My 85 FB lexus v8 turbo build
 

hello all, im going to start this off the lazy way and link you my existing thread on the RCC forum, and go from there.

rotary car club.com/rotary_forum/showthread.php?t=16210[/url]

I am looking for anyone else that is putting or trying to put one of these in a gen1, its not an easy task and would love to bounce ideas around.

past that enjoy and feel free to ask questions, suggestions welcome and as always think outside the box

teaser pic

Way cool!

I am starting an LS6/T56 swap in my GSL-SE. Using the second gen front subframe to start and pedestal style mounts. Should be a pretty simple affair.

I'm over in the Daytona area and would love to check it out sometime if you go to any local meets.

well I try to go to meets when its running :D thats why im putting a piston engine in it hehehe so it runs more often :D

ya a SBC/SBF/LSX would be ALOT easier to fit in the car, but no one else has one of these in one. plus its surprisingly cheap if you make your own parts, the engines are dirt cheap, the yards are full of them, and its not the engine that dies, its the other parts on the cars that make them BER to fix so they junk the car, engines last 400k miles or more.

this setup is set to yield and entertaining amount of grunt...

latest update, smoothed off the pistons, nearly ready to assemble bottom end.

also here is the link to my facebook album with the pic log

Facebook

I can't view any of your pics on the other forum without an account. How is the Oil pan to crossmember clearance?

thats odd....you can view the pics on my facebook album though, its public, link is above, the clearance is..way above the X, its the rack that causes the problem, i offset the rack as far down as possible with aluminum offset bushings, shimmed the X down from the frame 3/8" as well, the front of the oil pan just barely sits up off the rack tube, but that won me stock hood clearance, at the cost of ground clearance, i added a 1x2" tube to the bottom of the REspeed Xmember as a strike point, and i cropped the pan by 1 inch, and i will also make a sump guard/strike plate, i dont have any great pictures of that situation in a finished state because the engine is not back in the car yet, so i will make a point to put some views of that up once its back in

Have you ever thought about moving the radiator a little further into the "nose" and run an FMIC at a slanted angle the same as the stock fascia?

This would give you a little more room in the engine bay as you could run the turbo in front of the engine for a more equal length run from the manifolds.

Just a thought.

Something like this.... forgive my skills.... I do better putting pencil to paper
Attachment 698937

thats gunna be a tight fit, but an awesome project. cant wait to see how the engine bay comes together. good luck man.

i thought about that radiator/fmic config yes, but it doesnt give you much room for a very large radiator, and this is a street car, and i live in florida....and its a turbo v8...so i packed the largest radiator i could in it.

im going to puting twins on the car to avoid the runner length issue, and because twins are cool...ill have to make a custom fmic to fit the space available, my pics show how the radiator is tilted rearward, sorta like my corvette was, giving an opening for charge pipe plumbing.

the rest of the void in the nose will be occupied by the large oil cooler and twin remote oil filters, which both of those should make up the volume lost by cropping the pan, or enough to not worry about oil volume, the 1uzfe holds 6qrts stock so its a bucket anyway, i will run the oil level at a safely higher level though, and might add a braking baffle.

I considered mounting my radiator like that, but I had concerns for ducting.... Usually modern cars with no grill to flow air from rely on an air dam to create high pressure in front of the rad and low airflow under to radiator to create a low pressure area behind the radiator to pull air through.

http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/9...ductinggq0.jpg

dunno if you can see in this pic but the radiator extends down below where the stock oil cooler mounts, in fact im using the stock oil cooler brackets for it, worked out well, the radiator consumes all the usable space available without making a custom shaped radiator.

and i mounted 2 10 inch fans on it fully shrouded, and ill duct it when its all done...i fear the heat, anyone from down here knows how much it sucks to deal with.


hopefully I will have the engine re-assembled and back in the car by october, have just a few things to do along with that before dropping it in, then starts plumbing the hot side and exhaust, then I will start charge side. im just eating this elephant one bite at a time...

