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Slowly prepping to send the shifter assembly out for extension at Drift Motion. Just need to open up the tailhousing and grab the shift lever. I'll be grabbing a JZ bellhousing at the same time.
Drive shaft shop decided they could not shorten the MK3 Supra driveshaft. They gave me some excuse about the flared ends of the MK3. At this point, I may try to sell it and go one piece. I will be calling around to get another opinion. If anyone in the SOCAL region has a good drift shaft shop give me a rec!
Looking to pull a spare diff from the junkyard shortly. I am thinking of putting a 3.92 Sc400 in with the swap.
My steering tilt gear finally gave in, I was surprised at how well it has worked up till now. New gear on the way, I will be doing the washer trick.
Delays! Wife's car decided to give out so I have been working on that.
Just put in the order to get my shifter housing extended at driftmotion, picked up a 1jz bell housing from them as well. Stoked to get this going as I save up for the second half of the tranny materials. Clutch and flywheel is the next to source.
I think I am going with the one piece from drift motion, I need to sell off this Mk3 supra drive shaft and the 7m bell housing.
Got a call from DriftMotion! My shifter extension was finalized, jumped in my car to go pick it up. After starting it and hearing the most horrendous squeal, I realized that my Harmonic Dampener failed. I know these things are destined to fail so I guess it was my time. Lucky enough, DriftMotion had a aluminum pulley I could use until I get a proper one with dampening. I'll most likely swap out this aluminum one with an aftermarket when I replace my radiator.
Time to disassemble the crank pulley. I fished out the fan and left the shroud on. It was tight space but I managed to get everything done. Used the sketchy "bump start" method to loosen the bolt. Disconnected the distributor wedged my long breaker to the ground, zip tied it to the sway bar cranked and prayed. Worked like a charm. Rented a puller from Autozone and got the HB out without too much trouble.
Two piece hahaha This could have been bad, Ive read the horror stories of it separating on the road and grenading the radiator.
This was what I used to replace for now. Not a permanent fix. Torque the bolt was a *****. I ended up using 10 or so industrial zip ties to lash it to the sway bar so I could get enough torque. 249 ft. lbs is no joke. This was severely on the fly and I don't recommend.
Last edited by JoeYabuki; 10-02-23 at 11:58 AM.
Reason: SP
The transmission is looking good! Aaron and his team did nice work on the extension housing!
I'm sorry about your crank damper failing. After 200k miles or so they're usually suspect. I'd recommend getting an OEM one (from Amayama or McGoerge Toyota or Elmore TRD or MyLParts).
For that MKIII R154 I recommend buying the XCessive Manufacturing crossmember for the SC/MKIV application using an MKIII R154. Then pair that with an OEM Supra MKIII transmission mount which bolts right onto the transmission tail housing and into the XCessive crossmember. You might need to drill/adjust the bolt holes on the aftermarket crossmember just a little during initial fitment but probably not.
Keep your original A/T crossmember in your long term spare parts bin though. You might need it later on in the future.
The R154's and W58's which have staggered alignment tailshaft bolt holes are the ones that can use the OEM SC/Soarer/MKIV W58/R154 transmission mount and crossmember. You've got the older in-line bolt hole tailshaft housing on your early R154 so you need the XCessive aftermarket crossmember.
I have the same type of R154 and my solution years ago was to track down a 1982-1985 Celica W58 transmission crossmember. But my shop had to cut it clear through on one side and then extend it with welded on plate steel. Not a solution I would recommend today given how hard those Celica/Supra MKII owners have to hunt for OEM parts when the XCessive folks have a solution for us. It just wasn't available at the time I installed my MKIII R154 back in 2013.
Just got the MK3 D/S back from the shop. Shortened by approx. -3/4ths as Kahn suggests. I got push back on balancing the combo Mk3 (front) and Sc300 Auto (rear) as they said the SC auto has a bad u joint and is not servicable. Is this common?
Looks like now all I need is:
Flywheel bolts
Pressure Plate bolts
Crossmember
Clutch kit
VSS
Floor boot and interior trim
Planning to do a full run down with pics of what I got. Hopefully this helps others and more experienced dudes can weigh in.
