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I assume that some of the people reading this are thinking about making this swap themselves so I will try to write this build speaking to you. My disclaimer is I am a moron, I screw things up, often. so take what you can from this but for God sake don't take my opinion as gospel, I could very well be missing something obvious! so, here we go, I will be trying to catch up these posts to where I am right now, then I will keep it current.

You can buy used 1uzfe motors with tranys from junk yards, or a JDM place, but I decided that I would rather buy a whole car. This way I would know motor ran well, the trany shifted and I could scan for error codes. Not to mention there are all sorts of bits and pieces that having the whole car would help with, IE wiring, relays and the matching ECU!

The two cars you have to choose from in the US is the LS400, and the SC400. The decision is where do you want the sump to set. LS400 has the front sump, and the SC400 has the rear sump. They will both work since you will be modifying the oil sump either way. I bought a 95 LS400, I felt the front sump was a better option and it had better seats!

Front sump on right, Rear sump on left. (took this photo from another swap page)

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The problem is the drag link. It is just in the way. I decided to just take off the steering dampener (I will try to put it back on later) Here is a photo I found online that shows the problem well. Do not make your sump modification based on the line you seen drawn, it is not far enough back! I will post on the pan mod later. I just want people to see what the issue is.

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ok it has bee a while since in posted this and I wanted to comment to prevent a mistake if someone is following this thread.

My recommendation for cutting the pan is this. Take the pan off and remove the pick up tube. Then bolt something, flat metal, thin plywood, anything to protect the bottom of the motor. Fit the engine in where you want it, then mark where you need to cut. be sure to have someone turn the steering from stop to stop wile you under watching. Leave an inch from the max moment of steering parts. This way you can be sure you only do this once. I would even wait to modify the pan until after you have the motor mounts made and test fit the motor.

The first mod i did was not enough, then i cut out way too much! I may end up using the pan off my 2nd engine to correct my over cut.

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I will also like to point out, there are different versions of the 1uzfe motor. The year may make a difference if you are wanting parts. For me and my 95 ls400, the years that I can pick from is 95, 96 and 97. That is it. The first version was 89-94 so if your transmission goes out your chances of finding a cheap replacement is far better! The 95-97 motors do have more power and torque, 35hp and 60 ft pounds but harder and more expensive to find used parts. something to think about.

One piece of advice, you are going to be taking the engine in and out of the truck a bunch of times, take the grill and bummer off, and I just cut the top part of a radiator support off, I will modify it so it can be bolted on. Really happy I did that, saved lots of time.

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How much oil capacity are you losing with the modified sump?

FWIW here is the, big engine into an old Chevy II, answer the hotrodders came up with

http://www.ebay.com/itm/62-63-64-65-66-67-Chevy-II-Nova-Moroso-20211-Oil-Pan-Sump-6-Quart-55-56-57-Chevy-/400810772772?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&fits=Year%3A1965%7CSubmodel%3ANova&hash=item5d522f0924&vxp=mtr

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WME I was just looking into that. I do not like the reduction myself. The swap boards all seem to agree that it works ok. The only thing they say is you must run an oil cooler. I am not sure, but I'm guessing its ok.

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You should be aware of a weird potential problem. In a conversion done several years there was an overheat problem on the hwy.

I THINK that the Toyota was a model older than yours and had the smaller engine bay. Anyway the guys thought was that the engine filled up so much of the engine bay that air couldn't get out after going through the radiator. A temp fix was remove the splash shield at the bottom of the radiator. May be hotrod style hood lovers would help if this pops up for you. Your larger engine bay may be the answer that was needed

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I have read about that issue as well. I too thought of louvers, I laugh at the idea of a small hood scoop, love that thought, think it would attract a lot of attention and look really cool! ha! Though I'm not sure a scoop would help get the heat OUT of the bay. It sure is tight in the engine bay, not much room for air flow. Just get a radiator to fit is a pain in the butt. I'm thinking i may have only 1/2 inch or less between the radiator and the a/c compressor clutch.

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well the oil sump issue has another issue to deal with, taking a closer look at everything I have noticed something I had forgotten about reading. The oil dip stick will now not work. I am toying with different ways to deal with this.

One would be given the reduction in oil volume caused by cutting 1/4 of the pan off, raises the need for a oil cooler to make up the volume. I was thinking, why not add what I cut off to the front or sides of the pan? I could also add a new place for the dipstick to the top of that killing two birds at once.

the other thought is there is an oil level sensor. the whole where it is mounted would work well for a dip stick after fabing some sort of adaptor. My sensor is broken anyway, and it is a $400 part from the dealer, $200 after market, a junk yard was were I was going to go, but given the issue with the dipstick......deleting this sensor would not cause any issue to my knowledge.

this swap, like most, is full of these little issues!

