2JZ-GTE swap smog passable? Any Shops?
05-28-14, 11:40 PM
#16
Click the link in my signature to the build thread about my Supra. I have a Tweak'd harness. I absolutely would not recommend it and if you read through the updates you will understand why. I am now at 36 hours of repair on the harness by the shop who is doing the tuning and setup of the ProEFI features. If I could do it over again I would have had Jeremy Hepburn build me one or I would have depinned the unused connectors out of a brand new OEM harness and wired in the ProEFI myself.
At $100/hr. shop cost, I could have bought four Tweak'd harnesses by now.
At $100/hr. shop cost, I could have bought four Tweak'd harnesses by now.
I have to find myself a new harness. I have no idea if anyone can work with the current harness on (Soarer).
05-29-14, 12:11 AM
#18
When I bought my car it was a unfinished project and sadly still is.
-bought the car w/ a 1jz installed with a soarer harness w/ W58
I found myself changing most of the drive train from the diff all the way to the clutch.
Thought it had a R154 when i bought the car, but it didn't.
I ended up finding a 2nd gen R154 and fully rebuilt it at a shop in Georgia w/ all MC parts available.
Afterwards, the car has been sitting ever since... no new upgrades or anything
05-29-14, 12:28 AM
#19
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I believe you are correct.
When I bought my car it was a unfinished project and sadly still is.
-bought the car w/ a 1jz installed with a soarer harness w/ W58
I found myself changing most of the drive train from the diff all the way to the clutch.
Thought it had a R154 when i bought the car, but it didn't.
I ended up finding a 2nd gen R154 and fully rebuilt it at a shop in Georgia w/ all MC parts available.
Afterwards, the car has been sitting ever since... no new upgrades or anything
When I bought my car it was a unfinished project and sadly still is.
-bought the car w/ a 1jz installed with a soarer harness w/ W58
I found myself changing most of the drive train from the diff all the way to the clutch.
Thought it had a R154 when i bought the car, but it didn't.
I ended up finding a 2nd gen R154 and fully rebuilt it at a shop in Georgia w/ all MC parts available.
Afterwards, the car has been sitting ever since... no new upgrades or anything
05-30-14, 03:02 AM
#20
Awesome that you have an R154 with MC internals ready to go. Unfortunately the problem now is a compatable ECU. I don't think you'd be able to use an OEM unit with the GTE/5spd combo you've got. Your cheapest option is an AEM V1 at ~$700 used but I haven't seen anyone pass CA smog with one. Maybe someone here can shed some more light on whether that's possible. However I have seen a guy in Cerritos pass smog in a GTE/6spd Supra equipped with a ProEFI.
05-30-14, 05:49 AM
#21
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Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: California
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The transmission is the only thing complete and should be ready for 700+ hp, but sadly my engine is crapping out. Those ProEFIs are expensive, although effective. I heard you can save different types of tunes and with a push of a button, interchange between them. I know you can do the same with the AEM ecu but you will have to log into the ECU in order to switch between tunes. Seems to be perfect for smog purposes though.
06-16-14, 02:59 AM
#22
TRDmike, I am doing this very swap myself and yes, it is a royal pain to get it all right. Then again I am going for a completely stock/BPU USDM 2JZGTE swap.
FSR Motorsports in Montclair (and very close by to Driftmotion) gets a lot of good reviews from Supra owners. I'm planning to have them rebuild a cylinder head for me this year.
The shop you used in Georgia for the R154 rebuild... would that have been the guys at Speed For Sale in Alpharetta? I used them for my R154 rebuild and they were fantastic to deal with.
What you are looking at is a LOT of EXPENSIVE work. Ask yourself how much you want to get the car legal. You said you have a 2JZGTE block already and that's a great start. Best thing is to focus on that and keep your current daily driver car. You're going to need a lot of things and I can go into this further in PM if you wish. A few members here have USDM 2JZGTE swaps that pass smog but there aren't many such owners.
