1ggte Conversion

[patnut]

hi all, i am a new boy and looking for info on this conversion. i have recently brought an altezza gita, which was freshly imported to new zealand from the land of the rising sun. from the factory it is a 1gfe, six speed, lsd combo which i feel is not quite enough for the heavy wagon. the 1ggte is easily obtained over here from the many importers with moderate ks, limited warranties, and low cost,($2000).

can anyone help, thankyou

[Monster-Mat]

yes but the Gita ecu will not run it

[patnut]

engine will come with loom intact and startup warranty

[patnut]

any more detail please, is it a diy job, i have "bolt on knowledge" and good mates willing to lend a hand

[gsportcars]

Engine will bolt in though you will need to make custom intercooler piping and exhaust. You will also need to run the 1g-gte ECU or a seperate aftermarket standalone unit. Either way I suspect you will have some issues with electrics.

I had looked at this engine swap before and as simple as it sounds the 1g-gte is a very old engine. you may be better turboing your altezza and simply fitting the 1g-gte bottom end to the standard altezza vvti head. This will allow you to run more boost and you can piggyback your ECU to run the fuelling setup.

[patnut]

i am leaning towards the gte as it has the factory wide angle/performance head design which is also a true twin cam. along with the strength of the turbo spec bottom end and block, it is a win win situation??? i think this would be a one of a kind setup also??? as for the ecu, is there some sort of trouble running the factory electronics off a stand alone system???

[gsportcars]

If the engine is running in standalone then only the after market ECU will be controlling the engine with zero input from the factory ECU. This has it's obvious advantages when running a different engine. The factory altezza ECU will not run the 1g-gte. You may also need to swap over you crank trigger disc if it is different from the 1g-fe disc because your aircon won't work otherwise. That is only one example of problems that you could run into.

Not trying to put you off at all just explaining that it isn't a bolt in job and far from it.

Your factory ECU will need to stay in place to run the auxillary functions like dash lights, aircon, rev counter etc etc but it would still not control any engine functions.

I know decent power can be had from the 1g-gte with supporting mods but if you went for say... the 1jz-gte or 2jz-gte then you could have a lot more power for the same amount of effort. The jz engines are much more easily tuned....well at least they are on this side of the world as we generally don't see the 1g-gte over here.

[patnut]

sounds like one for the too hard basket??

i guess i will follow the sheep and whack a turbo kit onto the factory set up.

heres another one from left field, can the g type twin cam head be retrofitted, or is ths another ecu headache due to demobing the vvti

[gsportcars]

hmmm. This takes me back to when I had the turbo kit on and i still wanted more power. I looked at sooooo many options but it really depends on what you want from the car.

I would be inclined towards using the gte bottom end with the 1g-fe head. Reason being that the bottom end is a straight swap, where as to swap the head causes lots of 'head aches'......

As you mentioned you will lose the vvti. this is no big deal as it gives minimal gains but you will then have to re-map to suit etc etc. When you change the head you also have a different inlet manifold which may have some extra or even worse, lack of sensors which can cause issues. Obviously sensors can be custom fitted etc but it all adds to the work.

Then lets say you successfully transplant the gte head and get it all set up and running.....your factory bottom end will still only handle about 260BHP so you are still limited to that power. You can acheive 260BHP with a bolt on turbo kit and new injectors so why then swap the head????

If you look at it from the other angle, ie; fitting the gte bottom end then things become much simpler. The bottom end will be a straight swap and you can just use your factory sump to make sure it fits over the sub frame. As you will still have the factory head you will not have any worries about ECU compatibility and sensors etc. The vvti head will flow enough air to run at least 400BHP as member 'Adie' will testify to so it won't be a limiting factor. When using the standard vvti head you can also use the bolt on Pro-lex turbo kit which cuts down the need for custom fabrication of manifolds, piping etc etc. Combine this with bigger straight fit injectors which are now available and the stronger gte bottom end and you an run about 1.2bar of boost with no probs at all and it will be safe. This is opposed to a limit of about 0.5bar for the 1g-fe bottom end. I would guess a BHP figure of 300-350BHP with this setup.

