1UZ Swap into an 89 LJ73 (1 Viewer)

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You should look up what it takes to change the starter on those engines as well... it’s not fun
I've already looked it up. One of the donor vehicles I'm looking at recently had the starter replaced. Gonna have to do a timing belt on it though.
 
I went through the whole thread , and 1 important factor has gone under the critics .
Toyota 70 LJ series was made to cost less , and be competitive in a tight market .
Despite is was probably the best car of its cathegory , it is FAR lower standard the the heavy duty 70 series.
This will include , frame , transmission , both gearbox , shafts , differential ecc ecc.
It will be a big pitty if you are able to put in a V8 engin , with big time and money investment , to find later down the road to have a very fragile car !
Sorry for this negative opinion , but inItaly the LT, LJ series were very common , and known for been fragile.
Of course all is possible , but we all look at the money /result ratio.
Pls don't take this comment negative , but use it in prospective.
Just my 2 cents.

By Renago
 
You should look up what it takes to change the starter on those engines as well... it’s not fun

Changing the starter on a 1UZ is easy. Yes you have to take off the intake, it takes some time, but it's just a matter of unbolting things & access is very easy as it's right on the top. Compared with some cars where you have to extricate the starter from underneath through a maze of exhaust pipes etc it's not really that bad.

I went through the whole thread , and 1 important factor has gone under the critics .
Toyota 70 LJ series was made to cost less , and be competitive in a tight market .
Despite is was probably the best car of its cathegory , it is FAR lower standard the the heavy duty 70 series.
This will include , frame , transmission , both gearbox , shafts , differential ecc ecc.
It will be a big pitty if you are able to put in a V8 engin , with big time and money investment , to find later down the road to have a very fragile car !
Sorry for this negative opinion , but inItaly the LT, LJ series were very common , and known for been fragile.
Of course all is possible , but we all look at the money /result ratio.
Pls don't take this comment negative , but use it in prospective.
Just my 2 cents.

By Renago

You know that the Lj7* gearbox, transfer case & most elements of the front axle are also used in many versions of the heavy duty 70 series right? The frame is different from the heavier duty truck in a good way for a V8 swap as the shorter engine bay is a better match.

You are right that the LJ7* running gear can be a little fragile for a 1UZ, I have the broken parts to attest to that. However that is from aggressive offroad driving on 33" tyres. Want to run 35's? Forget it. But if the intended use is street, touring, & only careful offroading then a 1UZ powered LJ7* will be a good vehicle. You need to be doing the swap because you're building what you want though, it's very unlikely to be a 'cheap option' compared to replacing/rebuilding the original motor.

Cheers
Clint
 
A lot of changes were made to the 1990+ LJ7x compared to the earlier ones. I think the front axle on the earlier LJ is more similar to a Hilux. The later LJ front axle is basically identical to the heavy duty one with exception of the axle housing (all part numbers cross between the two in fact!!). In either case, they are pretty tough. (Hilux's have a reputation of being very tough.) Both the early and late LJ7x have real landcruiser split transfer cases. I really don't believe any LJ7x frame is any weaker than it's heavy duty brethren. Having been under both I did not see any strength difference at all. The early LJ7x do have different spring perches than the later LJ, not sure if they are weaker than the later ones or not? I can say that when out wheeling the 40 and 60 series frames bend enough that the fans hit the shrouds, but thats never happened to my LJ78 even when am teetering on two wheels (opposite corners). So for certain the Prado frame is better than those. And yes, the R151 is weaker than an H55, but again, they are both good boxes, and many people put 1UZ's together with R15x transmission in Toyota sports cars. They're good to over 500hp I believe. And the R151 is used in the newer 70 series heavy duty landcruisers anyhow. A343F is a great transmission and I'd take it over an A440 any day. The A34x auto trans comes standard behind the 1UZ/2UZ anyhow (100 series landcruiser, Tundra truck, Sequoia).

Another interesting tid bit, the LJ78 trucks were actually MORE EXPENSIVE than the heavy duty equivalent HZJ77 when new in Japan....

The only real weak factor and problem for the Prado's is the engine. And the OP plans on changing that!:)
 
Thanks GTS!

