2jzgte swap

[seattlejester]

^But you had your own tools, connections for parts, welder, etc. I agree, I think getting the motor into the car and the mounts fabbed up was about a 3 day process and if it was running prior to being pulled I'm sure it wouldn't have taken much longer, but to your average guy it's going to take quite a while or loads of money. I think it would be better to err on the side of caution.

 

I mean if I drove a 240z to your house and handed you 2k and expected to drive away in three days with a running 1jz swap, I doubt you would be interested.

[Avernier]

Craigslist motor 500$, craigslist r154, came with stock clutch 300$, 200$ bellhousing on a forum, 35$ slave cylinder. 7$ clutch line advance auto, stock fuel pump (already on the car, 280z) made my driveshaft, made my mounts, 30$ drop from metal supplier, 150$ aem uego ,150$ ebay intercooler kit. Drove awesome. Dude who bought it drove it 15hr's home to florida. No issues. Very fun, very cheap. My welder is a hobart handler 140. 350$ brand new. My angle grinder is a dewalt from home depot. 50-70$. Theres nothing wrong about doing it the way i did. This forum is super hung up on over building. My car ran awesome. My current does too. And cost only a little more.

[seattlejester]

Dude, peace man. Not saying there's anything wrong with the way you did it, in fact I am all for doing everything on a budget, my car is built on ebay, craigslist bargains, and harbor freight, but your build was time and skill intensive. There's value there. If you don't value your time and skills you have learned, then your doing something wrong. To get all the parts, register for different forums, research, go to the auto parts store, browse craigslist, look up how to and make your own mounts, there's value in the time you spent there. Throw the exact same parts and tools at someone else, and they probably wouldn't be able to make heads or tails of it. Not saying you need to go around charging everybody 80$ an hour for helping them out, but there is value that you aren't accounting for.

 

Easy example is to order the R154 clutch slave from drift motion. Oreiley has the wrong part number to the correct image and cannot get the right part in washington state. 

 

Location also becomes a huge factor in cost as well. When I was looking for machine work the closest shop wanted 1200$ to do basic machining on my motor. I walked into a machine shop quite a bit out of the ways and they wanted 300$ to do the same machine work, I've heard out in mississippi and alabama, the same services go for maybe 150$,  huge difference in price based solely on location.

 

And please don't group my opinions as a reflection of the whole forum, it's just my personal opinion and shouldn't be representative of the whole forum. I tend to be cautious and tend to want to do things cautiously. I don't know the people who ask for advice, they can be a master mechanic with a lift and full fab capabilities, or it can be your average joe with harbor freight tools and an internet connection. If you tell someone two grand to do a full engine swap, and they start pulling apart their car the moment they hit two grand, most people are not going to be able to finish. If you tell someone 10-15k, it shock checks them, and makes them really think about what they want/afford. A large proportion of people who are thinking about 2jz or rb26 swaps are considering rather large expectations. I would rather have them enjoy the chassis and what it has to offer, then to spend every dime they have and then sell it on as an incomplete project. 

[Owndapwn]

You pretty much need all of the things on the list to have a fully functioning vehicle with room to grow. If you were desperate to get the engine in the car in stock trim, you could find a donor car and use all stock components and just have aftermarket fuel lines, custom exhaust, and custom mounts. From what I've seen on craigslist that can be 3k for a running driving mk3 supra to 7-10k for a running but bad condition mk4. Mk3 supra's with swaps occupy around the 5-7k mark.

 

Just know, that if you are aiming for a budget swap, and planning on asking your friend for most of the help, you are going to run into a lot of problems. Coordinating schedules, work space, parts runs, etc. The worst part by far was having to purchase all the small things that weren't on the main list for my swap. I have 200 hours into my swap so far and probably over 7k into just the motor swap so far, quite a bit more is sunk into the actual car. If you are still in school and don't have the suggested 15k, it may be better to slowly fix things on the car in prep for the swap, instead of grafting in a new heart into a tired chassis. Alternatively, you can buy a supra, build it up a bit, and when you have the time, money, and space, shove it into the datsun, you will be familiar with the motor and it should be overall an easier task. 

