Well I moved to a new house a couple months ago and finally have a shop to work on my truck. Super excited to finally be able to start on the project.

The last few days I have had some fun stripping her down. I removed the box, all fenders doors, ex...


Here on some pictures of the truck so far.











Needed to move the truck back. So I picked it and slid her back haha




Learned to NOT get aluminum blocks the hard way. Was wondering why my rear end would shift when I pressed the gas. Real lucky thats all it did.

 

So the plan for the build is to swap over all running gear and motor from a Lexus SC400 and do a 5spd tranny swap.

Im in the process of buying an SC right now so hopefully the real project can begin.

I have done a ton a research on doing this swap and hopefully have enough info to do the swap. There is a BUNCH of info on the site Lexus-Toyota V8 Performance Forum

Up front I plan on swapping in the 1UZ with a W58 5spd. Also try and swap over the front suspension.

The rear will be the IRS from the SC as well. I will upbolt the complete rear end from the SC and fab up some mounts so get it bolted into the truck.


As of the interior I am happy with what I have now (2006 Audi black leather heated seats). If I did anything I would put a cage and maybe a new steering wheel.

 

thought the seats looked familiar haha. (wife dailys an a4)

 

Yea that came out of an Alllroad. I like them, comfy, electric and heated

 

hell yea they are. we take trips to california often and its so nice sitting in those for a few hours

 

So today was a big day for my truck. I found a killer deal on a car I was looking to make as a donor to upgrade my truck.

I bought a 1992 Lexus SC400. Its got a 1UZ 4.0L V8 making 250hp and 260 torque. Driving it home I found out its got awesome power for a motor swap.

Plans are also to swap over the suspension. Remove the rear leafs and replace with the IRS and do the same with the front suspension.

It comes with a 4spd auto but will be swapping a W58 in if I can find one locally.

Pictures and updates as soon as I drive her into the garage.

 

Nice lil score.........be careful with her!

 

And the swap begins

 

now this is my kind of swap. i shall be following lol

 

I got to spend a few hours in the garage today. My main focus was making room for the Lexus to come in so I can start pulling the motor and suspension.

Pulled the cab off the frame. Want to get the frame over to the a car wash place to get all the built up oil and dirt from the last 20+ years off.

Here are a few pictures of the days work. Its so nice having a clean garage to work in. Im learing its good to clean while you go. Makes a world of a difference haha










Also I finally bought a welder the other day. Super excited about that purchase. Its a Lincoln 180C. Currently I am only using wire feed till I buy a bottle for argon mixture. Then I will be able to start Mig welding.


I dont have 220V out in the garage yet so I bought a 50ft cord and whenever I weld I roll the cord out and plug it in where the dryer hooks up. That will be another big project that Im not ready to tackle yet.

 

Very nice work so far Dale. The lay out of the shop is great. I'm think I'm headed back to Seattle next week, so if time is there love to stop by and lend a hand if needed.

 

Yea man would love it. Oh and maybe you can have those parts I was suppose to be sending you hahahaha

 

Problems...

So now that the weather is getting nicer I am wanting to get this truck on the road. But I still have a ways to go. Today I got out there for a few hours and was able to pull the motor and get it on the stand.









My next task is to drop the entire front end. From what I can see there are about 10ish bolts holding the entire front assembly onto the SC400 chassis. It looks pretty straight forward unbolting it. From the looks I will be able to make a chassis bolt mounts on the Pickup frame.

I was hoping to weld the the subframe to the truck frame but I found out its aluminum so that will be a no go.

Then I found the saddest thing of all. I went to bolt up my Starion wheels that way when I unbolt the subframe I can move it around easily. Well it turns out that the calipers for the disk brakes are way to big. Looks like I will be needing a new set of wheels.




Im open to wheel ideas if anyone has any.

 

Are you selling the starions? If so I'm interested

 

Haha at this point no. But if I do decide to sell I will be doing it on this site so someone here can get them

 

So today was a major step. To me anyways.

I got under the SC and took a look to make sure it would be possible for me to unbolt the front end assembly. Well after looking at it and 20 minutes I had the entire assembly unbolted and out of the car.




The next step will be unbolting the rearend.


After looking at the assembly there are only a total of 10 bolts that hold it to the frame. I am hoping to be able to weld up some mounts for everything with little modification to the front frame rails of the pickup.

From the picture you can see two small holes and one larger. The smaller holes on top are the frame mounts and the long large hole is the motor mount.





The benefit to doing it this way is I wont have to modify the 1UZ oil pan. Everything will be "bolt on" when it comes to putting the 1UZ and suspension parts back together.

 

DOING WORK!!!
FYI, it's not neccessary to mod the sc400 oil pan. I modified the lower bolt in crossmember that ties the front LCA's together.
I removed the crossmember and welded in square 1"x2" steel tubing in it's place. The oilpan clears it by 1/2" now. Then I mounted the 5speed trans to the engine. Using the trans mount to located the engine in place, the oil pan will just clear the steering draglink by a few millimeters. I can post pics if you like.

You will also need an oil filter relocation kit. The oilfilter will hit the frame without one.

 

Yea I read something about having to relocate the oil filter. I'm hoping with the modification to the frame when I fit the front assembly it will fix that problem. If not.then I will go.the remote filter.

 

One more thing. Open the ecu and check for leaking capacitors. It's a common problem with these old lexus. The problem capacitors are the brown colored cylinders. Check under them where they are soldered to the board. If you see a brown colored residue on the board under the cap it's probably toast. The brown crap is acid and it destroyes the circuits. The motor will most likely not run and if it does, it will run like crap.

If there is no residue but the solder joint is not dull (not shiny) or grayish colored, the leaking has started but it is repairable. It will still run in this condition but it should be repaired or replaced.

 

Ok good to know. I bought this car running and drove it home about 60 miles. It drove nice and strong.

But as of what you were saying pictures are always nice. Im getting my inspiration for this project from yours. Anything helps.