twotone's 1UZ Swap Progress Thread!

[nick83]

Twotone, nice write up and photos. Sure hope the extra 20hp will make a difference(LOL). Hope when you finish   we don't have to mask up the Celica's and ourselves when you have the next "Gathering of Celica's".

[twotone_ra64]

Twotone, nice write up and photos. Sure hope the extra 20hp 151hp will make a difference(LOL). Hope when you finish   we don't have to mask up the Celica's and ourselves when you have the next "Gathering of Celica's".

Thanks! You bet it will make a difference. ;-) hoping to hold BACC #10 before the end of this year...

[Railanet]

Twotone; when I get a chance, I will try to get the measurement from the plenum to the firewall for you. The position of the motor was dictated by several factors. The clearance of the aluminum bottom engine cover to the power steering rack is key to how high the motor sits in the bay. The motor mounts that I used were the ones made by Xcessive. I was worried that the urethane based mounts would not hold up. The motor front to back position was dictated by the position of the shifter to the floor opening which is defined by the bell housing depth. The bell housing I used was the KS Racing bell housing. It is the same depth as as the 1uz factory bell housing. I will be using a similar fork/throw out bearing setup as the factory celica design. I had read about some issues with premature wear issues using the t56 setup that is use in some conversions.
As for the heater valve, if I need to move it to another location, the I will. I pulled all of the electrical, intact, from the donor LS400 so I even have the AC/Heater servos that I may adapt. I am an HVAC Control’s engineer by trade so I should be able to work something out. I have both factory manuals for the celica GTS and the Lexus so I have all of the schematics.
I need to update my web page as I have many other pictures to add. BTW, I have another website you might be interested in, www.rayscelica.com covers both of my GTS’s. I look forward to trading ideas on these projects and some day, maybe, bring one or both of my celica to one of the celica group gatherings.

[twotone_ra64]

Twotone; when I get a chance, I will try to get the measurement from the plenum to the firewall for you.

The position of the motor was dictated by several factors:
1. The clearance of the aluminum bottom engine cover to the power steering rack is key to how high the motor sits in the bay.
2. The motor mounts that I used were the ones made by Xcessive. I was worried that the urethane based mounts would not hold up.
3. The motor front to back position was dictated by the position of the shifter to the floor opening which is defined by the bell housing depth. The bell housing I used was the KS Racing bell housing. It is the same depth as as the 1uz factory bell housing. I will be using a similar fork/throw out bearing setup as the factory celica design. I had read about some issues with premature wear issues using the t56 setup that is use in some conversions.
4. As for the heater valve, if I need to move it to another location, the I will. I pulled all of the electrical, intact, from the donor LS400 so I even have the AC/Heater servos that I may adapt. I am an HVAC Control’s engineer by trade so I should be able to work something out. I have both factory manuals for the celica GTS and the Lexus so I have all of the schematics.

I need to update my web page as I have many other pictures to add. BTW, I have another website you might be interested in, www.rayscelica.com covers both of my GTS’s. I look forward to trading ideas on these projects and some day, maybe, bring one or both of my celica to one of the celica group gatherings.

Thanks! Good to know more about the hardware you're using. I have also have a manual steering rack, so I should be able to get the engine nice n' low. In my case, the XAT Racing adapter plate adds only a mere 3/8" to the entire assembly, which hopefully shouldn't alter the shifter location in the floor opening. Or maybe that's part of my saving grace with the Xcessive mounts; with everything lined up in the positions needed, perhaps it'll work and give me the clearances needed for the heater core pipes.

What's also interesting is that the Xcessive 1UZ mounts are no longer listed or sold ANYWHERE. So they decided to not deal with us constantly getting on 'em on providing the correct mounts, lol.

[twotone_ra64]

Brace yourselves people, it's time for a big update!! Here's part one, thanks to character limits.

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Let's start with where I left off last time. Mounting the battery in the trunk ended up being easier than I thought! I had the fuel tank out for a while, so I ended up being able to scope out a good location for the M10 rivnuts to secure the battery to the floor.



From there, I ran a short 1/0 cable to the RH trunk cabinet for the 150A circuit breaker.



Two of the rivnuts went through the section where the frame rail runs through, and two went through the thinner sheet metal for the trunk floor. Only one of the rivnuts got close to the fuel tank (the one I'm pointing at in the picture), and actually touched it when the fuel tank was mounted up.