A lot of changes were made to the 1990+ LJ7x compared to the earlier ones. I think the front axle on the earlier LJ is more similar to a Hilux. The later LJ front axle is basically identical to the heavy duty one with exception of the axle housing (all part numbers cross between the two in fact!!). In either case, they are pretty tough. (Hilux's have a reputation of being very tough.) Both the early and late LJ7x have real landcruiser split transfer cases. I really don't believe any LJ7x frame is any weaker than it's heavy duty brethren. Having been under both I did not see any strength difference at all. The early LJ7x do have different spring perches than the later LJ, not sure if they are weaker than the later ones or not? I can say that when out wheeling the 40 and 60 series frames bend enough that the fans hit the shrouds, but thats never happened to my LJ78 even when am teetering on two wheels (opposite corners). So for certain the Prado frame is better than those. And yes, the R151 is weaker than an H55, but again, they are both good boxes, and many people put 1UZ's together with R15x transmission in Toyota sports cars. They're good to over 500hp I believe. And the R151 is used in the newer 70 series heavy duty landcruisers anyhow. A343F is a great transmission and I'd take it over an A440 any day. The A34x auto trans comes standard behind the 1UZ/2UZ anyhow (100 series landcruiser, Tundra truck, Sequoia).

Another interesting tid bit, the LJ78 trucks were actually MORE EXPENSIVE than the heavy duty equivalent HZJ77 when new in Japan....

The only real weak factor and problem for the Prado's is the engine. And the OP plans on changing that!:)
 
Update: So I've gone through the trouble of sourcing a decent donor LS400. I'll be going throug with the swap soon, for the time the LS400 is going to be my daily until I get 90% of the stuff i'll need then I can get the stuff either made or buy the bellhousing to the R151f trans from somewhere.

If anyone has any sources to make this any easier (parts and such). let me know :)

I'm excited and looking forward to wrenching.
 
I have a LJ and a HJ and to my untrained eyes the frame looks the same, except for the location of all the stuff welded to it, like engine mounts, body mounts, suspension.

Good to know.
I think the theory is the internals of the axels and teasmission are weaker. I'm not sure how much truth that holds up.
 
So I found a guy online who runs another import company, but specialized in engine swaps. He offers a complete R150/1f to 1UZFE bellhousing and flywheel. he specializes more in the Toyota Pickups and 4Runners, but i figured i'd share a little bit more on all the resources i'm finding.

His website is North West Toys, LLC | Your 1UZ and Toyota Diesel Specialist, I'm not sure if anyone has worked with him before i figured i'd also give him a shoutout. I'll let you know how everything goes!
 
Does anyone know the weight of a 2L-T?
 
So I picked up my Donor car a few weeks ago, still working on getting the 2L-T Pulled. Shift work is really making this difficult, haha.

Donor Vehicle: 1991 Lexus LS400, I wanted it running so i could drive it while accumulating parts. There's a misfire on one of the cylinders have to trace that back and I'm pretty sure it's a bad injector, stalls on cold start and after giving some gas it'll start right up and run, and on acceleration you can hear the cylinder not firing. Other than that the engine runs great!

Baby Steps until i can allot some time to getting the truck in the garage and pulling that engine.

LS400.webp
 
Do any of you have a picture of a r15X to the a340 bellhousing? I've considered selling my LJ73, due to time and money but if i cannot sell it i'm going to try and do the swap this winter after i get my bonus.

Anyone want to drive down to Illinois to help out?
 
Do any of you have a picture of a r15X to the a340 bellhousing? I've considered selling my LJ73, due to time and money but if i cannot sell it i'm going to try and do the swap this winter after i get my bonus.

Anyone want to drive down to Illinois to help out?

You can't bolt the r15x to a a34x bellhousing. If you want the R15x on a 1uz you're going to have to buy some custom stuff; those two never came together oem. There's tons of adapters out there, I have no idea which ones are good and which aren't. Here's one for example: XAT Racing 1UZ to R150 R151 R154 AR5 Toyota R-Series Aisin Transmission Adapter Plate
 

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