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In my instance I was able to pick up a complete running LS400 for £550. Gave the shell to a mate's boyfriend and he gave me £200 for it so for £350 I got the engine, autobox and all the necessary bits to run it. Compared to finding a donor P38 and then selling various bits to recoup money and then having to fork out for a Megasquirt kit or something similar to run it it's a positive bargain. They've gone up a bit in price since then but you can still find bargains once in a while and I'd say they're still cheaper than going a P38 donor route.

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It's a very over engineered engine, was developed as part of a race programme, so designed with that in mind, these early engines have nice strong rods so can take some boost before bending. 

They are also non-interference, which means if the belt goes, you just put a new one on and away you go.... 

 

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4 hours ago, Ed Poore said:

So just how excited are you now? Do you think it'll fit?

Note: I said do you think it'll fit not will you make it fit (we know that's going to be the case)!

Looking at that photo you appear to be missing the MAF sensor on the intake or did you get it in a box? The bit circled in green

DSC_0628.thumb.JPG.f89df983b99652190a2eb564c20ea34e.JPG

Is that going to be a problem 

Regards Stephen 

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I'm assuming that you can buy new ones or someone may have one lying around. If I remember I'll note down the part number next time I'm in the workshop.

There was a good parts diagram website (I think Toyota epc data or something like that) but when I go there I can't get the diagrams I thought I could. It's worth knowing the LS400 is also known by as the UCF20 frame. There's certainly one on sales on ebay.

I would think it's fairly important as it tells the ECU how much air is going into the engine.

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2 hours ago, Bowie69 said:

these early engines have nice strong rods so can take some boost before bending. 

I don't know about Stephens engine but mine isn't (I'm fairly sure) a thick rod engine. They I think were up to 1994, I think the only tell tale is that the fuel rails are square rather than rounded. Kelvin over at the Car Tune Company in NZ has a video on it I think.

The post 1994 ones can still handle silly power on stock internals but from my background gathering of knowledge the pre 1994 ones will basically handle 1000hpish quite happily. I think there's plenty of aftermarket conrods now that it's sort of moot. I'm not sure whether there were any other differences in the fundamental block.

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I don't think any boost will be necessary!

 

200TDI to 1UZ V8....🤪

 

Fitted one to a mates Hilux/4Runner.

Incredible in every respect!

I would go auto, from GM or Toyota. (might need computers though....)😬

Nothing from Rover will take the punishment...

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4 hours ago, Bowie69 said:

 

They are also non-interference, which means if the belt goes, you just put a new one on and away you go.... 

 

Did this change depending upon age, pretty sure I read that they are an interference so you need to keep on top of the timing belt changes

Regards Stephen 

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Looks like it might be age related

https://www.lextreme.com/forums/threads/uz-engines-interference-or-non-interference.12402/

Having said that the local garage to me who I trust said he'd had a customer who bought an LS400 at something like 50k milesish. At 100k or something they thought they'd better check the cambelt since it was unknown on its history. Tomos said it certainly looked original (can't remember if he said there was a date code on it) but it was in identical condition to the new one they had in the box, no wear on it at all.

That car is still with the same guy and at over half a million miles. All he's done is service it sensibly.

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13 hours ago, Ed Poore said:

The biggest advantage over the EFI Rover V8s is that you can use the stock ECU to run the engine out of the donor vehicle with a few simple wire mods

Except that that's true of the Flapper & hotwire systems too.

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20 minutes ago, FridgeFreezer said:

Except that that's true of the Flapper & hotwire systems too.

Yup, but Stephen was wanting a 4.6 and this is what Ed is referring to, they won't run happily on a hotwire setup without an expensive retune. 

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2 hours ago, FridgeFreezer said:

Except that that's true of the Flapper & hotwire systems too.

What @Bowie69 said. The reason I was focusing on the 4.6 was that (to my understanding) it's the closest match in terms of "performance" to the 1UZ out of the box. It (the 4.6) produces a bit more torque on average (peak is a bit higher again) and a little less horsepower. The older variants were significantly down by comparison.

For me personally the deciding factor was cost (to get the engine running it has literally cost me £250, half a dozen relays and some time) but also that the 1UZ in stock tune is very under-stressed.

Hypothetically lets say you wanted a bit more horsepower (say around 300hp) then you can swap out the stock ECU for an quality aftermarket one and tune it appropriately - to get a Rover V8 to do similar you're throwing quite a bit of money at it. Bearing in mind at this point financially you're likely at the point that a basic running 4.6 transplant cost you. If you wanted even more power (why is questionable but then we're all mad on here) then you start bolting on turbos or superchargers and you're leaving the Rover V8 in the dust (or probably converting it to dust as it explodes under the stress) whilst the stock 1UZ components take it like a champ and you still have the option for quality aftermarket internal upgrades.

That being said I don't really have anything against the Rover V8 and there's a lot to be said of keeping the parts bin all mostly Land Rover based. I blame @jad and his Lexus Koya 109 build for opening my eyes to the possibility of fitting a 1UZ into the Sandringham (he did it into a Series 3 which is a slightly smaller engine bay than the Stage 1) and when I started looking into it it was a far cheaper route for (in my opinion) a stronger engine.

Since then life has gone mental and I have just about enough time keeping vehicles on the road let alone playing with projects.

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We’re getting a bit muddled here. Horsepower is a byproduct of torque (torque x RPM / 5252) so the 1uz will always make more power than the rover due to it revving higher. The rover(from my experience) makes good torque low down which is why I like it….which the Lexus doesn’t have so it’s all relative in the end number. 
 

ultimately it doesn’t matter as the torque  to the ground is delivered by the gear reduction, it is the RPM that Stephen wants/needs. So the Lexus engine is a good choice. 
 

and

he already has it so there’s no need to justify choices anymore. 
 

anyway

 

what transmission do you plan on using Stephen?

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