There will always of course be lots of other ways around it but if you want the straight six turbo without going for a fll engine transplant then that would be the best option in my book.

[patnut]

hey thanks bud that is all great info. it sounds like the gte bottom end with the vvti head is the easiest way to do things while improving reliability. as for the turbo situation is it worth trying to hold on to the standard twin set up???

[gsportcars]

The gte inlet and exhaust manifolds will not fit onto the vvti head as the runners are spaced differently. You would have to get a custom manifold made which would be quite a bit of work. If you are buying turbo's then you would be better going for an aftermarket single or twins as opposed to factory toyota items.

[Dave-Ellen]

use the gte rods and pistons in your block...........fit a turbo.........gte piston are 8.5.1 so can run higher boost.............we've just done one......

[TougeIS200]

use the gte rods and pistons in your block...........fit a turbo.........gte piston are 8.5.1 so can run higher boost.............we've just done one......

just read this thread and very interested in this 1j-gte-fe hybrid. is it just the conrods and pistons? what about the crank? and isn't the 1jz-gte a 2.5 litre coz the 1g-fe is 2 litre! sorry for the stupid questions but am new to piston engine tuning. been driving rotaries since i was 20 ;-p and fancied a change and the is200 caught my eye and absolutely love the car. just need a little more power :-)

[d3gnarts3]

use the gte rods and pistons in your block...........fit a turbo.........gte piston are 8.5.1 so can run higher boost.............we've just done one......

I've been considering doing this to my car also recently, so much so that I have found a GTE block going for a good price which I plan on using as parts for the spare 1G-FE motor which i acquired recently.

For me this is going to be a bit of a work in progress however, I plan on using the rods and pistons from the GTE in my block and then add bigger injectors, upgrade the pulley for the tte supercharger and also convert the car to a manual.

I also brought some tanabe sustec pro-ss coilovers for a very good price which i plan on putting into the car.

If anyone has any pointers regarding what I'm about to do I'd be receptive of the advice :)

Cheers...

[sparkystav]

I didnt think you could use the GTE rods for the 1GFE with a charger?

Apaprently it makes the compression rate unsuitable for the chager, only turbo.

Prolex or IS200sam can help on this.

Stav

[LexusIS200Sam]

I didnt think you could use the GTE rods for the 1GFE with a charger?

Apaprently it makes the compression rate unsuitable for the chager, only turbo.

Prolex or IS200sam can help on this.

Stav

thats correct stav, there was some questions flying about with this earlier in the year when i started the convertion... im sure you are correct in the compression being unsuitable.

Sam

[d3gnarts3]

Hmm so rather than using the gte internals would I be better getting higher compression forged internals for this project of mine?

Although turbo could be an avenue worth exploring if the engine is going to be able to handle more boost :)

[d3gnarts3]

I didnt think you could use the GTE rods for the 1GFE with a charger?

Apaprently it makes the compression rate unsuitable for the chager, only turbo.

Prolex or IS200sam can help on this.

Stav

Would this also apply even if I were to run more boost via the supercharger with an uprated pulley?

[d3gnarts3]

well sent an email to the Prolex guys hoping they will have some time to answer my questions about this conversion... haven't been able to get hold of anyone that's done it.. and perhaps there's a reason for that.

In any case I'll post up my finding here.. no doubt somebody down the track will want to know the same thing.

[d3gnarts3]

Ok so I got a reply from Dave at Prolex and he had this to say...

the compression ratio of the gte pistons is to low @ 8.5.1

For what its worth for the power you get vs money you need to spend you should not bother.

members have spent over £5k for 6/8 bhp..........

best things to do are fit a better manifold (£550) better exhaust back box (£360) induction kit £150 ish

anymore you need aftermarket ecu with mapping (£1500 ish) bigger injectors £600 pistons/rods £1600 then fitting them...........

max bhp will be 250