The 1JZ engine swap(to 12/1. For further updates see page 1)* * * * * *12/1/03: Well it turns out that the actual engine swap and all the associated grunt work was actually the EASY part...as I'm going to have to pull the whole engine wiring harness and rewire all the ECU connections from scratch. I'm not making any headway against the electrical gremlins, and the pre-extended harness was sketchy to begin with. I've got it mostly off the car, just a few more connectors... And it won't be THAT hard, just 61 connections to resolder and reroute--not undoable. Just a pain.* * * * * *11/23/03: It STARTS! After spending about 25 hours total last week splicing wires and troubleshooting the wiring harness, the car, finally, finally cranked and started earlier this evening. I still have TPS issues, since I'm getting a code 41 from the ECU, but it will fire up, rev to 1500 rpm for a few seconds, then die, more quickly so if I touch the throttle. It's not there yet...but this is HUGE.* * * * * *11/18/03: Almost there... Just need to plug in the rat's nest of wires on the left into the ECU, swap out the 1JZ tach, splice a few more wires, and turn the key!* * * * * *11/15/03: It's in! After cleaning up the engine wiring Thursday night and swapping steering racks and wheel hubs this morning, I lowered the 1JZ into its new home this afternoon, ably assisted by John and Joel.Maneuvering the engine and tranny into position, hoping they won't violate the front bumper cover.Your intrepid scribe, holding a zip tie, with Joel in the background. The engine inches ever closer...After some fancy hoist work, the engine sat contently on its engine mounts. One of the major points of difficulty was the passenger side firewall, where the rear turbo inlet pipe had real issues with clearance. But I got it worked out.Happy engine, and happy owner. Wiring tomorrow, and hooking up of peripherals (fuel, radiator, driveshaft, etc), and it should start. Completion is imminent...* * * * * *11/12/03: Picture of the turbos bolted back on the engine:Last night I did relatively minor stuff, like putting the injector clips back on:and squirting some lightweight oil in the combustion chambers (the spark plugs are positively buried down in the cylinder head) and turning the engine over to lube everything up in preparation for starting. Assuming the wiring is correct and the fuel system is primed, there's no reason this engine shouldn't start on the first crank when I get it in the white Supra. It's going to happen this weekend, one way or another.11/11/03: Bolted the good set of turbos onto the 1JZ last night. No pictures, unfortunately. Took me way longer than I thought it was going to, mainly because I was doing things out of sequence and there isn't much room in the garage at the moment, which always complicates things. Got them on, though. The engine looks good. I think it's one of the most attractive engines I've seen--with the full length of the cam covers visible and no extraneous wiring hanging all over the place. Okay, so maybe it's not quite as hot looking as an RB26DETT, but it's not half bad either. Can't wait to snap a few pictures of it in the engine bay. Should happen by this weekend, if all goes well.11/8/03: Swapped subframes this afternoon. This was necessary because the engine mount protrusions on the subframe are slightly different between the 90 mk3s and the 86-88 models, but enough so that the 1JZ's engine mounts wouldn't be a straight bolt-in. Just about everything vital close to the engine bay seems to be attached to the subframe in some way, though. The desirable subframe from the 90 car:It made it look like I completely gutted the car:The 86-88 subframe with the undesirable (for my purposes, at least) engine mount protrusions (towers?):After some rearranging and lifting, the correct subframe bolted into place on the white car:There were differences as far as the steering rack at well, so I'll have to swap that over, but for today just getting the subframes swapped was the goal. The earlier rack has a steering damper, and the later unit has speed-sensitive power assist, so those will be exchanged, but it's just detail stuff compared to its larger cousin.And finally for today, Cleo conquers the auburn car:* * * * * *11/6/03: Removed the engine from the auburn car earlier this evening.A 7M will go here eventually. It's even easier to pull than the original engine the white car. Cake, really.Sitting in the garage awaiting a thorough combing-over and prep.