UZX-83 Cressida UZ swap

[CACressida]

I've been in love with the UZ's for a very very long time. My old LS400 proved to me that the 1UZ is just bad ass. So anyway, I got tired of watching peoples UZ Cressidas and decided to feed my need for UZX passion.

Unfortunately, since I spend a lot of time on the road, this build will be slowish. I'll be putting a lot of work into this swap spending a lot of time and luckily, 4U2QUIK lives nearby, against his own will, he'll be supervising and fabricating a UZ Cressida kit.

Anyway, I was really lucky to stumble over this poor UFC20. My favorite model and color combo. Funny thing is, i spent years trying to find this color combo, and here it is. Not the way that I wanted though lol.

The goal is to have a California smog legal 1UZ OBDII Cressida Auto before TORC even May 2011. If this swap turns out as easy as I thought and I finish way early, I might as well throw out the autotragic and swap in a W58.

Luckily for me, both the LS400 and Cressida have the same amount of mileage, so swapping in the LS gauge cluster in the Cressida shouldn't give me mileage difference headache.

Enough of my blabbering and now for some details and pics of the Cressida

1989 MX83 powered by the legendary pos 7M headgasket popper
Riding on IS300 17" rims and lowered with Megan Racing coil over suspension
Torsen limited slip rear differential and held into place with SerialNine solid aluminum differential bushings and soon S9 subframe aluminum bushings
Some JDM Chaser/MarkII strut tower brace
Flowmaster 50 series delta single in dual out muffler

The donor, 97 Lexus LS400. The 4 piston brake calipers off this car will be used to bring the 3600lb Cressida to a dead stop. Most of the wiring that controls the cluster, Lexus Keyless entry, engine immobilizer will be tied into the Cressida's body harness. I think i'll also have the first Cressida fitted with Lexus keys as i'm using all the tumblers and ignition out of the LS400. I'm sure it wouldn't be hard since the LS400 borrowed some of the Cressida's stuff anyway.

 

[Dance_Business]

I'll be watching your progress. Subscribed.

 

[newmon1978]

why not go the stand alone management root

 

[CACressida]

Stand alone is not smog legal. In CA, if you are to legally swap in an engine, everything that has to do with emissions has to go in the vehicle the same way it was installed in the donor. No cold air intakes, must have 3 cats, no modified exhaust manifolds, no modified electronics etc.

I forgot to update this thread, but here you go.

I've ran into a speed bump. I was talking to a referee and was told that since the donor vehicle is an OBDII vehicle, everything thats checked and scanned by the OBDII ECU has to be functional and installed. I'm doing a 5spd M/T swap and the OBDII wont like it so I'll have to do something else. OBDII also checks the fuel pressure in the gas tank, speed sensors etc.

For now, I'll be on a hunt for a 93-94 LS400 ECU and engine harness to to keep the EGR functioning along with the rest of the VSVs and maintain a smog legal swap.

I'm proud to announce that the donor LS400 is very very healthy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_MHER5xREQ

The happiest moment is getting rid of the garbage 7M-GE that Toyota should've never made.

And while an engine is out in any car, don't be lazy, clean the engine bay up.

I'll be removing the ABS pump and ABS lines because real men don't need computers to drive their cars!! haha.

Pulled the surprisingly clean 1UZ out of the LS400. I'll be doing replacing the belts, waterpump, seals, plugs and wires while its still on the floor.

 

[CACressida]

Just for shits and giggles, we tossed in this Honda S2000 motor and 6pd in the engine bay. What a tiny little thing...

The factory Auto Transmission Cressida crossmember bolts onto the Supra W58 5spd and Toyota was generous to make multiple predrilled mounting holes for the crosPsmember for different engine and tranny setups since the Cressida came with like a gazillion powertrain options world wide.

The 1UZ fits in the bay as if it were meant to be in a Cressida like it fits in the LS400.



Plenty of room in the engine bay. I do have a complaint though. The stock Cressida steering rack shaft gets in the way of the driver side exhaust header. There is 3 options here. 1 is to move the factory rack over to the left about an inch and recenter the steering, 2 use a LS400 rack and lose turning radius, or 3, just remake some efficient flowing header. There's plenty of space in between the rack and frame rail on the Cressida, but like I said, smog legal so no modifications to the factory emissions equipment.

Pictured below is the rack shifted to the left clearing the factory header.

I'll be using 4U2QUIks adapter plate, modified 3SGTE flywheel, a 4 puck 7M-GE clutch disk and a 3SGTE flywheel for linking the tranny with the motor. I'm getting rid of the power sapping, heavy Cressida 2 driveshaft setup in favor of a nice light weight one piece drive shaft.

Thats all for now. Thanks for reading!

 

[white_raven]

looking good mo!

 

[mshawari1]

What a nice project!!

what you did for the engine mounts?

 

[shifty biscuits]

did you finish this yet? im trying to do this swap into my gx81 but am coming up against a few issues getting it all in the right place.

 

[4U2QUIK]

lookin good mo.
I barely recognized myself in the first picture. That's when I was rockin the beard.
With any luck I'll have the prototype flywheel done before the quantum one gets to the shop in 4-6 weeks lol. Modesto steel said the slug will be at E&S machine on monday. The ring gear is already here. So it should be done by the end of this week so we will have time to make it to toyotafest!
Also, I'll get that harness off the 94 engine for you so you don't have to deal with the obdII BS. I'm probably going to take all the accessories and coverplates off that block too and sell the longblock back to rich for $100 to replace the 98 engine he rodknocked....... I told him I wouldn't get that 98 engine lol.... oh well... You do have to consider it did 2 fatlace drift events, and a bunch of drag racing, not exactly the kind of conditions you want for keeping a healthy engine.

