Serious discussion about Car Building Needed.

Shift518 Automotive
1

Ok So i have recently recieved some discouraging news as to the build up of my SC400. Since the time is coming for me to shit or get off the pot as to converting the car to a manual I have been digging really deep and scouring any information I can. Here is what I have come up with:

My motor: 1UZ-FE 97+ OBD II
My Transmission: A340e 4 speed automatic with OD

The swap:
Transmission: W58 manual 5 speed (has to be out of sc300 or MKIV supra)
Flywheel: custom W58/2jzge drilled for 1UZ-fe with 1uzfe gear welded on
Clutch: any 2jzge/w58 compatible
Adapter: w58 to 1uzfe bellhousing or w58 to 1uzfe adapter plate
TOB: howe hydraulic
Clutch pedal/resevoir: SC300 factory
Drvie shaft: SC300 front half/SC400 rear half

All that stuff done the corrrect way is going to cost some dough. I have decided to go with an adpater plate from an American/Florida based company versus the cheaper Aussie company that makes the bell housing so i can have better tech support. The place is quantum auto and the specialize in this stuff. Their $1500 kit includes the adapter plate, a lightweight aluminum flywheel, bolt kit, dual friction clutch, spage for the TOB, and lines for the TOB. This kit has been installed on a number of cars now and seems proven for quality. Swap done correctly should be about $3000

Now here is where I’m running into a huge unknown and horrible problem. 97+ models will through atleast 4 CELs after this swap. One for each missing automatic shift solenoid in the auto tranny. A few people have proved for a fact that one of the solenoids CANNOT be replaced by a resistor because it works via a changing resistance or something. The swap will also cause a flashing O/D and traction control light because those will also no longer exist. That is really a no issue and you can just remove the bulbs.

So I at this point do not know what to do. I was thinking about reigstering the car as a kit car but I cannot find anything about what that requires or allows you to do with the car or if that would even be an answer. I do not drive it more than 10000 miles a year.

I know that a 1jzgte swap with manual tranny is half the price of the manual swap and would be super cool but not have a chance in hell of ever passing inspection. The two easiest not cost effective options would be basically swap my car to a 97+ 2jzge manual for the $3000 so its an obd2 motor that is scannable but in my eyes that is a down grade. I could also swap to a 97+ USDM 2jzgte but that is $5000+ just for the motor and tranny.

I could also wait a little longer and purchase a 92-95 sc300 manual swap all my shit over to that for say $4000-5000 and then swap the stock stuff to the SC400 and sell that for $4000 easily.

I’m really not sure what to do here. Does anyone know anything on electronic systems on toyotas and possibly doing something to get rid of the transmission related CELs or if that will even fail me on inspection?

2

Register it as a diesel and you can have a cel and pass inspection.

3

I do not want to do anything Sketchy. I want a totally legit legal street car

4

Buy a manual SC, swap stuff over, sell the auto one. It’ll be the easiest, legal, and the cheapest in the end.

5

LS1 swap?

6

Word, Ls1/t56.

7

Perform similar mods to pre-96 car…?

8

Or that.

9

From what I have read about OBD2 swaps it has to be a motor that was avialible in that vehicle during the production date

10

I was also wondering what the rules of registration were if say i made a hybrid. Like the 97+ chassi with VIN but the dashboars door plates, fender plates, and everything else were from a 92-95 car

11

It doesn’t matter if the chassis is OBD1. You could put a toyota 3ee out of a 91 tercel in an OBD1 Sc300 for god sakes.

that’s an idea :rofl

12

it goes by whatever the car is titled as. you could probably get away with reg’ing it as an obd1 car so long as you have the title to go with it.

13

so buying a salvage car might be an idea. That way there only the engine bay will have the 97 VIN in it

14

I’m sure its marked in many more places on the car, but who’s gonna be looking?

Car’s reg’d as a 93, it gets visual and away you go.

15

Looks like its really boiling down to I’m fucked with this car.

DMV states the any vehicle that is OBD II has to pass the standard NYS inspection 100% no matter what. Any CEL present means the car my not be running at its intendedefficiency and there for can not be driven legally on the road even if the error code is in no way related to emissions.

Also in order to register a car as a homemade of kit car it needs to be built from scratch and documented as so. Same deal for limited use. If it was previously ever reigstered as an OBDII vehicle it would have to pass OBDII inspection.

16

If you were to do the auto to manual swap, why cant you just throw in a ECU from a manual car? Then it wouldnt look for those auto tranny sensors right? Also as long as your car is not a salvage title, I wouldnt think anyone is going to bother checking the vins, especially because you have owned the car for a bit. Its not like you just bought it, and it needs to have a new title, if that makes sense.

17

I’m telling you to get an OBD1 title, and register it as OBD1. There are ‘friends’ that will treat it as such so long as it’s registered as such.

Sketchy, sure. But again, who’s going to look?

Resale will suck though.

18

Actually hes completely right. When I scrapped my old EF, I “sold” the title/vin to a friend, and he used that to get his EG on the road.

19

Are you able to modify the code in the ECU, turn off the trans sensors maybe?

20

There’s somebody out there who can build something to bypass the CEL’s. Try contacting somebody who knows a lot about the Toyota wiring stuff like Dr. Tweak.