* * * * * *10/30/03: Well. After much swapping and selling, here's the new plan:Got another Supra. American market, swapped over to 1JZ, runs well. I like my white car. I'll be swapping everything 1JZ-related over to my white car and dropping a built 7M back in the new car, which the previous owner will then sell. Don't worry; it all works out.Waiting for the new arrival.Looking good waiting for the new arrival.New sibling in the driveway, about to undergo a heart transplant. It's a '90, in case you're wondering.Pretty good shape, nice rims, needs a little bodywork.1JZ to be transplanted. The turbos have been removed since they smoked slightly. Don't worry; it all works out.There's a very reputable company on the west coast that imports JDM front clips, called Jarco. This engine is out of their display front clip, in other words, the one they used to present themselves. Stellar compression, only about 20K on the clock. Pristine.Another view of my car's new engine.A few more revs to play with. This is the 1JZ tach which will be going in my car as well.The deal included two sets of turbos for me.Set no.2 (the non-smoking ones, which will be going on the 1JZ)Apex'i intake to go on the car.HKS 3" downpipe and high-flow cat to go on the car.Yes, I'm excited. Life just got a WHOLE lot easier, praise God.* * * * * *10/20/03: Picked up a 1JZ-GTE yesterday:JDM 2.5l twin-turbo inline 6, the precursor to the 2JZ which powers the mk4 Supra. Better than the 7M in almost every way, even more so since it's from Japan (i.e. no emissions controls): MAP sensor (no restrictive AFM), all metal gaskets, bulletproof bottom end, coil-on-plug ignition, better intake piping, and of course twin turbos. Ceramic turbines on the turbos allow them to spool up almost instantaneously. Stock boost is 8.5 psi, and the engine is rated at 280 hp from the factory, with many putting out 4-500 hp reliably on stock internals.If you're going to do a 1JZ swap, please, please don't do it like I'm doing it. The easiest way is to buy a 5-speed JZA70 (1JZ Supra) front clip and swap everything over. By various bizarre twists and turns of fate, I've acquired an automatic Chaser 1JZ, and the engine by itself at that. You can tell because the sump is placed at the front of the block in order to clear the Chaser front crossmember. I'll need to source a JZA70 sump and oil pan just to get it to fit.Fortunately the engine did include the full wiring harness and also the ignitor and MAP sensor, two parts that could have been expensive to find elsewhere.Cylinder head design by Yamaha. The engine is oversquare (longer bore than stroke), so it revs quickly and smoothly. Estimated max rpm on factory internals (don't try this at home, kids) is somewhere around 8500-9000 rpm. But the engine is redlined at 7K. I have to source a flywheel anyway in order to bolt up my 5-speed, and I'm thinking about a lightweight JUN unit.First thing I did after returning home with the engine was to liberate it from its slushbox, not a terribly difficult task.It's missing a spark plug cover (an easy find), but in the meantime you can see the coils in the spark plug valley.Interesting tidbit: This engine came with traction control from the factory, as evidenced by the extra butterfly in the throttle body and its accompanying servo. This will be disabled or swapped out for a non-TRC throttle body.The turbos with the heat shield removed. They're mirrored, with the hot sides facing one another and exiting into a common y-pipe. All in all a fairly restrictive setup, but the turbos are commonly upgraded to flow better, and nothing can't be ported :o) At least they're parallel and not sequential, with all that associated mess of vacuum piping and manifold trickery. Everything is very simple.The engine is much cleaner than it looks, with about 35K on the clock. Turned over quite easily (though not TOO easily, yes, we do have compression) and it will clean up even better with some judiciously applied degreaser. There's a little aluminum corrosion here and there but I can take care of that. I hope to have this project done by Christmas, but we'll see. The list of parts to get is daunting, but doable.More details to come. Stay tuned.* * * * * *10/6/03: These are really "before" and "after" pictures. There was a third-party photographer for "during" pictures, so those are yet to come.Pulled the engine out on Saturday. The whole process was remarkably easy, and was greatly aided by the presence of the load leveler on the engine hoist. Seeing as how I was pulling the engine and tranny together (really the only way to do it without killing oneself), the leveler was essential to get the powerplant to follow the path of the tranny tunnel and up and over the front crossbeam as I pulled it out. I went from the first image on this page to: in about 6 hours total. After the pull and separating the engine from the tranny (a snap with the engine out), and removing the flywheel, a task orders of magnitude easier than pulling the flywheel on an RX-7 (don't ask), the engine sat quite happily on its stand awaiting disassembly:The funny thing is without the weight of the engine on the front suspension, it sits about as high now as it did before I put the Eibachs on. Heh.Here's a lovely shot of the engine hoist and the much-needed load leveler. My Datsun 240Z is sitting in the garage.
