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1uz engine swap questions

2K views 3 replies 3 participants last post by  chevydude 
#1 ·
I was wondering if anybody here has personal experience swapping their 7mgte for a 1uz. For a little bit of background I have a 87 MK3 with a 7mgte auto trans. I have a r154 and plan to use that so it can be manual. And an LSD 3.73 rear. I was wondering if anybody can give me a heads up of what I’ll need or some good adapter kits? Ecu management? Things to watch out for? I was also going to see if I could get a pro-charger to work with it. Any help is appreciated, thank you.
 
#2 ·
Look for a 1UZ-FE from an SC400, as that'll have the correct oil pan and such to clear a MKIII/MKIV subframe. There's a variety of kits out there to adapt a UZ block to an R154. The XAT and Xcessive engineering kits both have been used many times and are known to work. A company called Akina Motorsportz makes a bespoke bell housing and clutch kit that avoids the auto bell housing + adapter method done by XAT and Xcessive's kits, but I don't particularly care for having to use the auto flex plate sandwiched between their flywheel and the crankshaft in order to have a starter ring gear. No matter which way you go you're going to spend $1500-2k on all the parts needed to get the UZ and R154 bolted together and working together with a decent clutch.

Engine management, I'd get a decent standalone right off the bat. The EMU Black seems to be a solid choice for features etc but the UZ is very minimally supported on pretty much every standalone you can think of. That will be a significant hurdle to overcome and I'd recommend paying the bigger money up front to a shop that's done UZ swaps and setups on standalones before, and go with their preferred standalone. It would be worth a phone call or email to Sound Performance in Illinois as I think they've done a few EMU Blacks on a 1UZ, and if you bought an EMU package from them I'm sure they'd include a base map and configuration info.

Supercharging the 1UZ is much more established with take-off roots blowers. Elate manufacturing and Bullet cars both offer some SC kits to suit that stuff. Having worked professionally on numerous domestics I really don't care for Procharger (particularly after I had to basically re-engineer their C6 Z06 kit because they used bearings rated for 9000rpm in idler pullies that saw upwards of 25k rpm regularly with a stock LS7's redline) but if you really want a centrifugal I'd recommend a Novi 1000 or Novi 1500, or a used Vortech V1 can be found pretty cheap. I would recommend buying a partial kit from something roughly similar like a 32v 4.6L Mustang or a 350Z and make new brackets to basically match the layout and orientation. I would pay very careful attention to your UZ's crank pulley and I'd strongly consider getting an ATi or similar unit made. If I were going to fuss with a centrifugal on a UZ or JZ, I'd go with an ATi crank damper and run an independent belt drive for the SC alone, preferably cog drive using a timing belt or similar.

It'll be a cool project but it'll get expensive fast. I'd start with finding a suitable SC400 donor car, and swapping that over into your MK3 with the stock ECU and stock auto trans just to get the car sorted out and running like that first. Following that, do the trans conversion and enjoy the 5MT life, then from there consider a standalone and the expense of a FI option from the starting point of a running driving UZ swapped car. Plenty of guys have seen fit to just leave the UZ basically stock with a 5MT behind it and an open exhaust, and just cruise around with the stock ECU and stock NA 1UZ-FE power delivery and immensely enjoy it as a Lexus-reliable cruiser they can drive across the country with no fuss, and even keep cold A/C.
 
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#3 ·
Thanks for all the info! I have a buddy with a 08 gt500 who wants to upgrade is blower, he said he’ll give me his from the 5.4 for 100 bucks. I’m trying to figure out how to make that work currently, also I already have a 92 sc400 motor. It’s on an engine stand in my garage. I’ll be trying to get the engine set up and running good before it even gets in the car. I’ve fully re-freshed the motor. New seals, bearings, new OEM cams, and basically everything else I could find that’s OEM new. basically a brand new motor. Unfortunately I don’t have the harness.

also I’ve decided to go root style. Just easier to get it done properly. Like I said I’d like to hit about 400 wheel.Anything more than that’s gonna get too expensive and not really what I’m looking for. Mainly looking for a fun cruiser that can slide if I need it to. Plus I think the 1UZ sounds great. Plus my roommate is building a Z31 300 ZX with a Nissan VK V8. And we wanna both be around 400-450 (Japanese v8 brothers haha).

again thanks for the info.
 
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