Best Gen 3 to start with for a G16A conversion project?

Hi I want to make buy a Gen3 Simny and do a "semi light" upgrade to make it stronger for 4x4 driving in hilly terrain. Hence the need for a stronger engine and give it a good long life. G16A seem to be the easiest fit and this engine is fairly easy to find where Im located with or without the gearbox.

Now to save myself a lot of headache any particular Gen3 model I should start with? The automatic version is more available than the manual where Im located and would make it easier to find a car to start with. The more nicer car Ive found for now is plain original but with the turbo engine that I expect will give problems and less power. But if id put a G16A into it should not matter that much?

I will not do the work myself, but mecanics are not expensive to hire where I am but they are not so high-tech but hey, thats one of the reasons I choose a simpler car like this Jimny.

Thanks for any input!

The easiest option is a car with a g13 motor in it so early hard top and marginally later soft top that means everything just swaps over and the engine sits on the mounting points. Same with the m13 to m16 swap. Yes you can fit any engine you want but if you change the family of engine it becomes increasingly more expensive and complicated at which point you might as well go for a decent option like a Honda k20 and a mazda 5 speed, it's going to be just as much work and the results will be quite impressive.

I apologize in advance for the length of this post and the feathers it's likely to ruffle.

You're looking to buy a Jimny so that you can swap an engine into it, because the engines are readily available at a low cost - is that about right?  You're not going to be doing the work yourself, but there are mechanics available who are not "high tech".

It's a bad idea from the get go.

First - Suzuki G16a engines have been out of production for about thirty years, so the chances of your being able to locate a good, used G16a engine is not very good.

Second - what you're looking for for an engine swap of this nature, is not a mechanic, but a fabricator, someone with the skills to build what is necessary to make what you want happen - at the very least, custom intake, exhaust & cooling system. You're going to need an auto-electrician and possibly one with very unique skills, more on that later.

Now let me address the specifics of a G16a swap into a Jimny.

The G16a, as far as I know, was only used in the early Vitaras, Escudos, Sidekicks & Trackers - the G16b was used in a wider variety of vehicles, and there are additional challenges to swapping a G16b into a Jimny, that I will not cover here, so as to keep this as short as possible.

A G16a from a Vitara can be either carbed or throttle body injection - swapping a carbed G16a will be easier than an injected one, if you get an injected G16a, make sure you get it with the ECU and the wiring harness.

I suggest you look for an early Jimny with the G13bb engine, so a 98 or 99, the reason being that kits are available to adapt the G16x engines to the transmissions used with the G13x engines - you could go for a later Jimny with an M13a engine, but if you did, you (or your fabricator) will need to figure out how to mate the transmission to the engine.

I suggest you get a G16a from a manual transmission Vitara AND a manual transmission Jimny, because the automatic transmissions on the Jimny are electronically shifted, so swapping a G16a into an automatic transmission Jimny has the additional challenge of getting the Jimny TCU to either communicate with the G16a ECU or to work with no ECU, if you're using a carbed G16a - this is where you need an auto-electrician with those special skills, it's so much more than just building a wiring harness.

You could, in theory, swap the G16a, along with it's transmission, ECU & harness into the Jimny, but, unlike the Jimnys with their divorced transfer cases, Vitaras have the transfer case bolted directly to the transmission, and that transfer case has a centered rear output shaft (the Jimny transfer case has a driver's side drop), so you're creating another challenge to be dealt with AND, you might need to modify the transmission tunnel to clear.

I hope you've seen enough to understand why I think this is a bad idea - engine swaps are a lot more work than most people realize.

One more suggestion - if you really want a Jimny that badly, and it absolutely must have a bigger engine, think about one of the M13a engined models and swapping either an M15a, M16a or M18a in - these are well documented, almost "bolt-in" swaps, finding the M15a/M16a/M18a might not be as cheap or as easy as a G16a but it's going to be a lot less work and that improves your chances of completing the swap successfully.

Oh - the turbocharged Jimnys are not good candidates for an engine swap unless you have the ability to figure out what works & what doesn't on your own.

Thanks for the feedback fordem.. I appreciate your insight and opinion and I will be chewing on this post for a bit...

Agree with the above, the easiest swap is the m16a in the m13 Jimny and it will give your more power, a much easier swap, and a better engine.
If you still want to do the g16 swap you must look for a period correct g16 donor engine so the wiring is more or less the same. One with two coils on the head like the one in the Jimny. anything else would be a pain.
For the m16 swap you will also save work with the correct donor but most period corrcet will fit nice.

I done both swaps and they are both doable and fairly easy depending on the donor and how well the adapter and g16 parts are made.
Some make the adapter plates in imperial sizes and measurements but the metric ones will more likely make a better fit. US made are mostly bad or at least the two I have seen.

Edit: -Oh and a bigger engine (and tyres) will make the car weaker, not "stronger". I have blown a diff, gearbox and drive shafts after putting more power into it. Others do not have so much trouble so I guess my foot is heavier.

A regular 1.3 Jimny is perfectly suited to driving in hilly terrain. It's what they are built for, it's why they have a transfer case with low range gears.