4g69 swap for a CE

crucible76

crucible76

New Member
Well the current *poo*box has been running great after the bit of work I put in on it but an opportunity came up and a poor financial decision may have been made. Managed to pick up a complete ch lancer with a 4g69 and after I sell some of the aftermarket stuff that it had it'll have cost me only a few hundred. The plan is to gut the ch of anything usable to drop into the ce and then scrap/sell/dump whatever's left. I've done some research on the swap already but keep coming up with some conflicting information. Some answers from someone who's done this swap would be great. I've seen some say you can get the 69 running off the 93 wiring with only a few small mods, some sensors off another motor and a tune with others saying you can swap the ecu with all the engine wiring and essentially run it as a stock ch. Which way is better? The 93 is the earlier model if that makes a difference so a new ecu would be needed along with whatever additional sensors and whatnot if going that route. Preferably I'd like to get it going with the parts I already have though. I've also seen people saying either way on what throttle to keep going with the electric one by swapping the whole throttle over with the engine or keeping the 93 throttle and intake potentially swapping to a larger bore throttle body for better performance. I already have a couple spare 93 throttle bodies laying around from previous shenanigans would it be worth boring one of those out and using it? Would that require me to keep the 93 wiring? Piecing something together would probably have better performance but is it more of a headache and more $$$ and is it worth it?
 

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Well nothing to report as far as stripping the ch yet but I'd like to say a massive shoutout to Billy Chen over on Facebook for giving me some direction in this crazy idea. I know what bits I still need to hunt down now and have stuff on the way. I'm also grabbing bits for doing up the brakes if I'm adding more go gotta add more stop. just been to the wreckers today playing with an fto and came home with a new set of trailing arms which should allow me to move the ch rear discs over

In other news I'm now dubbing this car the CE-VO managed to pickup an Evo 4 style bonnet for $200 on marketplace. It's a bit rough but it should clean up good. I also picked up an Evo style spoiler for it a few weeks ago but haven't gotten around to fitting it yet. So I guess the only thing it needs now are the boot reflectors and I got my wannabe bogan evo
 

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Can't say I have any info for your g69 swap but I'll be following along.
 
Well, I'll raise my hand in that I've completed a 4G69 swap into a two-door CE Lancer. I should probably write something along the lines of a rundown of the process, maybe in its own post. Things to expect and ways to overcome them, stuff like that. And also translating my wiring notes into something readable by people who aren't me.

But in the meantime if you have any questions, feel free to ask.


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NeonHydra said:
Well, I'll raise my hand in that I've completed a 4G69 swap into a two-door CE Lancer. I should probably write something along the lines of a rundown of the process, maybe in its own post. Things to expect and ways to overcome them, stuff like that. And also translating my wiring notes into something readable by people who aren't me.

But in the meantime if you have any questions, feel free to ask.


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please do, I'm looking into doing the swap soon and it'd be great to have a bit of a rundown made from someone who has already done it
 
If it makes any difference, I plan to do the splicing all myself in december-january and posting a full guide on how I did it so anyone else can follow along

If all goes well with my swap I reckon it's probably the best bang for your buck engine swap you can do with the lancer N/A (unless you find a unicorn 4g92m)
 
I'm planning on going the other route keeping all the ch wiring and ecu running in the ce body. It'll probably be more annoying rerunning all the wiring through the car rather than splicing something together but doing the swap on the cheap is the name of the game for me and not needing an aftermarket ecu and tune goes a long way

Suppose I'll do a bit of an update since I'm here though there's not a whole lot to talk about. I have all the parts required for the swap now just waiting on work to slow down so I can take a couple days off to wrench on the car. Otherwise just been fiddling with little stuff where I can. Got some weather shields for it along with the eBay short shifter kit so I can at least pretend I'm going faster lol
 
Oh yeah I will be doing stock CH ecu in the car, just need to allow the loom to run with the CE AC controls, but CH ac compressor, CE indicator and wipers, figure out if I can implement the cruise control switch, lights, radio, etc etc. As far as I understand, the firewall locations for where the looms enter the cars are different so maybe theres wire lengthening/shortening and completely reshaping for ease of install in the different chassis.

Doesn't seem like a difficult loom splice, probably most difficult is working out AC controls but I know a lot of people like to not run AC for more room for turbo and less dealing with AC lines as I assume they're a pain to work with given you can't legally empty them yourself.

If I'm not fully pleased with the new power I'll probably end up running a standalone for high comp NA so a custom spliced loom would be handy for that too.
 
From what I researched getting the AC to work is a massive pain needing to run custom AC lines. Windshield wipers need to be spliced in along with converting anything like power mirrors, windows ect to the new harness
 
I used the 4G69 engine and battery/starter looms (functionally it's all just one loom) from the CH and wired it to interface with the CE connectors B-32 and B-33, which are the Engine Control-to-Body loom interconnects on the CE body harness. Most signals and power supplies required can be supplied to or sourced from there, and it makes interfacing the engine with the rest of the car relatively easy.

