Naturally aspirated 1UZFE?

[Rodan Wrangler]

Hi guys
I am a retired airline pilot and a current hotrod shop owner in Texas. I have built a few 1UZFE's over the years, but honestly we deal in very few Japanese engines. The majority of our cars are old trucks and American muscle, as well as some German and Italian supercars. We specialize in 1000hp restomods at my shop, generally Ford 351W or Coyote engines, Chevy LS engines, etc.
The majority are of course fuel injected, although you can ultimately get more power out of a carburetor- with the loss of some drivability, generally, but with a gain in simplicity. For those who doubt, be aware I'm not talking about the standard 4 barrel Holleys or Edelbrocks you find on the shelf at your local autoparts house. When we do build carbureted cars, we run high end Quickfuel, Demon, or similar carbs- these are night and day, compared to those off-the-shelf carbs.
Anyway, I have a 260Z that I have been wanting to build myself for several years now, and I ended up with a freshly built 1uzfe in a swap, with upgraded internals and low compression forged pistons with ported and polished heads. I decided I want to build a turbo car with a 4 barrel blow-through carb, just to do something a little different. I keep hearing that NZ racers use a single carb manifold on these engines, but I can't seem to find anyone who is building a single 4 barrel intake for them. Does anyone know of such a company? I could custom build an intake, but I'd really rather not reinvent the wheel.
I'm really hoping to build this car, as simply and as lightweight as possible...I would greatly appreciate any help anyone can give me!

Thanks!

James

 

[cribbj]

James, welcome to Lextreme; good to have you here and when you get some time, it would be interesting to know more about your shop and what you've done with the other 1UZ's you've built.

For the carb manifolds I'm sure our member Gloverman can shed some light on these - if he doesn't notice this thread and post in a day or two, PM him and I'm sure he can give you some references. He's a really knowledgeable and helpful guy.

 

[Rodan Wrangler]

Thanks cribbj...I've been out with the flu and Gloverman hasn't seen my post in the meantime, so I will follow your advice!

 

[Rodan Wrangler]

Sorry Cribbj, I meant to include this. Let's see, the first 1uz I ever touched was just a rebuild, a friend had blown a head gasket by severely overheating his Lexus, the car was well worth saving, so I offered to overhaul it if he bought parts and handed me wrenches. I came to like the engine during the process, it is well designed . The next exposure I had was another rebuild and an upgrade...I can't remember exactly what we ended up doing with the internals, I remember finding a guy who was a bit of a local guru on them, and following his advice. It was only about 350 hp, nothing exotic, but we stuffed it into a Mazda Miata. I had done several Ford 302 Miatas at that time, and the 1UZ was a much better fit. That's about it for the 1uz and I- I did buy one thinking I'd stuff it in a 4runner I've had since buying it new in '88, but I ended up going with a Chevy 4.3 instead. Traded the 1uz I had picked up for a guy's small gun collection.

 

[cribbj]

Thanks James, yes, the 1UZ is a gem of an engine, which is why it has such a loyal following, albeit not as large a following as the SBC or SBF.

I've had its castings sitting next to my Ferrari's castings, and the quality of the 1UZ's is far superior to the Ferrari - same with the machined pieces. And the 1UZ pieces are 8-9 years older than the Ferrari.

It's really the lightest, cheapest, most compact DOHC V8 around, and it's just a shame that the aftermarket hasn't embraced it, but of course that's a supply/demand thing.