I've been lurking around here a bit gleaming snippets of info so thought I'd better tell a little about what I've done to assist some others that may embark on this swap or are part of the way thru it.
I'll start with a little background on me, I'm originally from New Zealand but 2 years ago got sick of the place and moved to Western Aussie. Price of cars over here is shocking compared to home by the way. Around 10k for a reasonable Surf (try 3k at home). So I bought a V8 Statesman, then a house and the Statesman became a little impractical, hunt for reasonably priced Surf began. 2k later and a "dead" one appeared in my shed (ouch got given two dead surfs still registered back home). Well priced up repairing the overheated diesel that was in it and found the cost to be a bit steep (I'm a mechanic so parts and machining only). Did some hunting around and a 1UZ from NZ Car Parts was a reasonable price shipped to Perth. But then a '92 SC400 half cut came up for $1500. When I picked it up I phoned the wife and announced "I've bought you a car" "Is it automatic?" "Yes", Got home with it... "Where's the rest of it?".
So the swap began after stripping the cut. Firstly a friend of mine wanted my rear sump in exchange for a front sump he had. As my Surf is manual and budget limited I made a plate to bolt the R150 gearbox to the 1UZ using the auto bellhousing. Now for a flywheel.. 3SGTE engines are a bit thin on the ground here so down to Japwreck and a rummage thru his bins. Lo and behold a 2002 Camry flywheel fell straight onto the back of my V8 and even takes the HD Hilux clutch. However the same slotting of the bolt holes must be done as per 3SGTE. Next was engine mounts, got lazy here so back to the wreckers bin, 3Y Hilux engine mount brackets with a 30 degree V cut out of them have done the job nicely and even uses the standard Surf chassis and rubber mounts. As I'm not running a body lift I had to make a sump bowl to suit and fit log type exhaust manifolds. I used a V6 4runner hand brake and a large hammer to "massage" the firewall. One V8 went in like it lived there all its life. Cooling it runs a standard Diesel Surf Radiator with "trimmed" SC 400 hoses and '96 Falcon 6cyl heater hoses and a 16 inch thermo fan (wont go over 78 degrees celcius no matter what we try, yes the thermostat is working correctly).
Wiring was easy, using what info is available here I removed 30 redundant wires from the engine loom and hooked up a total of 5 bridging the neutral switch wires. Started first time and fires no trouble codes (I'm using the SC 400 ECU). Exhaust system is 2 1/4 front pipes (tuned length) runing into 2 1/2 single with high flow cat, Sounds like a V6 at idle but above 3000 rpm there isn't any hiding what is under the hood. total time going slow was 80 hours to complete the swap. What problems have I had? I'll tell you after they've occured. She's running around 10l/100km fuel consumption and is one right royal sleeper, looks absolutely bog stock standard which is the whole intention.
So many thanks to Lextreme and the info that is available for us.
By the way the hardest part of the whole swap was bolting the engine in
I'll start with a little background on me, I'm originally from New Zealand but 2 years ago got sick of the place and moved to Western Aussie. Price of cars over here is shocking compared to home by the way. Around 10k for a reasonable Surf (try 3k at home). So I bought a V8 Statesman, then a house and the Statesman became a little impractical, hunt for reasonably priced Surf began. 2k later and a "dead" one appeared in my shed (ouch got given two dead surfs still registered back home). Well priced up repairing the overheated diesel that was in it and found the cost to be a bit steep (I'm a mechanic so parts and machining only). Did some hunting around and a 1UZ from NZ Car Parts was a reasonable price shipped to Perth. But then a '92 SC400 half cut came up for $1500. When I picked it up I phoned the wife and announced "I've bought you a car" "Is it automatic?" "Yes", Got home with it... "Where's the rest of it?".
So the swap began after stripping the cut. Firstly a friend of mine wanted my rear sump in exchange for a front sump he had. As my Surf is manual and budget limited I made a plate to bolt the R150 gearbox to the 1UZ using the auto bellhousing. Now for a flywheel.. 3SGTE engines are a bit thin on the ground here so down to Japwreck and a rummage thru his bins. Lo and behold a 2002 Camry flywheel fell straight onto the back of my V8 and even takes the HD Hilux clutch. However the same slotting of the bolt holes must be done as per 3SGTE. Next was engine mounts, got lazy here so back to the wreckers bin, 3Y Hilux engine mount brackets with a 30 degree V cut out of them have done the job nicely and even uses the standard Surf chassis and rubber mounts. As I'm not running a body lift I had to make a sump bowl to suit and fit log type exhaust manifolds. I used a V6 4runner hand brake and a large hammer to "massage" the firewall. One V8 went in like it lived there all its life. Cooling it runs a standard Diesel Surf Radiator with "trimmed" SC 400 hoses and '96 Falcon 6cyl heater hoses and a 16 inch thermo fan (wont go over 78 degrees celcius no matter what we try, yes the thermostat is working correctly).
Wiring was easy, using what info is available here I removed 30 redundant wires from the engine loom and hooked up a total of 5 bridging the neutral switch wires. Started first time and fires no trouble codes (I'm using the SC 400 ECU). Exhaust system is 2 1/4 front pipes (tuned length) runing into 2 1/2 single with high flow cat, Sounds like a V6 at idle but above 3000 rpm there isn't any hiding what is under the hood. total time going slow was 80 hours to complete the swap. What problems have I had? I'll tell you after they've occured. She's running around 10l/100km fuel consumption and is one right royal sleeper, looks absolutely bog stock standard which is the whole intention.
So many thanks to Lextreme and the info that is available for us.
By the way the hardest part of the whole swap was bolting the engine in