 

[CACressida]

The car should be ready before T.O.R.C. around May 10-12th. I'll update with a video and some pictures.

Special thanks to 4U2QUIK and DaftInnovations.com

 

[4U2QUIK]

thank you sir!

 

[fastegg]

V8 Cressida

Dam ! I had a 1990 Cressida Grande that went to Cressida heaven after 400,000km and 2 engines both which suffered terminal head gasket issues. It still had the origional A360E transmission and LSD both of which still worked perfectly..... now if you knew just how hard i drove this car, it's a real testament to just how sturdy and well made the Cressida was.
Like, everything still worked, it had no rattles, noises or leak's and when i purchased it at 170,000km it was already on LPG so no problems with anything LPG related. It probably did 10,000km HARD on Australian dirt roads, you could drive it FLAT OUT on ruff dirt and it handled like a well set up rally car...you could drive it on the back wheels everywhere... The STD clutch type LSD seemed to work great, although its been the only car ive ever had with an LSD so i don't know any different.....
...Now back on the 1UZ subject.. when my Cressida died, i thought it would be a top car to put a 1UZ into espesially when they both ran the same auto. In the state i live (N.S.W.) the law says i can change engines without an engineers report as long as its by the same manufacturer and no more than one litre bigger but when i sold the Cressida and before i bought my UCF21 i didn't know anything or anyone who had done it, so i never did the swap.... Now that ive spent a zillion hours on the forums and now have heaps of 'data', a 1UZ V8 Cressida would be a much better performance car than an LS400.
My 1999 LS400 HATES dirt roads with a passion, it understeers to the point that it just doesn't steer, it just goes straight ahead, it HATES tight stuff, HATES bumpy stuff, infact, it HATES just about everything except roads that were designed for Lexus's to drive on..... It's everything that the Cressida isn't. My cressida was about the closest thing to a factory performance car as you can get..... it just lacked HP..
190hp i think ?.................. now.......... imagine a 290hp VVTi V8 that was legal and quite achievable and at a kerb weight of 1450KG, its 250-300KG lighter than an LS400.... it'd make a TOP V8 sports car.....

 

[fastegg]

PS:

What's the difference between Kerb weight and Gross vehicle weight ?

 

[4U2QUIK]

the cressidas were basically 4 door supras.

 

[CACressida]

Curb weight is how much a vehicle weighs and Gross is how much the vehicle weighs at maximum capacity.. Or the other way around, I can never get those things right.

Updates:

My X73 got the ultimate treatment


7M's blow up, 5M's sprout trees



Ok, real updates:

Brandon aka 4U2QUIK, made some finishing touches to the UZ adapter plate for the GM throwout bearing. It allows you to clock the bearing any angle you want and keep it centered.

My plate isn't the 360 degree adjustable one so don't mind the lack of dowels adjustments.

GM throwout bearing in the installed position

Finished product

Way cleaner and easier than the stock Toyota junk complex fork bull shit

Installed the 4 Puck clutch I 100 years ago and used it for 20 miles on my 7MGTE before it blew up...

Cleaned and prep'd my Torsen LSD.


Rich of Daft Innovations insisted he do the rack shift to clear the exhaust manifold flange since I wanted to make this car CA Smog legal

Also, I didn't want to do what Rich did to his 1UZ pickup, the SC400 oil filter crap, nor did I want to do an oil filter relocation kit, so we kept the engine in a slightly forward position so it makes it easier to access the bell housing bolts and maintenance on the starter and stuff a lot easier back there. So Rich went ahead and made me an inch and a half shifter extension to keep the shifter dead center in the hole.

I bolted the 7M A/C compressor plate on the UZ compressor and ran into some problems. The pressure release valve hits the exhaust runner, so I put a bolt in it. Went to go bolt the A/C lines, and the 7M line hits the fucking runner. So I'll just put the UZ cap back on and make a custom line some time in the future.

Here's the super reinforced rack mount on the subframe.

Engine is back in the car with a custom trans mount because the stock one felt flimsy and the bushing felt shot. After typing this, I'll be on my way to pick-n-pull to grab a throttle cable off a LS400 and pickup some stainless steel tube for my exhaust. Should be wired in and running tonight or some ***** but fuck am I getting lazy. I'm just glad I'm not the one welding and doing the custom fabricating bull shit or else this shit wouldn't be done till next year. Trying to finish it before TORC so stay tuned.

P.S.
Quantum-Auto is a joke. What are we, stupid? His flywheel isn't a "CUSTOM MADE" flywheel, its a cheap ass terrible manufactured Auto Zone Toyota V6 truck VZ-FE flywheel with bored out bolt holes. He buys the flywheel for $75 and does a little bit of drilling and turns around and sells them for $350. I tossed his piece of junk and used a custom flywheel Brandon of 1UZFESwapKit.com made. Burns me up when somebody brags about make a "CUSTOM" shenanigan and all it is is a modified POS.

Here's my new wheel made by Brandon aka 4U2QUK:

I don't mean to vent, but don't falsely advertise. Brandon advertises his flywheels as modified 3S-GTE flywheels, not custom made. But thanks to him, he finally made a custom one and hopefully he'll sell to people that actually want to pay for a quality piece.

 

[CACressida]

Update

Ran into an immobiliser issue and we juggled that out of the way with a 95 UCF20 ECU. Got the car running, all thats left is motor mounts, full stainless steel exhaust, power steering lines, bolt up the A/C lines and readjust the steering and we should be done with the conversion. Also tidy up the engine bay a bit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEvlZcoE1Ik

 

[CACressida]

Oh hi! I'll just leave these here.






http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9wllnOktS4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivU8xk87OEs