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

Update: 05/16/07

I FOUND A TRANNY!

It's in a wrecking yard in IN. It's from a '00 Camry and is being shipped today by UPS groound, so I should have it in a week to 10 days. Gives me time to get the All-Trac axles (and maybe All-Trac tranny mounts) I need to use with this tranny. Below are pix of the tranny.

 

Transmission discussion

Well, looks like I have less time than I thought to get ready for the tranny. UPS estimates it will be delivered on Wednesday. Now I need to get some All-trac axles, the top the rear All-trac tranny mount and a set of All-trac shifter cables. I have a "WTB" ad on alltract.net. I may have found the axles.

Now I thought I would share my findings with the transmission. Originally I had planned to use my S54 tranny, but the passenger side axle is about 1/2" closer to the block than the Camry tranny and there's really not enough metal in the carrier bearing mount to remove to modify it. There are also only 4 bolts to secure the tranny to the engine. There is possibly a 5th if I drill a tape a small "dimple" in the block that lines up with a bolt hole in the tranny. This probably would be enough bolts. There are a few guys with MR2's that used the S54 in their V6 swap, but the MR2 doesn't use the carrier bearing so they don't have this problem. I think the MR2 doesn't use a carrier bearing because the axle on the passenger side may be shorter and/or they don't have to steer, so movement is limited to just up and down.

The configuration of the axles on the Camry/Solara tranny is similar to the auto trans in the Celica were it has an axle that comes out of the diff. (inner axle) to a flange were the rest of the axle bolts onto. This is also similar to the All-trac manual trans. When using the Camry/Solara tranny in a Celica, I will be using either the Camry/Solara inner axles or the MR2 turbo inner axles, both with All-trac axles. Currently I am trying to find out if the 4th and 5th gen All-trac axles are the same. I'll update this when I find out. I will also need to use All-trac tranny mount brackets for the top and rear tranny mounts and All-trac shifter cables. I have found a guy on alltrac.net that has the axles, mounts and cables I need, from a 5th gen. I'm waiting for a final price on the items. I know Adrian used turbo MR2 inner axles with All-trac axles, All-trac tranny mounts and shifter cables. His car is a 5th gen, so finding parts is probably easier.

 

Update: 05/23/07

The tranny arrived today. Exactly as in the pix and a great job packing the tranny. It was shipped in a plastic bin, no damage at all.

Anyway, I'm still looking for axles and tranny mount brackets, which I have a lead for. I was doing some measuring and I may be able to modify my stock tranny mount brackets to fit, if I don't find any All-trac mounts. The rear bracket may move the mount back towards the firewall a little, so modifying the stock bracket may not be a big deal anyway.

So after some thinking, I've decided to figure a way to use the stock FWD shifter cables as they are a lot more plentiful in wrecking yards should I need another cable. The shifter cable mount bracket is bolted onto the Camry tranny, so it's easy to remove. I have a messed up S53 tranny that I think I will cut the shifter cable bracket off and have it welding to a 1/4" aluminum plate that I will cut to fit the Camry tranny.

 

Here's the shifter cable mounts on the 2 different trannys.

This is the Camry tranny. The shifter mount is much thinner, the distance between the mount and the shifter levers is closer and the distance between the cable mounts is different than the Celica tranny. I think I can correct the thinkness and distance bwteen the mount and the levers, but the cable offset may need to remain as it is. I'll have to measure the lever movement between the 2 trannys.





This is the S54 Celica tranny. I was thinking of cutting the mounts off an old S53 tranny and welding my to a plate I would make to bolt to the Camry tranny.



Hopefully the bracket from the 4A-FE motor's tranny will fit, or can be made to fit.

 

Update: 05/28/07

I have All-trac axles and tranny mounts and speedo cable connector on the way. Hopefully they'll be here by the end of the week. Now I need some Turbo MR2 inner axles and a clutch and I'll be almost complete.

I also bolted up the tranny to the engine. I had to buy new bolts to do that as I didn't have the original bolts. Those things aren't cheap at Lowes.

 

"winter project"... funny guy. jk Well I did start the project during the winter. That's all I have to say about that.

As for the shifter cables, I do plan to figure a way to use the stock cables, but the thickness of the E tranny's cable bracket is much thinner than that of the S tranny. I'll get some measurements and post them.

