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Isupra Conversion


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Cheers guys, I'll be happy if it just goes lol.

You're doing what? Sticking a 2JZ-GTE in an IS?

The first thing I think about is WHY but I'm not gonna go there.

I have a Supra so I'm a little sad that another Supra has died but happy that its heart goes on in another life.

Good luck with the project

Don't worry the other supra died long before I took it's engine. I promise I didn't have it killed lol :whistling:

WHY??? why not?

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doing some great work there mate, makes for great reading and learning how simple it isnt :D

and if i may put a few comments

why not fuse the Battery ?

i would recommend using a proper enclosed junction box

make sure the cut off switch cuts the alternator, may be wise to have a cut off switch within the cabin as well

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The Battery can't be fused for the starter motor. It draws too much current and just uses a non fused cable as standard. The more I think about it I am going to go for a proper distribution block as there is no reason why not.

The cut off switch will be in the boot on the Battery terminal itself. I can also fit a remote pull wire to the cabin for this too.

Comments much appreciated mate.

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  • 5 months later...

Once again I have returned to my thread. Christmas, work etc etc usual story.....

Anyway I will try to pick up where I left off.

I got to the Bosch ignition module with a couple of new relays wired in. One for the module and another to run the fuel pump, boost solenoid and o2 sensor heater.

Pic of that below along with newly re-wired coil packs.

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I decided to take the bad look off my engine bay a little further by cleaning up the dirty inlet manifold. Didn't want to get it polished as I'm not big into the bling thing but just attacked it with a grinder and wire brash attachment to show the original aluminium colour.

Before

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After

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I tried to contact the guy in the states mentioned previously about the exhaust manifold but had no luck so i had to search for another manifold. I bought this in the end and it turned out to be to too big for my engine bay. The twin exit wastegate pipes fouled on the suspension turret.

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Notice in the pic below that the studs for the engine mount are nearly an inch away from fitting in the chassis.

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I had to remove the twin wastegate pipes as this was the easiest option instead of shortening the six runners of the manifold.

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This is my mock up attempt at re-fabricating the wastegate pipes. I needed to use tighter bends and repostion the wastegate up the way so it would fit nicely beside the downpipe.

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I knew that such an awkward and difficult piece of fabrication and welding was way beyond my capabilities as there were a few very tight crevaces to weld in which the mig just couldn't do. I took it to a friend who had done some work for me before and got back a top quality job with flawless welds. He also used double wall thickness bends due to the amount of heat that is present in that area of the manifold.

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I then mocked up the remaining pipework needed to fit the wastegate in position. I wanted to re-route the wastegate back into the downpipe as I had the screamer pipe on before and didn't really like it that much. After this I got the remaining pipe work properly welded up again with the results below. You can also see the new downpipe that also needed modified to fit.

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The other mod I deffo needed to do before dropping the engine in place was to make sure there was enough extra support for the manifold to avoid the unwanted stress and cracking that happened before. I put extra bracing on the manifold this time and welded a stronger brace at the bottom of the downpipe to better support the weight of the exhaust.

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This is the manifold and turbo fitted and ready to drop into the car. I am quite apprehensive about making sure the turbo, manifold and wastegate all bolt up together correctly. This is why I had the manifold professionaly modified and welded. You can imagine that the slightest gap in any of the mating surfaces means a big exhaust blow out and the engine, manifold, wastegate etc etc has to come out and be completely re-done.

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The engine is now in the car as of today but still needs everything connected up. All the wiring has been completed for the ECU so simpy needs "plugged in". Gearbox is fitted with a new clutch release bearing. The downpipe is completed and the exhaust mid-section needs a v-band flange welded on to finish that.

To get the car started again I need to finish the rear twin exhaust section, build up the front end of the car including the intercooler and piping which needs slight modification due to new turbo position, and fill with oil, coolant, power steering fluid etc.

I have decided to attempt my own mapping of the engine. This is due to a couple of reasons. Although Jonny (AI) is more than capable and the preferred choice for mapping anytime, He does, by policy and understandably lock the ECU after mapping to protect the map against..... lets say copyright. This is the right way to go in general but being me I want to have access to allow me to adjust parameters and fine tune functions like anti-lag, launch control etc etc. On Jonnys advice to either have someone or myself map the ECU in order to leave it unlocked I have decided to do it myself. This is not a decision made lightly. I have extensively researched and studied the subject and am confident I know what is involved. There is no way I would even consider spending such an amount of money, time and effort on this project only to foop it up at the final hurdle.

I have already installed an Innovate wideband and have got my own laptop connected to the ECU ready for mapping. The only thing I am concerned about is full throttle runs in the current weather LOL.

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Looks good dude. Where did you get the manifold from ? Im looking at the cheapy eBay ones then just gonna brace it to hopefully stop cracking.

Is it just me but in the pictures does the top part of the manifolds piping look like a different material to the bottom.

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Ellz it is a k-conversions manifold (ebay). I see what you mean about the difference in piping but it is all stainless steel. I think it is due to the pipes being mandrel bent and the fact that they actually stretch on the outside of the bend to give better flow etc. That has probably ruined the polished surface.

Incase anyone os wondering why I haven't heat wrapped the manifold this time it is simply so I can inspect it after a few miles and some abuse to see if it is holding up ok. I will prob then wrap it to reduce the under bonnet temps.

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Ellz it is a k-conversions manifold (ebay). I see what you mean about the difference in piping but it is all stainless steel. I think it is due to the pipes being mandrel bent and the fact that they actually stretch on the outside of the bend to give better flow etc. That has probably ruined the polished surface.

Incase anyone os wondering why I haven't heat wrapped the manifold this time it is simply so I can inspect it after a few miles and some abuse to see if it is holding up ok. I will prob then wrap it to reduce the under bonnet temps.

