2JZ-GTE VVTi front cut into Aus JZS160/161 GS300 - How difficult?

[Sicarius123]

Looking at buying a four door luxury sedan as an addition to the family and at the moment the GS300 is getting the go ahead from the missus. Will be mainly her car, but she still wants it to be fun to drive as do I.

First thought obviously is that an import JZS16x Aristo GTE VVTi front cut shouldn't be too hard to chuck in, and I would presume the wiring wouldn't be too difficult for an auto sparky to deal with having an entire front cut of the same body car in front of him, but I'd appreciate any advice with this.

End of the day the car will be stock GTE with some nice wheels, lowered and an exhaust. Not looking to go crazy on it. I want it to look factory down to the airbox when the bonnet is popped and are even hoping we can make the lexus engine covers fit.

We have zero interest in NA-T to head that off, looks fkn awful and too much screwing around with the wrong engine as well as standing out like dogs balls when the engine is popped. Got a T51R Supra already so don't need to go nuts on this.

Also no interest in JZS147 Aristo's, well aware they are already turbo but combining the fact of owning and insuring another grey import, they're an older car, and extremely ugly, and they're not a contender.

1) Is this conversion as easy as it sounds with a full front cut in front of you, or are there some big things being overlooked here?

2) Are there some body computers that wont like talking to each other between different models? Any type of year model combo between AU and JP that I should be aiming for and any I should be avoiding?

3) Did the GTE go 5spd auto at all in the later models, or was that only the GE? If so, when did this happen?

4) Anyone have a rough idea of how much a JZS160/161 front cut goes for these days, don't really want to ring around importers until I'm ready to buy as most of them seem to be pretty rude and not get back to you when asking for quotes. JPY is fine.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[cambelt]

The only way i would do it is if i got both front AND rear cuts from the doner car and the donar car must have keys or there could be trouble with the transponder system .
There is a couple of imort JZS161 around and from what ive seen about $26 K
Dave

[Sicarius123]

Any reasons for requiring the rear cut other than the TT diff and driveshaft? Are there body computers in the rear of this car?

[The Real Roadrunner]

been done before,

you should only need the front cut to do the conversion and everything will go into the bay as per std (dont put the lexus covers on as the std one looks great).

I didn't do the conversion i just spoke to the owner who did it himself.

He swapped the dashes over and had to repin a couple of plugs inside the car but i can't tell you which ones. He used the aristo auto and apparently just bolted the tailshaft straight up, the diff may need a ratio change but the easiest way to find out would be to check out an EPC for the item description.

Ill be doing the same swap in a few months when i find a tidy GS300 for the right price as i reckon it would be a great family car/DD

A complete cut seems to go for about $4400 as an Auto, bit pricey but if you get all the parts needed then its not to bad.

Cheers
Linden

[Sicarius123]

Lexus covers would be for the benefit of Mr Plod.

Would cause me much amusement to have a cop scratch their head at a stock looking engine bay trying to work out what the issue is.

[The Real Roadrunner]

thats the best bit about using everything from the Aristo cut, it is stock and a cop wouldn't be able to figure it out anyway (unless he/she is a car nut in which case they would like it even more),
i had a double take when i first saw the car and then i was thinking how cool it would be to have one.

cheers
linden

[Sicarius123]

Linden, is your friend who did the conversion a member here? Would appreciate if you could point them at this thread.

[Sicarius123]

I have been e-mailing Manny's friend who has recently completed this conversion and thought I should update the thread to help anyone else thinking about this.

He said if you want this conversion to work like factory the best bet is to buy a crashed car in Japan, have the loom pulled properly from the back half and a front half cut, and have the rear cradle shipped over to retain the Active Rear Steer and TRC. Doing it this way also means no re-wiring, just re-running wiring looms.

Definitely looking like an appealing conversion . Any more advice still greatly appreciated.

[Dieseltrain]

Colin from Soarer Central just finished this conversion . Said you need a Whole new Loom from the front to rear of the car which he had to source from Japan . HOwever the car is now running, registered and everything . Looks very nice .

[cambelt]

Exactly why you would want the rear stuff as well , just to be 100% it all would work .
Most of it is a network but im not sure what the result would be if something was left out or added to the C bus.
Dave

[Sicarius123]

I believe Colin is most likely the same bloke I was chatting to via e-mail. I'll join Soarer Central for info too.

At least with buying a crashed car and half cutting it you can grab the rear bits also, get a full wiring loom, and it's a bit more of a known condition than a half cut that may of been sitting around for years.

Also if anyone knows, did the JZX16x get a 5spd auto in the GTE in later models? Or stay 4spd the whole way through?

[Sciflyer]

Cant help thinking this seems like a hell of a lot of effort risk and cost for the gain over just bolting a turbo on to a locally sourced car

Do you actually know anyone in Japan who you can trust to purchase, cut and container the car for you? I know some people who have been burned (and not in the physical sense) doing that sort of thing

[Sicarius123]

Going NA-T properly will cost the same as buying the parts required and getting them here. This car will primarily be driven by my girlfriend so doesn't need to be super powerful, but we definitely want a fun turbo daily. I also don't want the disaster looking engine bay that NA-T brings.

I want a turn key factory turbo, besides the initial conversion I want there to be no headaches in ownership.

I will be looking into trustworthy brokers with premesis in Japan and doing a lot of research into them before going ahead with this. Rampant/import monster has already been suggested, but any more suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I am the owner of a TT 6spd re-shell into aerotop Supra, so am definitely happy to go to the effort required to build a car properly.

[cambelt]

All VVTi GTE,s are still 4 sp . Its strange as the VVTi GTE auto has very simmiler wiring( and 7 solonoids) to the 5Speed