Re-engine a surf

[bensonsnuts]

Well.... my surf didn't sell on ebay.
Looks like I'll have to fix it after all.
A mate has offered to re-engine it if the original engine needs too much work doing.
He has lots of experience of making his own grass track racers , so he's used to adapting stuff to make it fit .
He's talking about fiting a petrol engine from an old Supra or similar .
What would be a good option to replace the old 2L-T.
Only proviso is we have to be able to source an engine or whole car cheap.

[Robb.]

Cool mod with a supra engine

One here on E Bay

[AndyLala]

Nice pre '72 Ford V8 302ci... Hmmm... then you'll never want to get rid of it...

[Robb.]

Or Toyota KZ 3.0 ENGINE, 4 cylinder, Diesel turbo complete with low mileage from a Land Cruiser

On E bay for £350

link

[AndyLala]

I would like to squeeze a Landcruiser 4.2TD in there...


Gearbox's should be too different.

Other option is a 1/2 cut Lexus soarer, ecu and 4.0 V8...

Remember a site in Aus where they had swapped that out...

andyL

[Koi]

All the M series Supra engines fit quite easily with their own clutches, radiators and cooling sytems. The only slight problems are that the rear engine mounting bracket is a bit far back so you have to either weld over the mounting holes and redrill them or cut the bracket and weld in a 10mm spacer. The oil pan on the 5M and 6M Supras is at the front which is no good. There are other cars like the older Camry that have the right oil pan but they're rare here and you'll probably have to buy the MK111 Supra pan and oil pick up from Toyota (£160)

The M Series engines are all getting really old now and they have serious corrosion and cylinder head problems so you'd have to find a good one from an import. I like the 5M engine better than the later ones coz it looks like it was designed to be in a Surf engine bay and it has lots of ribbed alloy castings to polish:-) Although it's a 2 valve per cylinder engine its capable of much higher flow rates than the later 4 valve engines but tuning it costs HUGE amounts of money and the parts are very difficult to find too.

I wouldnt bother fitting either of the Toyota V6 engines coz they arent as powerful as a standard non turbo 5M

I like the idea of fitting a newish Lexus engine like the IFZ-FE (4500cc straight six similar to a 7MGTE) or a 1UZ-FE (4000cc V8) but all I know about them is that the V8 fits straight onto an R series gearbox. WHatever you get make sure you get the wiring and ECU as well coz otherwise you'll never get it to run on your own.

One small thing which might prove very annoying is that the R150 gearbox is designed for diesel engines and it has a really wide gap between 1ST and 2ND gears which sort of spoils the performance of petrol conversions. If you can find one the R151 gearbox from a V6 Surf or Prado would be much better.

[Guest]

I would like to squeeze a Landcruiser 4.2TD in there...


Gearbox's should be too different.

Other option is a 1/2 cut Lexus soarer, ecu and 4.0 V8...

Remember a site in Aus where they had swapped that out...

andyL

Think the 4.2 would be too big to fit, you'd end up with having to do a lot of work on the bulkhead and the propshaft would have to be shortened quite a bit because of the length of the gearbox and transfer case. Be one hell of a motor if you could fit it though.

Small Block Chevy or Small block Ford would be the way to go in my opinion or GM V8 Diesel. Ford and chevy fits easy enough, you can even get the adaptor plates to fit them to the Surf Gearbox and they are short enough to fit in the engine bay. Immensly tuneable, more torque than you can shake a stick at. Might want to change the rear axle out for a larger one though for strength - shortened 9.5 inch out of a Cruiser should do the job.

Cheers

[TAZMAN]

Looks like I'm gonna have to eat haynes manuals for my breakfast in future, so I can be mechanically minded like you two. I can wire a plug if that helps anyone.

[bensonsnuts]

Think the 4.2 would be too big to fit, you'd end up with having to do a lot of work on the bulkhead and the propshaft would have to be shortened quite a bit because of the length of the gearbox and transfer case. Be one hell of a motor if you could fit it though.

Small Block Chevy or Small block Ford would be the way to go in my opinion or GM V8 Diesel. Ford and chevy fits easy enough, you can even get the adaptor plates to fit them to the Surf Gearbox and they are short enough to fit in the engine bay. Immensly tuneable, more torque than you can shake a stick at. Might want to change the rear axle out for a larger one though for strength - shortened 9.5 inch out of a Cruiser should do the job.

Cheers

My mates used Chevvy engines before . Might be the way to go .
I also know where there is a scrap VX Landcruiser . Don't those LC axles come with difflock ?

[Guest]

My mates used Chevvy engines before . Might be the way to go .
I also know where there is a scrap VX Landcruiser . Don't those LC axles come with difflock ?

As long as it is a UK spec or one of the rare Japanese imports that did have them.
My UK spec one has front and rear diff locks but you can't have those ones - I need them

And the axles are 9 1/2 inch jobs built like the proverbial army tank. Front axle is 8 inch also built out of old Chieftan tanks.

If you are going to go the Chevy route go for an early 70s 350ci small block before they got detuned and de-smogged. A bit of work and you can get 400bhp out of it and really fly. Need to uprate the front torsion bars though as they aren't that light, alternatively see if you can source and alloy 427ci big block out of a corvette, weigh a lot less and produce ENORMOUS amounts of power (and about 10 to the gallon).

Cheers

[da SLUG man]

shame, my mate had a straight 6 supra going but his dad got peed off and gave it away!... was auto too!... only needed a new torque converter.