[Cankent]

Hello to everyone,

I hope you are all enjoying the summer. I am new to the forum and just bought a 1986 Suzuki Samurai. This is my second Samurai and I'm excited to get my hands dirty. It has had a frame off restoration 10 years ago and really never driven since which means there will likely be seal issues and other what nots. It has a 3" lift and the engine has been swapped for what appears to be a 1.6L 16 Valve Geo Tracker engine.
I'm writing to enquire how you identify the engine type and year. The engine number looks like 16v 113758. Any help you can provide would be great, I would like to do a tune up on the engine but don't know the parts to buy until I identify the engine.
Thanks in advance for any help you can provide and I look forward to learning from you all. I love Suzuki's and and glad to be back behind the wheel of one.

All the best,
Kent

 

[fordem]

Sorry - there's literally no way for us to identify the engine type or year from the engine number - you could try taking a picture of it and posting that, and we might be able to confirm that it "looks like" a Suzuki G16 engine.

By the way - that engine number doesn't follow the format I would expect from a Suzuki or Geo engine - that would normally start with the engine model, so something like G16x-nnnnnn, where x is a latter, and n numbers.

 

[Cankent]

Hi Fordem
Thanks for the quick feedback. Here is a photo of engine.

 

[Cankent]

I found the engine # on the drivers side back of the engine where the transmission connects to the block. I will try to get a photo but it is in a difficult spot. Someone had mentioned that if your engine has an electrical connection under the crankshaft pully then it is of a certain year. This engine has it but is not hooked up to anything.

 

[fordem]

That does appear to be a 16v Suzuki engine, and given the position of the distributor, most likely a G16 from a Sidekick or Tracker - the OBDII versions of the engine have a crank position sensor in the oil pump which is right behind the crank pulley, so that would narrow the year question to 96, 97 or 98, the style of air intake pipe suggests 97 or 98.

If we assume the ECU & wiring harness from the same vehicle was used, it will run without the crank position sensor connected, but should set a code and turn the check engine light on, that is if the light was actually fitted.

 

[Cankent]

Your amazing, this is incredible. It appears that they didn't connect the check engine light as it does not come on and I believe they did install the correct wiring harness. I would like to tune up the electrical and gat a new rotor cap, rotor, plugs and wires, would I tell them that I have a 97 or 98 16v Suzuki G16 engine? What is the difference between a 97 and 98?

It has an automatic transmission, is this normal for this year? Can you get a standard for this vehicle? Is there any benefit to having a standard on this vehicle aside from it being fun to drive?

Everything in the vehicle works great except the turn signals. They go faster when you press on the brake and the passenger side sometimes does not work and has a harsh buzz when you try to use it. I did some investigating today and it looks like the grounds are not very good. Do you have any suggestions on what this may be?

I hope it's ok to ask all of these questions, I don't mean to take advantage of you and your wealth of knowledge but it's not everyday I get the opportunity to speak with a person of such knowledge. Please feel free to tell me to bugger off if I asking to much.

Thanks
Kent

 

[Cankent]

I discovered another letter on the engine # it is G16V113758. Here is a photo. I'm located in British Columbia, does anyone know a good place for parts in this part of the world? I need a dust cover for the flywheel. Please see photo.
Thanks
K

 

[fordem]

Your amazing, this is incredible. It appears that they didn't connect the check engine light as it does not come on and I believe they did install the correct wiring harness. I would like to tune up the electrical and gat a new rotor cap, rotor, plugs and wires, would I tell them that I have a 97 or 98 16v Suzuki G16 engine? What is the difference between a 97 and 98?

It has an automatic transmission, is this normal for this year? Can you get a standard for this vehicle? Is there any benefit to having a standard on this vehicle aside from it being fun to drive?

Everything in the vehicle works great except the turn signals. They go faster when you press on the brake and the passenger side sometimes does not work and has a harsh buzz when you try to use it. I did some investigating today and it looks like the grounds are not very good. Do you have any suggestions on what this may be?

I hope it's ok to ask all of these questions, I don't mean to take advantage of you and your wealth of knowledge but it's not everyday I get the opportunity to speak with a person of such knowledge. Please feel free to tell me to bugger off if I asking to much.

Thanks
Kent

As far as plugs, rotor, leads & cap go, they are all the same for the 96~98 vehicles - it might be a good idea to check how many ignition leads there are - the 96~98 vehicles had the ignition coil integrated into the distributor, so there should be four rather than five - just in case whoever swapped the engine in swapped the ECU etc. to get away from the OBDII stuff.

Automatic transmissions - were they normal on which vehicle? On the Samurai no, they were not available, even as an option, on a Sidekick or Tracker, it was an option, and depending on what that engine & transmission came out of, it could be a three speed, or a four speed - the two doors had the three speed, the four doors had the four speed, and that is assuming it is a Suzuki transmission.

Owning a modified vehicle comes with it's challenges, and when you didn't do the modifications yourself, figuring out what was done can be quite a challenge.

I discovered another letter on the engine # it is G16V113758. Here is a photo. I'm located in British Columbia, does anyone know a good place for parts in this part of the world? I need a dust cover for the flywheel. Please see photo.
Thanks
K

That engine number looks more like I would expect.

There are people who claim that fourth character (V in your case) can be used to determine the year - V is 2027 so those folks are either wrong, or your car came "back from the future"

 

[fordem]

Expanding on that automatic transmission thing - it might be a good idea to slide underneath and take a look at how the conversion was done.

As I mentioned earlier, Samurais were not offered with an automatic transmission, they had a 5 speed manual with a divorced transfer case - if the Sidekick or Tracker the engine (and presumably the transmission) were pulled from was a 4WD, the transfer case would have been married to the transmission, and may or may not have been swapped over. The reason this matters is the Samurai front & rear axles have the differentials off set, and the Sidekick/Tracker rear tail shaft is not. If the Sidekick/Tracker transfer case is used with the Samurai rear axle, the rear drive shaft has to sit at an angle and this can cause vibrations.

 

[Cankent]

Good points. I had a look and it appears that the rear axle is a Sidekick/Tracker as there is no vibration and everything looks like it aligns well. If the back is a Sidekick/Tracker then would the front also be a Sidekick/Tracker? To answer some of your other questions, the distributor cap is a 4 wire and I believe the transmission is a 4 speed with overdrive.

 

[fordem]

How about you post pictures of the axles, the transmission & transfer case and the transmission shift lever ...

I would say it's quite unlikely that Sidekick/Tracker axles have been swapped in, but you can never tell what the next person might do..

 

[Cankent]

Here's some photos, any info you have would be appreciated.

 

[fordem]

The differentials are offset to the right on both axles, which means they are most likely the original Samurai axles, and the transfer case is also separate from the transmission, so that too is likely to be the original case.

The transmission pan looks like the four speed, but I cannot be certain - is there a second button (OD Disable) on the transmission shift lever? If you're in top gear, say doing 40 mph or so on the street and you push the button, does it downshift?