CLass of 1

Yeah I get what you mean. I am just hoping that if I have to make any modifications to the tunnel that they’re minimal. Fisch hasn’t had anyone install in an SC, which is crazy to me, but they don’t know for sure. Fingers crossed!

Nick

KahnBB6

iTrader: (5)

Nick, I'm learning a lot from DrAtomica as well reading this thread! This specific style of VVT-i engine and transmission combination has all it's own ins and outs to become familiar with!

As for the transmission tunnel question, the sheetmetal is only different on TOP. I *think* automatic top tunnel metal was the same for all model years... although it could have changed for A/T's mid way through the model run and I'm just not aware of that but I don't think so.

However the manual transmission top tunnel metal section was indeed different and there were two versions:

One used from 1992-1994 for the early style "top-loader" W58's and R154's (R154's in early Soarer JZZ30's from 1991-1994) all of which required a "swan neck" shifter in order to make up the rest of the distance that the early SC300 W58 and early Soarer R154 transmission extension housings couldn't cover.

The revised M/T top tunnel metal (which is still sold new today) is for the later style "tripod" extended W58's and R154's. Also for V160's if someone were so inclined. These require a more or less straight shifter design since the tripod setup aligns the shifter's hand position and fulcrum point directly over the tunnel opening and extension housing parts on the transmission. This design showed up in SC300's and Soarers for model year 1995 and the exact same sheetmetal part was used in the MKIV Supra from its first model year introduction (1992 for Japan and 1993 for the U.S. and Canada and other export markets).

I don't think seeking out the tripod style M/T sheetmetal makes sense in the case of an SC400 auto to CD009 swap.... unless it really would make the install that much easier and cleaner. I think a custom made A/T tunnel top to aftermarket M/T metal housing is what Grannas Racing and other outfits sell.

But as for the lower transmission tunnel sheetmetal on SC's and Soarer Z30's I think I recall some people stating that for a V160 install there was some hammering/widening required to make the wider transmission fit. This suggests that the lower structural tunnel sheetmetal in the MKIV Supra is wider than in the SC/Soarer... despite the different styles of OEM tunnel top metal for all-A/T, early M/T-SC/Soarer and later M/T-all-tripod-SC/Soarer/MKIV being possible to install into any of these cars.

KahnBB6

iTrader: (5)

I love the way the way the way your SC400 sounds at the end of the video. I know the reasons Lexus never made a manual version of the V8 but they absolutely should have. I hope you can sort out the cluster issue soon and then get to investigating what specific CEL codes the ECU is pulling that may be affecting your timing and/or VVT-i function.

DrAtomica

Appreciate the kind words.

I will try to get another video of a nice drive with somewhat of the interior finished so there is no excessive noise. I want to capture the sound of the engine and the transmission from the cabin with nothing else, the shifting sounds so satisfying and downshift & rev matching is a such a nice combination with the 1UZ that you almost never hear.


I'm almost sure that the issue of my instrument cluster not displaying or turning on is because the fuse blew up, specifically the GAUGE #29 fuse. Since all the bottom lights are showing and those signals come from different parts of the car. The car is still at my friend's shop so I don't get to check on it too often besides the weekend, so will have to wait on that.
I have ordered a power steering line from DriftMotion that I'm still waiting on because my P/S leak has gotten worse so I'll try to get that fixed too. I'm still waiting on my resistors to arrive so I can get rid of at least the shift solenoid CELs.
There is a lot of work that needs to be done in such a short time, there is a car meet in Austin next month (RADWOOD) that I plan to go and show my car there, I know a few other SC owners will be there so hopefully I can make it.

Matt L

DrAtomica, Did you get your VVTi working? I thought you mentioned that you didn't think you were at full power? I didn't think the VVTi had any signal from the transmission, but from reading this thread, it sounded like there was some electrical signals from the tranny going to the ECU which would control the VVTi?
Matt

DrAtomica

Hi Matt,

I'm not entirely sure, I'll need to check the logs through OBDII and see if it's working or not. My guess its not because it feels that way. I don't think it's the lack of signal from the transmission but more towards the ECU disabling VVT-i and possibly retarding timing as a "soft" limp mode due to transmission codes. Looking at the wiring diagrams VVT-i or any engine signals are not connected to the transmission in any way.

Matt L

DrAtomica, please keep us posted. I sold my 1996 SC400 years ago and have been on the hunt for another one. I would prefer a 1998-2000 SC400 with VVTi for a swap candidate, but I want to make sure you get your VVTi working before I commit to buying a VVTi car. Otherwise, I will be just fine with a non-VVTi SC400 if I can find a nice clean platform. Great write-up on this build! I will follow it closely!
Matt

Vinhooo

I love this thread so much. I am from Houston as well, and will be picking up my SC300 this up coming week. Can't wait to see all your plans come together.

