TR7 LexusV8 conversion

[Dan B]

Labor Day is a no go. Calendar conflicts prevail.

[Dan B]

I am planning to go to Jim's place this coming weekend and work on the car again.  I am planning to stay until Tuesday (Veteran's Day) and maybe get the engine running.  We need to install the radiator and the drive shaft, finish plumbing the HTOB, then work on wiring.  There is work to be done on the chump car too

[Dan B]

Fun weekend at Jim's place with Steve DeGroat, Carl Floyd, Jim and his boys Dave and Matt, and me working on the MG chump car and my 1UZ conversion.
Good progress made and a lot of fun hanging out.

We finished the installation of the Summit aluminum radiator that Jim modified last summer, along with the Caravan fan.


Original TR7 radiator mounts were utilized for the fan on the top.  A custom bracket you cannot see holds the radiator with a high density plastic piece in the upper channel.  There are rubber donuts on the TR7 mounts atop the fan.

Bottom view shows the lower radiator mount in place.  This is the original TR7 radiator mount, modified with the same plastic in the radiator channel and tabs welded on to hold the bottom of the fan.  The entire assembly was moved forward a few inches. Since the frame channels curve and narrow, the the bracket ends were cut off and offset pieces were welded in.  There is still plenty of clearance, as you can see in the pictures.



After discussing options, I decided to use Megasquirt to control the engine functions, so we stripped the engine down.  The SC400 throttle body has two throttles...I don't know why.  I have another with only one throttle and we plan to use it.

[Dan B]

Here is a view of the bracket during the test fitting, before it was modified.  It was held in place by some long bolts at this point,  You can see the  white plastic through the hole.  The fan was taped in place.

We also fitted the drive shaft.  It is a modified Toyota Tacoma drive shaft  The drive shaft shop in Nitro, WV put the fitting on that was supposed to fit the TR7 axle, but the holes had to be re-drilled.. You can see the really  cool transmission mount Jim made previously.


In this picture, Jim is tacking the radiator bracket.  We took it off for welding.



And of course we had to keep up with BritishV8.

[Dan B]

Here is the other throttle body:

This engine has a water pipe that runs through the valley under the intake and hooks into a heater hose.  Both heater hose connections on the 1uz were sticking straight up, in the way of the bonnet latch and the fresh air vent. We moved them. We cut the pipe before the bend up, and the other nipple was on an aluminum manifold.  Jim cut it off and modified it to go straight to the connection.

[mgb260]

Good work! Guys. Dan, the Caravan fan looks good!

[Dan B]

It really does.  It is hard to show it in the pictures, but the radiator setup is awesome. Jim and Carl did some brainstorming and came up with the mounting ideas.

[Scott Costanzo]

Dan,

Looking great!! I can't wait to see your car!

[MGBV8]

We kicked around some ideas, but that magic belongs to the proprietor of Blackwood Labs.

It may look like it in the pic, but I guarantee I was not watching Jim weld with my helmet up. I only had a helmet cause he asked me to tack something while he held it.  No flash burn for me.  

[BlownMGB-V8]

Those guys are too modest, all I did was turn their ideas into metal.

I do think the install can be made to look remarkably clean though, as well as fully functional. Some tricky work remains with the cowl scoop for fresh cabin air, but Jim Stuart gave me some good ideas with the way he did his cowl for his injected RoverV8 TR7. Basically he split it in the middle and installed the halves separately. I think that can work here as well. The heater hose routing is simple and direct, but we will need to plumb in a heater valve there too. There looks to be just enough room to make the stock hood latch work by trimming it a quarter inch or so. I don't know how we are going to do the wiring yet but the MS harness will help, and splicing into the OEM connectors with adhesive butt connectors is the smart solution, provided we can find enough of them that haven't gotten brittle. The radiator hoses worked out remarkably well and the stock surge tank will control coolant level.

So far except for some fairly easy fabrication that anybody with an angle grinder and a mig welder could handle, this has been a simple and problem free swap. Provided your transmission adapter is right of course. I would recommend it for the TR7, I think it is the right engine for the car.

Jim

[trseven]

Dan, any progress?  You'd be amazed how many times I check the site to see if you'd updated your post!  
Gerry

[Dan B]

Hi Gerry,

We are working on a date for another weekend.  Possibly May 2.  I have been collecting parts, including the connector and wiring for the megasquirt controller, a hose for the clutch, fluids, clamps, etc.  I got the two starters I have tested and they are both good.  They are both remanufactured, so we will use the Toyota reman.  I have been pretty anxious to get back to it, but Jim has been so covered up with other projects we have not been able to work out a weekend to get together.
When we finalize plans for our next work weekend, I will post that on this thread.  I and sure you would be welcome to stay at Jim's if you would like to make the trip and check it out.