 

I know it'll be a big project. No doubt about that.

But I honestly don't think I'd spring for a 400whp Datsun, unless I made a custom tube chassis similar to what you would find in a trophy truck and then bolt the body panels and interior to it.

That'd be ~$10k for the chassis, including labor from a body guy in town, but assuming I had the plans already, but unless a detailed engineering schematic exists digitally already, I don't think I could design one without all the mount points of everything and detailed measurements.

May be worth it, since the tube chassis could handle 800whp pretty soundly, and no rust. But the initial cost is daunting. Perhaps in the future it could be done. The year is 2077 and all them bitches at the retirement home want to get in on my forcibly preserved Fairlady. Only stock part that remains is the measurements of the wheelbase and the body panels, and something about robot armageddon.

 

My plan would be to, instead of saving X amount of money and diving in headlong, I'd save up the parts and tools needed. Buy the motor and trans, FMIC, harness, ECU, driveshaft, etc whenever I find a killer deal and can spare the money, and leave them in storage until I have everything, plus some money for unforeseen expenses.

The bargain hunting should be able to lower the price, cumulatively, by about $2k, maybe more. And the parts could be used for a different project or resold if things didn't work out.

That said, this isn't something I'll actually be doing until after college, unless I get a good job during.

But I like to be able to account for things while I'm saving. There's a page of ideal swaps, but none for what it would take to get it to drive gently on the road. No drifting, autocross, or drag racing until much later (If ever).

[KTMStrawn]

I know it'll be a big project. No doubt about that.

But I honestly don't think I'd spring for a 400whp Datsun, unless I made a custom tube chassis similar to what you would find in a trophy truck and then bolt the body panels and interior to it.

That'd be ~$10k for the chassis, including labor from a body guy in town, but assuming I had the plans already, but unless a detailed engineering schematic exists digitally already, I don't think I could design one without all the mount points of everything and detailed measurements.

May be worth it, since the tube chassis could handle 800whp pretty soundly, and no rust. But the initial cost is daunting. Perhaps in the future it could be done. The year is 2077 and all them bitches at the retirement home want to get in on my forcibly preserved Fairlady. Only stock part that remains is the measurements of the wheelbase and the body panels, and something about robot armageddon.

 

My plan would be to, instead of saving X amount of money and diving in headlong, I'd save up the parts and tools needed. Buy the motor and trans, FMIC, harness, ECU, driveshaft, etc whenever I find a killer deal and can spare the money, and leave them in storage until I have everything, plus some money for unforeseen expenses.

The bargain hunting should be able to lower the price, cumulatively, by about $2k, maybe more. And the parts could be used for a different project or resold if things didn't work out.

That said, this isn't something I'll actually be doing until after college, unless I get a good job during.

But I like to be able to account for things while I'm saving. There's a page of ideal swaps, but none for what it would take to get it to drive gently on the road. No drifting, autocross, or drag racing until much later (If ever).

I was wondering a similar thing. I've started the process of doing this swap and I've been documenting all of my costs in getting the swap running in stock condition. Hopefully if time allows in the next few months I'll have a price list for a stock 2jz swapped datsun.

[seattlejester]

You don't need a tube chassis to run the 400hp power level. Making sure your chassis doesn't have any structural damage and some bracing in the right areas will be enough for that kind of power as long as you aren't launching with drag radials. I highly suggest looking at the sticky'd thread on the top of this forum. As Avernier has done, it outlines for a 3 day swap to get the motor in the car. 

 

Cheapest way will be to find a donor vehicle. You can confirm everything works and runs. There was a mk3 supra for sale on my local craigslist with a built jz motor, but wrecked body/interior going for 1500$ when I started my swap. If I didn't have an engine already, that would have made things a breeze I imagine. If you can confirm the motor runs, the only thing you need to feed it is coolant and fuel and make sure the exhaust exit's in a reasonable manner. After that it is just a matter of mounting it in the car and getting the power to the rear. 

