My Lexus Isupra Conversion

[gsportcars]

As some on here will already know I have started on my Supra TT engine conversion. I will be posting up pics here and also prices so people can see for themselves the cost of doing a project like this.

To start I bought a UK spec 2JZ-GTE engine from a breakers yard over here in NI. The engine cost me £1000. This included alternator, starter motor and power steering pump. Unfortunately the engine was already stripped of it's turbos and its fuel rail and injectors . I was told that the engine had covered only 47,000 miles but I take this with a pinch of salt.

The Getrag V160 6 speed supra gearbox was a different story. I searched the globe...literally...for one of these gearboxes. There was one on US eBay going for 3000 US dollars but the seller refused to ship it to here. I had several people looking in Japan and I was also asking on Australian forums. Eventually I found a guy on www.mkivsupra.net who had a box sitting. He was going to convert his auto supra to a manual but after a little persuasion he decided he could use the money for other mods so he sold me the box. I paid £1350 for the box with shifter, flywheel and all nuts and bolts. Add on the £150 for delivery to NI and the gearbox cost me a total of £1500 :o

Next up was engine mounts! What a nightmare I have had trying to get engine mounts. After a bit of research I found that the mounts from a GS300 fit the 2JZ into the IS perfecty. Problem was that I had also heard otherwise. I know that Matt tried them and they didn't work, from his original thread on the monster. I decided to look into this a bit more. The origin of this claim was from Ray Hall in Australia.

For those who haven't heard of Ray Hall turbocharging, he is a very well known and respected person in the tuning community. His work spans the globe covering hundreds of thousands of vehicles and also marine engines. He is the designer and founder of Autronic ECU's. I am currently running one of his Autronic SM4 ECU's in the car.

When Ray was contacted by Mark from MADevelopments (Our Autronic supplier) to get some info on doing the conversion, Ray said to use 2 inlet mounts from the GS300. This prompted me to search for any GS300's in breakers yards. In the end I actually ordered 3 sets of engine mounts from different breakers at different times. The reason for this is that on the three seperate occasions the mounts were sent to me by Parcelforce. On all three occasions the deliveries were lost in transit by Parcelforce . I did get my money refunded by all three breakers but it just goes to show how unreliable Parcelforce are.

I was never quite sure about the term "inlet" mounts, that Ray had mentioned so I emailed him again to clarify this. He did actually mean that I needed 2 of the same brackets from the passenger side/ inlet side of the car. These needed to be spaced out 6mm from the block on either side. I contacted Toyota and picked up the parts for £130 inc VAT for both. As soon as I had them I test fitted them and they do the job 100%. To add to this they place the engine as far back and as low as it will go which should aid the handling of the car no end.

Seeing as I had no turbos, fuel rail or injectors I went searching again. I know that when I mention US eBay while talking about this ther will be some people who will be cringing and saying "those parts are :yack: " I don't care because at the price I paid for the parts I can easily forgive any slight drop in quality.

I sourced an XS power T04 single turbo with a stainless polished manifold and also an external 50mm wastegate with all gaskets for....wait for it.....£450 delivered!!!!!!!

When the items arrived I was expecting below average quality but everything is so well made. You can clearly see that a lot of time has been spent on the manifold and I cannot find any fault with any of the other items. The turbo is capable of running over 500bhp too!!!!

Another kit I found was the fuel rail and injectors. This is a custom fuel rail with a choice of injectors. I selected a set of 960cc black Delphi injectors. This kit cost £470 delivered!!!!!

Although these parts may or may not be a long term solution they will get me on the road initially :D

Here are a few pics of the work that has been done so far. Some are with a proper camera and some are with my camera phone so the quality and size may vary.

This is the standard 1G-FE engine coming out of the car

The standard Getrag J160 6 speed IS200 gearbox

The empty IS200 engine bay

The empty transmission tunnel

2JZ-GTE vs 1G-FE battle for position in my garage

First test fit of the 2JZ engine. still hanging on the crane. This was simply to get an idea of the amount of room the engine would take up

This is the first proper test fit when I recieved the GS300 mounts. The engine sits perfectly :D

The GS300 engine bracket is too thick to allow the stad from the rubber mount to come through. I am getting the brackets machined down so that I can get the nut onto the stud.

