You will need an electric fan since the VVTIs don't have a mechanical fan. I have the fans triggered by a temperature switch that is threaded into the bottom of the radiator. Fans are on relays. One relay for each fan on initial start up. There is a NTC thermistor wired inline to limit the start up current. Problem is that with the NTC thermistor the voltage is limited to about 10v. I have a 3rd relay on a 10sec timer to supply full voltage to the fans.

This fan combination is what I am using. I had to trim about a quarter inch from each side to get it to fit into the Griffen radiator. Not sure what mods would be needed for a stock radiator.

 

Getting the gage cluster to work.

Water temp sensor.
Stock sensor threads in to the location next to the stock 2JZ ECU water temp sensor.

Oil press sender.
Use something like this. Or an oil relocation kit. Stock oil filter location sucks for the MKII. It is right above the front cross member.

Tach adaptor
Bypassing the resistor. I left the resistor in incase it didn't work. It works well. Only thing is that under 1Krpm it is slow to drop. I think it is the gage. Before I put it in I tried to make sure the needle would sweep smoothly and the last bit of travel it was slow coming down to 0. Maybe because it is 40 years old, or damn near that. Comparing with the OBD2 readings the Tack is anywhere from ~100 to ~250 rpm low. Mine likes to stay at ~3000 rpm for some reason and can be as much at 300 or 400 rpm off at that point. Good enough in my book. It did this with the resistor bypassed and the signal booster.

I used this tach signal booster off of ebay for 6 months and no problems. Splicing and wiring makes it more difficult that the resistor mod method.

Had the MSD hooked up for some bench testing with some small gage leads. Burnt the power lead. Thought no big deal since the actual wiring will handle the current. I was correct. The wire handled the current but the MSD unit burned up in about 5 seconds. Luckily it was so quick and not while driving. YMMV. There is absolutely no reason to use the MSD for a conversion like mine.

 

A/C compressors will vary by year and all may not work with my method. The best method to connect the hose ends together is to keep the new engine compressor side connections and the stock ends that connect under the condenser. With both of then you will want to cut the ferrules off of the ends. Get new line as needed, size #8 and #10 in my case. Cut hose to length and crimp new ferrules on the the hose, either yourself or take to a shop after you mark the position of the ends.
(done on the stock side in my situation)

Got the A/C adaptors for the compressor. They are a generic adaptor for a LS swap using a denso compressor (LS Swap A/C Compressor adapter fittings for Denso 10S17F & 10S20F) There are different versions. The one I got has the o-ring in a groove. Fits snugly and holds pressure.

A/C system works. Big take aways on this:
Had to buy a crimper for the fittings.
Top front #8 fitting off of compressor is a 135 degree. This goes to the High pressure tap then to stock end fitting at core support.
Lower rear #10 fitting is a 90 degree adapter with a 45 degree bend to stock end fitting at core support. Replaced hard line with new end fittings to put the low side tap in front of the condenser.

High Side off of compressor.

Low Side off of compressor

 

Stock ECU notes.

Initially used the stock '03GS300 ECU that came with the donor car. I had the immobilizer deleted. After putting it in the car and running it the MIL came on. Related to the EVAP system. Spoke with the guy who modified the ECU and he gave me some 2JZ ECUs that are better to modify and can remove the soft codes. Sent him an 02 IS300 ECU to modify and the EVAP codes no longer come up. Have an P0155 code for the O2 heater. This may be the cause of my rich condition. This was masked before because of the EVAP codes. *Update: Put in new O2 sensor and code is cleared. It is easier to remove the exhaust header and change out the O2 sensor than it it is to change the sensor on the car. Tail pipe is still indicating rich. I haven't found where the OBD2 AFRs are at to see if they are indicating rich or not.

Using the stock ECU with out the stock automatic transmission will require an ATEMU that you can get from the same guy and wire into the system. This will take away any chance at cruise control as the SPD wire is cut to the ECU.