 

I've done the buying parts when you can, saving up for big pieces thing during college. Worked weekends to save up and all that jazz. Short of gas becoming illegal to use or some crazy new law, it would have been much better if I had just saved up. There were quite a few deals that came up where I didn't have the money because I was throwing all the money I had into tools and parts.

 

Knowing what I know now, maybe 3k to get a stock motor in if you can find a good deal. 

 

Minimum parts list for stockish levels of power:

Drive shaft 300$

Motor mounts 200-500$

Trans mount 100$

Engine 1000-3000$ (7m-imported 2jz)

Transmission 250-5000$ (w58-getrag)

ECU (stock)

Harness (stock)

Coolant hoses 50$

Fuel lines and fittings 100$

Gauges (use stock gauge cluster from supra)

 

You would max out on the stock datsun equipment pretty quick though. That would necessitate newer fuel pump, bigger lines, then if you up the power, you would have to look at the half shafts, axles, differential, brakes, suspension, it just kind of snowballs the more power you want to go for.

Edited March 27, 2014 by seattlejester

[badjuju]

Gonna go ahead and say it.  I've been fighting it for a couple days, but I'm just going to give in.

 

You're talking about a HUGE undertaking (Avernier's posts don't apply to you, either I'm totally misunderstanding what you mean by "reliable daily driver", or he is.  That isn't to say that it didn't make the drive to FLA or that it isn't fast as piss, though).  The swap on its own is a big friggin deal, or Hybridz wouldn't have an entire subforum dedicated to it.  Avernier's projects sound friggin awesome and he should be proud of them, but the sort of project you're talking about doesn't sound like the kind of project that can feasibly be done in a weekend.  I understand that I'm a dumbass and flame flame flame or whatever, but I estimate work for a living, I haven't starved yet, and your project and Avernier's sound like apples and oranges.

 

Next, To put the kind of work you're talking about into a car and not make any changes along the way would be foolish.  Accepting my premise of "this is a ton of work, don't take it lightly", at the end of your project, you'll have done a ton of work, and wound up on the other side with a super sweet twin turbo setup.  The flipside is that you just spent all that time and money and didn't bother upgrading your forced induction system, the design of which (assuming the motor is an American ride out of a junkyard) at the VERY least 22 years old.  A lot has happened in turbocharger technology since then.

 

That's just my $.02 cents.  I'd spend a lot more just to take a drive in Avernier's car, btw.  This was not a post meant to rip on anyone.

[badjuju]

 

My plan would be to, instead of saving X amount of money and diving in headlong, I'd save up the parts and tools needed. Buy the motor and trans, FMIC, harness, ECU, driveshaft, etc whenever I find a killer deal and can spare the money, and leave them in storage until I have everything, plus some money for unforeseen expenses.

The bargain hunting should be able to lower the price, cumulatively, by about $2k, maybe more. And the parts could be used for a different project or resold if things didn't work out.

That said, this isn't something I'll actually be doing until after college, unless I get a good job during.

But I like to be able to account for things while I'm saving. There's a page of ideal swaps, but none for what it would take to get it to drive gently on the road. No drifting, autocross, or drag racing until much later (If ever).

I had my car when I started the project, but I tackled it much the same way.  I sold my motor and bought a turbocharger.  I found seats on CL.  I bought the elbows to build my exhaust manifold, etc.

 

It's a really big treat for me to go connect two of those parts.  A good friend of mine gifted me the bellhousing I needed, and even though it'll be another month or so before I can mate it to my motor, it was really cool to get to mate it to my transmission.  I highly recommend this method, if you have the space.

[new2Zs]

My advice would be just look at what is worth more, your time or the part you are making.  Like you could build an turbo exhaust manifold, but for the amount of time and money for materials, its probably cheaper to buy one, and spend your time on something else.  

 

Some advice i got from a grey beard one time was keep the down time of the project to a minimum.  It might take you longer to get your project exactly how you like it, but you will keep your motivation wayyyyyy up if you are close to driving it.  If you have a running Z keep it like that until you have the parts to do the swap.