Find a USDM GTE head, the entire USDM turbo system complete with all hardware down to the stock bypass valve (OEM waste gate), a USDM OBD1 Supra TT M/T ECU, USDM TT EGR valve, EGR pipe and EGR modulator, and even a Cali legal set of TT catalytic convertors. I've been doing some research on those recently.
Sorry to hear your 1JZ engine isn't doing well but to be honest if you want to keep the car out here in Cali I would pull it and the W58 and part it out. You have an R154 so you should focus on that transmission as the one you'll keep.
Regarding blocks, I've had some in depth conversations with a few clueless BAR inspectors over the phone and one very knowledgeable and helpful BAR inspector. The deal with the engine blocks and S/N's is interesting. All 2JZGTE short blocks Toyota will sell you now are leftover JDM blocks. Toyota Corporate either could not or would not definitively tell me just how to tell if a GTE block is from an OBD1 or OBD2 car. Toyota basically changed the ECU and emissions parts and not the engines themselves for 1996+.
The knowledgeable BAR inspector confirmed to me that technically the policy is that they don't like the use of JDM engine blocks any longer but that the real thing they are looking for is FULL emissions compliance. That means everything, down to the compression ratio, Cali legal cats, EGR, stock engine bay, stock intercooler (yes, just get a stock MKIV SMIC) and all of the sensors and valves working correctly. He seemed to be of the mind that as long as you have gone to that much trouble and it's an ALL STOCK USDM 2JZGTE 320hp engine that is in good working order and passes the sniffer, that all goes a long way.
Still, I plan to call him again to confirm for myself a third time before I begin spending money on a 2JZ block. If the whims of the BAR on any particular year are that they definitely want a Toyota USDM 2JZGTE block, even if that block was never assigned a VIN number to match to its S/N, then that's what I'll give them.
Sorry if this is a bit of a jumbled post. Bottom line is it's not the simplest thing in the world. PM me if you want some more details. Again, I have NOT passed with this setup yet. I've just done a lot of research and talked to a lot of people to do it the way the BAR wants it done. The answers sometimes vary in my limited experience.
FSR Motorsports in Montclair (and very close by to Driftmotion) gets a lot of good reviews from Supra owners. I'm planning to have them rebuild a cylinder head for me this year.
The shop you used in Georgia for the R154 rebuild... would that have been the guys at Speed For Sale in Alpharetta? I used them for my R154 rebuild and they were fantastic to deal with.
What you are looking at is a LOT of EXPENSIVE work. Ask yourself how much you want to get the car legal. You said you have a 2JZGTE block already and that's a great start. Best thing is to focus on that and keep your current daily driver car. You're going to need a lot of things and I can go into this further in PM if you wish. A few members here have USDM 2JZGTE swaps that pass smog but there aren't many such owners.
Find a USDM GTE head, the entire USDM turbo system complete with all hardware down to the stock bypass valve (OEM waste gate), a USDM OBD1 Supra TT M/T ECU, USDM TT EGR valve, EGR pipe and EGR modulator, and even a Cali legal set of TT catalytic convertors. I've been doing some research on those recently.
Sorry to hear your 1JZ engine isn't doing well but to be honest if you want to keep the car out here in Cali I would pull it and the W58 and part it out. You have an R154 so you should focus on that transmission as the one you'll keep.
Regarding blocks, I've had some in depth conversations with a few clueless BAR inspectors over the phone and one very knowledgeable and helpful BAR inspector. The deal with the engine blocks and S/N's is interesting. All 2JZGTE short blocks Toyota will sell you now are leftover JDM blocks. Toyota Corporate either could not or would not definitively tell me just how to tell if a GTE block is from an OBD1 or OBD2 car. Toyota basically changed the ECU and emissions parts and not the engines themselves for 1996+.
