MR2turbo

Hoping someone can shed some insight on this:

I have a Canadian model '00 LS400 with the VVTi engine. A timing belt change went wrong and now the engine is wrecked. I've taken it out of the vehicle and am in the process of taking it apart to see how bad the damage is.

Anyways, I was thinking about replacing the engine with a JDM unit (low miles, easier to find) instead of fixing the existing one (depending on damage). I read that some JDM engines don't come with the crank sensors. This would be a problem. I believe this is because some JDM cars only converted to OBDII in 1998 sometime. Can anyone confirm this? If I find a '98+ JDM engine with the crank sensor, will everything else be similar to the USDM engine, or will I be missing other sensors?
My goal would be to swap the wiring harness over from my USDM engine to the JDM engine (as the JDM harness won't fit the car as it's meant to be on the other side of the vehicle) and drop the engine in.
Again, my goal is to replace a VVTi engine with another VVTi engine, not going from a '95-'97 engine to a '98-'00 motor.

Thanks in advance!

MASTERkame

with engine it self difference would be the engine harness is going in other side i mean ecu it self because the brake master cylinder is in other side. Also the vacuum for brakes are in different manifold side. But i i think u can unscrew it and put in other side while blocking hole where it was. The other difference shouldn't cause u a problems. Because u already got all the high pressure hoses for power steering from the motor u broke. Sorry for my English... atm doing the 95 ->>>98 conversion as u mentioned. Also using RHD car as a donor.

Yamae

JDM Celsiors 98-00 are not OBD-II compatible but those all have a crank sensor. There are many minor differences but I don't know the detail.

I'mStock

I've got a "JDM" VVTi engine in my 1998. We had to swap some parts over from the USDM engine but you'll have everything you'll need.

MR2turbo

Thanks for the reply. I knew about the wiring harness and was planning on swapping that over, I just wanted to make sure I won't have a wires left that need to plugged into sensors which aren't available on the JDM engine.

I'm comfortable swapping the wiring harness over (as long as it's plug and play), however am not very comfortable opening up the engine again after what happened.

MR2turbo

Good info to know, thanks!

MR2turbo

Do you remember which parts you had to swap over? I wouldn't be excited to start taking the new engine apart after what happened. Was hoping to swap the wiring harness over and dropping the engine in.

I'mStock

I *think* we had to swap exhaust manifolds and the water crossover?

Nolals430

Did you ever figure out what you had to do? I'm going through a similar process right now but with a 3uz-fe. What I'm getting is the way to go about this is to use the original harness and ecu to the new motor. We had to swap over the power steering cause it didnt have a sensor and we would've had to run different lines. What other things did you have to swap over?