Firstly, to answer your original question, the 4g63 just drops right into the 2g spyder engine bay. You may need to change the driver's side engine mount, but that depends on whether you get a jdm/1g engine or U.S. spec 2g engine. Secondly, You may find it cheaper to buy a used 4g64 than to overhaul the existing engine or even buy a jdm engine. The 4g64 is *very* abundant, just about every year galant had them and there were quite a bit of galants around. And don't worry about the 2wd/4wd conversation going on here. Yeah, The EVO and GSX's use the 4g63, but so do many factory turbocharged fwd Lancers. As a matter of fact, the 4g63 is about 25 years old in design now. When it was conceived as a perfomance engine, Mitsubishi hadn't developed a 4wd system to complement it. As it was designed, it was made to be in a rwd or fwd vehicle. The Lancer EVO's were created in the early 90's, about the same time the eclipse came about i believe. So for the first few years of it's life, the 4g63 never really saw a 4wd platform. You guys are probably getting bored of reading all the crap that i type, but learn something new. The way the Evo's and GSX's were thought up were actually quite astounding. Back in the 80's, Rallying was just beginning to grow into it's proportions. Of course the European manufacturers had somewhat of a dominance over the sport in the beginning, with their twincharged Lancia's and even the balanced Mini's. However, when the sport hit Japan, the first two noticeable manufacturer's to actually engage the sport were Mazda and Toyota. Mazda with their 323 GTX and Toyota with their Celica GT4. Soon after, Mitsu decided to make a viable platform for the sport so they could compete. They had three available production cars, if you know you're mitsu history then you know the three. They were the Lancer, Starion, and the Galant. As you know, the Starion was a RWD vehicle, and just couldn't match the AWD japanese and european contenders on the dirt. The next step was to pick either the Lancer or Galant to carry the weight and compete. Since the Lancer was inherently lighter and more compact than the Galant, and technically was in the class of the Celica and 323, Mitsu obviously chose it to be it's trophy rally machine. However, at the time, the Lancer's had small econo-engines that just couldn't put out the power, and the FWD drivtrain could get any power to the dirt if it had to. Mitsu decided that the a good powerful engine was needed and dropped in a 4g63. There were quite a few fwd 4g63 lancers back then, and mitsu still made them up until recently i believe. However, to be truly competetive, the 4g63 lancer needed a 4wd system. And was born the lancer Evolution. And GSR. well....gsr then evo....ok whatever....anyways. So the engine was always there, it just took some time for mitsu to put it all together. Remember though, hardly any engines are made in regards to the orientation or drivetrain. Nissan's RB series are primarily in RWD vehicles, But the AWD Skyline GTR still has an RB engine. Honda's F series engine is almost always found in accords, however the s2000 has an F series engine. Well, i've never heard of a FWD rotary....but they're in planes and crap so ha!!! J/K, the point is, you can tune an engine to whatever platform you choose. However most perfomance engines will ultimately prove more effective in an AWD platform, because after all, it's only the engine.

 

I thought the Lancer GSR was running the 4G93 (1.8L mirage) first. Looks pretty similar to the 4G63 but ...not. lol

Maybe I am wrong. The history is not really my ground. The building up of the 90-99 is.