To prevent abrasion, I got a sheet of red rubber material from the hardware store and shoved it in between the tank and the rivnut to act as a damper. I also made sure the M10x1.5 bolts weren't too long.



After that, the fuel tank was mounted back up! I'd suggest making sure the tank is mostly empty when you reinstall it, because even with a few gallons in the tank, it gets very heavy and difficult to manipulate.



The ground cable was much simpler; I just used the rear bumper bar as the ground point, and ran the 1/0 cable through the grommet! Don't worry, I put a rubber damper along the edge of the opening to prevent the wire from being cut.





To get the rest of the cable through the car, I ran the cable through a hole in the trunk trim, behind the rear quarter trim, and through a 1/0 firewall grommet in the floor underneath the backseat cushion area. I sealed the firewall grommet to the floorpan with some Toyota 103 FIPG sealant.







This exits underneath the car just in front of the rear wheels by some brake lines on the RH side of the car, so be careful when you drill through the floor so you don't nick any of those lines! I did, and will repair it with a metric flare and brass M10 union.





This can be secured to the chassis rail with some p-clamps after you drill the framerail and add some M6 rivnuts!



Then the whole affair ends up in the right side of the engine bay, where I plan to add my battery distribution post. I decided to put it on this side because of the RH position of the alternator on the 1UZ.



With that out of the way, it's finally time to get to something more exciting; the engine!!



With the engine finally off the stand, I could get to installing a new rear main seal, the flywheel, and clutch. The RMS was fairly easy to do without removing the RMS housing, with a trick I remembered. Carefully drilling two small holes in the metal body of the seal and screwing in two self-tappers allowed me to easily pry the seal out! Then I used the old seal to carefully press the new one in to the same depth.







The flywheel was up next; if you go with the 11lbs chromoly FW in the XAT Racing swap kit, it's basically just a '11-'16 Scion tC flywheel with the bolt holes and center bore reamed out to fit the 1UZ crank. The diameter is bang on for the starter motor too! Don't forget to install the original 1UZ auto flexplate spacer between the crank and FW. The concave side faces the crank, and the flat side faces the FW! Torque that ARP hardware with a 1/2" triple-square socket with red Loctite to 70 ft-lbs.



Use a bellhousing bolt screwed into the hole, and a buddy with a pry bar to keep the FW from rotating as you torque it down!



The included pilot bearing is pressed flush with the outer face of the crank. No need to press it any further!



Then, the friction disc and pressure plate go on with the alignment tool to keep everything centered. 15 ft-lbs and blue Loctite is the ticket for those ARP bolts! That blue Spec Clutches pressure plate goes nicely with my valve covers.



Then it was a simple matter of mating the gearbox to the engine. A little bit of wiggling, and encouragement with the 10 bellhousing bolts (6x M12, 4x M10) got her on real smoothly.



Despite the concerns about mounting position from Railanet, I decided to go ahead with mounting the engine with the Xcessive mount brackets and Energy 3.1108G urethane blocks, and deal with the alignment issues later. It was literally a whole family affair to get the engine into the car; I was controlling the engine hoist, dad was my load leveler, standing on top of the engine, and mom was the spotter.  Thank goodness my parents are enablers.





Here's how the clearances and mounts looked with the engine and transmission bolted up. It was honestly as far back as I could get the engine without hitting the firewall, while still having room behind the engine for heater hoses and everything else! You could potentially go further back, but there's no need unless you want to take a hammer to the firewall.

















The mounts worked well without any hassle. The fore/aft position works fine, and each side is secured with a single bolt like the factory setup. I did end up having to do one side at a time, and pull the engine in the other direction once one side had a bolt in it.

[twotone_ra64]

Continuing with part two:

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Getting the engine in was such an exciting step in the process, that I took a break from working on the car for a week, lol. I just couldn't get over the fact that the V8 finally had a new home!! But the excitement wore off, and it was time to get back to work! Next up, I mounted the Whiteline AE86 swaybar. I know the Godspeed bar is a popular choice here, but I really didn't want to heat or bend the bar in any way. The endlink design on the Whiteline bar thankfully allows you to work with the 1" wider mounting points on the Celica control arms!



The endlink and shackle on the control arm are completely reversible; on the AE86, these go on the inside of the bar, but you can actually put them on the outside. That's what allows them to fit right up!



The check on the swaybar clears the oil pan nicely!



The issue with using this bar is just how close it gets to the frame rails... sigh. That will definitely smack the rail once the suspension compresses, especially since the car is in the air. Although I don't mind notching the frame to allow it to clear, just as long as I get a piece of steel welded back in place to fill the gap.



Next up were the heater lines. Some 5/8" hoses and elbows took care of that. The elbow was a GATES 28467. The rest was cut-to-length GATES 5/8" heater hose. Since I know y'all reading this are visual learners, I made a handy-dandy diagram of how the lines are routed from the firewall, to the heater valve and to the engine.







In this photo, you can see how the stock LS400 brake booster hose fits up with the stock hardline on the firewall! The last little bend on the hose was snipped off to help make a neater 180º turn.



Fuel lines weren't too bad, going with the fully-custom-AN-fitting-and-braided-hose route.



The challenges presented here laid in the fuel return pipe on the rail, and the fuel pulsation dampener on the fuel inlet side. I initially tried to use a Vibrant M10 banjo to -6 AN fitting directly on the fuel pressure regulator, but this setup proved to be too bulky. It did not clear the TPS or a coolant line from the throttle body:



So instead, I took the original fuel return pipe, cut it at the point just after it starts pointing toward the LH side of the car, beveled and de-burred the end of the pipe, and added a Vibrant 5/16" tube to -6 AN compression fitting. I chose this spot since it had a decent amount of length of straight and un-ovaled pipe after the bend.



Then I added a 150º fitting to get it pointed back in the right direction! Of course, using the stock return pipe, I got my throttle body clearance issue solved!





The stock fuel inlet fitting has this larger open volume to allow fuel to flow into the body of the pulsation dampener:



The Vibrant M12 banjos don't have this larger ID to accomodate the FPD, so a quick session on the drill press with a 9/16" (14.3mm) drill bit took care of that!



With new sealing washers installed, we'll see how this holds up!



The last item in this update is the radiator! Yes, I know I already sorted this out earlier on, but after the engine was mounted, I realized I needed to tweak my mounting strategy in order to pull the radiator futher forwards. I had to bend the tabs on the rear side of the radiator support to further tuck the rad under the support. I gained maybe 1/2"? But when clearance is tight, you play the game of fractions of an inch.



There are about 9/64" (3.5mm) worth of washers underneath the new brackets to space it out from the radiator support so as to not scratch anything. Of course, M6 rivnuts were added underneath on existing holes to facilitate mounting. And I got to keep my vibration isolating grommets!



Then it was time to mount up the 9" SPAL fans! Taking a note from ra65gts, I used some pieces of 1/2" wide, 1/16" thick alumimum bars riveted to the edges of the radiator, and used those as my mounting plane to support the fan mounts. I used Derale 13001 mounting kits. Yes, with 4 bars you effectively block 2" of the radiator, but I'm confident the fans will pull enough CFM (with the addition of a 12" SPAL pusher fan, too).



Clears nicely!





From here I'll have to figure out the upper & lower radiator hoses. The upper hose, using a GATES 20194, can be cut to fit and has the correcet geometry to connect the upper hose.



The only issue is that S13 SR20 radiator; the outlet pipe is 1-3/8" OD while the radiator hose ID and water neck OD on the 1UZ is 1-1/2". I'll need some kind of 1/16" thick sleeve with a 1-3/8" ID to fill that 1/8" gap, but I'm not sure where to find one. All of the radiator hose reducers take care of a 1/4" deficit, not 1/8".



I'm still figuring out how I'd like to route the lower radiator hose; I have some 45º and 90º silicone bends, 1-1/2" aluminum pipe, a bead roller, and the leftover piece from the GATES 20914 hose.





...but that is to come!! Thanks for tuning in, and don't forget to check out the latest episodes of the build on YouTube:

Episode 8

Episode 9

[BillyM]

On the motor mount brackets, instead of having them sitting on the far front edge of your poly mounts because they are installed with the slot forward, why not flip the mounts left to right so the slot is further rearward?

--billyM

[nick83]

Putting the implants in, the bandaging, the black and blue marks are part of the procedure but wow how they look when everything is healed. Very nice job and all the photos are neat to see. Looking forward to a Celica get together this summer and can't wait to see all the work you have done in person. Face diapers are just one name for masks LOL.

