Parker Gen

hahah, I thought someone would notice that. Yeah it's not finished yet. I'm getting new headlight housings, as these ones were being worked to fit LED's. Hence the double globed look on the left.

Parker Gen

So more work in my not so free time...

I decided, the front will need some more custom work before a respray, so I decided to use stock ES headlights, but rebuild the housings, and in the end, use almost no transparent plastic for the headlights. I will be designing custom fibreglass housings so you only see the projectors.

I have decided that I will be spraying the car all black thus far, so a black headlight is the way to go as well.

DIY- Removing headlight housings.

First off you want to take out the headlights, by removing the 3 bolts that hold it in. They are easily visible. Undo those 3 bolts, and then undo the light connectors to the housing. The headlights are now free.

Take your entire headlight and stick it into the oven. This may seem daunting to do at first, but it's really not that bad. Make sure you remove all the plastic clips that are in place to hold the plastic transparent section to the headlight. You don't want to put those in the oven.

The oven does not need to be hot at all when you put the headlight in, just put it in and turn it to max temp. You will only need to leave it until it reaches about 70 degrees celsious (that helps for you to figure out how long to leave the light in/ time wise) and take it out, and using a large flat head screw driver start prying along the edges where the glue is. It should be soft, and will stay that way for at least 2 minutes out of the oven. Pry as much as you can, with the help of a second small flat head screw driver to get into smaller sections.
You want to make sure that at this point you don't try prying along the edge next to the indicator housing, because there is a phillip top screw holding that part in. This screw can't be taken out until you have heated the glue though, as it sits in it. Because you have heated the headlight, now take out this screw. (Hence the reason you weren't told to remove at the beginning).


Put the headlight back in the oven as it is likley the glue has become strong again. The oven should have continued heating at the same time. Put it in and leave it for a few minutes, it won't be damaged from this.


Take it out and pry as quickly as you can, hopefully getting all the way around the headlight. If not, just put it back in again for a few minutes, and you will get it next time.

Anyway, what you are left with if you take out everything, is a black housed headlight! That's what I was after. It won't make much difference as this will be fibreglassed soon, but the thing is... leaving the headlights in this configuration, instead of painting the shiny projector covers is that you can now put angel eyes and LED strips onto it and look factory.

What you have to do though, is take the amber cover for the front indicator, and take some glue you melted, and grab a hair dryer or something that can heat the glue again. Heat up a tiny bit of the glue and place it onto the bottom of the amber cover. Than once you have covered the bottom, heat the glue again, and then quickly place the amber cover directly over the indicator light bulb. You now have a legal indicator.


Since you have a perfectly fine plastic transparent cover, you can just put it back over the headlights as is, and you have a neat looking light. (Clean it while you are at it)

Anyway, here is the new in progress mean looking front.

Parker Gen

A few more pictures of the progress. Will be fibreglassing soon. Weight loss is an important thing to me, so lots of parts have been changed around and removed to lighten up the ride. So far the loss is around 60kg from the top of my head. Will post a spreadsheet of each items weight later.

Also this complete stainless steel drift performance products air intake is very very good. :thumbsup: Not the cheapest in their range, but defenatly one of their best.

Cleared tails and covers removed. Look brand new!

Some of the weight reduction...

Parker Gen

Hi all.

I thought I could use some help from you all that have any knowledge on engines and gearboxes.
If anyone could list any engines and boxes that will fit the ES please post your suggestions.
Anything that comes standard as turbo aspirated and is cross mounted, that can handle the ES weight.
Cheers.

The Mitsubishi VR4 engine may work? 6A12TT

Does anyone know if the manual es300 gearbox fits directly in as replacement for the auto es trnsmission? Is it the same size and mounting position, is there any modification needed when replacing the auto tranny with the manual box? Or does it sit right in. I'm not talking about function, just want to know if it will be able to bolt on without modification.

01LEXPL

iTrader: (10)

Hybrid motor swaps on this board [es], are unheard of, to be honest the only ones i have seen/read about being swapped in were the same motors.

In terms of the 5sp tranny, it is hard for anyone on here to call since majority [a minuscule amount came with 5sp], and well no one probably has any knowledge on the topic.

Last, since you are in AU, were there 'other' motor option for this car? Is the 5sp more common there? As you can tell i am used to seeing, the 3L V6 paired with an AT.

In terms of the swap to another motor itself; it would be ******in' sweet to see that done. Second, it will be a labor intensive project since you must fab up new motor mounts and well most other motors do not have the same motor mount locations, so that may be a large restriction in engine choice. Last, i would suggest checking out the hp/weight ratio of the VR4, and the Es300.

Ie. 2000lbs/200hp nets = 10 lbs/1hp. So do that for whatever make you have in mind, to give you a more 'realistic' idea. I mean if the VR4 is a 3800lbs cow with a I4 motor and pulls it i think it would be fine in you're ES300.

Sorry i couldnt be of more help.

llcoolpass

yeah of course it bolts on without modification. for more tips, visit the toyota forum [google it] and youll see lots of that stuff... and then you can taylor it to the es . the 1mzfe has same bellhousing. the 5spd transaxle in my car actually even bolts up to the v6 in the latest 'yota/lex

the stock engine is great already... why would you put something like that in there man?
research. and stop thread hijacking! or cheney is gonna come get you

Parker Gen

Well yeah that's the thing, I was looking into it and the thing is, the Auto transmission would run a thin driveshaft because the torque converter is sitting behind it. I'd have to change the driveshaft to a manual gearbox styled one. So yeah I'm guessing it should be able to bolt straight on, but will need to change that part first if I go ahead with it.

And I'd swap it because a turbo engine will always beat a non turbo. And once you've been aspirated there's no turning back.

Hmm, no the ES didn't come with other engine options here. That specific VR4 engine is a 2lt V6 turbo, much more than 200HP output. But yeah was just looking at it, would be really hard to apply it without a workshop. The thing is, the ES is front wheel drive, and that limits a lot of options, after looking over it. Doesn't seem worth the while to work over the engine compared to other projects. Rear wheel drive is the way to go, easy access to everything.

llcoolpass

the driveshaft is not in the engine, its in the transmission, so you wouldn't have to change the driveshaft of a 5speedtransaxle... that didn't make sense. look up the torque curve of the 3vz-fe. it's really good. I still think the mazda v6 was the engine that everyone should be talking about , but thanks to ford, it's silenced done forever. KL-ZE jspec would still be competitive in a car today. Came out in 1992:
2.5L EXTREMELY COMPACT and LIGHTWEIGHT. 4 bolt mains. all same strength as other jap v6 at the time and then some. 196 hp& 6500 RPM 164 lbft @ 4500 [and has flat torque curve. hint: 145 torque figure at low RPM], fuel cut is 7500 [designed to operate], redline is 7000 but engine can go higher if needed. fits in mazda protege, 626, mx6, mx3, 626, ford probe. plus the manual trans that went with it was designed for auto sports type driving and accomodates the engine very well. great gearing. check out youtube for amazing klze clips

Parker Gen

No sorry, I meant flywheel.
If I am going to swap the engine, it'll need to be putting out much more than 196HP on a stock setting. In the ES 196HP won't go far, I was thinking at least 250HP. Otherwise there's no point to it.