Don't bother trying to adapt the existing 4G15/4G93 engine harnesses or, god forbid, ECUs to the 4G69. Very little is similar between those engines aside from them all having four cylinders, and you're opening yourself up to a whole world of agony for absolutely no reason. The wiring modifications to the CH engine loom I mentioned just before are not very difficult in the grand scheme of things, and you wind up with a perfectly functional ignition switch, instrument cluster, lights, wipers, etc at the end of the day. And, with a little extra work, even things like cruise control.


I can confirm, however, that the air-conditioning is an absolute arsehole. There was no combination of changed parts or easy modifications I could find to allow the 4G69 compressor to hook up to the CE air-conditioning circuit. The line sizes and fitting types/locations are completely different. To say nothing of the fact that the CE and CH run their compressor clutch trigger wiring in entirely different ways, which required me running extra wires inside the engine wiring loom out to the AC dual pressure switch and then back to the ECU. I made it work in my swap, but I have custom AC line crimping gear at work and was able to dodgy something together. It wasn't strictly speaking the right way to do it, but it did work.


I have been in the process of writing up my '4G69 swap and wiring guide' in Google Docs, but life has been busy recently and I haven't had the most free time. Stay tuned.
 
NeonHydra said:
I used the 4G69 engine and battery/starter looms (functionally it's all just one loom) from the CH and wired it to interface with the CE connectors B-32 and B-33, which are the Engine Control-to-Body loom interconnects on the CE body harness. Most signals and power supplies required can be supplied to or sourced from there, and it makes interfacing the engine with the rest of the car relatively easy.

Don't bother trying to adapt the existing 4G15/4G93 engine harnesses or, god forbid, ECUs to the 4G69. Very little is similar between those engines aside from them all having four cylinders, and you're opening yourself up to a whole world of agony for absolutely no reason. The wiring modifications to the CH engine loom I mentioned just before are not very difficult in the grand scheme of things, and you wind up with a perfectly functional ignition switch, instrument cluster, lights, wipers, etc at the end of the day. And, with a little extra work, even things like cruise control.


I can confirm, however, that the air-conditioning is an absolute arsehole. There was no combination of changed parts or easy modifications I could find to allow the 4G69 compressor to hook up to the CE air-conditioning circuit. The line sizes and fitting types/locations are completely different. To say nothing of the fact that the CE and CH run their compressor clutch trigger wiring in entirely different ways, which required me running extra wires inside the engine wiring loom out to the AC dual pressure switch and then back to the ECU. I made it work in my swap, but I have custom AC line crimping gear at work and was able to dodgy something together. It wasn't strictly speaking the right way to do it, but it did work.


I have been in the process of writing up my '4G69 swap and wiring guide' in Google Docs, but life has been busy recently and I haven't had the most free time. Stay tuned.
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Love an info dump, thanks for sharing
 
For the AC would it be possible to instead swap over the CH circuit and modify that to make it fit, instead of trying to frankie it? Just especially worried as I plan to engineer my build so I need it to pass a roadworthy with the annoyingly limited skills and tools I have
 
You can do an AC delete to get it engineered, then just add it back afterwards.
 
It was quite a while ago when I originally researched this, but I recall coming to the conclusion that using the CG/CH AC circuit in the CE (or at least the engine bay lines and hoses, as the evaporator locations are different) either wasn't viable or wasn't possible. They route in the engine bay in fairly different ways, and you might run into obstacles when fitting one to the other (assuming the evaporator connections are correct, I think some CE's are different). I can't at this time say with certainty that it isn't possible, but I must have decided against it for a reason.

For reference, this is my modification of the CE air-conditioning suction line. The discharge line is similar, but less visible (and not in this photo).

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I picked up both a suction and a discharge line off of a CH compressor from a wrecker, then test-fitted them to the vehicle after the engine was fitted to gauge the correct lengths and cut them to size. After that it was a matter of hunting through the assortment of fittings and ferrules in our work AC hose kits, mixing and matching the ones that would be best sized and then crimping the hoses on the bench.

The reason I said it's not strictly the right way to do it is that those type of AC fittings aren't really intended to be used on the newer type of AC hoses that have an internal liner (I forget what it is. Plastic, Teflon or something) like the CH uses. I also struggled to get the smaller hose into the ferrule, so it wasn't actually fully seated when I crimped it. I'm pretty sure I'd be able to do a better job of it now, though.

That being said, it actually didn't leak. I also used hydrocarbon refrigerant (HyChill Minus 30) when I charged it instead of R134a, as it's far less polluting and as such doesn't fall under the same refrigerant handling laws; so you can use it to charge a leaky system, and it's perfectly legal to vent it straight to atmosphere if you wanted. Just don't light a match when you do.
 
Is it stupid to ask why we cant put the whole CH ac loop into the CE chassis? There's just a chance I know absolutely nothing to do with how a car's AC works but I figured no shame in asking stupid questions
 
The bits don't fits. Need lengthening/shortening etc on some parts as they aren't directly in the same location, don't bolt up the same, use different types of hoses etc. Also wiring is not a direct plug and play either.
 
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