IS200 Engine Conversions and maintaining Climate Control and Dash functionality?

[bahaimus]

So there's a heap of threads on people who have performed engine conversion on these cars and I am also considering this possibility. But there doesn't seem to be any detail about what people have done in order to maintain factory dash and climate control functionality. And I've spent days searching, reading whole build threads on here and other forums as well.

I have read that the factory ECU needs to be in place, but anyone who has started posting about that never seems to post to completion of that process. I have seen that user grahamd seemed to have conquered the problem, but never posted the details and is no longer active on the forums I've seen him post on.

Anyone prepared to share their hard earned knowledge?

[Kedderz]

Talk to brett from all style automotive fame, IS1000 on many a forum, IIRC he has done heaps of conversions and still maintained factory dash.

[bahaimus]

I tried to track him down as well, but similar to grahamd, no longer seems to be active on the forums he used to frequent! Certainly not under that username anyway.

*edit* Ok, I think I did find him. Seems to work elsewhere these days.

I also managed to find a phone number for Graham, but I literally caught him boarding a plane to go overseas for a month!

[Kedderz]

Im not sure he ever put the info 'on the line" as it were either as its how they made an income for a while there.

Be handy to know though, if he will share it.

[bahaimus]

Just working out the right way for me to approach him as a complete stranger in the hope he will share. And not come across as a stalker............

[Kedderz]

Just say your looking to purchase one of the cars he built back in the day?

[George]

double ecu is the way to go

[dumbass]

yes like George said

u run the is200 ecu and the new ecu to run new engine

only time u can maybe run just the new ecu is if its a late model Toyota with the multiplex system

ive done afew is200 and water temp gauge and ac doesn't work
the rest I can get going but to get everything going the price doubles or triples which scares most people away

so depends how competent u r at the wiring
is200 ecu is at front passenger side of engine bay which makes it hard to work with and messy

[bahaimus]

Yeah, i figured the dual ECU thing is the go, but I was hoping someone here had the knowledge of the details without having a commercial interest in it (more power to those who do!) and might be willing to share it given how many conversions there are running around.

I have seen mention of a requirement to mimick actual running of the engine to the IS200 ECU in order to get the climate control working. I'd seen reference to a circuit board that grahamd had to make back in the day in order to get it all working for him.

dumbass, are you prepared to throw some ballpark figures at me. PM if you'd prefer. Considering either a 1UZ or LS1 preferably with factory ECU.

[dumbass]

dual ecu is easy
leave the orig loom in there and ecu
wire up new ecu and get everything working
then slowly remove bits of old loom that u don't need

its not hard, just takes along time
I spent 2 to 3 days wiring an ls1 into an is200
most guys wont spend the money to get everything working and look nice
so I remove orig wiring and just wire up new stuff
then get as much as I can working

people will spend 5 to 10 grand on paint and wanky shit but they wont spend 1 grand on getting wiring done nicely
this is why there is not a lot of complete perfect conversions running around
most are done in backyard

ive done ls1s into late model nissans and it cost around 2000 to 2500 to get everything working perfectly

if u want a 1uz u might aswell go buy a vn v6 commodore and drive it
much cheaper and goes just as hard hehehe

[triptek]

bahaimus - If your thinking v8, probably best with something like a 1uz vvti or 3uz. They both run multiplex systems, so you should be able to run just the one ecu.

[BLK_20v]

jzx110 is another good option...

[trdee]

.......

people will spend 5 to 10 grand on paint and wanky shit but they wont spend 1 grand on getting wiring done nicely
this is why there is not a lot of complete perfect conversions running around
most are done in backyard

This is SO true. Doing an engine conversion on something 80s/90s like an S13 etc is a piece of piss. Move forward a few years to cars like the E46 which run canbus for almost everything, and getting shit to work as per factory takes much much more work.

You can do some pretty cool stuff with microcontrollers nowadays which means you dont necessarily need to use the original ECU (depending on the car and what system they use), I was able to get the dash on an E46 talking to an LS1 using an arduino and canbus interface. I was going to set the aircon and whatnot up through it too but, as above, the time involved was too much for the people paying the $$$ and so it ended up being a half-baked job, much to my disappointment

[dumbass]

hey trdee
u r not working with haltech in yr spare time regarding bmw canbus stuff ????

conversions are dying in the ass
so is the whole automotive industry

I spoke to someone the other day and he collects waste oil from mechanical workshops
he is collecting about 50 to 70% less than what he used to a year or two ago

thank fk car manufacturers build shit quality cars which means I do get to try fix some of them
and keeps me busy

[trdee]

The owner wanted to use the LS1 ecu so I needed to go down a more circuitous path with the arduino and shit to get the dash to work. I have seen that haltech (and adaptronic now) support canbus, haven't had a go with the haltech stuff myself though. Actually I haven't done much with anything from haltech really. Only ecus I've played with are adaptronic, microleb, moristech/blackbox, and LS1 ecus I might be helping a friend with an old haltech soon though.