The knowledgeable BAR inspector confirmed to me that technically the policy is that they don't like the use of JDM engine blocks any longer but that the real thing they are looking for is FULL emissions compliance. That means everything, down to the compression ratio, Cali legal cats, EGR, stock engine bay, stock intercooler (yes, just get a stock MKIV SMIC) and all of the sensors and valves working correctly. He seemed to be of the mind that as long as you have gone to that much trouble and it's an ALL STOCK USDM 2JZGTE 320hp engine that is in good working order and passes the sniffer, that all goes a long way.
Still, I plan to call him again to confirm for myself a third time before I begin spending money on a 2JZ block. If the whims of the BAR on any particular year are that they definitely want a Toyota USDM 2JZGTE block, even if that block was never assigned a VIN number to match to its S/N, then that's what I'll give them.
Sorry if this is a bit of a jumbled post. Bottom line is it's not the simplest thing in the world. PM me if you want some more details. Again, I have NOT passed with this setup yet. I've just done a lot of research and talked to a lot of people to do it the way the BAR wants it done. The answers sometimes vary in my limited experience.
06-16-14, 03:04 AM
#23
And that2JZguy, I'm sending you a PM. I'd like to hear more about your experiences with Tweak'd. I've been planning to use them to get a new harness built for my swap. At $1,600 (no core to send them) I'd be pretty upset if they didn't give me something that just plugs in and works when I could find a USDM OBD1 OEM harness for hundreds less and have it rewired.
06-17-14, 07:58 PM
#24
TRDmike, I am doing this very swap myself and yes, it is a royal pain to get it all right. Then again I am going for a completely stock/BPU USDM 2JZGTE swap.
FSR Motorsports in Montclair (and very close by to Driftmotion) gets a lot of good reviews from Supra owners. I'm planning to have them rebuild a cylinder head for me this year.
The shop you used in Georgia for the R154 rebuild... would that have been the guys at Speed For Sale in Alpharetta? I used them for my R154 rebuild and they were fantastic to deal with.
What you are looking at is a LOT of EXPENSIVE work. Ask yourself how much you want to get the car legal. You said you have a 2JZGTE block already and that's a great start. Best thing is to focus on that and keep your current daily driver car. You're going to need a lot of things and I can go into this further in PM if you wish. A few members here have USDM 2JZGTE swaps that pass smog but there aren't many such owners.
Find a USDM GTE head, the entire USDM turbo system complete with all hardware down to the stock bypass valve (OEM waste gate), a USDM OBD1 Supra TT M/T ECU, USDM TT EGR valve, EGR pipe and EGR modulator, and even a Cali legal set of TT catalytic convertors. I've been doing some research on those recently.
Sorry to hear your 1JZ engine isn't doing well but to be honest if you want to keep the car out here in Cali I would pull it and the W58 and part it out. You have an R154 so you should focus on that transmission as the one you'll keep.
Regarding blocks, I've had some in depth conversations with a few clueless BAR inspectors over the phone and one very knowledgeable and helpful BAR inspector. The deal with the engine blocks and S/N's is interesting. All 2JZGTE short blocks Toyota will sell you now are leftover JDM blocks. Toyota Corporate either could not or would not definitively tell me just how to tell if a GTE block is from an OBD1 or OBD2 car. Toyota basically changed the ECU and emissions parts and not the engines themselves for 1996+.
The knowledgeable BAR inspector confirmed to me that technically the policy is that they don't like the use of JDM engine blocks any longer but that the real thing they are looking for is FULL emissions compliance. That means everything, down to the compression ratio, Cali legal cats, EGR, stock engine bay, stock intercooler (yes, just get a stock MKIV SMIC) and all of the sensors and valves working correctly. He seemed to be of the mind that as long as you have gone to that much trouble and it's an ALL STOCK USDM 2JZGTE 320hp engine that is in good working order and passes the sniffer, that all goes a long way.
