Fitting a 1JZGTE into a GX81 Chaser, Whats involved?

[sam726]

Hi guys,
Relatively new to the forum but here goes. I have a 1989 Toyota Chaser GX81 with a standard 1gge engine. I have just spent good amounts of dinero on fitting bc golds, tyres and brake work. Next on the agenda is the engine. It has done 190ish kms which isnt normally bad for a toyota however it is burning a lot of oil, leaking some oil around water pump area and is getting more and more gutless and worse on fuel.

I was thinking of doing three things. 1) Rebuilding current engine and cruising around which i have sort of gone off now as i dont see much point, 2) Rebuilding current engine and upgrading internals etc... at same time in preparation for a nice turbo transplant or 3) (more favourable) engine swap with either a 1jzgte, 2jzgte or 1uzfevvti.

As with the third option im moving away from the 1uz purely because of cost and i would prefer a 1jz over a 2jz for cost of engine and running.

Now, I'm not that mechanically minded so bear with me but if i was to chuck in a 1jzgte what would need to be done to make it fit? By my thoughts to make it fit i would need custom engine mounts, bellhousing to fit my gearbox (w55), radiator/intercooler work done, ecu + rewiring to make it run, crossmember modification?, what else needs to be though of. As i said im not 100% mechanically minded and have never really done much work on engines so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Oh and by the way i am only a student so keeping costs down is a good priority

Thanks so much

[spencer]

Ive done this conversion, it was all bolt in as I had collected jzx81 gear. I can go in to it more when Ive got more time.

[sam726]

Ive done this conversion, it was all bolt in as I had collected jzx81 gear. I can go in to it more when Ive got more time.

That'd be cool man, im in no huge rush as i still need to get funds but just need to know what im in for, what exactly do i need from a jzx81 to make things work properly? It'll be a bitch to hunt down parts but im sure i can get it done.

[mjrstar]

I personally wouldn't bother with the 1G in a full sized sedan, My 1G powered starlet goes ok but it's only hauling around 900kg's.

EDIT:It might pay to note there is almost zero chance of finding "upgraded" internals off the shelf for the 1G.

[sam726]

I personally wouldn't bother with the 1G in a full sized sedan, My 1G powered starlet goes ok but it's only hauling around 900kg's.

EDIT:there is almost zero chance of finding "upgraded" internals off the shelf for the 1G either.

Well it went ok when it was in its prime but its more recently that its been running crap and gutless, especially when cold. Long term plan had always been to turbo engine it but im trying to move that plan forward a bit as the engine starts to show me its actually crapping itself haha.

[thegreatestben]

Yeah really don't bother with the 1g.
Speaking from personal experience, it was a waste of time.

[sam726]

Yeah really don't bother with the 1g.
Speaking from personal experience, it was a waste of time.

Yeh ive pretty much dropped the idea now, i reckon that i would spend just as much if not more rebuilding and upgrading a 1g than i would swapping a 1j and at the end of the day with very little point. I'm very keen to get a 1jzgte in there but it comes down to money and ease of doing. I have some pretty mechanical mates who im sure would lend a weekend or 2 to swap the engines over and stuff but then im just not sure exactly what needs to be done and how 'bolt-in' it really is. One of those things that on my sort of income you dont wanna make mistakes or end up with a half complete project as this is my everyday car aswell so cant really afford to go without it for prolonged periods of time.

[thegreatestben]

Is your car manual or auto?

I started with a GX81 - 1gfe + auto.
Bought a SX80 - 4sfe + manual.

Perfect car for conversion, but lucky I found one for $450 locally.
Put a late model 1ggte + all the manual bits in it.

Never ran right, when it did it wasn't that fast,

Should've put all the manual gear into the JZX81 I had, I own the JZX81 again now. I'd only bother doing any of this stuff again if I could find a manual donor car for less that $800 or so. Which seems highly unlikely!

Plus they are pretty horrible cars to drive quickly once it's manual. I don't think you'd have that problem though if you've got BC's. I've put MX5 shocks in the rear of mine and ST185 celica inserts in mine + Skyline R33 4 pot calipers. It's pretty nice to cruise but not so flash on the petrol bill.

[sam726]

Is your car manual or auto?

I started with a GX81 - 1gfe + auto.
Bought a SX80 - 4sfe + manual.

