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Yep. Went in quite easy without the exhaust manifolds in the way. And, you know...flew it 4 times before landing the thing...
just details, details, details, now. Starter's in, that's a fun one. Learned the clutch fork just pops in and out on it's little perch when you push it against the retainer springs, so that got the snot cleaned out of it...woulda been nice to know that quick uninstall method about a week or two ago. Aside from a M12 bellhousing bolt that's not happy--it'll go, but it needs a wrench the whole time--everything's going together pretty smoothly.
Everything that was going to break has broken, now I just gotta get it running again.
Caught the tray out of the corner of my eye and Ministry of Silly Walked over to grab one. This one's probably the "worst" of the pile, but the coated nozzle tip still appears to be doing it's job. That ring of carbon on the uncoated part is the interface with the head...carbon there just seals it better. Not that I suspect any leakage.
So I let the driver side exhaust manifold and transmission mount eat up wayyy too much time. If I could do it over, I'd fly the engine with the LHS manifold torqued to the engine, thread the needle between the steering shaft, brake booster, and transmission bellhousing, then bolt up and torque the passenger side manifold after the engine's in. I would also tie the starter into it's place while flying the engine, since the cat will make the starter install almost impossible.
Trans mount just needed me to BFH the V-perch onto the transmission, and I didn't want to because aggravating severe tinnitus sucks. Yeah, I know, boo-hoo. It's installed now.
Any of you Lexus techs wanna post a picture of your electrical connector de-pinning tools for me to copy? I'm doing okayish de-pinning connectors with small screwdrivers, but getting the rubber grommets back in seems to want a special tool. Part of me wants to just let the broken connectors fly and get the thing driving, but I have the spare harnesses and it's already apart...
Alright, I had to take a break to capitalize on another opportunity, and I had to wait for some downstream o2 sensors to show up because I did quite a number on one with my 13W clown feet while spinning around on the creeper...wasn't any way I was saving those pins. Today I intend to get it off the jackstands and hear a first fire.
One thing I'd seriously recommend every one of you with an older pre-facelift 2IS that hasn't been in the garage it's whole life do is take out your battery, battery tray, steering ECU, and the plastic pan underneath all of it. Soak that handful of fasteners in evaporust or your corrosion eater of choice, clean up those plastics real good, and start scratching around with an awl at the metal underneath that big plastic part. I had a decent amount of corrosion starting to form on exposed metal, and some was bubbling under the overspray/primer...I am glad I hit it with a scotch-brite and a phosphated primer; stopped it in it's tracks. Next time I have the engine out, I'll be stripping that whole area down and spraying the whole bay body color, 212 obsidian.
Alright. Enough procrastinating.
This thing's just one can of worms after another...
Mission failed yesterday. Everything but about 20 of those coarse threaded fasteners and one plastic part that I couldn't figure out how to install made it on, though.
I actually tend to like plastic cars. The first powertrain swap I ever participated in was putting a 2.4 Ecotec from a HHR into a '00 Saturn SL2...there wasn't a single fastener on that car that you could just forget to install without it coming back to you somehow. Toyota obviously takes the opposite route when designing "luxury" cars....
I still really like the mechanical bits of this thing, though. It's like a Kubota tractor powertrain wrapped up in every "screw the consumer, they're just consumers" bad idea I've ever seen in the automotive world. Up there with Mercedes' "Oil drain plug? Never heard of it", and BMW's proprietary M7x1.5 valve cover fastener pitch where they only make the fasteners out of aluminum they scavenge from empty beer cans that've been left in a campfire overnight (and then they charge $65 a set...for like 12 nuts).
Transmission stayed put, I don't think I quite have the room to do the classic muscle-car powertrain swap...and I doubt it'd be any fun to thread the tailshaft into the tunnel while avoiding the subframe.
Once I remembered to plug in the o2 sensors, the car starts, runs, drives, and doesn't throw any codes. The increase in power is noticable, particularly from a stop...it takes significantly less throttle input to get the the traction nannies to activate, and you don't need to add throttle to avoid stalling practically at all. Coming out of corners can be remarkably more spirited.
The single mass flywheel, ACT disk, and re-used LUK pressure plate work just fine with the delay valve still installed. The new throwout and input bearings have quieted the gearbox down while it's idling in neutral. New trans mount isn't noticeable, but the old one is waaaay mushier than the new one, so now I wanna put the Megan engine mounts in, keep it from yawing...
