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Complete: 1MZ-FE V6 engine swap - For Sale

Discussion in 'Your 4th Gen beauty' started by 88V6Celi, Feb 8, 2007.

  1. Mafix

    Mafix Owner Staff Member Administrator Donated!

    Re: Complete: 1MZ-FE V6 engine swap.

    interesting jim. is there just not enough power on the motor still?
     
  2. 88V6Celi

    88V6Celi Well-Known Member

    Re: Complete: 1MZ-FE V6 engine swap.

    There's plenty of torque, which is causing a lot of wheel spin if I don't roll into the throttle slowly, but I'd like some more HP for the str8s.

    Another project I am thinking about is using the 3.3 block with the 3.0 heads. That gives 3.3 at 11.5:1 compression. The crank and rods are the same as the 3.0, just the bore is bigger. It's a VVT motor so using the 3.0 head eliminates the VVT. you just have to plug the oil passages in the block. The 3.3 block is dimensionally the same as the 3.0 (except the larger bore).
     
  3. Alwayzsidewayz

    Alwayzsidewayz ST162 Guru Donated!

    Re: Complete: 1MZ-FE V6 engine swap.

    is there anything you can do to the gearing at all to help?

    excuse my ignorance about the motor, but could you not do something with the heads / cams etc to improve top end power for the straights?

    Is there any weight peanlty from going with the bigger block? would not increasing the displacement just give you more low end torque. My experience of tuning V6s is limited to fords, but when you increase the displacement, normally one benefit is better torque.
     
  4. Mafix

    Mafix Owner Staff Member Administrator Donated!

    Re: Complete: 1MZ-FE V6 engine swap.

    i don't think there are any cam options but that would be the easiest fix for the torque and hp issue i would think. perhaps delving into that jim? mabye get a stock set and send them out to be reworked?
     
  5. 88V6Celi

    88V6Celi Well-Known Member

    Re: Complete: 1MZ-FE V6 engine swap.

    I don’t really have any options on gearing. It is a Camry tranny; about the only change I could make would be to use the gears from the turbo MR2 tranny, but those gears are for the 3S motor which is the opposite direction I would want to go. I find the gearing is good.

    Cams are something I have thought about but as Mafix said, no one makes them so I would be on my own with a grind. I am thinking about getting a used set of stock cams and getting them reground.

    I think the easiest thing to do to get a little more HP is to change the MAF sensor, allowing more air to flow. My tires are also a huge limiting factor. I really need to buy some 710’s, but until I get the suspension straightened out, I don’t want to get good tires and chew them up real quick. My friend feels that if I had some 710’s, I would own the other cars in my class, except him (he has a pretty bad ass 5.0 Mustang).

    As for the 3.3, I’m in a “catch all” class right now with a 2.5 liter engine size break. Anything 2.5 or over is in the class I am in and there is no minimum weight; the car just has to be streetable. Another thought I had was to switch to the 2MZ-FE which is the 2.5 liter V6 which is actually more like 2.494 liters and I could race in the lower class.
     
  6. Stig

    Stig ST162 Guru Donated!

    Re: Complete: 1MZ-FE V6 engine swap.

    Drop to the lower bracket, sort the suspension & tyres and you'll have a lot more fun.

    The suspension and tyres alone will make the car quicker, plus the added traction with less grunt
    You won't be watching guys get smaller and then trying to make up on the twisty bits

    Smallblocks can make 400-500hp reliably, I think you're farting against thunder and heading for heartache by stretching the motor further.
     
  7. 88V6Celi

    88V6Celi Well-Known Member

    New pix of the V six

    Last weekend I took some new pix of my car I thought I would share.

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    Here's the battery and weight box I built to add ballast to the back of the car for better balance. It seems to have helped in cornering. There is 145 lbs of lead in the box.
    [​IMG]
     
  8. 88V6Celi

    88V6Celi Well-Known Member

    Update: 7/24/09

    Last month I pulled out the motor and trans and finally installed the aluminum flywheel and am looking forward to trying it out this weekend. I also wrapped my Y pipe with some extra exhaust wrap a friend gave me. There was more than enough to wrap the exhaust back to the cat which I should just remove (added to winter to-do list). Hopefully this will help keep the under-hood temps down a little.

    I also had to reinstall the 5th motor mount. On the V6 carrier bearing support, some have a mount integrated which I had setup when I originally installed the motor. I swapped it for a bearing support without the mount trying to save a couple pounds of weight. This resulted in using the front mount, the mount on the passenger side, to support the motor and resist the twisting of the motor. I had to fix this mount about 4 times because I kept bending it. I made the mount out of thicker metal or added reinforcements each time but it would bend in a different place. I put the 5th mount back on, which is on the torque side of the motor. The motor used to move around a lot with the “on and off accelerator” and I think it was contributing to my wheel hop problem. This might help accelerating out of a corner and might even help standing starts.

    I also changed the front brake rotors back to the original GTS rotors, removing the bigger and heavier 5th gen GTS rotors. I don’t think the bigger rotors were making a difference, except adding to the unsprung weight.

    Last weekend I did take it out on my street and did a short test run and the motor seemed to accelerate quicker and the motor wasn’t hitting the strut tower brace like it used to when I accelerate hard. I also notice when I rev the motor out of gear that the motor returns to idle quicker, thanks to the lighter flywheel. After the race this weekend I’ll start working on installing the aluminum radiator and get rid of those copper pipes that cross in front of the motor.
     