DrAtomica

Well I have the ATEmu, just haven't installed it, still waiting on a few resistors. That should fix any issues for the swap. It's a small piggyback type unit that fools the ECU into thinking that there is a automatic transmission in the car.


Thanks! Good luck on getting that SC300. Maybe I'll host a SC meet in a few months locally to get the cars around.

Vinhooo

Thank you so much! Please let me know, I just picked her up today and is stoked!

ericjergs

Fantastic thread! Looking to get into an SC and eventually manual swapping the car as well.
I was kind of under the impression the OBD1 cars would be easier to do the swap on, but it seems like the ATEMU piece solves most ECU issues? To your knowledge, is there any other hurdles the 98-00 cars have with manual swapping that the early models don't?

DrAtomica

Instrument Cluster is back up and running, it was just the 10amp GAUGE fuse in junction block no.1 next to the driver. It has never happened in all the years I've owned the car so need to figure out what caused it, maybe because the ground wasn't connected on the center console.



For 98-00 it seems the only thing is that VVTi MIGHT be disabled, again I haven't verified that yet but will try to get that done this weekend if possible.
On the pre 98 it seems the speedometer may not work so you might have to figure out a different way, originally I thought the speedometer would not work but it appears that mine works so I'm assuming that's a 98+ thing. I thought of a few solutions that I posted in previous threads so you may be interested in those if you have a older SC.

Other than that I see no differences in the swap, the rest of the stuff is identical.

ericjergs

Thanks for the insight! Interesting stuff.
I'll be following, hopefully you have good luck verifying your VVT issues this weekend.

DrAtomica

Diverting a bit from the other swap stuff to try out something different, this will be a another small project that will make the Odachi stand out but won't look into until after a while.

Custom Trunk/Spoiler

Some friends and I were talking about spoilers so we started looking for wings/spoilers for the Z30 chassis, I wasn't surprised that there wasn't much out there and most of the things weren't really my style.
There are some spoilers that I do like but almost all of them are out of existence, there are companies that make reps but even then there are maybe 2-3 styles left.
The OEM 97+ spoiler works extremely well with the design flow of the vehicle but I wanted the car to stand out a bit especially since I do want to put a spoiler on it, preferably something that is a bit tall, although finding something like is next to impossible.



OEM 97+




HIRO Spoiler



D Speed



Supra MKIV


I really like the HIRO and Supra spoiler but I feel like there is some element that is missing and then I realized that even spoilerless these cars look good because it has a built in duckbill.
If that hatch/trunk was just flat similar to the SC then it would look a bit awkward but the curve of the spoiler works well with the curve of the trunk.

Supra MKIV



I started looking at other cars too and then noticed that even the SC430 and LC500 have that although on their side it is a bit subtle.


SC430



LC500


One thing that occurred to me was that if I do choose to go with a spoiler then I lose the third brake light, now I can get one off a spoilerless SC but I figured why not have something integrated. This is where I got the idea from my other car.
My 1994 Toyota Celica that I picked for a few hundred dollars, it's been quite the trooper since all the work is being done on the SC400.
It has the same type of built in duckbill spoiler that the Supra has although slightly more aggressive.




It's difficult to find a Supra hatch but the Celica ones are available throughout many junkyards, so I thought what would happen if I combine the SC and the Celica hatch. Will the design work, is it possible that I can make it flow?
Well I still don't know but the journey on those questions begins today.

I picked up this trunk from a 93 or 94 SC400 and started to get to work on it with a friend.
First we measured how wide the Celica trunk and how wide the SC400 trunk is.
The Celica trunk measures at 46" while the SC400 trunk measures somewhere between 49-50" which leaves us about 4 inches of space.
Those 4-5 inches of space means it should be enough for us to sand down that area enough and smooth it out with the chassis, to make it look like a smooth flow of design.

We measured how high the Celica duckbill goes and made a cardboard layout out of it and then evenly spacing it out on the spoiler to see what might the height look like.
At it's peak it will look like the center piece but the more it goes away from the center the shorter it will become.
I have absolutely no experience in custom designing parts, using molds or anything like that so I'm just using what's around me and figuring it out as I go along but this is what we came up with.
The numbers don't really mean anything for now but eventually all those pieces will trim down a bit this is just to see how it may look like at the backend.





What I want in the end is the design to look something like this, it also leaves the quarter panels untouched which in my opinion are one of the best curves in terms of car design in the way how they sweep and join with the end line of the trunk.
I still have a lot of designing to do in my head and see what else I can do to improve the design but it will be a long road ahead and something that I will give small updates because this will take a few months at the very least.
I need to figure out what materials I should use for creating a design and if there are any tools that will help me along the way.





BONUS:

While searching for the original concepts on the Z30 and see how they were thinking of the design I found this short paragraph. Now some of you may remember how they were thinking of designing the 1UZ into a 40 valve design instead of the 32 valves we have but this was new to me, apparently it's possible there was some discussion going about the V12 into this chassis to compete with the 850i.

ericjergs

This would be sick