revvingGS also makes a valid point, though with the oil cooler, and fmic the air flow to the radiator is going to positively suck....so im just using brute force with the shrouded fans and ill go from there with sheet metal to help as much as possible

a drop vent hood would be ideal....but i dont want to lose my nice pretty stock hood i worked so hard to keep :D

got the rotating assembly put together and my turbos came in the mail, now i have to assemble the heads...thats gonna take a while...because someone(me) thought it would be awesome to have a 32 valve engine...:D

engine almost completed, soon to be in car and plumbing begins....

also front view of car with mock engine to show placement

Cool build, thanks for posting it up. :)

im trying, im not the best forum person...still not great with pics...cant seem to make them full size...but o well, you can still see them...

its been a learning curve on the engine itself, its not so simple as a SBC/SBF or even LSx, but once you get going on it, the tricks to taking it apart and puting back together come pretty easy, finding parts is a small challenge...but not nearly as challenging(pain in the ass) as wankel parts, and A LOT cheaper for most parts, save for forged rods/pistons, they cost the same for everything.

fitting it in the car just took alot of nip and tuck and weighing the options, it would be pretty easy for someone that didnt mind hacking up the body, but i dont want to cut up my car for an engine I may not stay with in the end.

i have 3 build threads started on it now, so its a bit tedious duplicating them all and links dont work well...so if you dont see something you are curious about just ask.

this is my lextreme thread for the lexus engine guys. http://www.lextreme.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15479

timing belt installed, working on the new belt tensioning system, and making it all pretty, incidently strips of velcro mimic a serpentine belt pretty good for figuring out what you are going to do and how long the belt is going to be.

i have to dissect the stock spring tensioner...looks like that might be a dangerously amusing good time, then will mod/fab/machine accordingly and then i can put the darn thing in the car!!! then plumbing...yay....

awesome build. keep us posted

seriouly cool, i have the dream of putting the 4.6l 1UR-FSE and 8 speed auto with all ecu/wiring between the two, in an 1st gen 7 or 8.

then pay close attention to where i gained space at....these DOHC v8s dont just fit down in a gen1 unless your willing to have a goofy looking hood and want to cut on the car, there is a reason its the only example i can find of it in the USA, most people flake out and just put a SBC or SBF in them since its easy.

you will not get it under the stock hood without modifying it, either top or bottom, one of them has to be cropped, take your pick according to your steering and transmission clearances and get to it. and note that in the front of the engine is the cam gears that stick up high, and those arent something you can move, and they are right where the hood starts to drop off so clearance is tight.

i will post finished pics of the Xmember placement and clearances as well as ground clearances and hoodline once the engine is back in the car, the stock hood meant a lot to me, but ground clearance must be dealt with, ill be adding armor to the bottom.

and yes..the UR line of yota v8s are nasty...but they are externally MASSIVE, the 1uz is hard enough to squeeze in.

haha, i want to put a gm 04-06 6.6 turbo diesel in an rx8 also, with the allison 1000... but thats soo ridiculous i'll wait till i have another spare lly block and try to do some test fitting.. before i will say that i'm going to do it. pipe dreams really. thats a heavy heavy block. but 600rwhp 1100 ftlbs... with just two injection pumps...

BUT, i hear you on the clearances. i'm wouldn't be afraid of changing out steering racks/remaking the oil pan, and "clearancing" the firewall, b/c imo, stock hood, or go home. keep up the FANTASTIC work!

thats a bit silly...those engines are just heavy....but if all you want is a drag/burnout car it might be amusing

the addition of the 1uz and the other changes i have made, rear end and front end, with the turbos and what not, should amount to a total of about +100lbs to the car MAX, I will weigh the car when done and post its overall and balance. I am very confident the balance will remain the same if not better. as the added weight is in several places not just on the front wheels

I wish i had weighed the car before i took the wankel out, but my guess is that it was pretty close to stock weight, being that all AC and emmissions equipment was removed, but then the turbo and plumbing added in place, so it was either the same, if not slightly, and i mean slightly as in just a few pounds less than bone stock.

in doing all this the car will remain a nice handling road car that can be driven in the rain safely, still stop and turn like a 7 should AND accelerate with extreme authority, though my holeshot traction might not permit hard standing starts, i dont care, its not a "drag" car, nor a trailer queen.

engine should be going in the car this week, nothing to show yet, will take pics as events unfold, plumbing starts soon....and dont we all just love doing that...:D

I know heavy, but the torque is amazing :nod: