mtdave2

Well ya, everything on the front will raise. cab and house. Though I think this is going to be a mute point any way, I have made some adjustments to the pan, allowing me to lower the motor. so I probably wont lift it, but it was an interesting thought. This is not mine, but it shows just how close the motor sits. I have thought of posting a build thread, i have done a few build posts in the past, but I now have such a low tolerance for trolls, or people who want to comment on silly thing, criticize, the "well I would have done" crap an so on that I just have not bothered. I have been taking all sorts of photos and could, when done, make a post. The learning curve on this swap is steep. If I had known at the start what I know now....man....If I do another It will be far quicker.

yep. i am talking about placing a 1 inch round disk under the 6 front body mounts. Does not seem like a lot, but when you are shoving a big behind lexus v8 motor in a dolphin, inches really start to matter. The one inch lift will raise the master cyl up enough to move the motor back an inch, thus giving room for the radiator and fan..... one inch should not be a big deal as far as ride, safety etc, just checking with you all too see if I am missing something.

So without going into the why, can we just assume there is a GREAT reason for putting a 1 inch lift in the front of a dolphin? What concerns would you have doing it?

I know this is old, but I have the exact same question.

ready to start the first dry fit of the motor.

they are not bolt in, but they are close! Im thinking ill have to make little brackets to get it to fit. I will keep posting updates.. the v6 is out of the rv, so cant weight it.

I am doing a 1uzfe swap into my dolphin. I bought a running 95 ls400 for the swap and since I have the whole car I thought Id use some other parts. The Seats and center console with shiftier is an obvious addition. looking good huh?

I am ready to order the motor, and I need to decide if I'm needing a front or rear sump motor. I have seen one done in our RVs that had rear sump and it needed some fab work done to the sump. The front sump I hear needs some fab done to the steering dampener. what say you? Here is a shot of the engine bay w/o the motor. I can does anyone know exactly which bar fouls the sump? If it is the one connecting the suspension, 3rd one down from the top. could not a couple of brackets be made to drop that bar an inch or two? the front sump I assume is just hitting the dampener? If so, same deal right? make a bracket and drop it down. Am i missing something? I wish i had both motors so I could measure to see where the sumps actually land.

? you lost me for a second derek, I read floor shifter as a standard trany, sorry. ya a floor shiftier may be the easy way to go, unless I can rig an easy way to use the column shifter.

the motors i am looking at have the trany, ecu, and motor harness on them. I really do not want to add more conversion issues by changing to a stick shift.

http://www.lextreme.com/1uzfe_info.html seems to be some good info. Reading this it says the oil filter mounts are what clears on the vvti motor, nothing about the sump :/ hard to know what the heck to trust.

I have a few questions I have been looking for the answers to. 1: the oil sup issue, they make an front, mid, and rear oil sump. most people seem to like the front sump and use a 2 inch lift so it clears the steering parts. we can not do that with the rv.. there is one swap I have seen for an rv that he had to modify the sump to make fit. the front sump has an issue, I have read, with the steering damper. mid sump has problems with everything. the question is, which configuration will work best, and what mods need to be done. 2, which uz motor to get? specifically one with VVTI or not. I have read the up side to the VVTi motor is the sump is not an issue! though apparently there is some other issues with getting the vvti motor to work, but I do not know what those are. 3. Looking for a wiring harness. I keep hearing about a company in Australia that make a great kit, but I have not been able to find them yet. 4. I am going to use the trany that comes with the motor. the part I have not found info on is how to connect the trany to our column sifter. This should be interesting and I need to get going on the work soon. any input is appreciated

http://www.ebay.com/itm/371090810304 Some great deals on eBay for the Lexus v8s. Looking like this is the way I will go, and if I can not find a shop I guess I will have to do it. Linda, thanks for the link. I did email that nix guy but I have not heard back.

Golden Colorado, near Denver.

i think I am down to 3 choices. 3.4, Lexus v8, and a sbc. leaning heavy to the Lexus. there are low mile motors and trans out there for $1500. It just the stuffing the thing in the yota. still looking, I would LOVE to find a shop that does these often.

Got to love getting stuff for the toy. I just installed some new bilstein shocks all around, a nice new stereo that accepts an ipod inside of the unit, a really sweet back up camera. I found and on craigslist and just installed a stowaway box for the hitch. A few weeks about the dolphin got re-shoed with some syped BFgoodrich all terrain tires. have done all sorts of maintenance, sealing, fluid changes thing should be ready to go. why does this suck a bit? Blown head gasket. it really sucked doing work to a crippled rig that i cant use. trying to figure out what I want to do, see my other posts.

Wow this is old but I would love some updates

I would love to find out more about the Lexus v8 swap for the v6. Not a whole lot of info out there, or I have not found it yet.

great info, thanks everyone. Still looking at options. I am thinking the chevy v6 or v8 is the way to go, but that could change in 5 minutes! I guess there is not a major rush to do this, though I would have loved to use the rv for the 4th of July weekend. =(

Is there a write up some place on the v8s? Chevy and lexis. Loved the one posted above on 3.4

Ya I did do this, and it had been done in 1994 think it was. I had planned on eventualy swaping out the motor because of the lack of power, but not this soon! ha! I like the 3.4 sawp idea but it is hard to find a good deal like has been said. being that it is an automatic makes it even harder and I think I read that there are some donner trucks that will work with our auto tranys, though I am just now starting to look into all of this. It would be nice if there was a local shop that would do this swap for me, it is almost worth the money to be because of my lack of time. I could do it, but it would take me months. I want to go camping! so, Im not sure what I will do. I love the thought of a small block chevy in one of these rvs. How cool would that be? but I worry about if the rear end would take the power, and the frame ect. ugh.

91 dolphin v6 auto with blown head gaskets 132k miles Looking for options here. I do plan on keeping this rv for many years so I want it do everything well and right. Once a year I will be driving get it on a 2 mile round trip vacation so lots off freeway driving. I live in Denver so lots of hills. The 3.0 kills me. So the 3.4 swap is a good option. I was thinking this morning about a Chevy v8. Has anyone ever done this? Any in put on this? Thanks