My cell only shows the before picture...  Annoying!

My cell only shows the before picture...  Annoying!

Weird. The pic I took of the 17s is smaller then the other so that's not it.  The day after I put these wheels on, my friend calls me and says he's got a set of 17" Motegi with tires for $100 >.< At least the bolt pattern is the same.  I'll be looking at those later today.

Incase anyone wants to know... The '98 Sidekick's evaporator box and evaporator fit the X-90. All the electrical connectors are in the X-90's wiring harness too.  

I wanted AC in my X-90 so I grabbed the evap box from the '98 Sidekick at the junkyard today. I figured if I'm going to have the dash apart I might as well put AC in it.  Turns out it's a very easy thing to add AC to these cars.  I bet the compressor on the v6 is going to be oversized for the evaporator.  I'll have to charge the system with gauges and watch the pressures to figure out the correct capacity of freon to put in it.  It's going to get cold quick that's for sure.  Just in time for winter? o.O
 
I love how interchangeable these things are.

I just scored a '99 Tracker for free that runs great.  I also have an '02 4-door ZR-2 v6 Tracker as my daily driver.  If anyone remembers, I just put a used engine in it last winter.  What I intend to do is pull the ECU, wiring harness, and engine from the '99 and put it in the '02.  Since it's just a daily driver the 4 cylinder will be fine.  The '99 is automatic so I'll have to use that transmission.  Alot of work but this frees up that v6 to be used in the X-90.  Saves me $1000 and get's this project moving.


(Why does this forum freak out when I type? It keeps scrolling up?) >.<

Nice.    A lot of work but it should be fun when finished.

I finished everything on the AC but mounting the compressor.  The '98 Sidekick's condenser, fan, lines, and accumulator all fit the X-90 like a glove.  Wiring is done too.

As far as the engine swap...

I measured from the bellhousing/block line to the radiator on the X-90 and it's 23".  I then measured my '02 v6 Tracker and it's also 23".  It looks like the Trackers firewall is farther back.  From the v6 waterpump shaft to the radiator is 6" or more.  I shouldn't have any issues with engine compartment depth.  The X-90 looks narrower but there seems to be plenty of room.  Good thing I kept the old Tracker engine.  It will come in handy for test fitting and mock-ups.

I'm still undecided if I want to go with single or twin turbos.  Those little IHI VJ-11s would be perfect for a twin setup but man is plumbing twins going to be a pain in the ass.  If I do go with twins, and the stock v6 intake clears the X-90 hood, I'd like to make dual throttle bodies on the stock intake.  It would be nice if it's symetrical enough to rotate it 180 and face the TBs forward.  If not I don't see dual TBs being easy without a custom intake.

I'm stoked now.  I just found out the stock 2.5L manifolds (intake and exhaust) can be bolted on backwards.  I'm not great at drawing, so pardon my doodles, but here is a drawing of how the turbos would be placed -if- I can manage to find a matched set from a Nissan Z or something.  If not I'll use VJ-11s but it won't look as symetrical.  I'll be using 2 throttle bodies in place of the factory throttlebody section.

2 smaller turbos will be easier to place in the little X-90 then one large one.  1/2 of the 2.5L is only 1250cc so each turbo can use only 1.5" tubing for the IC lines.  That's much easier to route in small spaces.

Here's a pic of the intake and an exhaust manifolds bolted on backwards.  I'll use the stock exhaust manifolds and put turbo flanges on them.  The engine parts are from my blown Tracker v6 and are coming in handy.

I found some nice throttle bodies at the junkyard today.  They are off 2 Hyundai Accents.  There's no BS on them like IAC motors.  Just a spring and a TPS.  Not very large bore either which is what I want.  Reason is that is if the TB needs to flow say 400cfm and you use an 800cfm TB then all your throttle control is from 0-50% pedal.  It gets too touchy.

Isn't that just pretty?  

One bolt will line up and the other two will use two nuts to hold a spacer to the mani and two studs to hold the TB to the spacer.  3/8" aluminum plate should do.  Either that or cut off the mani flange and weld on another but I like the bolt-on option better.  To couple the TBs, I'll use a shaft like a motorcycle type carb setup with the adjuster to sync the position.

Tricky. 

I found some turbos.  A matched set of water cooled T25s from a Nissan 300ZX.  I know those guys can manage 16psi out of these on a 3L engine so 15psi on a 2.5L should be a calk walk and still have decent spool.

More mock-ups and measurements.

Here's what I was intending on doing with the manifolds but, due to the location of the accessories, I can't just weld on an elbow to the stock exhaust manifolds.  So, I have two options.  Cap the outlet and make a hole between 1&3 (and 2&4) and weld on flanges making a "log-style" manifold or just make DIY 3 into 1 shorty tubular turbo headers.  I could use the factory head flanges and weld els or stainless tubing to make them.  Eventually that time will come.

As far as the intake, I might have to relocate the engine oil fill.  No biggie.  I also need to have 2 phenolic spacers made to raise the manifold .25" to clear the pass side valve cover.  It -just- hits it.  I could get away with grinding off some metal but the spacers will help keep the manifold cooler.  That's all that would be required to make it bolt on.

From the crank line to the top of the manifold is about 18 5/8".  Depending on how low the engine can mount in the x-90, I may need to either mod the oil pan or make my own intake so I'm not diving into intake mods quite yet until I have the longblock in the car.  Personally I think some home made intalke manifolds would look tits.

On BRD HNTR's rig we had to modify the oil pan to get around the front diff.  I think we just hit it with a large rubber hammer...

On BRD HNTR's rig we had to modify the oil pan to get around the front diff.  I think we just hit it with a large rubber hammer...

pics pics pics!

He starts working on the conversion at this link but the pictures you probably want to see from under the rig are over at this link

We are using a 2.7L with the 5 speed transmission and a Grand Vitara headers and transfer case.  The Grand Vit has smaller pre-cats and gave us more room for the exhaust.  Looking through the notes it looks like the issue we had was with the corner of the pan hitting the cross-member, we ended up just smacking in that one corner for clearance to make sure it wouldn't rub.

BRD HNTR is in Montana right now, but he should be back at the end of the month and would be more then happy to answer questions.  Or if you PM me I can send you his email address.

I found a link to the pile-o-pics in one of the posts.

http://picasaweb.google.com/105298426119042245963/TrackerEngineSwap?gsessionid=BAJbAHd3mr82psT0rbVq-A#