DriftFactory: Soarer 2JZGTE VVTi Engine Conversion

Thread in 'Project Cars and Builds Threads' started by dale_b, Jan 26, 2015.

  1. dale_b

    dale_b #DriftFactory

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    Soarer 2JZGTE VVTi Conversion


    I generally don't get sentimental about cars.. But I'm pretty fond of this one..
    The story starts about 4yrs ago when I bought my first ever Soarer, loved it to bits.. Reluctantly sold it to the chic I was seeing at the time.. She did a W58 Manual conversion on it, Coilovers, and a few other bits on it and enjoyed drifting it for 3 years.. It was then reshelled into the current Soarer which has been good as gold for the past year..


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    Few weeks ago it started showing signs of a dying turbo.. Last weekend I changed the turbos.. However, on the way to my workshop it spat a load of turbo blade through the engine, compression was down to 95psi on 2cylinders and rattling it's tits off..
    We took the turbos off and spent a lot of time trying to get the crap out the engine, stuck a Bore Scope down to see what was going on, made attachments to Hoover the bits out of the cylinders, etc.. But we couldn't get the bits that were already mashed into the valve seats.. So we had 2 options.. Either strip it down and fix it, or stick the new turbos on and give it some beans and see if it spits it back out.. It didn't get better..


    This is the turbo.. Those missing bits must have wiggled there way through the Intercooler and into the engine.. The shaft is also snapped and bearing disintegrated.. Bits of metal gone through the oil galleries in the turbo and into the engine..


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    So she somehow managed to blag her brother and got 2jzgte vvti he'd just removed from an Aristo for a project he wants to do sometime in the future..


    We got the car in and started work..


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    The engine bay was discussing.. Used 10L of brake cleaner to get all the leaked oil off..
    Before:
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    After:
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    I went and picked the engine up, handful of bits are missing but luckily the car hasn't gone to scrap yet so I'll go get the rest of the bits I need to make this a decent quality conversion..


    The engine is going in as standard and keeping with the standard Auto gearbox..
    It's got 98k Kms so 60k Miles.. I'd advise a cambelt change, water pump, etc, but there isn't the budget to do it..


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    We've changed the from the front sump to a Soarer mid sump.. This involves changing the turbo Oil return fitting too, which means changing the pipework to fit onto the Y piece. The original rubber pipes are moulded pipes, they're always brittle and split/snap.. It's a 22mm pipe, when using silicon(this is Fluro lined oil grade silicon pipe) it won't achieve the radius and it'll kink, so I removed the metal pipe and Tig welded a new bend on so we just have a short silicon joiner..


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    The AirCon has also been deleted, I'm sure I could have made it work, but there's a lot of wiring involved and I'm not sure how compatible the 2 systems would be and there's not enough budget to look into it..
    So the AC pump has bee removed, and a special bracket made to support the PAS pump.. Iv spun the Oil Filter Housing round to make oil changes easier and less messy.. Fitted new pipework to the water/oil heat exchange in the housing..


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    The original engine mounts are completely shagged, they must have been 2 bits for quite some time judging by the state of them..
    Because of the tight budget I knocked up some hockey puck mounts as a temporary measure. There's 3 stacked in the pic, I cut on in half so it was only 2.5 pucks thick, sits the engine in exactly as per factory.. I despise these hockey puck mounts but needs must.. Will be replaced asap with proper StrongFlex mounts..


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    Engine went in pretty easy, we used the Soarer engine brackets and Soarer Auto trans mount, bolted straight up.
    We've used several bits from the Soarer and Aristo to make everything work, the PAS Pump is Soarer so the lines bolt up, the original Proportional Power Steering sensor in the steering rack has been wired back to the distribution board as per OEM wiring, same goes for the Heater Matrix Valve on the bulk head..


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    Fitted the original Aristo ECU box into the Soarer bay, this wasn't easy, wasted hours pissing around with different placements, and then making intricate brackets to support it.. I like where it is because the wiring is short piece of loom to connect up in the passenger footwell..


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    #1 dale_b, Jan 26, 2015
    Last edited: Jan 26, 2015
  2. dale_b

    dale_b #DriftFactory

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    We took the rocker covers off to change the gaskets.. This is possibly the worst choked up engine iv ever seen.. Seen diesels cleaner than this..

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    Thought I should check the VVTi Oil Filter whilst it was apart.. Glad I did.. Its actually split the gauze where the oil pressure has been to much to pass though.. The bottom one is the filter I removed, the top one is what it should look like..

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    Also made the Aristo Shifter fit.. Needed to modify the main arm out the bottom to get out the line of the prop shaft.. Then needed to extended the shift rod to accommodate the shifter being further back in a Soarer to an Aristo..

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  3. Retro - Slide

    Retro - Slide Member

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    Looks good man! Shame it's going to stay auto but not everyone can splash out for a R154 or V160. Great work anyway! :D
     
  4. dale_b

    dale_b #DriftFactory

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    Yeah man, she's looking good.. It's an OEM+1 conversion.. Almost everything is being made to look factory and as it should be..

    It's certainly an expensive exersise to Manual one of these.. To manual it you need to change to a Standalone ECU at the same time.. The factory ECU requires input from the Auto trans or it thinks there's a problem and retards the ignition back to the point it'll be struggling to make 250hp..
    We wouldn't go R154, and V160 is way over priced.. We'll do an ABC-ClutchUK conversion and use an E46 M3 6spd Getrag when the time comes.. We'll also use a Haltech PS2000 or Link G4+ ECU when we go manual..
     
    #4 dale_b, Jan 30, 2015
    Last edited: Feb 1, 2015
  5. LiamE36

    LiamE36 Active Member

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    Steve's first 1J looked like that under the rocker cover haha.
     