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I thought you all may like to see one part of this swap that is almost done, all but connecting the power wires and fabing the center council fitting. Nice heated, leather, adjustable in all directions lexus seats in a dolphin.

it did require drilling 4 new holes, they ALMOST matched up but not quite. You do set up just an inch or 2 higher. If you wanted you could cut out the spacer that the old front bolts screwed into and lower the seats some, but I find these work rather well as they are.

I do wish that my lexus had the gray seats, but i guess they match the carpet.

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Sounds like a trip to Rancho Cordova is in your future. Think Infinity

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Exhaust manifolds, what a pain in the butt they have been for me on this swap. I have read all sorts of things on which manifolds to use, they say the sc400s will work others say the ls400s will fit, I can tell you the SC400 manifolds will not fit in a 92 dolphin. Just not enough room, the passenger side can be modified to fit, but the drivers side fouls on all sorts of stuff, mainly the steering column. I then read the "log" style manifold of tundra's will work with no mods because they hug closely to the engine. So, I stopped at the local junk yard and found a set of manifolds off a tundra, 03 I think. One of the manifolds ending up being cracked, a common problem so look closely.

Or you can order a set of the after market manifolds off ebay, they work fine at least at this time of the swap. Though, here is the catch. They did not fit either! at least the end did not. I was forced to make a franken-manifold! I cut the ends off and fabbed a stick of pipe with the right bend, the o2 sensor bungs, and had to make my own EGR pipe. you may be able to salvage the stock EGR pipe, but I had bent it too many time trying to figure out what needed to be done that it made more since to just make one.

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the issue with the EGR pipe is it stuck out too far, trying to get the motor as close as possible to the firewall, the pipe was hitting too soon. This is tucked in nicely.

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i am a bit concerned that the pipe may develop a crack, the original pipe has ridges in them that allow for movement. I spent a lot of time building the pipe as well as i could. It would be cool if they made a flexible pipe that would work, but I never found one that would work. some people use the flexible gas pipe from a gas water heater but I have doubts about that route, so here is hoping this works.

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You are planning on replacing the starter before buttoning things up, right????

Welding cast iron is a lost art, but I seem to remember something about cutting off the 3 bolt flange and welding on a 2 bolt flange on the stock manifold..

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You are planning on replacing the starter before buttoning things up, right????

Welding cast iron is a lost art, but I seem to remember something about cutting off the 3 bolt flange and welding on a 2 bolt flange on the stock manifold..

You remembered right, I try that, still was hitting things. The angle coming off the engine has to be just right.

Starter, I keep looking at that...undecided at this time. They are very durable, many going well over 200k. Pain in the but to change, in or out of the rig.

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well i think i solved my dipstick issue. I ended up relocating it to the other side of the motor. I am praying I don't have issues with the other stuff i will add later. I am very happy with the results! nice and solid.

I found a nice flat spot on the sump and drilled a hole. fitted the tube where I wanted it, and build a lower bracket to keep downward pressure. the upper bracket just needed to be twisted around. I think the level is going to be accurate as well.

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from what I understand cooling is an issue because of the air flow, hot air can not get out of the engine bay. my plan is a rear facing hood scoop, or louvers in hood. and this realllllly nice custom griffin radiator set up!

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here is another piece of this swap i have not mentioned yet. For some reason, I think I like pain or something but I felt that my gauge cluster in the dolphin left lots to be desired. So, why not shove that Lexus gauge cluster in? couldn't be that hard, right?


The Lexus gauges will fit in the dash, but you have to modify the crap out of it. you need to know how to weld plastic. though it was fairly easy, but it takes some time.


the next part is not so easy, I build a custom dash surround to tie the gauges into the dash and make it look like it is supposed to be there. I wish I was better at body work and paint, but I am fairly happy with how it all turned out. next step will be connecting all the wiring.



its not perfect but, i guess it will work :/

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Looking nice.

I remember when I swapped my basic cluster out of my 83 (just speedometer, gas and temp gauges) for an SR5 cluster with tach, oil pressure, volt meter and all that. I had to pull every wire, for each cluster function, out of their slots in the plugs and put them in new plugs, following a wiring schematic. It was the first time I had ever done anything like that and it definitely involved sending my brain down a wormhole for hours at a time.

But it was very worth it, in the end.

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