Hyundai Accent LC engine swap

ConskiMcGoo

Newbie
Points
3
Location
United Kingdom
Car
Astra Twintop 1.6
Hey everyone! For a bit of background, during my undergraduate university days, my first car was written off by a learner and I was forced to shop for something cheap as an immediate and assumedly temporary replacement. I brought a 2001 Hyundai Accent MVI from an auction for a little over £300. and well it was fantastic. Sure it was that awful gold colour that earned it the name "Piss-casso", but she would do 0-60 over 5 seconds quicker than my first car, and felt great to be in. It's quite silly but it was the car that got me into driving and to be completely honest, helped get me through some really tough times. Unfortunately, she was a 300 quid car from an auction place and failed the next mot with a costly repair that undergraduate me couldn't afford, and so she had to be scrapped.

Now I'm a PhD student, which means I'm getting a bit more financially stable, and can put money aside for future projects. After driving more modern cars, I've realised that I miss the awful plasticky interiors and far-less-technology-ridden experience of cars from 1995-2002. I've also become increasingly interested in car modifications and increasing performance. Due to this, I've been thinking that I'd love to save to purchase something from that era, and then modify for performance as time goes on.

This got me thinking about trying to get hold of another Accent MVI in the future, and modifying it. It's a car that means a lot to me and I'd love to be able to build one up like I feel it deserves. I've started to do some research on appropriate modifications - one thing I'm unsure on is if an engine swap is a worthwhile idea and what engines are suitable.

At stock, the Accent MVI has a 1.5l SOHC, 4 cylinders, 12 valves, 103 or so bhp. This seems to be limited in how far it could be modified, so I'd be considering swapping. I know the Accent can reliably take a 2l coupe engine which gives an immediate increase in power, and is apparently quite a sturdy engine suitable for further modification (I believe it's fairly similar to the engine they used in the WRC Accent, although that was obviously turbo'd and far more modified than my road legal future project). This seems like a decent option, but the coupe engine is quite polluting and ideally I'd like to at least try to help the environment a bit. This makes me wonder if anyone knows of more modern engines that are close enough to the accent/coupe's engine layout to work reliably?

Alternatively, the four door accent has a 1.6 DOHC engine that gives a fairly similar power output to the MVI, but may be more suitable for tuning.

What do people think? Tuning the original MVI engine? Swapping to a 2l coupe engine? A more modern engine (recommendations pls!), using the four door accent instead?

All advice welcome! I know it's not a particularly flashy or popular car but it is one with a lot of sentimental meaning.Thanks!
 

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