Still, I plan to call him again to confirm for myself a third time before I begin spending money on a 2JZ block. If the whims of the BAR on any particular year are that they definitely want a Toyota USDM 2JZGTE block, even if that block was never assigned a VIN number to match to its S/N, then that's what I'll give them.
Sorry if this is a bit of a jumbled post. Bottom line is it's not the simplest thing in the world. PM me if you want some more details. Again, I have NOT passed with this setup yet. I've just done a lot of research and talked to a lot of people to do it the way the BAR wants it done. The answers sometimes vary in my limited experience.
FSR Motorsports in Montclair (and very close by to Driftmotion) gets a lot of good reviews from Supra owners. I'm planning to have them rebuild a cylinder head for me this year.
The shop you used in Georgia for the R154 rebuild... would that have been the guys at Speed For Sale in Alpharetta? I used them for my R154 rebuild and they were fantastic to deal with.
What you are looking at is a LOT of EXPENSIVE work. Ask yourself how much you want to get the car legal. You said you have a 2JZGTE block already and that's a great start. Best thing is to focus on that and keep your current daily driver car. You're going to need a lot of things and I can go into this further in PM if you wish. A few members here have USDM 2JZGTE swaps that pass smog but there aren't many such owners.
Find a USDM GTE head, the entire USDM turbo system complete with all hardware down to the stock bypass valve (OEM waste gate), a USDM OBD1 Supra TT M/T ECU, USDM TT EGR valve, EGR pipe and EGR modulator, and even a Cali legal set of TT catalytic convertors. I've been doing some research on those recently.
Sorry to hear your 1JZ engine isn't doing well but to be honest if you want to keep the car out here in Cali I would pull it and the W58 and part it out. You have an R154 so you should focus on that transmission as the one you'll keep.
Regarding blocks, I've had some in depth conversations with a few clueless BAR inspectors over the phone and one very knowledgeable and helpful BAR inspector. The deal with the engine blocks and S/N's is interesting. All 2JZGTE short blocks Toyota will sell you now are leftover JDM blocks. Toyota Corporate either could not or would not definitively tell me just how to tell if a GTE block is from an OBD1 or OBD2 car. Toyota basically changed the ECU and emissions parts and not the engines themselves for 1996+.
The knowledgeable BAR inspector confirmed to me that technically the policy is that they don't like the use of JDM engine blocks any longer but that the real thing they are looking for is FULL emissions compliance. That means everything, down to the compression ratio, Cali legal cats, EGR, stock engine bay, stock intercooler (yes, just get a stock MKIV SMIC) and all of the sensors and valves working correctly. He seemed to be of the mind that as long as you have gone to that much trouble and it's an ALL STOCK USDM 2JZGTE 320hp engine that is in good working order and passes the sniffer, that all goes a long way.
Still, I plan to call him again to confirm for myself a third time before I begin spending money on a 2JZ block. If the whims of the BAR on any particular year are that they definitely want a Toyota USDM 2JZGTE block, even if that block was never assigned a VIN number to match to its S/N, then that's what I'll give them.
Sorry if this is a bit of a jumbled post. Bottom line is it's not the simplest thing in the world. PM me if you want some more details. Again, I have NOT passed with this setup yet. I've just done a lot of research and talked to a lot of people to do it the way the BAR wants it done. The answers sometimes vary in my limited experience.
I'm just going to take it one step at a time in the duration of 3+years when i find myself back in the workforce instead of being a student on a budget.
In regards to the transmission i got referred to ZenMotors on here when i was living in Georgia to build my transmission. The current trans is the 3rd transmission the car gone through. It had a original w58, but I got it removed and I sold it before i was going to blow it with 450whp so I decided to replaced it with a supra r154 which was worse and ended up crapping out in a week, then eventually found a Soarer R154 w/ tripod and just got that fully rebuilt (Current).
So far, I'm planning to get a AEM v2 on it and keep the 1jz in till it fully craps out... then I'll continue from there.
Appreciate the detailed information.
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