TX: 1998 SC400VVTi W58 Swap finally finished!!!
02-14-12, 08:03 PM
#1
TX: 1998 SC400VVTi W58 Swap finally finished!!!
As the title says..............
I finally got my car back! It is awesome! It feels like a different car. Nice and torquey. Nice grumble now that the cats are gone. Not fast like a boosted car but a blast as a daily driver. Cruises 70 mph at 2500 rpm in 5th gear which is very comfortable. The 3.26 rear end is perfect for the W58 and the VVTi V8.
No, I didn't do the work. A friend of mine in Houston did it all of it for me.
I used the Bulletcars UZ to W58 bellhousing and 10 inch clutch kit
-SC300 driveshaft
-3.26 Rear end with OEM LSD (I had it left over from a JDM V161 I put into my SC300)
Issues were:
-Cats near the front had to be removed because of being too close to clutch fork on one side (thus both were removed)
-Speed sensor was custom designed/made by my friend as he could not get anything OEM to work. He tried Marlin Crawler also and no luck
No CEL. Not sure how he accomplished this so if you want to know you will have to contact him.
He is willing to do the swap for others as well but you will have to discuss prices with him. I will provide his contact information on request.
Everything works except the seat memory buttons.
Cruise control, traction control, reverse lights and reverse indicator on dash all work perfectly.
The only driveability issue is a slight hesitation when accelerating slowly. Apparently, the ECU retards timing slightly when it thinks that it is shifting. No issues if you put your foot in it and accelerate hard (How I normally drive).
Other mods were:
-Supra OEM TT suspension (new springs/struts..... I don't like coilovers and prefer not to be too low)
-TRD Sway bars front and rear,
-TT brakes front and rear,
-18 inch VAPC JDM GS/LS optional wheels 18 x 8 (narrowed) in front and 18 x 9 rear.
-MOMO Super Anatomico shift **** (Awesome!)
-Supra Seats and Cusco strut tower bar still need to be installed.
I didn't take pictures of anything because I figured that there wasn't much to show. I will gladly take some pictures if anyone wants to see something or if you guys simply want proof that it was truly done.
I finally got my car back! It is awesome! It feels like a different car. Nice and torquey. Nice grumble now that the cats are gone. Not fast like a boosted car but a blast as a daily driver. Cruises 70 mph at 2500 rpm in 5th gear which is very comfortable. The 3.26 rear end is perfect for the W58 and the VVTi V8. No, I didn't do the work. A friend of mine in Houston did it all of it for me.
I used the Bulletcars UZ to W58 bellhousing and 10 inch clutch kit
-SC300 driveshaft
-3.26 Rear end with OEM LSD (I had it left over from a JDM V161 I put into my SC300)
Issues were:
-Cats near the front had to be removed because of being too close to clutch fork on one side (thus both were removed)
-Speed sensor was custom designed/made by my friend as he could not get anything OEM to work. He tried Marlin Crawler also and no luck
No CEL. Not sure how he accomplished this so if you want to know you will have to contact him.
He is willing to do the swap for others as well but you will have to discuss prices with him. I will provide his contact information on request.
Everything works except the seat memory buttons.
Cruise control, traction control, reverse lights and reverse indicator on dash all work perfectly.
The only driveability issue is a slight hesitation when accelerating slowly. Apparently, the ECU retards timing slightly when it thinks that it is shifting. No issues if you put your foot in it and accelerate hard (How I normally drive).
Other mods were:
-Supra OEM TT suspension (new springs/struts..... I don't like coilovers and prefer not to be too low)
-TRD Sway bars front and rear,
-TT brakes front and rear,
-18 inch VAPC JDM GS/LS optional wheels 18 x 8 (narrowed) in front and 18 x 9 rear.
-MOMO Super Anatomico shift **** (Awesome!)
-Supra Seats and Cusco strut tower bar still need to be installed.
I didn't take pictures of anything because I figured that there wasn't much to show. I will gladly take some pictures if anyone wants to see something or if you guys simply want proof that it was truly done.
02-14-12, 08:20 PM
#4
Honestly, I really don't pay too much attention to my gas mileage. I figure that if I drive a V8 then I have to pay to play. Also, it's so much fun to accelerate that I am sure that my mileage will be worse if I check.
The car is so much fun that my friend that did the work is considering doing the swap for himself as well.
The car is so much fun that my friend that did the work is considering doing the swap for himself as well.
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02-14-12, 09:05 PM
#9
Yes! Finally someone did it!!!
There's more than a few people that would LOVE a detailed write-up on how this was done. Few questions off the top of my head..
1) I figured getting rid of the CEL was going to be the biggest problem. Since I have a carPC I was just going to install an OBD scanner to get rid of it, but I would love to hear how he actually did it.
2) What was the problem with the speed sensor? Does it not allow the car to drive if the transmission is not engaged or something? And what exactly do you mean by 'custom designed/made' speed sensor?
3) How did the power seats stop working? Is that just by coincidence, or something to do with the swap? Not sure how the two are related..
4) This acceleration hesitation, is it noticeable only to you? Or would passengers also notice it?
5) VERY curious about price, since it seems like theres some custom stuff that needs to be done. Can you give us a ballpark figure? Is it ridiculously expensive? Or is it affordable like a 92-94 sc400 manual swap?
Sucks I live so far, not realistic for your buddy to do the swap for me. Hopefully he can provide us all some info on how to DYI it.
..thats all I can think of right now, but I've always dreamt of doing this type of swap. Glad someone finally took the plunge and it was successful.
Pics!!!! Video!!!! Too bad no pics were taken during install.
There's more than a few people that would LOVE a detailed write-up on how this was done. Few questions off the top of my head..
1) I figured getting rid of the CEL was going to be the biggest problem. Since I have a carPC I was just going to install an OBD scanner to get rid of it, but I would love to hear how he actually did it.
2) What was the problem with the speed sensor? Does it not allow the car to drive if the transmission is not engaged or something? And what exactly do you mean by 'custom designed/made' speed sensor?
3) How did the power seats stop working? Is that just by coincidence, or something to do with the swap? Not sure how the two are related..
4) This acceleration hesitation, is it noticeable only to you? Or would passengers also notice it?
5) VERY curious about price, since it seems like theres some custom stuff that needs to be done. Can you give us a ballpark figure? Is it ridiculously expensive? Or is it affordable like a 92-94 sc400 manual swap?
Sucks I live so far, not realistic for your buddy to do the swap for me. Hopefully he can provide us all some info on how to DYI it.
..thats all I can think of right now, but I've always dreamt of doing this type of swap. Glad someone finally took the plunge and it was successful.
Pics!!!! Video!!!! Too bad no pics were taken during install.
02-15-12, 01:45 AM
#12
Yes! Finally someone did it!!!
There's more than a few people that would LOVE a detailed write-up on how this was done. Few questions off the top of my head..
1) I figured getting rid of the CEL was going to be the biggest problem. Since I have a carPC I was just going to install an OBD scanner to get rid of it, but I would love to hear how he actually did it.
2) What was the problem with the speed sensor? Does it not allow the car to drive if the transmission is not engaged or something? And what exactly do you mean by 'custom designed/made' speed sensor?
3) How did the power seats stop working? Is that just by coincidence, or something to do with the swap? Not sure how the two are related..
4) This acceleration hesitation, is it noticeable only to you? Or would passengers also notice it?
5) VERY curious about price, since it seems like theres some custom stuff that needs to be done. Can you give us a ballpark figure? Is it ridiculously expensive? Or is it affordable like a 92-94 sc400 manual swap?
Sucks I live so far, not realistic for your buddy to do the swap for me. Hopefully he can provide us all some info on how to DYI it.
..thats all I can think of right now, but I've always dreamt of doing this type of swap. Glad someone finally took the plunge and it was successful.
Pics!!!! Video!!!! Too bad no pics were taken during install.
There's more than a few people that would LOVE a detailed write-up on how this was done. Few questions off the top of my head..
1) I figured getting rid of the CEL was going to be the biggest problem. Since I have a carPC I was just going to install an OBD scanner to get rid of it, but I would love to hear how he actually did it.
2) What was the problem with the speed sensor? Does it not allow the car to drive if the transmission is not engaged or something? And what exactly do you mean by 'custom designed/made' speed sensor?
3) How did the power seats stop working? Is that just by coincidence, or something to do with the swap? Not sure how the two are related..
4) This acceleration hesitation, is it noticeable only to you? Or would passengers also notice it?
5) VERY curious about price, since it seems like theres some custom stuff that needs to be done. Can you give us a ballpark figure? Is it ridiculously expensive? Or is it affordable like a 92-94 sc400 manual swap?
Sucks I live so far, not realistic for your buddy to do the swap for me. Hopefully he can provide us all some info on how to DYI it.
..thats all I can think of right now, but I've always dreamt of doing this type of swap. Glad someone finally took the plunge and it was successful.
Pics!!!! Video!!!! Too bad no pics were taken during install.
2) Speed Sensor: This is what took him the longest time. He was going to have something custom machined but a one-off would have been $800. Neither he nor I liked that idea. Then he said that he was going to take some existing part and have it machined down in order to make it work. I really don't know what he finally did but I will ask.
3) Seats: The power seats work fine. It is only the memory buttons on the door that don't work. This is because the transmission has to be in PARK in order to set them and there is no way of accomplishing this. It may be fixable but it really wasn't important to me.
4) Hesitation: I have only noticed it when changing from 1st to 2nd gear when going slowly. It feels like the traction control has engaged briefly. It hesitates and then is fine. There is no flashing of the traction control indicator. I know that it is not the traction control causing the hesitation because the indicator flashes very easily with the LSD. It did this even when the Auto tranny was still installed. I simply turn the traction control off when I drive. I didn't have him inactivate it because I figured that I might need it in the rain. It was a good decision since it has already saved me several times. It is fairly easy to spin your tires in the rain with a V8 and a manual transmission.
5) Price: I already had the transmission, driveshaft, and rear end. The bell-housing/clutch kit was around $2000 dollars shipped from Australia to Texas. Labor: I will simply say very, very reasonable.
I will try to get some pictures this weekend.
Last edited by lev00221; 02-15-12 at 01:51 AM.
02-15-12, 06:43 AM
#14
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Pretty cool, If i where to ever do a manual 400 it'd have to be a 98+
i'm sure the memory seats could be fixed fairly easy by wiring up something to them to think the car is in park..
i'm sure the memory seats could be fixed fairly easy by wiring up something to them to think the car is in park..
