1UZFE Into an Extreme Rock crawling style buggy

[Rich.]

Hi guys,

Ok, abit of background about me.

I own a fabrication company that custom makes vehicles, extreme modifactions, things like that.

One of our main areas, and my main hobby, is competitive offroading.

So, as a company advertisment, and because i like winning, im now in the process of building abit of a monster buggy

There is not alot of these over in the Uk, so they tent to attract quite alot of attention. Im torn between my two powerplants, either a rover 3.9V8 EFi, or, what im leaning more towards, a Lexus 1UZFE.

The main problem i have with either engine is waterproofing. Whilst im very competent with the tig torch, engines and tuning are not my strong point.

There are a few criteria for what i want from this engine, besides the obvious power and torque. It has to be submergable, at least for short pieriods of time, and, posssibly mroe unusual in the offroading world, good looking. As i said, this buggy is also an advert for our company, so i want it to look just as good under the bonnet as it does as a whole. For this reason, im leaning away from things like megasquirt, as its too common and too ugly.

I like the look of things like the MSD's offroad ignition range, is there something in there that can work for me? Using something like there blaster ss coil (The red square one) with the MSD 6 offroad ignition, which states it can be ran by points, electrical amplifiers, magnetic pickups. Can some of these systems be incorperated into the stock distributor to provide me with a waterproof distributor and ignition system?

Whilst im at it, what other mods and pieces am i able to replace with aluminium annodised parts and the like? I carnt seem to find things like annodised cam pullys available for this engine?

I know most of you are going to cringe at this post, the fact its going into a buggy as opposed to a polished car, but the type of market im appealing to likes the bling stuff, and whilst this will get a severe thrashing on a saturday, it will also be getting a good clean and polish on a sunday and flaunted at exebitions and shows and the like.

Im hoping some of you guys can help me out with some form of good looking, waterproof ignition system for this engine to allow me to simplify it as much as possible?

Who knows, i might even have this all wrong, as i say, engines are not my strong point!

Thanks for reading,

Rich

 

[Rich.]

Ok, after abit of research, how about something like the MSD flying magnet crank trigger kit?

Combined with one of their distributorless ignition systems? This would remove the distributor, so no chance of it filling with water. I guess its heading towards a megajolt system, just abit posher!

How would i go about tieing this into the fuel injection?

Thanks
Rich

 

[Bushwhacker]

The ignition components are pretty well sealed aginst water splashes, it's mainly the alternator that is the most vunerable, from water and if the power steering pump leaks fluid.
you'll need to keep the ECU dry and vibration free too.

No idea where to get anodised parts either, but I did see some replacement engine covers recently, the part that goes over the injectors, but I can't find it again!

Some tuning stuff here.......http://www.prolex-uk.com/


I 'dressed' my own stuff using aluminium and translucent glass paint.

 

[Rich.]

Very nice! Did you machine your timing belt covers yourself??

Billet alloy?

Thanks for the help
Rich

 

[Bushwhacker]

I would like to say yes, but no, they're just the original plastic covers sprayed with this........http://www.tooltrolley.co.uk/decora...4090/rustins-aluminium-paint-250ml-33212.html

 

[Thommo 73]

you could plumb into the timing cover a pressurized air system that would go a long way to water proofing the motor, ive had mine pretty deep in my last car and this was meant to go on next but it fell over onto it's roof

im going to use an hi flow low pressure air pump in the new project before it goes into the 4by(range rover), that should see it run under water,

i would use the 1uz, the 3.9 rover motor is ugly under powered junk.
i run he microtech ecu and it looks good as well.

 

[Zuffen]

Rich,

If you turn on your PM facility I'll pass on what I can.

Otherwise please PM me you email address.

 

[Zuffen]

I had a look today and there's no way you can make the stock ignition waterproof.

Water will flow into the distributors from the timing belt area.

The only way you could make the engine run under water is with remote mounted ignition coils and waterproofing on the spark plug leads.

I believe my 8 coil setup could be made to run under water but I'm a little disinclined to try.

The crank and cam sensors won't be affected by water, so as long as you feed the engine air from above water level and also feed it spark you have what you need.

 

[Rich.]

Thanks for the input guys.

Looks like its a new ignition system im going for then!

Zuffen, thanks for the offer mate, ive sent my emial address over to you!

Rich