carl0s Posted June 12, 2009 Share Posted June 12, 2009 Quick question, it's general and not mkiv specific. If I was to want to drop, say an LS1 V8 into a Jap car, like an RX7 or something, or maybe a Supra, whatever, well, can somebody explain how the car's electronics interface with the engine? Does full mapping etc need to be done, and a programmable ECU and what not, or with it being a normally aspirated engine, can it be done fairly simply? What happens regarding the gauges in the car and all that other stuff? How does the car's wiring tie in with the transplanted engine? Can it be not too difficult, or does it have to be a tough expensive job? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homer Posted June 12, 2009 Share Posted June 12, 2009 If you go for a fuel injected engine like the LS series you'll need the LS stock loom and ideally the LS stock ECU. You can then either replace the stock ECU with a standalone or have a remap done on the standard one. Obviously much of the wiring will need to be adjusted to fit to the chassis and dash looms. I never got as far as checking all the pinouts, but you'll need someone seriously knowledgeable to match everything up. The cost to do the transfer to an a chevy or similar engine is huge. The motor and gear mounts, custom prop, trans tunnel mods alone are liekly to be in the thousands. The electrical work could run to a significant amount too, especially if you want to keep things like air con. The RX7 converion has been done quite a few times and there are companies and people out there that have some good experience with them, so costs will be reduced for that. In a supra, it's not been done before so you'd be looking at doing most from scratch. I can give you some good contacts for the RX conversion if you like. Done a lot of work on the costings for the LS transfer and unless you have many, many thousands to spend on the conversion costs alone (not parts) it's not worth even thinking about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustGav Posted June 12, 2009 Share Posted June 12, 2009 Depending on what you are doing really.... it would probably be a few convertor boxes and the like, but not impossible. You would normally use the ECU from the engine purely to run the engine (In some cases you might need to frig certain signals to not panic the ECU, and in some cases keep the car's ECU purely to run things such as aircon and the like. It all REALLY depends on what you are matching up with what.. For instance I can put a VW 1.8T lump in my caddy with very little extra work because the looms are almost interchangeable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homer Posted June 12, 2009 Share Posted June 12, 2009 In an RX7 (have more of these in other cars): Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted June 12, 2009 Author Share Posted June 12, 2009 (edited) Well, it's my RX7. It needs a new rotor housing and a rotor, and a full set of various seals, o-rings and gaskets. So I'm probably into maybe up to a grand there all done. The car has an Apexi PowerFC w/commander ECU, but that's only for the Mazda, so wouldn't run a V8. I'm just thinking how cool it'd be to drop a V8 in there, and if I was to sell the PowerFC for maybe £600 with the commander, then that gives £1,000 to £2,000 spend allowance if I'm to try to keep costs in line with the rotary rebuild cost. I'm just wondering if I could grab a big V8 for ~£800, and then have a grand or so to get it working in the car, but it has to be something I can do myself, since that's the whole point. Up to now I've pulled the rotary out of there, and it's all stripped and on the engine stand, and I'm pretty happy that I could rebuild that now, but I'm at the point now where I have to buy the parts, and a lightbulb has just gone on in my head, plus enough people (uncle, father-in-law) have said "put a v8 in it". I've just registered on v8rx7forum.com, but I know you guys are straight talking It needs to be something that I could just about do myself, since that's the whole point of this RX7 - it was bought as a project car and something to do, but I've kind of already done it now, up to the point where I have to spend the money and put it back together. I understand it well enough now that the fun part is pretty much done, except for the satisfaction of it actually working I suppose. Edited June 12, 2009 by carl0s (see edit history) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted June 12, 2009 Author Share Posted June 12, 2009 More money would come from the turbos, good rotor and housing and other bits from the 13B engine I suppose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted June 12, 2009 Author Share Posted June 12, 2009 (edited) I did wonder if it was typical to take the ECU from the car that the engine came from. I reckon I could get an LS1 engine, but just the engine, for maybe £800, or am I just dreaming? My uncle has a 351 Ford in the cellar. Not sure what the deal is with that though. It's from his Ford Pop drag car that's been "in progress" since I was about 14 (so about 14 years..). Apparently they changed the regs so he needed to lengthen it a bit, and it never got finished. Edited June 12, 2009 by carl0s (see edit history) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homer Posted June 12, 2009 Share Posted June 12, 2009 Sorry to say it but you will need a LOT more budget than that mate older LS1 with looms, ECU and box can be had for about £4k if you're lucky, then about £2-3k to install. Thats the minimum Older iron block carb V8's can be had for less, but are less powerful and are of course heavy (about the same as a 2JZ) and still need the same install costs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted June 12, 2009 Author Share Posted June 12, 2009 (it's all about the noise BTW, I don't care that a bit turbo might make more power. I just want 300hp or above). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homer Posted June 12, 2009 Share Posted June 12, 2009 I did wonder if it was typical to take the ECU from the car that the engine came from. I reckon I could get an LS1 engine, but just the engine, for maybe £800, or am I just dreaming? My uncle has a 351 Ford in the cellar. Not sure what the deal is with that though. It's from his Ford Pop drag car that's been "in progress" since I was about 14 (so about 14 years..). Apparently they changed the regs so he needed to lengthen it a bit, and it never got finished. £800 Where the heck from?!! It's a good price, but the loom, ECU and boxes are expensive. 351 windsor is a waste of time. Very heavy and 400bhp takes a lot to do, plus it doesn't rev. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted June 12, 2009 Author Share Posted June 12, 2009 £800 Where the heck from?!! It's a good price, but the loom, ECU and boxes are expensive. 351 windsor is a waste of time. Very heavy and 400bhp takes a lot to do, plus it doesn't rev. meh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted June 12, 2009 Author Share Posted June 12, 2009 Can get a full "run kit" for the LS2 for £750 + vat: http://www.partsworldperformance.com/product_details.php?category_id=90&item_id=881 but not for the LS1.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted June 12, 2009 Author Share Posted June 12, 2009 So other than the Lexus/Toyota V8, which would require me to find an old LS400 and have somewhere to store the car, are there any other V8 possibilities? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rxv8 Posted June 12, 2009 Share Posted June 12, 2009 give up...ive done both,rx7 with a sbc...and a supra with a sbc...and they both cost 4x what you have to spend...rebuild the rx7...sell it and buy a supra n/a manual and put the lexus v8 4.0 n much easier swap...which is what i am doing at present so may be able to help...as i have a spare v8 engine and parts...pm me if you want... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rxv8 Posted June 12, 2009 Share Posted June 12, 2009 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted June 12, 2009 Author Share Posted June 12, 2009 give up...ive done both,rx7 with a sbc...and a supra with a sbc...and they both cost 4x what you have to spend...rebuild the rx7...sell it and buy a supra n/a manual and put the lexus v8 4.0 n much easier swap...which is what i am doing at present so may be able to help...as i have a spare v8 engine and parts...pm me if you want... Can you give me a rough breakdown of where the costs are with the RX7 V8 ? Already have a Supra TT and want to leave that alone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted June 13, 2009 Author Share Posted June 13, 2009 I think I'm gonna do it. If I can get an LS1 or LS2 for semi reasonable money, I'm going to turn this into a longer term project. The fun part of the rotary is almost over already - I just need to spend money and put it back together. I've already done the fun learning bit I think, so it would be crap to just put it back together now, then it's project over. So a 1 - 2 year LS1/2 project might just fit the bill. One of the chaps at v8rx7forum.com does some great subframes for mounting the LS2 into the FD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbloodyturbo Posted June 14, 2009 Share Posted June 14, 2009 I think I'm gonna do it. If I can get an LS1 or LS2 for semi reasonable money, I'm going to turn this into a longer term project. The fun part of the rotary is almost over already - I just need to spend money and put it back together. I've already done the fun learning bit I think, so it would be crap to just put it back together now, then it's project over. So a 1 - 2 year LS1/2 project might just fit the bill. One of the chaps at v8rx7forum.com does some great subframes for mounting the LS2 into the FD. If you go ahead with it start a build thread or something as I would be very interested to see your progress. I think an alloy block LSx in an RX7 is a good match and was interested in doing it myself before I seen the price of LS engines in this country, and an older iron block sbc defeats the purpose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnny g Posted June 14, 2009 Share Posted June 14, 2009 An LS7 in the RX7 would be the Holy Grail really. Expensive engine, but superlight and very powerful (505bhp). Economy wouldn't be much worse than a stock Rex either I'd bet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted June 14, 2009 Author Share Posted June 14, 2009 Well I've started offering the remnants of the Rotary engine up for sale on the RX7 clubs, so I guess there'll be no going back then.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted June 17, 2009 Author Share Posted June 17, 2009 Sold the Apexi PFC for £450. Just bought $1,500 of LSx/T56 subframe, box & diff mounts. Gotta start somewhere Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted July 20, 2009 Author Share Posted July 20, 2009 I win http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300329394582 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamieP Posted July 20, 2009 Share Posted July 20, 2009 I win http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300329394582 Nice one, thats a bargain:d dont go to the expense of a standalone ecu, the LS2 stock ecu is a good and very mappable unit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted July 20, 2009 Author Share Posted July 20, 2009 Nice one, thats a bargain dont go to the expense of a standalone ecu, the LS2 stock ecu is a good and very mappable unit. Thanks. That's £4k delivered, plus customs/duty, damn that's a lot of money. Luckily I did a couple of jobs that were dedicated to this engine, so I never saw the money IYSWIM. The Monaro breaker in Birmingham wanted £4.5k for an LS1. I've been looking at HP Tuners and EFI Live, looks really good. I'm not sure whether to send the ECU off to the states to have VATS and emissions stuff removed, or buy HP Tuners and see if I can do it myself. Seems like buying HP Tuners would be the way forward if only I could find out for sure that I could do everything that needs to be done to get the ECU running without the body control module and all the other anti-theft/safety/emissions stuff missing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamieP Posted July 20, 2009 Share Posted July 20, 2009 Thanks. That's £4k delivered, plus customs/duty, damn that's a lot of money. Luckily I did a couple of jobs that were dedicated to this engine, so I never saw the money IYSWIM. The Monaro breaker in Birmingham wanted £4.5k for an LS1. I've been looking at HP Tuners and EFI Live, looks really good. I'm not sure whether to send the ECU off to the states to have VATS and emissions stuff removed, or buy HP Tuners and see if I can do it myself. Seems like buying HP Tuners would be the way forward if only I could find out for sure that I could do everything that needs to be done to get the ECU running without the body control module and all the other anti-theft/safety/emissions stuff missing. You got a lot of kit there, great price imo. Get Mark at Rapidgb to map it, he is very good with them and dont charge the earth, he did a maffless remap on my monaro. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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