Location of the ECU:
This is the sucky part of the whole thing. It is located in the engine bay in the GS300. The ECU is physically bigger than the sock 83 ECU and will not mount in the stock location without some modification of that area. The options for harness extensions online are very limited for the VVTI variant, not very long and expensive.
In the pic you can see how cramped it is in the area next to the fuse box. That is all the further the stock engine harness will allow the ECU to be moved. It does fit but I had to do some inventive modifying and mounting of the box. The black box is the stock GS300 cut down. You will need to shorten/lengthen wires to get them to look nice.

Benefit of Stock ECU at this time is full use of the VVTI. Currently be best the aftermarket ECUs can do is have an RPM based VVTI that is not dependent on engine load. More of an on/off at a certain RPM. Since I don't have an aftermarket ECU I cannot attest to the drivability/functionality.

This is the mess I started with.

TL/DR: Try to use an ECU with the following S/N 89666-30130 , -30131, -30132 , -30230 , -30231. Refer to the part where this is a story of my experience and not to take my word as a definitive answer for your project. Do research to see if these will work for you. Some S/Ns are nonVVTI some are.
ECU modified by:

PageTitle

MetaDescription

www.drive2.com

Cost:
$50 shipping to him-$150 to modify-$50 return shipping.

 

For now the engine is running well and is a great swap for me.
Cons of the swap.
Oil filter location directly above the front crossmember sucks.
Cannot separate transmission from engine with out pulling the engine and transmission out of the car. So clutch changes will be fun. Starters can be changed with engine in place but I cannot remove the starter bolts completely out of the bellhousing.
I have not hooked up the A/C compressor yet. That is my next project.

 

You can remove trans while in car. Remove fan,upper rad hose , remover engine mount bolts to frame and slide forward and tilt as needed. A few extra steps but better than taking engine out. Done several times with
w58 then went r154 that is easier. Starter bolt you can add plug access hole for starter removal only.
Your car looks great.

 

Yeah on my 2JZGT you can remove the transmission (R154) but need to loosen the engine mounts and tilt the engine all the way back to get clearance. This is with a OS Giken twin plate too so you need to be able to separate the transmission and move it directly back off the engine to clear the clutch that is mounted to the flywheel (instead of the standard pull type clutch that you install into the bellhousing of the transmission and bolt to the flywheel through the inspection covers after the transmission is installed).

For the oil filter location, I have an aftermarket oil cooler with just a sandwich plate instead of the filter elbow, so the filter is above the crossmember but horizontally mounted perpendicular to the block. I do the oil change cold so the filter actually drains out all the way - no mess!

 

Thanks for the transmission removal alternatives. Not sure if I had the clearance with just the rear end up in the air. Might try that next time.

 

Race Ramps

 

At the risk of angering the mods, here's my contribution to the parts list:

Pardon Our Interruption...

 

You will want to get the CamBolt gasket as well.
This is what I got.
Cam gear seal set
No mods were angered in the making of this message. De we even have mods on this forum?

 

I bought the driftmotion one myself and, surprised by the availability across the ENTIRE INTERNET of one other option on ebay, I made that listing.

It's proven to be pretty popular.

 

Ah. I got ya. I should have scrolled down to the seller. Should also include the bolt gasket. Mine was toast when I took it off.

 

I'd love to package the cam seal together but I haven't been able to source them in bulk. I'll look into the bolt seal.
Most of these are going to repairs with a few folks obviously doing 2J and 1UZ swap and build stuff.

 

The 2jz starter I pulled the other day had just bolts, can't you just put them in backwards when you do the initial install, and have the nut on the side facing the firewall?

Also, if you really don't want an electric fan (but you should, so much better, especially on an NA), you can just use the parts intended for the mk4 Supra. Both the gte and ge had a clutch fan.

Now yonking a jz out of an Aristo without taking the autotragic with it..... good luck.

 

You do not need a tach adapter. This is what I did on my 1jz vvti

7MGTE swap Tach modfication

Some of you are lucky and have had no issues with your MSD-8620 to convert your tach signal. For the rest of us who have had multiple failures, fires, and experienced obnoxiously loud ticking, here are the instructions to do away with the box full of witchcraft. A couple of notes before we get...

www.celicasupra.com

 

@yota_fanatic Thank you for the post. This would be the best case and is easier than doing all the damn wiring spicing and routing.
I have a modified tach that I can put in just haven't needed to take the dash out. I had modified it so long ago that I forgot I did it and didn't find it until about a month ago while looking for something else.

