cap of the chassis rails to be removed or a small section clearanced from the bar itself as I did below.
And again with the section that I removed highlighted. I used the mounting bracket as a template, as it turns out it is not necessary to remove that much.
Finally I got the bar installed:
New tires:
With the Aussie dollar so good sand the US dollar so bad it was cheaper for me to buy my tires from tire rack in the US and have them air freighted via FedEx. I bought 215/75R15 BF Goodrich All terrain tires. At that stage I was still only thinking small lift and an engine swap was a "maybe but probably never" dream mod. If I had decided on the higher lift etc back then I probably would have gone for 235/75R15 tires, but then I would probably have to deal with gearing issues.
Lift kit installation:
At the time I bought the lift kit I had only just heard of Jimnybits and hadn't heard any feedback on their kits. Shortly after I bought and paid for the lift (and before it was even installed) heaps of other Australian Jimny owners started getting the Jimnybits 3" kit and I'd say its now the preferred kit for most Jimnys over here now. The Tough Dog kit is rough and needs the car to be loaded full of stuff before it is comfortable to drive. After a little over a year and about 12000kms, the front springs have sagged significantly.
The day after the lift went in I installed some 15x7 rims with a -13 offset to help add some width and stability along with the raised height.
Installing the lift was fairly easy and all up took a casual 4 to 5 hours.
After the lift went in I realised I would need some extended brake lines so I placed my first order with Jimnybits and got some extended brake lines and rear shock relocation brackets. It turns out that when one of the lower rear shock bolts was reinstalled after the lift it was cross threaded. Luckily I had opted to pay the extra 4 pounds and get the optional long bolts so I ended up having to use them.
The right side shock was just hitting on the panhard (you can see where it has torn the shock label in the pic). I ended up having to turn the panhard around so that the fatter adjustable part of the panhard is on the left where there is more clearance.
Engine swap:
In mid 2012 I purchased a second hand M18A Suzuki Liana engine for transplanting into the Jimny. It has 56000kms on it and at the time of the swap my Jimny had 53970kms on it, so they matched fairly well.
The swap was completed over a weekend with only a few minor issues during installation, the biggest were to do with undoing the crankshaft pulley bolts and undoing the Jimny oil filter mount. Total install time was about 22 hours with 2 people plus a few hours prep on my own.
After the swap, the first test run lasted about 20m before I realised that the throttle cable was sticking. After checking its position and jiggling around I could see that it was not seated properly. The second and third test runs were each about 1.5km long and immediately showed an increase in torque/power and at lower revs. Final test run was the 25km journey from the workshop at work back home at 110km/h and I was really happy. It held 110km/h up hills and even had some power left to be able to accelerate more if needed.
Last known photo of my M13A in the Jimny.
Hoisting out the M13A late on Saturday night (notice the printed copy of Squibby's instructions on the windscreen).
Empty engine bay.
Sunday morning. The M13A is hanging from the electric hoist in front of the car while the M18A is hanging from the green hoist behind it.
Engineering and registration:
State law in NSW says that you can't swap an engine with capacity greater than 200cc without getting engineering certification. Also the larger tyres, offset rims and lift required me to get an engineering certificate.
It is mostly an academic process with the engineer do a few basic calculations and signing off that the swap is OK. There are a few practical tests that they do to through, mainly a speedo calibration check (for the larger tires) and a lane change test to verify the stability of car after the lift.
Here is an example of a sierra doing the lane change test:
I didn't get any footage of my car doing the test (engineer wouldn't allow it) but after the test I was allowed to ride shotgun for one last pass. It is a very tight track and the car was sliding around a fair bit but did it easily.
Fraser Island trip and Engine trouble:
In November 2012 I travelled the 1500kms or so to Fraser Island to meet up with a few other Jimny owners from Auszookers.
Prior to the trip I installed some diff breathers. I just bought a cheap 2 breather kit off eBay (from seller sarichcj) for $40 including postage. Then I tapped the existing breather holes with a 1/8 BSP tap and just threaded in the hose adapters from the kit.
Jimny's on Fraser Island QLD.
