TeamSwift

Hello all,

My names Billy and I'm a new member from the UK.

I recently brought a 1999 Subaru Justy 1.3 GX in red with 40000 on the clock for a whopping 350 pounds.

I learned to drive in a Swift of the same shape and owning this car has put a big smile on my face.

I have big plans mainly to tidy it up as it has rust and dents and butchered wires thanks to the previous owner.

I have a couple of questions hopefully you guys can help me.

What does the Subaru Justy weigh and where any safety tests done for it or the equivalent Swift? Were the results good?

I want to upgrade in the future and know there are several options using bits off other Suzuki's such as Vitara and the Gti.

The aim is to get 100hp ish, I've thought of using vitara bits to boost the 8v units power I have already, do the 8v bits off the g16 fit? Cams, valves, exhaust manifold etc?

I've also considered using the 1.0 3 cyl swift gearbox as apparently it has shorter ratios, does anyone know if it will fit on a Justy due to the 4wd system or will I need a new gearbox off something else?

I know you can use a Gti to get the desired parts but is it just the head, cams, crank pulley and ECU that are different or will I need more parts?

Any help appreciated.

Thanks,

Billy

Welcome to Teamswift

The 99-2000 Justy is just a rebaged mk3 suzuki swift so performance (or there lack of) and crash performance (or there lack of) is exactly the same as the swift, which by the way are terrible, pretty sure it would be one star if it was tested today.

The UK and Europe is the only place to get the Swift rebadged as a Justy, everywhere else in the world the Subaru Justy is a completely different car, just mentioning the word 'Justy' puts our North American friends into a frenzied state of confusion, best you just refer to your car as a mk3 Suzuki swift...

Is yours 2wd or 4wd?

For a while Suzuki built the Justy for the Euro market. Dattman has this covered.

You need to spend some time looking around this site.

The weight? I don't know the exact amount yours would weigh with AWD but it should be just about 1K Kg.

Safety? No econo hatchback has a good safety rating. You pay the price, take your chances and enjoy the ride.

A good running stock 1.3 twincam will give you your HP goal. If you decide to add a cage for safety, you can add cams, a chip and improve air flow to make up a decent HP gain over the extra weight.

As I said at the beginning. If you spend time searching here, you can find everything you need to know to make your car, your car. There is a recent thread asking about the 1.6 with
the 1.3 16V head. Find that thread. There are threads about gear ratios for various combinations. Look for them.

Help yourself to all the info already here. It's here for everyone. It may take some time to find everything you need but you will find most of what you want to know by going through the thread titles and reading the ones that look interesting to you.

There aren't many here with the AWD but there are a few (and many wish they Had's).

I'm fairly sure all Subaru Justy's of that vintage were AWD. Suzuki used to sell AWD Swifts in northern European countries but stopped once Subaru started selling them.
1.0 transmission is out of question since it is completely different then AWD transmission.

Hello,

Thanks all for the swift replies (pun intended)

Yeah i will have to scour and see what I can get away with there is just not a lot of information for swift to justy swaps so I guess I'll just have to be a pioneer then so far I'm thinking of going SOHC 1.3 with uprated cam, valves, remap and gearbox but that could all change.

Yeah I read that they are 985kg but I'll probably get it weighed to confirm if I can somehow.

Yeah I know safety isn't city cars strong points and its not for my benefit I just want to keep my girlfriend and the family safe that's all...it does have twin air bags so I guess its better than most small cars but I do definitely enjoy the ride.

Hopefully you'll be seeing me with all sorts of interesting modifications.

Speaking of, 1.6 with a dohc 1.3 head? Any mpg figures, torque etc that's peaked my interest lol

Ooh airbags, it might muster 2 stars then.

There was a very valid reason for asking if it was 4wd, if it is then boost is your best option, the 4wd gearbox is twice as strong as the fwd boxes, low/med boost is cheaper and far more reliable than the g16 with twin cam.

There are cam grinds available for the 1.3 16v sohc engine and a couple of guys that maybe be able to reprogram your existing ecu but you'd be spending money with very little performance gain, 10-15hp at best before it starts having a negative impact on drive-ability, the 4wd versions are very heavy and very sluggish and a low boost setup would gain you 30-40hp with no loss of drive-ability.

In case you didn't understand.

The Justy is the exact same as the Swift. Subaru Justy = Suzuki Swift. The AWD option didn't come to North America (too bad) but all other info is relevant.

A tuned stock twincam and low boost may be what you want although Dattman may have a different build that would suit you better. This is where you need to decide where you want to go.

Haha, I'll take the 2 stars and run with them then by the sounds of it!

Hmm boost you say? So I'm guessing a custom manifold, small turbo and intercooler, manual boost controller, new oil feeds and a remap required?

Is there any modifications needed to the block or is it just need to get parts fabricated?

I'm open to all advice and suggestions you guys know far more than me and I was aware it was exactly the same. They used a Suzuki 4wd system and the g series engine o just didn't know which parts could be interchanged.