If it wasn't for all the plastic--the electrical connectors and the underpan/front clip--I'd say this was an enjoyable, easy swap, but it certainly was not. The quality of the plastic is pretty poor, and the ways in which it is applied are counterintuitive to someone trying to disturb as few systems as possible, which makes the fact that all of it will eventually end up in the oceans even more depressing...glad I ain't got kids.
Edit: the 3.0 is currently being run in stock form, aside from my polished up SCV plate, intake and throttle body. The polished TB adds nothing but aesthetics and a slight amount of oil protection from the PCV that goes to the intake tube. I reshaped the plastic and SCV plate a little bit to straighten the flow some and reduce puddles, but that's all the improvements it has now. Full-stock exhaust right now, after we get our 2yr cert, I'll be doing long tubes (maximizer) and catted mids (godsnow or godspeed, I forgot...the catback was $140 on ebay with shipping, and the mufflers don't) into stock axleback.
Popping in here real quick to note that I'd gotten used to using the clutch pedal as a toggle switch and rapidly pushing it to bounce off the dual mass flywheel springs to simulate an intentional clutch slip while doing small maneuvers like getting up ramps...did that just now and launched the ramps under the front wheels, high-centering the car. No real damage aside from some plastic sideskirts getting scuffed and the plastic ramps getting bent in by the pinchweld.
Edit: oh yeah, and my butt ate my pants. Thought I forgot one of those plastic pop rivets in a crucial place and I'd just ran over the whole bumper or something.
Got about 100 miles on the swap, no hiccups. I'm absolutely going to delete the delay valve, though. I've stalled and lost steering more than a couple times while trying to do small maneuvers that would have been no problem before.
Also, "I dunno, it just feels like you gave me more gas pedal" means you have a lot more power, everywhere, sooner. Especially considering it's not just the same TBW pedal, but the same throttle body, too.
At some point, I'll be getting back into suspension, but I gotta source new billows and whatnot. Awful lot of consumable parts on this platform.
Cut up that injector. Still at least two components I haven't been able to separate, the spring backing plug inside the mangled tube you see in the top left, and the needle seat/nozzle tip. Figured I'd show you what's still recognizable before I attack more of these tiny welds with my dremel.
the ring in the lower left obviously magnetizes and pulls the needle off the seat, the rear of the needle sealing off the pressure feed from the rail while the contents of the injector body blow out the nozzle. The spring positions the needle to seat itself when fuel pressure is applied.
I won't be surprised if I get peepee-smacked for asking this, but I probably should have asked more than three years ago when it first struck me, and I'm terrible at estimating my own labor costs soo...
At what price point would you expect to find a set of ported and polished heads for this platform? Whole GR family, the 2GR would probably be easier and faster for me with my tooling. Stripped, assembled, and assembled with install kit.
Toying with the idea of doing different stages with the 6-injector heads. First being a smoothing and polishing on stock airflow, two adding an intake bowl for the valve that gets blocked by SCV, and three being something slightly less aggressive than Head Games.
Any and all input appreciated, you can't hurt my feelings.
I won't be surprised if I get peepee-smacked for asking this, but I probably should have asked more than three years ago when it first struck me, and I'm terrible at estimating my own labor costs soo...
At what price point would you expect to find a set of ported and polished heads for this platform? Whole GR family, the 2GR would probably be easier and faster for me with my tooling. Stripped, assembled, and assembled with install kit.
Toying with the idea of doing different stages with the 6-injector heads. First being a smoothing and polishing on stock airflow, two adding an intake bowl for the valve that gets blocked by SCV, and three being something slightly less aggressive than Head Games.
Any and all input appreciated, you can't hurt my feelings.
JM2C it's more work than most are willing to put into as 97% of them are running fine. Meaning - it's hard to pull an engine that has no apparent issues in hopes of getting more power.
Now if these things had blown head gaskets left and right AND they are apart anway, I bet more would bite.
That said, I would want to see before and after dyno results to know what I get once the work is done. Maybe some actual pulls too. I'm just saying it's chunk of change in gaskets and labor to pick up 15 HP. And me specifically I really don't like the idea of swapping cams and other work hardened parts between heads so finding lower mileage heads that are a complete set to swap in place of my own would be a show stopper for me right there as I don't wish to induce problems I didn't have.