 

Great looking car, love the color and pinstripping. I just got a 82 p-type, paints faded but no rust.

 

Looking nice. A good buff will get the oxidation off. My hood and fenders were just like yours and after a few hours with a drill dual action buffer it shined up pretty nice.
Little rust was the reason I got this one. Still put $4k in body and paint work into it. Swapped the sun roof for a hard top.

 

Updated the ECU post.

17x8.5 unknown offset 245/40

 

I like Funkycheese's idea of using a sandwich plate on the motor instead of an adapter with elbows. For one thing, the adapter fittings are too close together to allow the use of 2 elbows at the same time anyway. On my 6M, I used an adapter with straight fittings and had custom hoses made to connect to it at approximately 45 degrees instead. I mounted my oil filter behind the front bumper on the passenger side vertically which allows me to fill it before installing it. No mess removing it either. Been that way for decades. I did find that the only seal that worked well on even the Earl's adapter was one from an actual oil filter after trying virtually every other possibility on the planet and eventually cracking my first adapter trying to get it tight enough to not leak.
Using a sandwich plate should be much easier, but you'll still need to have custom hoses made to mount your filter in a better location. I'm sure you can easily make this work.
As far as the tach mods go and the MSD shitbox... I helped someone get the tach working correctly on a 2J swap a few years ago by making a small cheap box myself and I have a couple of sets of the parts used as well as small boxes they'll easily fit in. Yours for free. It's worked great for years without any problems. I first tried the resistor mod but it didn't always work and when it did, sometimes the tach response was not what was expected. My theory is that the resistor mod just doesn't create enough voltage swing from the 2J square wave for the tach to always register it (correctly). The voltage swing created by the inductive kickback from the stock coil negative is much greater than the square wave boost with the resistor mod. I think that's why sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Our old style tach as well as just about any other older tach's expect the wild swings created by older style ignitions which by nature varied significantly from vehicle to vehicle, but were always significant enough to trigger properly.
Virtually all of MSD's crap sucks as bad as their customer support. They're big on drag cars as those folks are used to hauling their cars home on a trailer anyway. It's not such a big deal when things fail for them. But on street cars, parts failing regularly, especially right after the warranty runs out is bad, really bad. Parts thats burst into flames when they fail are dangerous beyond description and MSD should stop selling them.

 

I definitely want to have the oil filter in a different location. Just finding the correct fittings and making up the lines.
The resistor delete is working fine now. Works pretty much the same as the signal booster I had in there previously. Time will tell.
Thanks for the words of wisdom.
Also, the mud flap got fixed.

 

Got my A/C working. Not sure if it is charged all the way since I ran out of bottles of 134A, A/C is weak and the low side pressure will not go below 50psi when it should be in the 20psi range.
Updated the thread.

 

Had a bad/weak A/C compressor. Replaced with new Denso unit and all is well with the world.
A/C with the dual radiator fans running pulls down the idle rpms quite a bit and the ECU is only slightly compensating. I can't seem to find the wire to the ECU to increase the throttle/idle control. I have repurposed a VSV to act for this purpose and it mostly works. Think I need a larger diameter opening to make it work better but at some point I am fighting the ECU which wants the idle at around 700. Problem is the car shakes at 700 when under the A/C and radiator fan load.

 

Isn't it on the AC unit itself? The connector to the JZ ac units has 4 wires. 2 are for some kind of diagnostics as I recall and can be ignored, one is the switch, though it triggers different? And the 4th is for the idle up isn't it? Its all fuzzy, been awhile since I looked at the diagrams.

 

There is an MPX signal from the body ecu that controls when the AC compressor comes on by sending a signal to the ECU and then the ECU triggers the AC compressor through the ACMG signal. The only thing is that the MPX signal can mean a lot of different things. At least a lot of the body ECU messages goes to the ECU through the MPX + and MPX -. Not sure what supplying it with +12 would do or if it even is supposed to have +12. ECU is a little too smart for me to trick.
If you do come across something please let me know.

 

@Deanfun what did we do here....