  9. Alwayzsidewayz

    Alwayzsidewayz ST162 Guru Donated!

    Re: Complete: 1MZ-FE V6 engine swap.

    great stuff with the updates, really pleased to see its coming along.

    I totally agree with you re the brakes and un sprung weight, I hope that mod works well for you.

    Quicker revs should help a smidge on track as well.
     
  10. Mafix

    Mafix Owner Staff Member Administrator Donated!

    Re: Complete: 1MZ-FE V6 engine swap.

    coming along nicely jim. hopefully planting the motor better will help on the handleing too.
     
  11. 88V6Celi

    88V6Celi Well-Known Member

    Updaste: 7/31/09

    Last weekend we had our auto-cross race and my car felt much better. The motor seems to rev quicker, thanks to the aluminum flywheel. The point where I hit 3rd down the front stretch is how I judge how well the car is doing. I’m hitting 3rd sooner now meaning the car is coming out of the last tight corner quicker and accelerating down the straight quicker. I also reconnected the rear swap bar because the car was pushing in some corners and the sway bar corrected it. I also had no wheel hop, thanks to fixing the motor mount situation. I was able to firm up the front shocks a ¼ turn and didn’t get any wheel hop. I think the droop-limiters on the front are also helping. I really need new tires; the car would be so much faster. The brakes also felt softer than they should have, even though I just bled them.

    Right now I’m working on installing the aluminum radiator. I had to do a little cutting to give more room to fit it. I’ll post some pix soon. There’s one winter project I am so looking forward to doing; swapping to a stand-alone MAF sensor and a bigger intake tube for more air. I think that will help make the car faster also.
     
  12. Alwayzsidewayz

    Alwayzsidewayz ST162 Guru Donated!

    Re: Complete: 1MZ-FE V6 engine swap.

    Sounds great progress, better exit speed has to be a good thing.
    Glad you have sorted the motor hop, chuffed to bits that you have some proper progress with the car.
     
  13. Mafix

    Mafix Owner Staff Member Administrator Donated!

    Re: Complete: 1MZ-FE V6 engine swap.

    good upgrades then man!
    i'm looking forward to seeing more of this.
     
  14. 88V6Celi

    88V6Celi Well-Known Member

    Update 11/27/2009

    A friend of mine sent me an email asking what I plan to do to my car over the winter. I started typing what I thought was going to be a quick response and ended up with following. I figured I'd share it with everyone here.

    I have been working on freeing up some breathing for the motor. The MAF sensor on this motor is very restrictive and I think I have it opened up about as much as I can without getting into some electronic trickery. In short, the MAF sensor is integrated into a piece of tubing in-line with the air intake tube. On the motor side it contents to the intake tube; on the filter side it is designed to plug into the air filter box and is restricted down to a very small size. I cut the front off so the whole tube is about 2 15/16" ID. The problem I have is that there is not enough velocity of air for the sensor to send the correct signal to the ECU. The way the MAF sensor works is that there is a hot wire in the air stream and as the air flow increases (cooling the hot wire) the voltage that is returned to the ECU increases. Right now, without some restriction on the inlet side, the engine won’t stay running. If I put a piece and black wire tape across the opening and it idles at a reasonable rpm. One idea I have is to add power to the returned signal to trick the ECU into thinking there is more air flowing to richen up the mixture (which I think is the reason the engine doesn't want to idle). I should be able to accomplish this by running a power source through a potentiometer and adding about 1 volt to the signal. I haven't tried this yet so for now I'm just restricting the inlet side, but nowhere near what it was from the factory. Another "mod" I am doing is that someone figured out that if you put a potentiometer on the coolant temp sensor and add a little resistance, the ECU will richen the mixture and advance the timing. I've tried this and it definitely advances the timing. I need to get an A/F mixture gauge to see if the mixture is richened also. The ECUs are setup to run lean to get better gas mileage. Unfortunately, when adding resistance to the CTS, the ECU opens the idle air control valve and the motor idles much higher. A solution to this I am going to try is to put a toggle switch on the power supply to the IAC valve so I can shut off the valve when the motor is warm. Right now I lightly pinch off the hose delivering the extra air for a cold idle and the idle drops to a reasonable rpm.

    If I was an electronics geek I would just build my own ECU and run my car off a lap top.

    I'm also going to replace my front strut tower tops with the 240Z weld-on tops with the adjustable chamber I ordered. I'll move the tops of the strut tubes as far back in the towers that I can for more caster. I also plan to stitch weld the chassis as I get a few minutes here and there. I will also make a rear strut tower brace, but I'm not really sure how much that will do as light as the back of my car is.

    Tires are another thing I am trying to figure out. If I stay in my class, I'll never be able to beat my friends Mustang, so I don't really need a tire like a 710 because it won’t do enough. Nitto does make a new tire that has a treadware of 100 that is cheaper that might be a good choice. My current tires are tw 200 and 4+ years old.

    Next winter I'll tackle the rear suspension and possibly go with a 3.3 liter block using my current 3.0 top end. That will give 3.3 with and 11.5 compression and no VVT and other electronically controller functions.

    It never freakin ends.
     
  15. MattC

    MattC Well-Known Member Donated!

    Thread revival :cool:

    vvt-i162 linked to this thread in one of his posts, I had forgotten about this car. Any updates?
     
  16. Mafix

    Mafix Owner Staff Member Administrator Donated!

    iirc jim parted the car out.
     
  17. MattC

    MattC Well-Known Member Donated!

    Sad face. Sorry end for a nice car.
     

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