Cavalier engine swap- 4g63T

[davinclrk]

I have a 97 cavalier. I was wanting an engine with way more kick and was wondering if i should try swapping a fwd eclipse gst 4g63T engine. I know the car will be off the road for a while but i dont care. I this even possible?

[Classicrocjunkie]

Possible, yes...

Probable... no.

Your looking at a custom engine subframe, custom drive shafts all around, custom IRS, and the whole car would have to be run on a Stand alone EMU. Also making this car pretty much not road legal unless you live in a state where they don't have state vehicle inspections. Not sure how they roll in GA on that one.

If you have money, and fabrication skills, anything is possible.

[Jacfourteen]

He said he was interested in getting an engine/trans out of a fwd car so the rear suspension wouldn't need mods, but I still agree it would be expensive and labor intensive!

[J-Ri]

That seems like a whole lot of unnecessary work for only 210 HP and 214 ft-lbs torque. (http://www.wotevah.com/pics/eclipse/). If you've got a 2.4 in that, just bolt on a supercharger/turbo and you'll have similar or better numbers, plus a fully functional street legal vehicle that your mechanic won't take one look at and send you down the road to the next guy who'll send you on down the road. Unless you're 100% confident that you can do all repairs on it, don't swap that engine in. Nobody in their right mind will work on a chevy with a mitsubishi engine in it! I turned away a Cougar that the VIN said had a 3.8 in it that someone swapped in a 5.0 (which was a factory engine option). I'm not going to risk losing money standing there scratching my head because someone did something wrong in the swap that they won't tell me about, and I think you'd have a hard time finding anyone to work on it.

In addition to what Classicrocjunkie said, you'll need to replace/heavily modify the steering knuckles, wheel bearings, and quite possibly the struts for the CV shafts from the mitsubishi... and if the width of the car is more than an inch or so different (do your own calculation there, that's a rough guess), you'll have to have the cv shafts cut, welded, and balanced professionally. Unless the Mit just happens to have the same lug pattern (and I'm 99% sure they're 4 lug), you'll have two completely different bolt patterns that you'll never find on a dual-pattern wheel. If the car has ABS, you'll almost certainly have to have custom wheel speed sensors made. Of course you'll have a fun job wiring up the HVAC, converting the P/S fittings to fit the rack, making the shift mechanism work (M/T may have different length levers on the transaxle, A/T may have different spacing between the shift detents), altering the accelerator cable (and compensating for a likely difference in throttle lever diameter).

And most of the time, you run into stuff you never even thought of when you do projects like this.

[armwood15]

ok let me put this out the because some of you dont know whar your talking about. im a dsm guy the 4g63 has more parts and upgrades than a z24 motor. in witch the 4g63 can be built for more power, i have buddys with 4g63 motors the are pushing 500hp to 900hp.now the engine swap isnt going to be easy, im in the middle of my swap with a 4g63 cavalier yes i said 4g63 in a cavalier. it took a year of just planing every thing out with out pulling one bolt off my car till i knew that it was going to work. is it expensive? yes is it easy? no , but is it going to be worth it? oya. i am a 20 year old guy who has been swapping motors sence i was 15. its a lot of work but its worth it. now all you will need is a engine,tranny, wiring harness, computer,shifters, motor mounts, and a few more things. custom cv axles are going to cost you. check out the swap at http://www.myspace.com/paulhus15 its under 4g63 cavalier and ya its the first ever...

[armwood15]

working link http://www.cardomain.com/ride/3051977 for 4g63 cavalier