Cleaned the R154
Picked up a 1jz R154 Bell Housing.
Extended my shifter housing by 4.75 etc.
Replaced all shifter housing gaskets.
All bought from Drift Motion
Pressure plate bolts
Flywheel bolts
VSS sensor
Trans. mount and cross member (I'm thinking the DriftMotion kit, however, not a big fan of the spacers.)
I'm also going to pick up a new rear main seal and retainer. Any other housekeeping I should plan for?
I'm heavily looking at XdTau's thread as I get through the final stages. Thanks for the clutch kit recommendation!
Take a look at the XCessive Manufacturing transmission crossmember as an alternative. You can use an OEM Supra MKIII R154 transmission mount with that. It should bolt in or only require very minor adjusting of the mount bolt holes.
Weird that the drivline shop didn't want to balance the new combination of front and rear driveshaft. Making sure both are balanced together is kind of the point...
No, it's not very common that the SC/Soarer or MKIV driveshafts have bad U-joints. I think it is true that they are not easy to normally service them but... if there's really an issue with the SC300 rear d/s then get another one from a wrecking yard and give them the modified MKIII R154 front d/s and the donor SC300 Auto d/s for them to balance as a set. I mean technically the only one of the two that *should* have new balance weights added or subtracted should be the MKIII R154 front d/s... not the SC300 auto rear d/s. But then that's ultimately something the driveline shop needs to determine when they have both ends on their machine.
Extremely excited. I look to have everything I need now. I need to do a parts review and really start going through each step just to make sure I am not forgetting any bolts etc.
I'm going to take the shortened MK3 and the rear auto bolt it together and just take it to a shop to balance. I did some checks and dont see any thing particularly wrong with the u joint. I may just put it in and live with it until I get a one piece. Eventually I want to replace my diff.
Since the pedal and clutch master is in, I think next step is to assemble the pressure plate and hub. I will be doing the work at my buddies house, so I want to show up with everything ready to drop in.
Does anybody know if I can reuse the bolts from the auto transmount to install the MK3? Additionally, I saw a tutorial on Youtube stating that the crossmember just needs to be flipped to accomodate the MK3 mount. Is there truth to that?
mk3 front D/S test fitting. Pulled out the interior to do some cleaning prior to the swap. Previous owner spilt some coffee or something. MK3 Mount in!
So the driveline shop is correct, your OEM toyota u-joints are non-serviceable which is why many (including driftmotion) have 1350 adapters and now the billet yolk and now the rear adapter that goes directly to the rear end.
If your yolk is bad, how can they spin it up and balance it properly? You may need to find a better condition rear driveshaft.
and I used the SC300 transmission mount without issue on my R154. Some pics of my driftmotion 1 piece with the rebuildable 1350 u-joints front and back, and the SC300 trans crossmember. No problems here with fitment.
My instinct was to go with the MK3 as I was hoping it to be cheaper. I was hoping to focus on more maintenance now that I got the swap together, but it looks like I will want to save for a one-piece drive shaft.
I was able to pull a manual cluster and a 4.08 manual diff and some inner shift boot items from the junkyard.
I'm reading through some old threads regarding the final drive with the r154. I'm wondering what will feel better, a 4.08 or a 4.27 with the Mk3 r154. I'm planning for moderate track use.
Stoked on the gauge cluster tho, the PRNDL was going to drive me crazy.
As far as mounting goes, I am going to swing to the Xcessive poly mount for the R154. After buying the new style and then buying a broken one off eBay. I'm just going aftermarket and being done with it.
Taking the car to the office today, I'm hearing a whine from my possibly my power steering pump. I guess that's something I need to start chasing.