A short video of a few of us crossing Eli Creek, that's me at the end.
On the way there I started having engine trouble. At revs over 3500 for a prolonged time I would all of a sudden get the revs fluctuating rapidly and a loss of power. By the time I pulled over from 110km/h the problem had usually stopped and I could continue. My scan tool showed several missfire codes, one for each cylinder. I limped through the rest of the journey at slightly lower revs and only had the problem once when I was on the island.
Talking with the other guys while on Fraser Island we concluded that the crank angle sensor was most likely to blame.
Once I got home I was able to swap the crank angle sensor out of the M18A with the spare that I had in the M13A in my shed, problem solved.
Crank angle sensor from M18A.
Replaced with crank angle sensor from M13A
Interior mods:
I bought a double din fascia kit and installed a SONY mechless head unit and an Icom IC-400pro UHF radio in it. The fascia kit was expensive and I am not overly happy with the fit but I think I have a solution, more on that in a few days if I find out more.
It seems that the opening in the fascia is too narrow. The new head unit doesn't fit through enough to have its surround clipped on and the DIN kit for the UHF din kit is too wide to fit neatly in the surround so it has to sit just in front of it.
Next I got to work and pulled out the rear seats to start measuring up for a flat floor and eventually a drawer system.
Once I pulled out the trim I decided that I may as well put some rear speakers in while I have everything apart. After measuring the holes and reading other peoples threads it looked like 5" speakers would just fit. 5" weren't so common but 5.25" were so I went and bought some 5.25" speakers and set about jamming them in. I had to remove the folded lip around the factory speaker holes making the hole just a little bit bigger to make them fit.
The speaker wire need to be extended from a plug behind the left hand trim and run to each speaker. This guide was useful for figuring out how to pull everything apart and get the speakers wired up the right way. www.danbp.org/w/Installation_of_the_rear..._on_the_Suzuki_Jimny
Speakers installed (crappy late night smart phone photo)
Once all the trim was back in place I was able to measure up for the flat floor which will become the base for my drawer system.
Flat floor installed.
The false floor is made out of 12mm ply and is screwed down to the body of the car in 3 places. Its hard to see the bolts in those photos as they are all countersunk and sitting just below the top of the carpet.
And that's about it for now. I'm pretty happy that all of the major things are done now but there is still (and always will be) an ever growing list of little things to do.
- Tim.
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26 May 2013 12:36 #71771
by badboy-jimny
Replied by badboy-jimny on topic Tim's 1.8L Jimny
Nice looking jimnys in here. Thanks for sharing 
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26 May 2013 12:50 #71772
by MWells
Replied by MWells on topic Tim's 1.8L Jimny
Nice work
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26 May 2013 13:07 #71773
by JivingDaddy
Replied by JivingDaddy on topic Tim's 1.8L Jimny
Wow. What a great detailed report. Well done and thanks for sharing all the info.
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26 May 2013 13:37 #71776
by Halford
Replied by Halford on topic Tim's 1.8L Jimny
Hi Tim
great write-up, thanks, really enjoyed it
I'm thinking of swapping out my std 2007 double din and putting in a single din unit together with a cb, look forward to seeing your final solution.
Halford
My original plans were quite modest
great write-up, thanks, really enjoyed it
I'm thinking of swapping out my std 2007 double din and putting in a single din unit together with a cb, look forward to seeing your final solution.
Halford
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26 May 2013 13:37 #71777
by gaz3359
Replied by gaz3359 on topic Tim's 1.8L Jimny
Great read and write up nice jimny ! 
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26 May 2013 18:24 #71797
by Tadpole
Replied by Tadpole on topic Tim's 1.8L Jimny
Thanks for sharing Tim, as said a great write up & useful info for others ......................
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27 May 2013 07:37 #71838
by Laminak
Replied by Laminak on topic Tim's 1.8L Jimny
Very nice work
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29 May 2013 21:57 #72165
by Grizzly
Replied by Grizzly on topic Tim's 1.8L Jimny
Great write up with some great pictures! Looking forwards to reading more
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