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LEXUS 1UZ-FE Engine Swap My blood sweat and tears. It will be worth it!!

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  #181  
Unread 07-29-2009, 05:19 PM
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Now what's left? Well time to move on towards assembling everything. I know the throwout bearing will work now plus sourcing the radiator hoses will take 5 minutes with the simplicity of it all now. Last but not least the transmission crossmember will have to be secured. I have a temporary solution that is workable for now but I'll be wanting to make an appropriate one once it starts up and runs. Oh yeah... I need to order up a new hood to go with the new front grill. That's no big deal either. One thing at a time.
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  #182  
Unread 09-01-2009, 09:05 AM
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Great write-up and build! I've been following it for a couple months. What's going on with it?
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  #183  
Unread 09-02-2009, 08:06 AM
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Morning J77. The hydraulic throwout bearing has been the biggest pain in the ass and I have learned a LOT about adjusting it and I had to redo my method of adjusting the point at which the bearing makes contact with the clutch disc fingers. I removed the pipe rings that I made which go between the bearing and the hydraulic actuator that moves forward when the fluid is pumped in the hydraulic unit. They make shims (washers) that at availible in different sizes but they are generally very slim. Each small shim you ad or remove takes out (or adds) a little bit of distance that the drivers clutch pedal will engage.

So when I put my unit in the transmission and bolted it to the engine I had a educated guess at where the hydraulic throwout beating (TB for short) needed to be adjusted in order for it to engage the clutch. Like I mentioned with the shims those can be used for very fine adjustments. I used a cut off piece of pipe, about 1/2 in. to move the bearing forward to contact the clutch. Well it wasn't enough! And it's not a good idea to push the bearing forward. The next thing was to move the whole TB forward by milling up a plate to go behind the whole unit. I've seen people make plates to mount the TB in front of the transmission but that would take forever since the tranmission front area around the input shaft is not so flat of a surface to make a plate to rest against. So I milled up some spacers that are affixed around the transmissions input shaft using the bolts that already exist exactly where the TB needs support. I was VERY happy to come up with the idea so quick. I milled up three little spacers and bolted them on the other morning.

The ONLY downside to removing and putting in spacers to adjust the TB: you have to drop the transmission every single time! I made the spacers that go behind the TB by taking measurements from the engine side and the transmission input shaft and it involved half a dozen different measurements that needed to be taken into account for the final spacer thickness. So I had a feeling that even though I was getting really close with the spacer thickness that they would still need to be milled down a little bit more to get it exact. I left about 1-2mm extra on them to make sure I wouldn't come up short right off the bat. Well I installed the transmission again with the new spacers behind the TB and the transmission came up short by about 10mm to mounting against the engine. This would usually indicate that transmission shaft isn't lining up with the pilot bearing - but in my base the TB was too far forward and not letting the transmission go far enough in the first place. So I lowered it down AGAIN, removed the spacers and milled them down a bit. It's now in the truck and it's really tight BUT the TB does push the clutch in fully so it disengages. The only thing I can do now is hope that it loosens up a little when the engine is run for a while. Right now it's so tight that it is at risk of slipping the clutch but I think things will settle in a little bit and it will be super close.

It's a royal pain to install a hydraulic throwout bearing on an engine and transmission that it was never sold with. I'll be using those TB backing spacers and I still might have to put a shim or two in to make the clutch pedal engage exactly where I want it to. But there is no way to check for that until I get the thing running and the clutch broken in a bit. At least I can move on now. :P

So that's what I've been messing with when I have had the time to work on it. It's a horrible feeling knowing you have to take the transmission in and out everytime you go back to working on your project. At least now I can go back to working on the engine soon. But alas, in the morning tomorrow I'll be machining down those spacers yet again. I talked to a race car builder friend of mine today and he set me straight on what kind of tolerances I need to have when it's all adjusted correctly. Fun fun.
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  #184  
Unread 09-07-2009, 10:05 PM
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Updates anyone? Well ok! Here is the source of my procrastination. I'm just having too much fun at the end of this summer and being on my back under the truck in the heat bench pressing my transmission isn't very appealing. I've been making and milling down spacers which back the hydraulic throwout bearing (remember the TB). So ok good lets get some pictures coming. I came up with an ingenious way to do this. Of course I hope you have a milling machine in your garage to help out.



