This Suzuki Samurai called “Groundhawg” was brought to the United States in 1985 and came with a 1.3 L four-cylinder engine producing about 63 horsepower. Unfortunately the factory engine blew and the owner wanted to swap an engine that matched their personality. At first the owner considered using a diesel VW engine or a Geo tracker engine but none of these seemed unique enough. Finally the owner settled on a RevTech V-twin from South Korea that produces 115 horsepower and 120 lb-ft of torque.
I love my suzuki and i love how it can go any where i want it too even with it all stock. BUT i want it to be faster. it was brought to my attention that i could put a haybusa engine in it. which sounds pretty awesome. what do you think of that idea?
I think it would be great
I find myself asking why I havn’t seen this before!
Nice. I have a Suzuki Samurai 88. I love my Suzuki, and it needs an engine soon, the old stock and OEM engine has reached its final days.
A Hayabusa engine sounds nice, would it cost too much?? how difficult would it be?
You couldn’t use a Hayabusa motor. It has a built in transmission and chain final drive not to mention the clutch would never hold up to the sammys weight. A better engine swap would be a direct shaft drive motor that could be coupled to the stock transmission such as a 2 or 3 cylinder inline snowmobile or watercraft motor. I went off roading in Arrowhead, Ca. and saw a nicely modded samurai with an old two rotor RX-7 rotory motor swap that was fantastic.
Dave,
Many people have done hayabusa engine swaps and they work great, improve mileage and even have better torque than OEM. Check out youtube there are some really sweet builds.
Thanks Mack for helping.
have any pictures of this beast?
Thanks Albert. We’ve updated the article with the photos.
I WANT ONE. I need some more info. on the mating of the motor to transmission.
Please share information on adapter kit! I want to do this myself!