Is that a UK company ? The ones on there for the 1JZ's are mainly from the US apart from the xspower one.

I wouldnt rap the manifold as lots of people that do crack the manifold, it's meant to resricts the expansion of the metal at high temps which leads to cracking (apparently). My mates old manifold cracked when rapped but his new one was fine when he left it. The bracing you've done will help, Im gonna brace the crap out of mine LoL.

Its good to see this back of track and going well

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I think it comes from Thailand or something but I have been told by SSI (supra specialists Ireland) that the manifolds are mocked up in an actual supra engine bay to ensure proper fitment etc. The quality of the manifold is superb too.

I would guess that they could and probably do make one for the 1JZ and depending on what car it is designed to fit it may fit directly into the IS engine bay.

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Got a bit further on now. The engine and gearbox were bolted up and dropped into the car. The manifold and turbo were already fitted as the manifold can only be fitted with the engine out of the car. The Autronic loom is connected up to the engine with ancillaries such and alternator/starter, speedo/reverse sensor etc also fitted and connected. Power steering plumbed in, fuel line shortened to fit and connected etc.

The wastegate and downpipe were fitted which left only the rest of the exhaust to complete in order to drop the car off the stands. I was re-using the centre section but it needed each end modified to match up to both the new down pipe and the new rear section so that was done relatively easily and it was bolted in place.

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Then came the rear section where the exhaust splits into two. I wasn't happy at all with the previous effort as it was messy and generally not a good job.

I had spoke to Gman earlier about helping me out with this so I could position the exhaust properly and tack it in position, but as I continued on it seemed to come together ok and it is now basically completed. It just needs welded up to finish.

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I have engine oil, coolant, couple of oil filters and power steering fliud all sitting ready to go. Cheap mineral oil to run the engine in and Silkolene Pro S for after. I will get more pics of the engine bay as I forgot today.

The front end of the car will be built up hopefully next week and then I should be set to turn the key.........again.

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  • 2 weeks later...
The way things are going mate I think they're going to be having JAE in Ireland this year so we'll be coming to see you :lol:

LOL... that would make things much easier for me. I would even hold an LOC BBQ :winky:

Got another update here.............

IT'S ALIVE....again!

Finally got it started!!!!!!!!

Had everything in place ready to go and the laptop connected up to the SM4 to keep an eye on the readings and got my Bro to turn the key as I kept a close eye on things.

Fuel pump primed but wouldn't run when cranking so nothing. Checked the voltage when cranking and the pump was getting no power. So I hard wired the pump via ignition and it was then getting power ok. Still nothing when cranking, not even a backfire or anything. Had a look at my fuel pressure gauge and it was getting perfect pressure. Had to be the injectors. So I pulled out a spark plug, had a look into the cylinder while the bro turned the engine over and it was dry as a bone. Then while I was there checked for a spark and nothing again.

OK, so I was getting no fuel or spark and then noticed the LED on the SM4 unit flashing a sequence. Took a quick trip onto the (non-official) Autronic forum and was told that it was a cam/crank sensor fault. Upon re-checking my wiring I found that I had somehow wired the cam wires to the crank and the crank wires to the cam ffs. dunno how it happened but I must have had a serious hangover that day lol. These wires are both shielded wires so easily mixed up if you ain't paying attention.

Anyway, swapped the wires about and she fired up straight away...woohoo.......! This fault explains why the fuel pump primed but didn't run on cranking as the the ECU wasn't getting any input signals so could not give any output signals which obviously include fuel pump, injectors and coils etc.

Seeing that I had just had an engine rebuild I was told to bring the rpm up to around 3k straight away with the cheapo oil in the engine to start the engine running in process. After about 10-20 secs of this, the car started to smoke quite drastically. I expected smoke but this seemed a bit excessive. See the pics below which are about 2 mins after start up.

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I decided to keep an eye on the temps and oil/coolant levels and let the engine run until it was up to full operating temperature. I did get that far as the fans came on with the temps reading around 88/89 degrees. While having a quick scan around the engine bay again for leaks I came across a small fire below my turbo!!!!!!

Immediately shut down the engine and grabbed the fire extinguisher by which time the small yet extremely scary flames had dissappeared.. This turned out to be an oil leak from my turbo dripping onto the red hot manifold and the oil puddle had ignited. You can see the oil puddle below with the soot too lol.

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Obviously there was something wrong within the engine to cause the smoke. I needed to remove the turbo to fix the leak anyway so this is where I started to investigate. The downpipe had to come out and I found a thick sticky black substance that had made it's own stream all the way through my downpipe. This was the engine assembly lube from the rebuild. The first thing that occured to me here was a problem with the piston rings/ valves which was allowing the lube to enter the combustion chamber. See below the flow of goo...

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I then removed the turbo to see the sticky goo was deffo coming via the turbo.

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It was only when I looked into the manifold exit and the the turbo inlet (T4 flange) that it was clear that the assembly lube had not got into the combustion chamber but leaked out through the turbo seals. It is also clear that the turbo seals have dried up/failed while the turbo has been sitting on a shelf in my garage for two reasons; The smoke started almost immediately after starting the engine... and if it had taken a while for the seals to go after start up then it would be oil in the down pipe and not engine assembly lube. You can see here that the oil/lube has beed dripping down from the turbo towards the manifold as opposed to coming from the manifold into the turbo.

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Overall I am happy that the car is running again but dissapointed that my turbo seal have shat themselves. I drained the oil from the engine and there is no sign of water getting in etc so that is good and the coolant seems fine also. I am now trying to get my turbo rebuilt with new seals and bearings and hopefully I should be good to go then.

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So close this time!

How long do you think it'll be before the turbo is rebuilt and you can get it back onto the car fella?

Still no word on JAE so that BBQ could be a plan!

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