mikuni Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 Brad- 5.4L/100km = 52 mpg. Thats pretty bloody good. Yours was the ecotech right? Better than the XE for economy?It's very good aye. Yeah, my chevette motor was ecotec. It will be better for ecomony as it is a torquey low-mid range engine with small ports and a conservative cam. The XE powered cars were also very economical, but as these cars were late 80's - mid 90's they were much lighter than the safer yet heavier cars the ecotec powered from the mid 90's ongoing. An XE doesn't make much sense for what you want compared to the ecotec, as if something goes wrong with an XE it can get expensive and difficult to get parts to fix. An ecotec - slap another motor in there from pickapart or similar for $300 haha (that's what my motor cost at least)They are all iron block, but I've come to realise this doesn't mean a huge deal on the overall weight of any engine. It might make 10kg difference, but in the scheme of things an engine block doesn't weigh much when you lift it bare. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vivaspeed Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 Alex, Clearly spending time in the northern hemisphere has somehow affected your judgement. Leave this one alone and buy a tiny economical car! All up reg/wof/insurance on another car would only be $500 a year so not a big deal really. In my completely un-biassed opinion, 4AGE is the only way to go, light, powerful, economical. You can make them fit nicely in an HB without any structural mods. Mine has the firewall chop because I was going to run 20 valve and I set it back quite a distance, you wouldn't need to do that. In more practical terms, a 16V 4AGE is quite old now, getting RWD bits is getting harder and gearboxes seem expensive. You could get a Mazda B-series RWD motor (ex-MX5) or a Nissan CA18 / SR20 which are meant to be RWD and parts seems plentiful (not to mention a lot of tuning bits around). If you do swap engine, then sell me the rotary setup thanks ta. I have plenty of spare Vivas to install it in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubblegoose Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 have you considered a honda motor?/2zz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Borgweiser Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 Hannah's not helping though as she has just been reading a V8 car roadtest article in practical classics and now suggests a daimler V8. My kinda girl.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Borgweiser Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 I would suggest selling this sweet whip in it's current incarnation and putting all your efforts into a certain Multipla with maybe a bike motor conversion.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HighLUX Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 3S-FE from a later model Townace? 2000cc twincam with economy head Quite a compact little engine and already oriented for RWD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vivaspeed Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 3S-GE from a later model Altezza?Quite a compact little engine and already oriented for RWD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shizzl Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 better off walking,thatll be a good way to lose all enjoyment of driving it having such a slow slug in it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Borgweiser Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 better off walking,thatll be a good way to lose all enjoyment of driving it having such a slow slug in it. Agreed, so much yuck in that suggestion. May as well slap a 1256 in it, be gruntier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vivaspeed Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 Van motor is yuck, 3S-GE isn't though... Nice 1256 will make around 80hp... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikuni Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 ill swap you a 2l pinto with 5speed for ya 12a? lol 500km from 45l...not bad for a 32 year old engiine id put a 4age into the tina but its just a bit small for it....cheap to buy/fit/run....theyr a good choice better off walking,thatll be a good way to lose all enjoyment of driving it having such a slow slug in it. Agreed. A BEAMS 3S-GE would be very difficult to fit into the front of a Viva because they are such a tall engine. I'd go so far as to say it won't fit in there if you want it at a decent ride height. The 3S-FE is a good suggestion for what you're after. You could liven it up with a new set of cams, or even put a nice little turbo/supercharger setup on it if you did want a bit more punch with minimal increase in consumption. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
durty Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 Volvo 5 cylinder would be sweet imo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slacker_Sam. Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 Volvo 5 cylinder would be sweet imo I like this. Also what about a F20C from a honda S2000. and slap a turbo on the side of it. + they have a 9500rpm redline from factory & something like 246bhp. Imagine that noise coming from the old viva! EDIT: Like this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoKer Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 why not a Renisis/EFI motor? minimal conversion / possible extra cost of ECU/tune still have WOW factor? Link or something would be the biggest part of the budget : could you run on a OEM ecu? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nominal Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 It's getting harder and harder to get smaller 4-cyl RWD engines that suit conversions. I liked my factory injected 4AGE Morris, if it fits in a Morrie, then should be easy in a Viva, but as noted above the RWD aspect of the 4AGE is getting more complicated and expensive. How about a Zetec, they seem to more convertible to RWD, and are more current I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vivaspeed Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 How tall is a 3SGE? I went and measured my engine bay and it's approx 620mm from the crossmember to the top of the aircleaner in the 1159 HB Viva. I imagine the aircleaner is a bit off the bonnet so there is quite a bit of room to play with. Problem is the rack sits in front of the crossmember so you'll either need to mount something quite forward, or best to either get a rear sump motor or make a custom / modified sump. Measured a 4AGE I had lying around and it's just under 500mm tall (measurements were a bit wonky due to placement of engine amongst pile of crap ). 4AGE is a good choice for weight, size, balance etc. Could be quite "top heavy" though if you go for a tall engine, rotary is nice and low centre of G. Not sure if it's been said on here yet but Datsun A-series fit really well... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubblegoose Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 sorry i must have been asleep earlier when i said honda or 2zz what i ment was steam power Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sorensin Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 hey sorry didn't read whole thread, if its already been said sorry/delete post. 1UZ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vivaspeed Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 Been done... but not sure how that necessarily meets the "economical" criteria. V8s in Vivas generally need a lot of shagging around to clear the steering column, and often a firewall chop. Would be awesome though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Borgweiser Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 Umm, I think the economy part of the argument has been forgotten. I would consider duratec of the smaller capacities, or a 1.4 K series Rover. Heaps of power from both, legendary economy, plenty of RWD adaptor bits available ex UK. Also the K series must be the lightest 4 cylinder not from a motorbike. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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