Thanks all

Pretty much... most of the turbo guys are either 3 cyl g10's or twincam g13bs but there are a few that have turbo'ed both the 8v and the 16v sohc models, turbo and intercooler are easy, it's just fabbing up the turbo manifold, might be worth looking at the Suzuki 4wd websites as there is some 16v sohc stuff available there too.

So apart from the turbo and intercooler I only need a manifold making and a remap? Can I use the existing ECU or would I need a standalone?

I wouldn't mind even keeping it N/A and just converting it to DOHC but still I don't know what I'd need to change or even which head to use.

Depending on how accesible a dohc engine is and what your skills are, i would go for a dohc engine, not only is it a better platform but it has more support over at redlinegti.com

Converting to dohc is a fair bit of work, twin cam head has different inlet and exhaust ports so by the time you change over manifolds, ecu and wiring loom and then you still only make 20hp more and you still have no torque, I've driven nzswifts 4wd cultus which has 113bhp and is terribly slow, the extra weight over a fwd model is very noticeable.

The problem these days is finding a nice gti engine, most of them have high km's and the bores are out of round, the advantage of boosting your current engine is it is low kms, remap your existing ecu and bolt on the turbo, just need to sort the oiling with a return welded into the sump, you can always return it back to naturally aspirated later if you want to.

So far boosted sounds like the way to go then, any particular turbos or remap companies that you can recommend?

Hello, yes that's my problem...finding one. Not many GTi's left in the UK and the ones that are are either shot or going for silly money and I don't have them levels of cash.

Here I found a crash test a while ago, this is Hungarian mk5.
so this one also has airbags but they dont help a lot...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gt-EZkXpWds


As for the engine swap the easiest is to find a complete GTi with rotten body and ok engine and start swapping because you need alot of things,dont forget brakes!!!
Show us some photos of your ride...

_________________
1995 Suzuki Swift 1.3 16v GTimk3 74kw
2005 Suzuki Ignis 1.5 16v GS VVT 73kw 4x4
2002 Lada Niva 1.7i+lpg 4x4

Thank you for the video I will take a look.

I did find one recently but it was snapped up I'm assuming for the same reason but I prefer N/A engines so if I can pick one up that'll be the route I take.

I shall take some pictures and upload them when I get home from work bewarned she needs a lot of work.

Roof needs dents sorting and respraying, both rear arches need respraying, new front and rear bumpers, new passenger indicator, new wing new bonnet new doors and bootlid (all alright but I want it immaculate) new interior loom and carpet then I want to add a factory alarm and mobiliser, factory alloys and fog lights. OEM plus is what I'm aiming for.

Ouch!!!

Mind you some people perceive big heavy 4wds to be safe, the Ford F150 is probably no safer than the swift, unless of course you just so happen to crash your F150 into a swift...
No 7 in this vid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x3UTROQajk

Now that would be a bad accident haha, yeah doesn't look brilliant but not many cars will win against concrete.

Once I heard a story maybe even read it here somewhere...

Subaru makers were interviewed after a defeating crash test of their new Impreza.
And they announced that if you plan on crashing Impreza, you better not buy one.

_________________
1995 Suzuki Swift 1.3 16v GTimk3 74kw
2005 Suzuki Ignis 1.5 16v GS VVT 73kw 4x4
2002 Lada Niva 1.7i+lpg 4x4

Haha that's worrying, I'm sure no one planned to but many people probably have with the way they get driven

Pretty sure its not true,but funny.

I myself have bought a Swift and made it a GTi. it had 1.3 sohc 8v and i replaced it with 1.3 16v dohc and made a full blooded GTi am very happy I did it and it was not so hard to do it. 4wd would be my next project if i could find one.



wanted to buy this one but asking price was a bit steep.

_________________
1995 Suzuki Swift 1.3 16v GTimk3 74kw
2005 Suzuki Ignis 1.5 16v GS VVT 73kw 4x4
2002 Lada Niva 1.7i+lpg 4x4

I want that rear panel for mine haha, yeah I think that's the route I will have to take I'll just have to keep my eye out for a gti So I need cylinder head, ecu, wiring loom and crank pulley?

If you buy a whole gti for parts why take the engine apart? take it out whole and drop it in, but make sure interior is the same otherwise your harness wont be direct fit in the new engine!!!
I took a mk2 engine and slipped it in mk3 and had to find matching mk3 GTi harness because its not interchangeable.
mk2 is round jack and mk3 is square or vice-versa
thats why wanted some photo to determine which is yours.

_________________
1995 Suzuki Swift 1.3 16v GTimk3 74kw
2005 Suzuki Ignis 1.5 16v GS VVT 73kw 4x4
2002 Lada Niva 1.7i+lpg 4x4

I will take some photos of it in a hour or so so I don't cause confusion. I probably won't be able to get my hands on a complete Gti more likely a Gti being broken and if that's the case I can collect parts over time that's why I ask

In the mean time make sure you do a valve slash adjustment, put a decent air filter, some good ngk plugs and wires and some good oil and drive that thing like you stole it
Also even though the tranmissions are different for 4wd and 2wd your only option might end up being having to open the transaxle and buying an aftermarket end ratio pinion and in the process make it lsd? Look over at our australian friends, these guys are plenty involved with the swift, but again money money. Lets see some pictures!