 

Malodin, I had already thought about increasing the thickess of the Camry bracket. The bracket is made of cast-iron, so welding would be a little more difficult. My thoughts are that I'm going to take some fender washers and weld them together, then open the hole and cut a slot. If that works, maybe I can send you the bracket and you can make spacers and weld it up. Someone on CT who has an MR2 tranny in their Celica said you can not use "S" cables, you have to use All-trac cables. I sent him a PM asking exactly why, but I haven't heard back. I should be getting the tranny mounts soon, so I'm just going to try it out for myself. If it can be made to work, I'll figure out a way.

 

I certainly don't want to argue with a person who has offered to help, but this is definitely cast iron (I do know the difference). I took the photos below this morning, not to prove you wrong, but just to show you the details of the parts. You'll see the grid marks from were the casting flash was removed in the 4th photo. I also have a bunch of measurements of the differences between the "S" and "E" tranny cables I'll post in a bit.

 

Thanks for the "vote of confidence" you guys had in me thinking I didn't know the difference between stamped steel and cast iron. (jk) I would say that if I didn't know that difference I probably shouldn't be doing this swap.

Anyway, I took some measurements and the list below is based on the pic below. The pic is of the Camry tranny, but the same letters apply to the3 S54 tranny. All measurements are taken looking at the tranny the same as in the pic.

E153:
A1 to A2 left most position 6"
A1 to A2 center position 5 1/8"
A1 to A2 right most position 4 3/8"
Total diff. = 1 5/8"

B1 to B2 left most position 5 3/4"
B1 to B2 center position 5 3/8"
B1 to B2 right most position 5"
Total diff. = 3/4"

Distance between front of A1 to B1 = 1 1/2"
A1 thickness = .090"
B1 thickness = .130"

S54:

A1 to A2 left most position 6 7/16"
A1 to A2 center position 5 5/8"
A1 to A2 right most position 4 3/4"
Total diff. = 1 9/16"

B1 to B2 left most position 6 3/16"
B1 to B2 center position 5 3/4"
B1 to B2 right most position 5 1/4"
Total diff. = 9/16"

Distance between front of A1 to B1 = 1 3/4"
A1 & B1 thickness = .300"

The biggest difference seems to be the distance between the tabs (A1 & B1) and the shifter connections (A2 & B2) between the 2 trannys. I may be able to just move the E153 bracket further from the shifter connectors.

Malodin, I think the best solution would be to cut the tabs off the S53 tranny I have and make a new plate and weld the tabs to the plate the correct distinace. I may hit you up for that.

 

Alex, thanks for the reply. I know what you are saying and that is sort of what my plan is when I get the motor/tranny back in the car. I'm still waiting for the mounts, which should be here any day.

As for the thickness of the tabs on the S54 tranny, they do look larger than the measurement I posted because the overall thickness is probably about 3/4". The cables insert into the back side of the tabs a bit and I measured the machined faces of the tabs. This is the thickness needed to properly hold the cables. I'll let you know how the "testing" goes once the motor/tranny is back in the car. I'll definitely call you if I need any help figuring it out.

 

Update: 06/04/07

I finally received the gland nuts from KYB that I needed for my front struts. It took 3 tries, but I got the right parts. So now I have all the struts setup. First attempt they sent me the poly lock nuts for the top of the shocks. Second attempt they sent the correct gland nuts, but for some reason the strut tubes I modified had a fine thread. All the other tubes I have had a coarser thread. Third attempt I got the correct gland nuts. They were really cool about it and sent all the parts for free and they paid the shipping.

 

Update: 06/05/07

A package arrived today! I bought some All-tracs from someone (Trevor a.k.a. tjdouble07) on the alltrac.net site for my swap. I bought a set of axles, top and rear tranny mount and the speedo cable angled sensor bracket. The speedo sensor on the E153 tranny comes out of the rear of the diff. and points towards the firewall. The All-tracs with a mechanical speedo sensor has a 90* sensor bracket to point the cable straight up. Below are pictures of the parts and some comparisons.

Next step is getting a set of Turbo MR2 tranny inner axles, which I have found and will hopefully be shipped out tomorrow, along with my new Auto-meter gauges. Next will be the clutch set-up and some exhaust work and it shoud be close to being started.