Perfect car for conversion, but lucky I found one for $450 locally.
Put a late model 1ggte + all the manual bits in it.

Never ran right, when it did it wasn't that fast,

Should've put all the manual gear into the JZX81 I had, I own the JZX81 again now. I'd only bother doing any of this stuff again if I could find a manual donor car for less that $800 or so. Which seems highly unlikely!

Plus they are pretty horrible cars to drive quickly once it's manual. I don't think you'd have that problem though if you've got BC's. I've put MX5 shocks in the rear of mine and ST185 celica inserts in mine + Skyline R33 4 pot calipers. It's pretty nice to cruise but not so flash on the petrol bill.

Mines a factory w55 manual. BC's do make it grip to the road like anythign never loses grip unless your being stupid. On the thought of donor cars i saw this on trademe today would be sick for a conversion if someone had the engine and box for it lying around http://www.trademe.co.nz/a.aspx?id=323235789 . If i turbo it im definitely going to look at upgrading the brakes aswell to give it a bit more stopping power. Even though it has bc's, still needs some more work done on the front end to make it steer a bit better as steering still feels a bit hovercraft like at times, e.g. on some windy open roads it just doesnt give you that secure feeling. I used to have an e36 320i lowered and that felt better on the open road than the chaser does at the moment. :S

[thegreatestben]

Yeah the steering on X81's is ballz.

I had a JZX90 as well and that was a much nicer feel to the steering.
None of the x90 stuff is compatible though unfortunately.

S13 stuff looks like it'd be easy to fit though.
The Skyline brakes are a real easy swap, the calipers bolt on and factory lines attach sweet as. For rotors you utilize BA falcon rotors which are 298mm OD.

The only mod you need to do is make a ring to make the discs locate on the hub.

[sam726]

Yeah the steering on X81's is ballz.

I had a JZX90 as well and that was a much nicer feel to the steering.
None of the x90 stuff is compatible though unfortunately.

S13 stuff looks like it'd be easy to fit though.
The Skyline brakes are a real easy swap, the calipers bolt on and factory lines attach sweet as. For rotors you utilize BA falcon rotors which are 298mm OD.

The only mod you need to do is make a ring to make the discs locate on the hub.

Wow thats a really nicely done conversion, im going to definitely look into that, how much better does it stop now? Is there anything to be done to front suspension/steering to tighten it up a bit or is it just one of the annoying quirks of the x81's?
Just saw this on trademe aswell http://www.trademe.co.nz/a.aspx?id=326331101 , he could have some parts worth utilising for an engine conversion.

[thegreatestben]

That auction would just be for an auto non turbo I'd imagine.
Nothing useful.

If your car is already manual you're pretty much all set.
Just pick either JZ or UZ. 1jz if you don't think you're gonna want more power, 1uz if you like a v8 rumble and would be happy with the performance.

It stops good man! There's heaps of choices in brake pads as these calipers are used on alot of jappa performance cars, skyline, silvia, rx7, gto, WRX's etc.
(has to be Skyline/Z32 to bolt onto a X81 though)

fit a rack out've an S13 apparently.

[thegreatestben]

Oh and if you haven't got them already some RCA's bring the feeling of the steering back after lowering. I bought some from Techno Toy Tuning in the states. I think that was ~$150 shipped for the pair.

This is mine:


I lowered it a bit much in the rear...
Raised it up as I have a flat exhaust section now, and the driveshafts were touching the subframe

[thegreatestben]

Oh oh and because yours is a 1989 you can't just buy a 1jz and proper jzx81 engine mounts. They won't fit your cross member. You'd need to get your hands on a JZX81 one

[sam726]

Oh oh and because yours is a 1989 you can't just buy a 1jz and proper jzx81 engine mounts. They won't fit your cross member. You'd need to get your hands on a JZX81 one

Ok so rca's are a good idea, should try and get my hands on some. So to make the engine fit into the shell i need jzx81 engine mounts and crossmember? Sorry for sounding like idiot but as i say ive never done anything this big before haha

[thegreatestben]

Yeah yeah yeah, check out toymods.org.au there's lots of awesome reliable info there. I'm pulling a lot of my info out've my head so I couldn't guarantee I'm right either! The crossmember wouldn't be a huge issue unless you wanted to use factory mounts. You can have some made fairly easily I'd imagine. Utilizing your original rubbers would save you some money/time as well