I do not have any pics of the turbo, manifold fuel rail yet but I will get some and post them soon with more progress :D :D :D

[Ellz]

Looks good mate what kinda power you aiming for ?????

[DAZA_W]

this sounds like monster part deux will love yo see this come together what about suspension stuff like that was mat not having probs with things twisting because of the power

[legendswraith]

this sounds like monster part deux will love yo see this come together what about suspension stuff like that was mat not having probs with things twisting because of the power

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2-TOYOTA-TU...sspagenameZWD4V

might be of interest this bloke has 2 getrags but a list of bits too

[Monster-Mat]

i know you have said not to say anything regards the xs power stuff....but

id suggest you get the manifol;d cleaned up proper, ive heard several storys of stray welding wire inside the manifolds coming loose and killing turbos, also the turbos may look good but by all accounts the bearings are made of cheese

drop me a pm....may have an alternative idea if you are interetsed

[derekyau]

... these topics are amazing to read. Wish I had the technical knowledge, as well as the money to do stuff like this!

Good luck with it.

Would be very cool to see the Monster's little brother (or whatever).

D.

[gsportcars]

Looks good mate what kinda power you aiming for ?????

With this turbo I will be aiming for 500bhp++++ The only thing I need that I don't have to achieve that is an in-line fuel pump to compliment the uprated walbro unit in the tank. Will be getting that sorted soon.

this sounds like monster part deux will love yo see this come together what about suspension stuff like that was mat not having probs with things twisting because of the power

Thanks Daz. I wouldn't really compare my car to the monster just yet as mats car is on a different level to what I will have initially but thanks anyway. I haven't heard of any chassis twisting but I am sure it is possible. I have the TTE ARB's and a set of Teins too. I also have a cusco strut brace but I will see how things go. The other option is to fit the rear diff from the IS300 as it has a longer ratio for higher top end and better drivability. Prob stronger too.

this sounds like monster part deux will love yo see this come together what about suspension stuff like that was mat not having probs with things twisting because of the power

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2-TOYOTA-TU...sspagenameZWD4V

might be of interest this bloke has 2 getrags but a list of bits too

Thats a good find there. He has some very high specced engines :o Bit much for me at the minute

i know you have said not to say anything regards the xs power stuff....but

id suggest you get the manifol;d cleaned up proper, ive heard several storys of stray welding wire inside the manifolds coming loose and killing turbos, also the turbos may look good but by all accounts the bearings are made of cheese

drop me a pm....may have an alternative idea if you are interetsed

Yeah I will be getting the manifold checked over for sure. I have heard mixed reports about the turbos though. I know 2 people who have turbo'd civic's over here both using XS power turbos. One says his bearings are gone after very little miles and the other one has not seen a hint of a prob with his.

I have no problem with people passing comments about anything at all, infact I'd rather people speak their mind. I simply brought the point up to state the fact that I know about the less than 100% reputation but I am gonna see how it goes. If it goes bad then at least I learned the lesson and only cost myself hundreds instead of thousands

I will PM you shortly ;)

... these topics are amazing to read. Wish I had the technical knowledge, as well as the money to do stuff like this!

Good luck with it.

Would be very cool to see the Monster's little brother (or whatever).

D.

I am no technical wizard by any means. I simply learn as I go. I removed my standard gearbox followed by my engine on my own while waiting for my brother to give me a hand. I just kept taking a bolt off here and there while waiting on him and before I knew I had it out I was upside down at the time too

I am also not flush with the cash at the minute either I need to sell my old turbo system to really get this moving. Thats why I am posting all the prices/costs etc so people can see what kind of a budget you need....kinda :duh:

I thought the name ISupra would suit nicely for this car :winky:

[legendswraith]

try using ejector pumps instead of an inline unit no moving parts and alot lighter

[Monster-Mat]

you will be fine with the in tank pump on its own

[Rob]

Mat what GS mounts did u try to use?? it just seems a bit strange that the mounts appear to fit here but yours didnt

[aido]

This is great stuff mate, now that Mat is detuning the Monster to make it more suitable for drifting purposes your car could be the fastest IS in Europe! Also it will sound better, a friend of mine who is in to his Ferrari's and Porsches says that the 2JZ-GTE sounds amazing, he's currently got an M3 and says he wished it sounded like my car!