Here are all the parts I just bought:


Axle comp. The All-trac axle is much thicker than the "S" axle. The All-trac axle is from a 5th gen and it fits and 4th gen. I noticed that the section of the axles that fits into the hub appears to be the same between the axles:


Rear tranny mount comp. Notice the rear tranny mount of the All-trac is stepped:


Top tranny mount comp. The top tranny mount bracket from the All-trac fits the Camry tranny. The rubber mount of the All-trac is wider and positioned differently than the 4th gen FWD. I'm not sure if this is a difference between FWD and All-trac or 4th and 5th gen. Either way I can remove the round rubber mount from the mount bracket and weld the 4th gen to the All-trac bracket:

 

Update: 06/07/07

Last night I PM'd about 6 different people on the MR2OC forum asking if they had axles for sale and 4 of them replied saying that they do. The prices were, make offer, $150, $175 and $350(?!) hopefully within the next couple of days I'll have some inner axles on the way.

Today, I started getting things ready to put the motor and tranny back in. I need to test fit the tranny cross-member to see if it needs to be notched and set-up the top tranny mount. I removed the pressure line on the power steering pump from both motors and it turns out that the line from the Celica fits the V6 pump and should reach the hard line connector by the passenger fender. The return line was also a perfect fit.

 

Update: 06/18/07

Last Thursday my new South Bend clutch kit arrived. The clutch kit is the same clutch as used for the All-trac. Last Tuesday my new Autometer gauges arrived; an electronic water temp and oil pressure gauge and a 5" tach.

I've spent a bunch of days trying to get the tranny to mount correctly. I've had to notch the tranny cross-member for the 2 lower tranny bolts (that aren't there on an "S" motor/tranny. I'm having problems getting the rear tranny mount to line up. I have the correct All-trac mount, but when I raise the cross-member to the mount, then raise the assembly to the mounting point on the bottom off the car, the mount hits the steering rack support strap. If I move the engine/tranny forward to clear the rear mount, I can't bolt up the front mount and the engine is too close to the radiator. There is about 3/4" between the rear mount and the inside of the mount bracket, so I am slotting the bolt hole towards the inside of the mount bracket, which should be enough to give me the needed clearance. I also want to pull the motor/tranny back out and measure the distance between the bolt holes on the front and rear mount bracket for both the S54 and E153 tranny. I have a feeling the E153 tranny might be a bit wider.

I had to run an auto-cross race this past weekend, so I had no time at all to work on the car since Thursday. We also have out-of-town guests this week, so I need to find time to sneak out to work the car the, just to get my fix.

 

Thanks for the reply, but please give me a little more credit than that. If I don't know to do the things you have just mentioned, I shouldn't be doing this swap.

Anyway, the mount I'm using doesn't have the tab at all and my bushings are fine. Danny (a.k.a allblackalltrac) sent me his instructions for mounting an E153 tranny in a FWD, which involves using a pry bar to get the mount and the x-member aligned correctly. This takes care of the rear mount being about 1/2" or so off to the drivers side, but doesn't help with my problem. I plan to widen the x-member in the area of the mount and drill new holes so I don't have to pry the mount into postion each time I remove the motor/tranny.

 

Update: 06/18/07 continued...

This past Friday, bought a set of turbo MR2 non-lsd inner axles, which will hopefully be shipped out today or tomorrow. Once I receive them, I will have to have the bearing on the passenger side axle moved about 1/4" closer to the tranny, in effect pulling the axles out of hte tranny by that amount. So a new groove will need to be cut for the bearing retaining c-clip and a 1/4" spacer will need to be made to take up the space between the shoulder and the new c-clip. This is needed because the V6 has the carrier bearing mount about 1/4" closer to the tranny. Don't moving the bearing causes the outter seal on the tranny to not ride on a smooth surface of the axle causing it to leak. I'll replace the bearing since it will be off the axle.

Along with the gauges I received last week, I got a 12.5" raditor fan.

About all I need now is a top-end gasket set of the mount, and some exhaust work to connect the V6 to my existing exhaust, which is new 2 1/4" pipe. I think I'm also going to want to change the muffler to a single 2 1/2" inlet and a dual outlet. I like that look.