Regarding your diff ratio, I'd say it depends on what your timeline looks like. I can definitely tell that the 4.27, which I'm currently running, makes the gears a bit short. The only time that's gonna be annoying is on the highway. In 5th gear at 3000 rpm, the car is going about ~68 mph versus the 80 mph that the stock auto would do. Other than that, it definitely wakes the car up a bit. So if you are gonna wait for a turbo for a while and just want to have some fun, I'd recommend sticking with the 4.27. If you are going high power right away, a 4.08 or even a 3.92 (which I'm putting in mine pretty soon) would be a much better choice. Good luck on the swap
Regarding your diff ratio, I'd say it depends on what your timeline looks like. I can definitely tell that the 4.27, which I'm currently running, makes the gears a bit short. The only time that's gonna be annoying is on the highway. In 5th gear at 3000 rpm, the car is going about ~68 mph versus the 80 mph that the stock auto would do. Other than that, it definitely wakes the car up a bit. So if you are gonna wait for a turbo for a while and just want to have some fun, I'd recommend sticking with the 4.27. If you are going high power right away, a 4.08 or even a 3.92 (which I'm putting in mine pretty soon) would be a much better choice. Good luck on the swap
^^ My vote is for the 4.272 ratio if you are naturally aspirated (and want to keep a stock NA smog-friendly engine setup around).
However the 4.083 is still a valuable ratio, even for some 1JZ-GTE builds. And some owners still prefer it for NA if they don't want the most aggressive gearing available.
I ran a 4.272 ratio with LSD against both my stock W58 and built R154 with the two-piece driveshaft and stock NA 2JZ-GE engine with 235/45-17's in the front and 255/40-17's in the rear (I later switched to 245/45-17's front and 275/40-17's rear). I found it to be an excellent combination! Yes, the gearing feels short and aggressive but this is a good thing because it gives you more usable rpms in each gear. In southern California on surface streets and on hills and mountain roads I found this was the perfect combination.
On the highway with the 4.272 ratio yes you are going to be revving higher. 70mph-80mph was about the best long distance cruising speed on that setup in my opinion. Yet I would road trip with that combination in my SC every so often and I felt it suited the car well.
Would a 6th gear have been preferable? Sure... and Toyota did basically offer that in Japan with the MKIV Supra SZ-R which was naturally aspirated non-vvt-i, 6-speed Getrag equipped and paired with a 200mm 3.796:1 ratio (which is a very aggressive gear for the V160/161). But still only five forward gears with the R154's overdrive is fine with a 4.272.
Also... stock 1993-1996 Supra Base NA 5-speed manual models all came with 4.272:1 final drive ratios from the factory.
It certainly feels very fun! I really loved my SC with that ratio and liked it better in real world use than with the more relaxed (for NA) 4.083 ratio. I kept it that way for almost ten years.
From personal experience I would compare an SC300 2JZ-GE NA + W58/R154 + 4.272 ratio to a *bit* of how a GR86/BRZ feels in terms of short, aggressive gearing and response... but they're otherwise very different cars. Whether naturally aspirated or turbocharged a W58 or R154 equipped SC naturally feels more muscle car like and the short geared NA 86/BRZ feels nothing like muscle car. But still... I feel the comparison is worth bringing up to give some idea.
Super short gearing in a naturally aspirated manual transmission SC is a very fun and responsive combination
...
3.92 (3.916) is a good match for a turbo 2.5L or 3.0L automatic setup. 3.76 (aka 3.77 aka 3.769) is also a good match for turbo 3.0L automatic, turbo 3.0L R154
With an NA engine and a W58 or R154 3.92 will feel quite long and not very responsive.
However with a turbo 3.0L and an R154 the 3.92 ratio will feel racy and aggressive with a slightly higher than necessary cruise RPM versus the better matched 3.76 on that kind of setup. However if comes down to preference. I have tried both with a turbo 3.0L + R154 and ultimately stuck with 3.76 but the 3.92 ratio with a turbo 3.0L + R154 was definitely fun.
With these cars and their engines a turbocharger changes everything. Whereas an NA 2JZ-GE and W58/R154 benefits from a fun 4.272 ratio it absolutely is not a good ratio if the engine is turbocharged.
The exception would be if you have a turbocharged JZ engine and have bolted it to a pricey Tremec T56 Magnum 6-speed transmission... in which case 4.272 or 4.083 actually become ideal ratios again.
...
Also in the case of naturally aspirated stock NA SC300's or turbo SC300's an LSD is also a game changer to the whole package experience... but I digress.
06-27-23, 08:47 AM
