These are fairly rare, and new flywheels aren't available, so we'd be looking at shipping a bellhousing and flywheel from a junkyard for something like $300 or $400. One is to source a bellhousing and flywheel from a 4x4 manual V6 Grand Vitara. We have a couple bolt on options for this engine: Looking a bit better after stripping off stuff I probably won't be using. I'm going to have to get one of those in hand and do some comparing. This cam position sensor is intriguing because it looks an awful lot like the distributor used in older Mazda V6 applications. This oil pan is definitely not going to work, I'll probably start from scratch rather than dealing with welding oily aluminum. I think a stiff bottom end is important for endurance racing reliability, and part of the reason engines like the 1UZ are so successful in Lemons.Ĭheap, readily available in the junkyard, and just weird enough to intrigue the Lemons judges. I was considering GM 60deg V6es but couldn't get over the weight gains.Ĭompact, both narrow and actually a couple inches shorter in overall length than the 4K.ĭurable bottom end, split block design with main bearing caps integral to a girdle with 4 bolts per main journal. Lightweight, all aluminum construction, shouldn't be much weight penalty over stock. We settled on this option for a few reasons: Hopefully my intake and exhaust choices will choke it down just a little so we're not quite so overpowered :p I was actually hoping for the smaller 2.5l version, but the specimens available at this yard were trashed. This is a Suzuki H27A, 2.7l V6 out of a Grand Vitara/XL7. We had mostly finished waffling on donor choice by the time we got there, and we ended up walking out with (allegedly) 185hp in the wheelbarrow: We headed to the junkyard yesterday to look for our new engine. It was a great race car even with 50-something horsepower, 4 speeds and weird diff gearing, and nearly stock suspension. Yeah, this thing three-wheeled through Turn 2 and Turn 6 at HPR, and felt amazing doing it. We came away with a Judge's Choice trophy, (I believe) narrowly missing out on Index of Effluency. We also had to do a bit of the old engine-in-out Saturday night because I had reinstalled the stock clutch disc backwards when I went to replace it while prepping the car and ended up not having the right parts. We did fairly well at the car's debut at the 2019 High Plains Drifter, with a couple intermissions to reinstall pushrods and relash the valves because the adjusters wanted to back off. So I ended up with no pictures of stuff like the lexan windshield, coroplast door panels, homebuilt big front brake upgrade, remote mount battery and complete rewire, installation of a Weber 38/38 on the 4K in place of nonfunctional factory EFI, fuel cell fire bulkhead and plumbing, fire suppression system installation, fender rolling to fit 15x8s and overkill 205/50 rubber, installation of a larger/cheaper radiator with electric fans, etc. All a bit of a thrash and the prep for the race in September was a thrash too. Meanwhile, my daughter was born in February and I became a stay-at-home parent, we bought some mountain land in May to build our forever home after getting fed up with the collective attitude of our neighborhood, then ended up deciding in August to sell our house and move into a rental for the duration of construction. We bought the car mid December 2018, and it mostly sat until I started the roll cage in July 2019, with some piddling around on the fuel cell and seat in the interim. I'm glossing over a lot of details here, mostly because I failed to document them at the time. We have a couple ideas, but I won't post until we have an engine in hand and ready to go. We're headed to the junkyard this Sunday in search of a new heart for the Starlet. I'll continue posting pictures of the cage build/race prep to catch you up to present day. I even had to strategically hole saw into the rocker panels from inside and outside in order to reach all of the turd nests to get the car fully clean. The interior was an absolute disaster, completely packed with mouse nests, bird seed shells, and mouse E36 M3. We paid $400, the guy even trailered it to my house for free. The car had lived in a Colorado farm field for something like 20 years. We're starting an engine and trans swap in preparation for the 2020 BFE GP, so I thought I would post some pictures of the beginnings and initial build of the car before I get into the swap. We survived that race with few mechanical issues, but the car was glacially slow. I thought I would post some documentation about our Starlet, which made its Lemons debut last September at the 2019 High Plains Drifter.
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