  6. Sc4mpi

    Sc4mpi Cookie Monster

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    If that 2jz was from an aristo down south with a bent front subframe. pretty sure that engine was knocking.
     
  7. mc_bob

    mc_bob Active Member

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    A 30quid piece of metal means you can run standard management no issues when manual.
     
  8. Retro - Slide

    Retro - Slide Member

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    I bet! How come you wouldn't go R154? And what are the E46 Getrag's like?
     
  9. dale_b

    dale_b #DriftFactory

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    Yep, that one.. Knocking bad? Or tapping? Guess I'll find out in a day or so when I fire it up..
    I saw the subframe when I went to get some bits I needed off the car.. Wtf happened to it? I presumed that happened when it went to scrap..

    Is that the speedo thingy?


    R154s are ok, I used to have one, Iv fitted quite a few, and replaced several.. They are old.. That's there biggest downfall. Old worn out bearings allow for movement in the gear set which opens up the tolerances and causes the gears not to mesh closely enough, then they mash gears.. Theres other things that go like the thrust washer.. They are expensive to build to a good spec, you can get all sorts of uprated parts, but why bother spunking tons of money on something you may well break anyway..
    The e36 325/328 boxes are just as strong, if not stronger than the R154s.. And they cost less than £100..
    Then the E46 M3 box is stronger still.. Driftworks R32 has been running one for a few years at some hefty power figures and all is rosey as far as I know. And if it does break, it's not a huge amount of money to replace, they are a lot more plentiful than R154s too..
    :thumbs:
     
  10. Swampy442

    Swampy442 Active Member

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    Too many lows,some speed and a raised manhole cover/subframe interface.
     
  11. dale_b

    dale_b #DriftFactory

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    Jeeez.. Mega lol.. Judging by the state of it, I'd have said it was doing 50mph at point of impact.. It ain't just a little bit bent..
    Duno how it could have made such a mess of the subframe and not touched the sump pan, the sump is only 5mm higher than the subframe..
     
  12. dale_b

    dale_b #DriftFactory

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    Yep.. You're right.. It's got a slight knock when cold, between 2k & 3k.. Goes away when up to temp though, should last a while..:thumbs:
     
  13. Clive

    Clive Active Member

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    Surely a lot cheaper to rectify now...
     
  14. Stavros

    Stavros Active Member

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    Only when cold sounds like piston slap, not much to worry about, if you lucky it just means its got forged pistons lol
     
  15. dale_b

    dale_b #DriftFactory

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    Yeah I'm not to worried.. It's not a death rattle.. Judging by the state of the inside of the head, it's not had many oil changes, and thus probably not been lubricating the cylinders, bearings, etc properly, tolerances are gona be bigger than they should be, but what can I do without a full strip down, clean out, and rebuild..
    So, I need pipes to make up Intercooler pipework, she brings me a load of random secondhand bits of Alu pipe to work with.. There isn't the budget to rebuild it.. It's gona have to be good..lol
     
  16. S13Chris

    S13Chris Member

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    Im the brother... aw what a lovley person i am donating a sister in need a spare 2jz.... fantastic work dale... should be done soon!
     
  17. dale_b

    dale_b #DriftFactory

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    It is indeed very good of you for donating the 2jzzzz dude:thumbs:
     
  18. bigdave z20

    bigdave z20 Member

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    Sent you a PM dale. Did you get it?
     
  19. dale_b

    dale_b #DriftFactory

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    So the wiring ended up being a mere.. It kept cutting out randomly.. I knew it was something electrical related but studied the wiring diagrams for both the Soarer and the Aristo time and time again, I couldn't find anything that was causing the gremlins..

    I pulled my loom back out and double and triple checked everything..

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    So I actually had 2 issues, both causing it to cut the engine.. First problem ended up being power supply inadequacy, I did the Power wiring as per Soarer and Aristo diagrams, both pretty much the same system whereby it takes a handful of powers from 1 big fat power.. The engine wasn't getting enough power(2 ECU inputs, 1 ECU input for Throttle Body power, Trans power input), so it was progressively throwing up faults and turning off..

    I wired up a ghetto OBD2 port.. Pretty easy, a Power, an Earth, and the signal wire from the ecu.. It's suprising how much live data you can see through 1 pin.. Anyway, this allowed me to see I had power consumption issues..

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    Once I'd indentified the lack of power, I decidided the best coarse of action was to add an extra fuse and relay to the fuse board, luckily there is spare spaces.. That solved all the engine issues..


    But it still had the most irritating issue.. When you switch the heater controls off, it stalls the engine.. I wasted so much time over this, ripping my hair out type situation.. Ended up being a bad earth behind the fuse board in the engine bay, guess it got disturbed when we cleaned the engine bay out.. Gave it a scrubby up and it got a decent earth and solved the issue... :thumbs:


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    It runs pretty sweet, will take it for a test drive tomorrow and see if it pulls ok..
    It's not in PWR mode(saw on the diagnostic machine) and the switching for Power mode is done via multiplex switching signals, so dunno how that's gonna work, might try plugging the ECU into another aristo, switching it to PWR and putting it back..

    The engine doesn't tap once warmed up, think it'll be fine;)
    The turbos(or something) make a funny noise, sounds like a goose... Rev it up, as the revs fall it makes a goose noise..wtf.. Iv eliminated the dump valve and the inlet pipework/maf pipework.. So must be turbos or inlet system related.. There's a video on my Instagram, check @DriftFactoryuk
     
    #19 dale_b, Feb 16, 2015
    Last edited: Feb 16, 2015
  20. Minimoke

    Minimoke Member

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    Mind popping me a reply when you get a chance please mate? I'd rather keep it private if possible. Ta.
     

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