Make 1, then another and another... I love aluminum.
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  #185  
Unread 09-07-2009, 10:09 PM
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So here is what the TB needs to rest up against. BUT it can't rest up against it too much at all. It absolutely MUST be back off from those clutch fingers by just a bit once the transmission is bolted up to the engine. And of course just a bit is like a couple hundredths or something and not any more. So guess how many times this takes to get correct when you are making spacers without any hints or measurements to start from? Well I did take measurements and I got really close but it just isn't perfect until I mill down the spacers a couple of times to get it right.



V-bands in effect, transmission spacer is nice and tight. Everything is looking super clean from about half way forwards underneath.
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  #186  
Unread 09-07-2009, 10:11 PM
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Then it gets a little dirty from there on back. I'll be welding all sorts of cage supports sometime later on this year so I'll be making the rest pretty after I'm done grinding and welding. It's clean enough for my taste right now. I'm more interested in driving it at this point of course.

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  #187  
Unread 09-07-2009, 10:17 PM
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Here is how the TB looks with the spacers behind it. You can see that it really needs to come forward from that transmission. The spacers are contoured on the transmission side as well to index them and hold them flush. They do a really really good job of holding the TB there and I was glad not to have to cad up a mounting plate. Since the tranny isn't flat and smooth in this area it would have been a real challenge to design. The V8 Tacoma is coming along now that the tranny is nearly done.



This is one of the first pics I took with the spacers on. You can just barely see how I had to cut a bit in front of the clutch fork hole so that I could have access to the hydraulic line and the bleeder screw. It works as long as you have small fingers. I'll be lowering the transmission once more in the morning in order to make one more measurement change to the spacers. After that it will be bolted up to the engine and ready to run.
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  #188  
Unread 09-13-2009, 07:33 PM
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So another wonderful morning under the Tacoma dropping the transmission yet again. In order to make life a little easier on myself I shaved a little more stock from around the access hole for the hydraulic lines for the throwout beating (TB). Always remember to grab some cutting fluid/ lubricant when you cut aluminum. It makes like much easier, even when you are cutting with a simple hacksaw blade.



And with a little filing from the big flat file it looks nice and clean.
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  #189  
Unread 09-13-2009, 07:36 PM
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Of course I needed to machine even more material from the spacers I made. The TB was still too far forward so the transmission wouldn't quite make it to the engine before the TB would stop it. And if I did clamp it down with the bolts I would still need a little bit of slack so it would operate correctly. What a painful process. Yes, even more painful than looking at all of these boring transmission pictures so no complaining.



BUT I did get it perfect. I'm pretty sure I got it machined just right for the proper slack and the best clutch pedal engagement I would imagine. I hope everything feels this good with the engine running after a little break in. I think this is the last time I will be having to adjust the TB.
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  #190  
Unread 09-13-2009, 07:40 PM
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This seems to be the best way to raise and lower the transmission out of this Taco. What a PIA. You pretty much have to take out the crossmember that goes under the whole thing so that you can get the jack in the center balance point. This is done easily with a couple boards to support the tail shaft once you jack up the tranny so you can remove the jack, remove the crossmember, and then put the jack back in the middle like you see here. If I didn't use at least a couple boards the jack wouldn't raise high enough to hold it. Remove bolts and roll the assembly back as you drop the jack slowly. Now get ready to repeat 10 times if you are fitting a hydraulic throwout bearing.