[trseven]

Dan,
Sounds like fun and I really wish I could drive down there and check it out!  Spent 10 years in the Navy and a lot of that in Norfolk, VA.  Drove interstate 64 many a time traveling home on leave.  West Virginia was the most scenic part of the drive!  I've got a long list of projects myself! Mostly remodeling the 115 year old house we live in plus a 7 and 10 year old daughters keeping me busy.  My TR7 needs paint!  I have a friend from our local club thats been letting me use his place and spray gun.  I asked him about buying a spray gun and he said why, I have one right here!  Great people British car owners!

[Dan B]

I plan to be in Florence, KY tomorrow, Sunday and most of Monday.  We hope to make good progress on the TR7.  Steve is probably there already working on the Chump car

[Scott Costanzo]

Good to hear Dan! What are the odds of it making Indy? Any chance at all?

[Dan B]

Depends on how it goes this weekend.  Hopeful.

[Dan B]

Progress made yesterday. We have all the coolant connections made.  Jim welded up several holes in the intake plenum that we decided we did not need.
After sorting wiring in the valley, we installed the intake. Bled the clutch. Sorted some wires.
Had to pull the radiator again to trim around the hose connections.

[Dan B]

Not much action to see. We were cutting up two old harnesses and evaluating the wiring situation.  Here you can see wires that have been pulled and labeled. I ordered the connectors and relays we need.

[BlownMGB-V8]

Also, the MS is mounted using a slick plastic slide-in mount we created and the harness is routed to the engine. We have to match the MS leads to the Lexus ones and make the required configuration changes, meaning we need to know more about the Lexus electrical complonents.

Jim

[Dan B]

No dice for indy for this one either.  I just don't have free time to get to Florence before the meet.

[Dan B]

We finally got schedules together and were able to have another work weekend at Jim's place.  I missed the one in August, so no work was done on the TR7 then, but we got some time in on it Saturday and Sunday. Wiring up the 1uz with megasquirt began.  A fuse box and relays were mounted inside the engine bay, the injector were wired using canniballized pigtails from two 1uz harnesses.  I had bought injector plugs and adapters (just in case) and neither would fit!  We spent a good bit of time and effort tracing stuff and figuring out connections. Now I have a new list of things to get ready for the next time.

[Scott Costanzo]

Hey Dan!

Glad to see you making some progress! What's left to do? You have to be getting fairly close?

[Dan B]

Making progress, Scott.  True to form, Jim has provided the car with several nifty customized parts. Nothing like his B, but cool nonetheless.  He made up ends for the battery cables using copper tubing on Saturday, and a stainless steel mount for the fuse box.  We could possibly get it to run on my next visit. Many loose ends though.

[Dan B]

We decided to go with wasted spark using the Ford EDIS 8 setup with two coil packs.  This required customizing a trigger wheel and replacing the 12 tooth wheel so we can utilize the stock pickup.  Toyota makes a 36-2 trigger for a Tundra motor, so I bought a new one of those.  This past weekend, Jim welded two teeth back on to make a 36 tooth wheel.  The pickup is 50 degrees from TDC, so the tooth in that position was removed.  I will post pictures of that this evening.  We also made custom mounts for the Ford coils.  It was hard to find a suitable location.  Carl, Steve and I tried several positions.  I want to keep the battery up front so I have trunk space but considered changing that idea, but finally decided on a location opposite the throttle body.  Since wires from each four pack have to go to both sides of the 1uz this makes the cable runs for spark plug wires as short as they can be.  Custom spark plug wires will have to be made regardless.

[bsa_m21]

You might want to do similar to my battery relocation, if you are going with a single exhaust pipe system.  I built a recessed box into the lower right corner of the rear trunk and got a small, hi-capacity battery to fit.  It's flush with the regular trunk floor and works fine.  Here is the only pic I could find at the moment, from part way through the build back on 2012.



As can be seen, the box extends to the frame rail.  The bottom follows the lower curve of the body panel, so I made a small sub-frame to match with a level top for the battery to sit on.  I added a drain hole at the lowest portion of the box and sprayed the inside with a rubberized coating, just in case anything leaks.

Unfortunately, this is not a solution if you plan to go with dual exhaust pipes, as the box takes up the space. where the muffler would be.

Regards,

Martin