1UZ into Range Rover Classic

[gordorover]

I’m looking into doing a swap into a 92 Range Rover Classic with a 1UZ FE using the current ZF 4HP22 transmission.

I have a found a conversion kit from Dellows Conversions in Sydney, and was hoping to get a bit more info on doing the swap.
I had a look around the forum and noticed there was a guy called Zuffen who had done it before with a pretty insane looking Range Rover!

He mentioned that he has some info on how to do the swap and was wondering if anyone knows where I could find it?
Also if anyone knows of a mechanic that has done the swap here in Melbourne or Sydney it would be great to have a chat to them!

 

[Zuffen]

Whilst iIve replied privately ths will give everyone else something to read.

Range Rover engine swap

This is a ramble about fitting the 1UZ-FE into my Range Rover.

Let’s start by stating the car is not a standard Rangie. It has an English aftermarket body kit on it that changes the space available in the engine bay. If you use a standard Rangie body you’ll have a lot more room.

The principle problems with this engine swap are:

1. The firewall stops the engine sitting far enough back.
2. The steering box means the alternator must be re-located.
3. The standard headers appear to hit the chassis rails.
4. The mid sump or front sump engines will hit the diff housing.
5. The oil filter on LS400 and SC400 engines looks like it will hit the chassis rail.
6. The air intake comes very close to the brake lines if the original resonator is used.
7. The heater hoses are a very tight fit.

I suggest you have a test fit of the engine to see where the major problems are.

One ting I was certain about is I wanted the rear transmission mount to be in the exact factory location. This saved a lot of trouble with drive shafts and gear levers, handbrake etc.

The solutions:

1. The firewall is too far forward on each side between the body joint and the opening for the transmission (the tunnel) and needs to be moved back. I bent the firewall back about 20mm on both sides behind heads. I actually attacked it with a large crowbar that had a 75mm diameter end on it. This did the job neatly enough that it isn’t noticeable with the engine installed.

The alternator hits the steering box.

There’s no solution to this problem except re-locate the alternator. As I don’t have air conditioning I substituted the alternator for the compressor by making a custom bracket. This also entailed moving the alternator wiring to the opposite side of the car. If you plan on keeping your air-conditioning you will need to find a new location for the alternator. Don’t forget the air compressor needs good “wrap” of the serpentine belt around the pulley to prevent it slipping. The plastic covers over the distributors stops you mounting the alternator too high, as the belt will hit the covers. I tried to mount my alternator above the power steering pump but the covers stopped me. I don’t have the solution to this problem. But I haven’t really thought about it too much as my set up works fine.

1. From my test fit the standard headers just failed to clear the chassis rails. I used Tex’s headers but had to cut them before the last join and have custom rears made for them. If running a manual your clutch slave cylinder will give you grief. The headers hit the cylinder and if you move them away from the slave they hit the chassis. I used a second flange plate (about 10mm thick) under the headers on the passenger’s side to space the header away from the slave. By choice I would try to fit the stock pipes, as this would allow you to run the Toyota exhaust pipes, as they are the right shape. The only problem is they feed the exhaust down the driver’s side, which is the opposite of what you want. Retaining the stock pipes would save you $1,000.

1. The 02 sensor on the driver’s side header sticks out sideways and fouls the chassis rail. I have my engine (temporarily) installed out of level to let the sensor clear the rail. Shorter sensors or move the o2 bung would solve this and allow me to drop the front of the engine about 15mm. If you use the standard Toyota pipes this won’t be a problem.

1. The only sump you will get to work is the rear sump. I actually used a mid sump alloy section together with a 3mm plate that relocates the oil pan to the left and rearward to clear the diff. I still need to move it further back. My under engine starter dictated my sump. I recommend you scrounge up a solid front drive shaft as they are around 20-25mm smaller in diameter and give you a little more room for the exhaust and more clearance for the sump.

1. The oil filter location on the LS400 and SC400 looks like it will hit the chassis rail. A shorter filter may fit. This is a test fit and see what does and doesn’t fit job.

1. The intake (on the Crown) uses a resonance chamber that fouls the firewall. You can get around this by sawing it in half horizontally and rotating the bottom half 180degrees and rejoining it. I used silicone and a few small nuts and bolts. You then need to mount it so the outlet side of the resonator becomes the inlet. Essentially I turned it around so the rear of it was at the front. This allowed it to clear the cam covers. I think the SC400 will be worse to fix. One elegant solution is to remove the plenum and rotate it 180degrees and have the throttle body at the passenger’s side front of the engine bay. This may require a longer throttle cable and relocation of some vacuum lines. You should be able to fit the air-cleaner above the wheel arch or in the spare battery box. Rotating the plenum is a straight undo, rotate, tighten it up job.

1. The heater hoses are a very tight fit. I would find the best shaped hoses and fit them before the engine is pushed fully back.