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  #191  
Unread 09-13-2009, 07:43 PM
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Here I am bleeding the air out of the TB. It's super easy because you can put your right hand inside on the clutch to pump it and you can still reach it with your left at the same time. So pump clutch, hold it, release pressure with an 8mm to crack open the bleeder, press clutch down and repeat. It goes pretty quick. And make sure that the bleeding tubing is going up directly from the bleeder valve so the air goes upward away from the bleeder and not back into it before you tighten it again. Simple stuff everyone should know.

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  #192  
Unread 09-13-2009, 07:45 PM
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I hope I don't have to do this again for a long time. I've had to trial and error this whole process and it was painful. Ok no more complaining it's done and the line will be secured above the exhaust and drive line of course. The next time I'm under this thing will be to attache the rest of the exhaust system that I'll fab up once I am done firing up the engine.

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  #193  
Unread 09-21-2009, 06:50 AM
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Finally - something more interesting than transmission work

I'm happy to report about something a little more fun this time. Moving on to the electrical system and computer Engine Management System (EMS) or as a lot of people like to refer to it: the Engine Control Unit (ECU). I'll use EMS instead of typing out Adaptronic every single time.

Well either way the battery terminals are looking good. My ground are also appropriately placed although I'll be adding a couple around the engine.



And the ignition and power seems to be turning on just like it used to. I'm nearly finished wiring up the power leads to the Adaptronic EMS. I'm just double checking things and leaving them mounted loosely until the engine fires up and runs ok. I also put those PIAA lights in my dash to change things up a little. The old factory green lights were getting burnt. I can't believe they lasted all this time. It will be nice to have white lights in front of me like my Acura. This will be temporary, of course, until I install the Auto-Meter gauges I want to use to give me better accuracy for the engine temps and RPM.


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  #194  
Unread 10-02-2009, 12:47 PM
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Update! I just got my new intake in the mail that I have been keeping a secret. As a wise man once said, "I have a fever. And the only cure for that fever is MORE COWBELL!!".



I have to say thank you to a forum member named Phunkeydude over at the forum www.jeepcommander.com . Check out his super nice Jeep Commander project 4x4 on his forum thread by clicking here. He hooked me up with this sweet air filter kit from AFE. The system is called Cold Air Intake System Stage 1 Off Road Canister. The part number for this thing is XL 51-11061. I was really disappointed with AFE for not providing any dimensions for this product in both their dealer catalog and their website. This is an extremely large item and there no doubt that any truck will have to be modified to fit this monster intake in it. Even a race truck will have to have some design changes made to mount this system. I guess I could have called them but I just knew I would make it fit anyways. I'll be starting a thread sometime showing the exact dimensions of the intake for people that are contemplating buying such a system. It's pretty awesome and I will never have to clean another air filter again!

Of course to see this filter on Advanced Flow Engineering's (AFE's) website click here. Thanks to AFE for even making such a product. I don't know of anything else like this. Now if they REALLY want to make some $$ they should make the same system but half the size. There are tons of people who would love to have such an air intake system in their trucks. This intake system is seriously like the big rig intakes they have mounted on the sides. I'm going to have a fun time making room for it. :P
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  #195  
Unread 10-02-2009, 12:48 PM
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Time to do some fender choppin! The wheel comes within .5" of hitting the top of the fender when fully compressed so I'm not sure where I'm going to find the room. It's just a challenge. I can easily relocate the ignitors of course. I'm going to build super strong mounts for the body anyways. This was one of the mods on the list that would allow me to get rid of the body lift. The body lift spacers that I made (or any spacers) aren't exactly the best way to hoist an offroad truck body off the frame. So when I made some substantial body mounts I'll bring the body up yet another 1.5" I think. The body is only about 2.25" above stock so it's not hardly noticeable. I can't go with bigger tires unless I lift the body up anyhow so a little higher on the body lift will benefit both the tires, the suspension I have planned for the front and the new intake.

Keep in mind that these first pictures of the intake are just for fun and I'll be doing some heavy body mods and fender cutting really soon. So don't freak out.

The inlet is actually the hole on the side that I have sitting on the manifold inlet.
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