It's impressive stuff anyway you look at it!

As for the flex, TDI made some adjustments as they noticed that the back of the IS was crabbing and they made up some new joints which are much stronger than stock, from what I remember Mat's car nearly ripped the stock ones to shreds!

To be honest you're doing a great job pushing the boundarys, first of all by doing your own turbo conversion and now with this work!

Seems like a long time ago the car belonged to Steve - I thought it was impressive then, you're just taking it to another level fella!

[SteveAudioX]

Wow, Gavin... It seems like a great project to take on.

It would be great to see it up and running.

[gsportcars]

Cheers Aido, I might have to look into that.

Steve, it will hopefully be up and running sooner rather than later. It always helps to have a good basis to work from when doing a project like this :winky:

[RoadRash]

Seems a new, serious project is going on. B)

What about the transmission mounts?

Do they work with the IS200 chassis?

Would the length of the cardan axle be long enough for the new tranny?

Just meaning if the new transmission fits in the same position as the old one.

Congrats to that amazing project,

Mike

[gsportcars]

As for the tranny....

The prop shaft needs shortened as does the gear shift rod and gearshift bracket as the shifter sits about 30mm too far towards the rear of the car.

The gearbox cross member need modified or a new one made (fairly simple job)

Other than that it is pretty much straight in;-)

[aido]

Here we go Gavin, this is the thread that TDI did about the uprated mounts that were used on the Monster:

http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/ind...0&hl=mounts

[gsportcars]

I will have a little look at my....err.... rear end leter and see what is involved. Thanks again Aido!

[LexusIS200Sam]

fairplay mate, them pictures make it look so easy at the start though

[Mr Singh]

Very cool.

Its great that you are documenting this on the forum showing everyone its progress.

[gsportcars]

Another little update for you guys :)

I got the GS300 aluminium mounts/brackets machined down so I can now get the nut onto the stud on the rubber mount. see the difference in the pic below to one in the first post

I also test fitted the Getrag 6 speed to measure things up. It seem the box sits an extra 15mm further back than I originally thought. I will have to shorten the shifter rod and bracket by 55mm instead of 30mm. This is a good thing as it means everything is sitting that little bit further back whic always helps with handling :D

Here is a pic of the box mated to the engine for the test fit.

While under there I also took the chance to measure up for the modified prop shaft. The pic below shows the standard IS200 prop. It uses a spline to fit into the standard gearbox. The pic below that shows the back end of the new gearbox. See that it uses a 4 bolt flange. I will be taking the standard IS prop to an engineering firm who will cut off the spline and fit a flange to fit the supra box. It will obviously be adjust to the correct length and then re-balanced so I don't get any annoying vibration from the prop spinning

Here is a pic of the new polished manifold. It is just sort of hanging on the manifold studs in the pic and not bolted up. Just to give an idea of the position. Although the manifold is polished, I will be heat wrapping the whole thing as well as the exhaust.

These two pics are just me holding the turbo inplace over the manifold. Again just to get an idea of the positioning etc

My sump is currently away getting modified as is the gearbox cross member.

I found that the supra gearbox cross member nearfitted perfectly. It was 15mm too wide. I have got the outer holes opened up about 7.5mm each in the way to get the bolt into the IS chassis. I will post pics of these part when I get them back.

Thanks Am. I was gonna wait but as I said a little persuasion and I'm telling everything

Sorry about the shakey pics too guys. I had to switch the camera to night vision and it is a bit sensitive like that.

[Adie]

Looking really great Gav. Well done mate :)

[LexusIS200Sam]

Im glued to this build diary :D keep it coming lol.

[Mr Singh]

Thanks Am. I was gonna wait but as I said a little persuasion and I'm telling everything

Good stuff, better that way :)

Maybe you could also note the prices for all the parts required for the build, but maybe thats something you don't want to know yourself

[Dave-Ellen]

Looking good Gavin.

Interesting to see how long it will take you from start to finish (actual hours on the job)

[Bulldog]

(actual hours on the job)

FNNAARR FNAARRR :shutit:

Sounds like its gonna be a top motor m8!!!

as the other have said cannot wait to see the fininshed article B) B)

Will be looking out for future posts with Envy :D :D