American V8 Swaps into Lexus?

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v8junkie

New Member
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12
Location
East Bay, Cali
Wanted to know if anyone makes kits for swapping Chev or Ford V8's into Mid-90's lexus, like SC 400's. I've seen many such swaps done on Mercedes, Volvo and other European cars.

My ideal: Swapping a new Chev LS1 motor into an SC 400.
 
Man,

I would love to put in the Ford 5.4 liter with Cobra 4.6L heads into a SC400 and turbo it. I talked to Chris N. yestersday. He was tuning a 2003 Cobra and the complete stock motor Cobra made 750 rwhp. He stated he will send me the dyno sheet soon. The car was pumping 20 psi with TEC3 computer.

Chris also stated that the 750 rwhp Cobra was faster than his 750 rwhp Supra. He is not too happy about it. I would love to do a stroker on the 5.4 to 6.0 and add the DOHC along with some FI. However, that is out of my budget.
 
hafftrak said:
Why would you ruin a perfectly good car by putting a chevy engine in it? Seriously, if you want a chevy engine, buy a camaro.
Wow I can't believe the ignorance flowing out of this forum. I expected a few useless comments, but not this much.

You asked the question, so I'll tell you why.
Because you get the best of both worlds without having to spend a ridiculous ammount of money on a motor. You get the refinement, fit, finish, handling of an import luxury vehicle with the brute power of American V8's. Facts are facts and until very recently, the WEAKEST link in import cars (especially Japanese) has always been the powerplant. They required a ton of mods to make decent power and never had the broad powerband or low-end thrust that an American V8 could provide.

To the other ignorant comments about pushrods: The architechture may be old, but everything else about a motor like an LS1 or LS2 is state of the art. Fact is they can accomplish 400hp and 400lb of tq in bone stock form, with LESS THAN HALF of the moving parts of a 32v 4 cam engine. That means less drag, less weight, less maintainance costs, etc.

Ruining it? Hardly. If anything, it makes it the car it always should have been. You people who are stuck in your brand-name little bubbles have no vision. Some of the best cars ever were created this way.
 
hey v8 junkie

i work on diff cars every single day

i basically wire up 3 or 4 engines per week ranging from
*** import engines ford quad cam v8s
chev or holden v8s

every forum on the net will always be biased to a certain extent

but i know what u mean

i cant be biased because i wont get much work and i wont make any money

but anyway im goin to be in vagas foir the sema car show this year

and i am tryin to organise to visit some workshops

see what its like working in usa for a yr or so

do u know any that do conversions

i speciaqlise in auto electrical work on efi systems import engines
full rewire of old cars etc

i dont do starter motor or alternator repairs

if u could name afew places not really worried about location as long as its somewhere west of vagas

thanks
 
V8Junkie,

Got it in one!

Too many people are interested in the HP an engine puts out and forget that Torque gives accelaration and HP give top speed.

I agree there's no substitute for cubic inches and whilst I consider an LS1 old tech that came from the Jurasic period I would never say TRex had no grunt!

It's the power under the curve that counts. Why if Forced Induction popular on the UZ? Because we can't get bulk grunt out of a short stroke multi valve engine.

That said I wouldn't swap my UZ for an LS1 ever! I just love the way it revs and as QCA says why have one cam when you can have four?

Besides everyone has a pushrod V8 in their life. I needed to be different.
 
Ignorance? I am so sick of hearing 'just drop a chebby tree-fiddy in 'er'. Every car i have owned, some dumb redneck thought it would be the coolest if it had a chevy 350. Great, 400hp/400lb-ft. And it only took them 50 years to get it there. People buy Japanese vehicles more for reliability, not for power. Let's see how well that chevy is running 200,000 miles from now. Besides that, why would you come on to a Lexus V8 forum and ask how to drop a tree-fiddy in er? That would be like going to a camaro forum and ask how to swap in a Honda engine. Don't cry ignorance to me. I am tired of hearing all the import-bashing by the domestic crowd.

edit: I just re-read my post, and it came off a lot more rude than i had intended. I'm not stuck in my brand-name 'bubble'. I currently am restoring a '68 Firebird, and that car WILL have a chebby tree-fiddy. I am not against domestic vehicles, just the attitude that the only way to make an import worthy is to put a domestic engine in it.
 
Im not a redneck nor an import basher. I drive a Civic on a daily basis and it's a great car. I dont care about where a car is from. All I care about is the bottom line.

Here is the bottom line: There is no way to get a 100% brand new, reliable, daily driveable, naturally aspirated 400hp & 400lbTq Lexus V8 for $6000 or so. Even if it was available, a Toyota crate motor like that would cost $15-20K. To me, it just seems stupid to spend that much for a motor that's going into a car that's going to cost less than half that much. Using detroit crate V8's has proven to be a great way to get reliable, daily driven muscle into various older imports like Mercedes, Volvos, Miatas, and even Porsches.

I would love to have a silky 32V 4cam VVT motor....but it just doesnt seem likely. If anyone has another 300-400 hp/tq, daily driveable, naturally aspirated solution that can be done for $6000 or so please let me know.
 
V8,

I love American V8 and i have one. As for price wise, it will take more than 6000 to have a LS1 into a SC400. The cost of a SC400 is less than 6000. I understand the power and tq, but it will not be cheap.

Motor, labor, wiring, computer and drivetrain Wont be cheap...
 
Unless they have beefed it up, should be 300hp and 320lbft. Dont know costs of crate-drivetrain (tuned for 5sp auto, not 4sp), but i bet its high. That and its not old enough for JDM swaps.
 
Yup, I just looked on car-part.com. Found a couple for a little over 6 grand, and one for $3500. That probably doesn't even include ECU, harness, etc... Great engine, but holy crap $$$$$$$$!
 
Hmmm... looked at it again, and it actually has 28k KM's. (A little over 17k miles!) Price is $3500CAD, $2916.67USD. I dunno, there must be something wrong with it for that price!
 
Ya, buying wrecker engines is always tricky. Have to have a good mechanic do thorough inspection. That's why I was looking toward the crate engines.
 


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