[patwhac]

I feel terrible for being absent from the forum for soooo long but I finally got a chance to read through your whole 1UZ build thread, and as always your write-ups and wrenching are brilliant! Keep up the good work!!!

[twotone_ra64]

On the motor mount brackets, instead of having them sitting on the far front edge of your poly mounts because they are installed with the slot forward, why not flip the mounts left to right so the slot is further rearward?

--billyM

Hey Billy,

The motor mounts I'm currently running are symmetrical; flipping them won't make a difference. I think they're actually meant for MA61... I did end up getting the correct mounts from Xcessive, which are assymetrical, and will ensure the mounts are correctly centered on the Energy poly blocks when installed in their correct L/R orientation. Those will be going in soon.

Putting the implants in, the bandaging, the black and blue marks are part of the procedure but wow how they look when everything is healed. Very nice job and all the photos are neat to see. Looking forward to a Celica get together this summer and can't wait to see all the work you have done in person. Face diapers are just one name for masks LOL.

Hahah, love it Nick, and thank you! I think we'll hit up the Pre-1985 Kyusha Meeting on June 20th at the Richmond Ferry. Keep your eyes on the Events subforum!

I feel terrible for being absent from the forum for soooo long but I finally got a chance to read through your whole 1UZ build thread, and as always your write-ups and wrenching are brilliant! Keep up the good work!!!

No worries man, I've been a little absent myself and will be updating my latest progress very soon! Wiring has been HECK. Still not done with it too. Thanks a bunch!

[85GTSCOUPE]

Do you have a link to the Xcessive engine mounts? cant find them.

[twotone_ra64]

Do you have a link to the Xcessive engine mounts? cant find them.

Strangely Xcessive doesn't list them, but you can still buy them new from DriftHQ and Xcessive drop ships them.

https://www.drifthq.com/products/xcessive-manufacturing-ra64-chassis-motor-mount-brackets-for-the-1uz-t-ra6x-1uz-mmb?variant=12294296698927

[85GTSCOUPE]

thank you, ordered

[85GTSCOUPE]

Do you have the break down of all the part you used from XAT Racing.

Throw Out Bearing and Fittings: Add TOB and fittings for single disc clutch, Flywheel for Single Disc Clutch: Yes, Lightweight Chromoly (11 lbs), ARP Flywheel Bolts for Single Disc: Yes, Pressure Plate Bolts: Yes, ARP, Clutch Options: Spec Stage 1, Clutch Feed Hose -4 AN: Yes, 48 inches, Clutch Bleeder Line Kit: Yes, 36" hose, Pilot Bearing: No thanks, Meat?: HELL YEAH DOOD MEAT ME

not sure what lengths to buy?

[twotone_ra64]

Do you have the break down of all the part you used from XAT Racing.

Throw Out Bearing and Fittings: Add TOB and fittings for single disc clutch, Flywheel for Single Disc Clutch: Yes, Lightweight Chromoly (11 lbs), ARP Flywheel Bolts for Single Disc: Yes, Pressure Plate Bolts: Yes, ARP, Clutch Options: Spec Stage 1, Clutch Feed Hose -4 AN: Yes, 48 inches, Clutch Bleeder Line Kit: Yes, 36" hose, Pilot Bearing: No thanks, Meat?: HELL YEAH DOOD MEAT ME

not sure what lengths to buy?

I do! Here's the breakdown.

Clutch Options: Spec Stage 1
Meat?: HELL YEAH DOOD MEAT ME
Clutch Feed Hose -4 AN: Yes, 48 inches <-- This is the perfect length for routing from the master cyl, along the firewall, and down through the bellhousing.
Pilot Bearing: ACT
Clutch Bleeder Line Kit: Yes, 16" hose <-- I would recommend the longer option, at least the 24". The 16" bleeder line doesn't run past the inner frame rail, and it will be hard to route away from the exhaust.
ARP Pressure Plate Bolts: Yes
ARP Flywheel Bolts for Single Disc: Yes
Flywheel for Single Disc Clutch: Yes
Lightweight Chromoly (11 lbs)
Throw Out Bearing and Fittings: Add TOB and fittings for single disc clutch

Hope this helps!