Some tricks I found:

• Fasten the transmission to the chassis before the front. This makes the manufacturer of the front engine mounts easy. My car had two round mounts per side of the engine (a heritage of it’s race past) and I used the drivers mounting bracket intact but had to cut off the rear half of the passengers one to clear the headers (another reason to use stock pipes). Different engines use different mounts. The Crown uses conventional mounts fastened to a steel plate on the side of the engine. The SC 400 uses alloy mounts with the rubber mounts on the chassis. These mounts protrude straight out the side. The LS400 use alloy mounts like the SC but they sweep forward and look the goods in a Rover. Both mounts are too thick to accept the Rover rubbers but a bit of milling would sort it out.
• The high-pressure line form the p/s pump to the steering box on a 4-bolt box screwed straight into the pump body.
• The Rover radiator fits well with the 1UZ. The bottom radiator hose off the Toyota will fit if shortened slightly. The top hose fits if cut in half and extended with some stainless pipe. I used EL Falcon thermo fans but I’m sure the Toyota viscous fan would work OK. The bottom radiator hose just clears the steering box.
• The wiring loom can be fed thru the “left hand drive” steering column hole. The ECU will fit up under the dash and all wiring can be installed behind the glove box. This makes it easy to remove the glove box and work on it.

 

[Zuffen]

The Post was too big for the Forum. Here's part two.

• The tacho will only read half the revs the engine is doing as it only looks at half the engine. KDog did a post about using some diodes to make it read both igniters. This may be worth searching for. I’d search under “diode” and see what you get. You may be lucky and find your tacho has a switch that allows you to select the number of cylinders you need.
• Almost all my wiring problems have been due to the “Prince of Darkness” wiring of the original Rover.
• I used a VL commodore inline fuel pump with a Carter (very noisy) lift pump to a swirl tank. I’d try to source an injected Rangie tank as it will save the lift pump, swirl tank, and VL pump as the tank should have the Rangie pump in it.
• Don’t trust anyone to do anything correctly the first time.
• I wouldn’t use any RR manual transmission other than the LT95. This is the original 4-speed box. Whilst it’s pretty truck like it will last. The LT230 transfer will take anything you throw at it.
• I used 100mm sewer pipe to make up my intake tract as it needed to turn 2 90degree bends and I could simply glue together where I wanted it. I mounted my AFM on its side to make more room. I don’t think you will have the need with the room under the standard vehicles bonnet.
• The Toyota wiring diagrams tell you the ignition warning light needs a diode in the circuit. It doesn’t.
• Wiring the ECU is easier than it looks:
  1. Separate the ECT and ECU.
  2. Cut all wires joining the ECT and ECU.
  3. Terminate all wires that ran between the two.
  4. Cut all wires between the loom and the ECT and terminate. That's the auto sorted.
  5. Printout KDogs Crown circuits and study them.
  6. All brown wires out of the ECU go to earth. There are 4 of them.
  7. You have one permanent power (direct to the battery via a fuse) this is Red/White in colour.
  8. You have one 12v ignition Black/Pink.
  9. Two 12v in from power relay Black/Red This relay is powered by the next wire.
  10. 1 wire to switch the main power relay Green/Pink. The master relay needs constant (fused) battery power. You can source the power from the same circuit as item 7.
  11. One engine check light. Black/Yellow this goes to the ignition via a warning light.
  12. One fuel pump feed Green/Red is a trigger wire to a relay (powered off the master relay) that runs the fuel pump at high speed.
  13. Another fuel pump feed goes via the large resistor that was located in the engine bay Green. The fuel pump feed (green/Red) joins the output of the resistor to go to the pump as one wire. The power is switched between the resistor and the direct line to the pump by the ECU.
  14. One fuel pump trigger for when the starter engages. This can be joined to the high speed wire (Green/Red)
  15. That is pretty well it for the ECU.
  16. In the loom you use the heavy Black wire for the starter.
  17. The tacho feed is a light gauge Black wire.
  18. Oil and temp feeds are pretty obvious from looking at the diagrams and the sensors themselves.
  19. There are lots of unused wires coming from the loom for traction control etc.

The best engine is a Crown for this application:

It has the rear mounted oil filter.

Viscous fan (not the hydraulic one)

It has the ECT and separate ECU.

The exhausts are much better than the SC400 or LS400

Drawbacks:

The mid sump won’t clear the diff.

The engine mounts may not be as good as you could get. But the rubber isolators are far superior to the SC and LS.

Solutions:

Try and swap the sump for a rear sump. Or machine and fabricate a rear sump.

Purchase a rear sump from Castlemaine Rod Shop or QCA off the Lextreme Forum About $600.00

Post a WTB thread and try and buy one. Should get it for less than $500.00 but you need the alloy section, oil pan, windage tray, oil pickup, dipstick and oil level gauge.

Try and swap or purchase the engine mounts you need off the Forum.

Make your own mounts.

If you use SC or LS alloy mounts DO NOT use the factory isolators they give lots of trouble in the SC and LS so will be useless in a 4 x 4

That’s about it I hope this helps a little.

Any questions don’t hesitate to email me at work on [email protected] or home on [email protected] get desperate I can be contacted at work on 02 9144 6700 or mobile 0419 446 700.

I can post photos of anything you need so just let me know.

 

[Axis of Evil]

^^^ Is this the long version of "too hard" ?

 

[361UZ]

Great write-up Rod!
Very helpful for the casual observer as well. Hopefully it will remain, and/or be added to as Gordorover's build continues.