On another note, I would almost bet one could get more from an improved upper intake but keeping our hood line becomes a problem.
Just to confirm: the 3.0 heads are stock at this point, yes?
And what are your thoughts on that other post I wrote about the 2GR running on the 4GR ECU? I think it's possible to fire all 12 injectors using inputs from DI to drive PI but you need to be able to apply another map to the PI to dial it in. Knowing what you know about the injectors and the flame of 2GR, maybe it's bad idea?
Yes, the 3GR's running as OEM as possible until we make it through inspection and get another registration sticker. Also a little curious about long term fuel trim, but I keep getting too excited about all the places I'ma hate-drive the old winter tires to even remember my phone, let alone BT connect it and start logging. The Magic Collars and bracing are quite noticeable, I'm racing the first snows to get the shocks and balljoints on now that I have fresh billows, mounts, hardware, ect.
Inasfar as piggybacking a set of port injectors into the 4GR's loom to run 2GR hardware...I think standalones like the AEM F/IC-6 support exactly that, and is one of the reasons I pulled the electromagnet ring off of that innocent DI injector--to see what makes it tick. Literally. But to the rest of your question, yeah, I suppose the DI signal can be used to time a secondary driver, but from what I understand about tuning Toyota engines,(which is limited to watching someone else have problems with things I've never had problems with, like keeping a clean cam/crank signal, needing custom oil pressure signal values, ect) though, adding something into or subtracting from the factory's signals is harder than just outright replacing it with something else, hence my proclivity to eventually be putting a set of -FE heads on a -FSE block and taking as much Toyota out of the engine control as I can.
And RE: P&P heads, yeah, that's about what I thought, which is why I'm milking this Subaru cow while I can. I swear the state songbird of Colorado is the Subie flat-4. Can't go 20 minutes without hearing one rev past 6k. 'Em boys take their heads off almost every other oil change; I'm sadly not exaggerating. To them, $1500 is a bargain for a simple 80-grit wall cleanup and quick valve job with the Neway set, but here...I'ma need to show something before I ask for that kind of money.
Yes, the 3GR's running as OEM as possible until we make it through inspection and get another registration sticker. Also a little curious about long term fuel trim, but I keep getting too excited about all the places I'ma hate-drive the old winter tires to even remember my phone, let alone BT connect it and start logging. The Magic Collars and bracing are quite noticeable, I'm racing the first snows to get the shocks and balljoints on now that I have fresh billows, mounts, hardware, ect.
Inasfar as piggybacking a set of port injectors into the 4GR's loom to run 2GR hardware...I think standalones like the AEM F/IC-6 support exactly that, and is one of the reasons I pulled the electromagnet ring off of that innocent DI injector--to see what makes it tick. Literally. But to the rest of your question, yeah, I suppose the DI signal can be used to time a secondary driver, but from what I understand about tuning Toyota engines,(which is limited to watching someone else have problems with things I've never had problems with, like keeping a clean cam/crank signal, needing custom oil pressure signal values, ect) though, adding something into or subtracting from the factory's signals is harder than just outright replacing it with something else, hence my proclivity to eventually be putting a set of -FE heads on a -FSE block and taking as much Toyota out of the engine control as I can.
And RE: P&P heads, yeah, that's about what I thought, which is why I'm milking this Subaru cow while I can. I swear the state songbird of Colorado is the Subie flat-4. Can't go 20 minutes without hearing one rev past 6k. 'Em boys take their heads off almost every other oil change; I'm sadly not exaggerating. To them, $1500 is a bargain for a simple 80-grit wall cleanup and quick valve job with the Neway set, but here...I'ma need to show something before I ask for that kind of money.
What kind of gains are the subi's getting? More peak HP and does it help or hinder low end / low RPM torque?
As for DI to PI, agreed. Gassing the intake when it's shut would not do it justice. We need a way to advance it. If fueling can be overcome that's to date the best bang per buck to pickup 100 HP.
I'm certain all the little things could be worked out but the fact is we have no idea what they've done with the VVT-i between the 2 and 4? The curve is different so I can only imagine the VVT-i map is too.
As for the 3.0, will the 4GR heads you ported fit it?
07-14-21, 08:57 PM
