1600cc was sold by Dewan but they were all made in Japan. 1500cc models were imported JDM by vehicle importers. There are a lot of variations in lancer variants across markets. For example, the 1600cc lancer sent to gulf countries have 120hp whereas the one sent to our market has around 105hp. The 1600cc model sent to UK has 98hp. So you see there are differences in same engine size models across models and these are because of different ECU, parts, etc. Whereas CVT built might be the same but that CVT comes with its own module which needs to be mated to the ECU. Since there are a lot of electronics and varying parts involved, it will become a tedious job to figure out all. If at the end of the day all you want is to put the cvt in your existing lancer then it's best to simply buy a good condition car from the market instead of fiddling with your current setup. You can get a good condition car for 9-10 lacs. Older cars were more mechanical than electronic and could be fiddled with and setups swapped because major issue is with fitment and not compatibility. The newer cars have lots of electronics and issue with electronics is always less fitment and more compatibility.
I was reading on another thread that someone swapped the engine of their 1600cc lancer cvt with a 1300cc engine. The car lost its acceleration and was very heavy on fuel consumption. These newer cars rely on data feeds from a lot of sensors and computers to function properly. Even if one of these is not functioning properly then the car will behave abnormally.
If you still want to take it as a project then it's not going to be as easy as the stories/experiences of others who have done these things with older cars. What is doable is to get a complete half-cut car and then swap the parts from it.......ECU, transmission, gear shifter, instrument cluster, etc. Complete A to Z swap. But that's going to be an expensive proposition.
