longlandy Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 Hello has anyone here fitted a lexus v8 in a defender type thing. Was thinking of using disco/range auto box and the torque converter and making or modifying the toyota flex plate . To keep things clean I was thinking of the megesquirt route. Any comments or suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowie69 Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 I am in the process of helping a mate stick an LS400 lump in a Rocsta... so know a bit about these There's a couple of ways to go about it... Firstly, run the Lexus V8 using Megasquirt and stick a.n.other gearbox on the back of it, there are adapters out there for other Toyota manual transmissions, I'm not aware of any auto conversion plates/bellhousings to Land Rover. Second, run the Lexus V8 on the stock ECU and stick a.n.other gearbox on the back, same options as above. If you wired in the check light on the ECU then you would get an error, but other than that the engine runs perfectly OK attached to a manual box. Third, run the Lexus V8 on the stock ECU, connect it to the Lexus V8 autobox which you can convert to 4wd by swapping the tailhousing from a 90's Toyota Surf auto and bolt the Surf's transfer case onto the back of it. This produces a small issue in that the rear output flange is central, rather than offset like a standard LR one, but if you're running this kinda power, upgrading to Hilux, or Patrol axles which have centre rear diff would be a good option over the stock Rover stuff.... Fourth, Run the Lexus V8 using Megasquirt 2, stick the Lexus autobox on the back of it with 4WD conversion, then get a GPIO board using Megashift to control the autobox changes, lockup and 4WD selection. Ultimate control, probably set you back best pat of £500 all said and done. Couple of notes.... the Lexus ECU is very easy to wire up, 6 wires or something to get it running, so certainly an option if you're not up to the armpits every weekend. Some of the electronics are a bit fragile, so I can see where you are coming from with Megasquirt. Squirting the lump is probably just as easy as doing a Rover V8, in fact the first start on a recent squirting of a 1UZ-FE was using a Rover map, which was all I had to hand Making the trigger wheel is a piece of cake, you adapt the existing 12-point crank trigger wheel with a 100mm 36-1 wheel and bolt it on. A Ford EDIS VR sensor bolts into the existing VR sensor hole and it's all protected from tree roots and branches -MUCH better than any rover installation I have seen. There's two sorts of autboxes attached to the 1UZ-FE, one has an electronic control of line pressure, and one is mechanical (although both use solenoids for gearchanges), the one you want to go for is a Lexus/Toyota Soarer/SC400 rather than the Lexus LS400, which has the electronics control. (more work to get Megashift working). BTW, I wouldn't even think of putting a ZF4 HP22 behind one of these, the engines kick out 250BHP/260lbs/ft and don't redline to 7000rpm+ which is more than I would be comfortable doing.... Make sure it will all fit in too, it makes for quite a long lump, engine, transmission and transfer box... should all JUST fit in a 93.9" If you want to see a lashed up Lexus V8 on MS, here it is: http://forums.lr4x4....showtopic=67238 Hope that helps a bit! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longlandy Posted May 22, 2011 Author Share Posted May 22, 2011 Very interesting thanks, shame about the box situation as Ive been offered a big old lexus which I assume has the electronic auto box. Going to hunt down a old surf now, and thanks again for the info Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowie69 Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 It is more complicated, basically it's a PWM valve to regulate the line pressure of the box. Perfectly possible as this is how the GM boxes work that have already been MShift'd, just if you get it very wrong you scrap your box due to insufficient tension on the brake bands... Also, there is a possibility to use a Jeep tailhousing and transfer box (you have options of the Atlas and NP.... something box then) though I've not gone into as much detail -more suited to the yank market I guess. The box is an Aisin-Warner AW4 IIRC (Lexus call is an A340), which is used by a few different people, Toyota, Volvo and Jeep spring to mind One other option you have is to Megasquirt the Lexus V8, swap the V8's autobox bell housing to the surf auto box and transfer all the Surf gearbox ECU and wiring to your truck. I don't know how easy this is to wire up, but is of course possible, and uses a separate ECU from the engine ECU... The gearbox is not as strong however, and the gear changes are unlikely to be ideal due to the surf being a diesel. Having said that there have been a good number of successful conversion using this method, just not as many as swapping the whole lot over Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longlandy Posted May 22, 2011 Author Share Posted May 22, 2011 Or landcruiser 80 gearbox? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowie69 Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 Yes, I believe they will fit to, they are the A343 boxes IIRC, you can swap the bellhousing over from the lexus box to the Cruiser box.... I am pretty sure anyways -be worth your while researching Of course the change points may be completely off as with the surf box, being a diesel. lextreme.com is a great place to start, but google is really good at pulling stuff out on this, also check the Aus forums as they do loads of these conversions to things like hiluxes and Cruisers of various series. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reb78 Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 Aaragorn on here was fitting an audi v8 into his defender. Haven't seen him on here for some time, but may be worth looking up his posts both on here and on lro to get some ideas of what he did for gearboxes etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicks90 Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 this intrigued me so i did a quick search on some aus yota sites i occassionally browse and i would appear the lexus V8 will bolt up to the petrol 80 series auto box. I think its the 4.4 amazon? Means all the shifts points would be about right too and the tranny outputs are in the right position. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Brownlie Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 use whatever gearbox you want then make the lt230 remote with custom propshafts. easiest route by far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowie69 Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 use whatever gearbox you want then make the lt230 remote with custom propshafts. easiest route by far. It may be easy-ish, but it is by far not the easiest route. The easiest route is to Lexus Soarer V8, Lexus Soarer ECU, surf autobox tail housing fitted to the Lexus autobox (getting this to fit up takes about 2 hours, tops), Surf transfer box. The V8 with the autobox attached is pretty long, in fact in the Rocsta we are having to stretch the wheelbase to ~93" just to get it all in, if you made the transfer box a remote LT230 it wouldn't fit in a 90 for sure. The other problem with making it longer is the sump position, the LS400 has a front sump, the Soarer a rear sump, so unless you like fabricating your own sumps you will do well to keep the engine back in the chassis as far as possible -this won't happen if you use a remote transfer box. Sump + axle pumpkin = dead engine! Nicks90, you are probably completely correct, TBH, I ahve probably forgotten as much as I know about gearbox options for the Lex, though I do remember the Cruiser boxes being prohibitively expensive, and this is supposed to be costing less than £3K to put together Is this an offset rear transfer case then, rather than centre? *EDIT* Done a bit of looking, the Cruiser box is full time 4x4, with a centre diff, this makes the transfer case even longer, and less suitable for our purpose. The other thing is the 4.5l engine is a straight 6, the V8 is much revvier than this, so the change points may well be completely wrong for it..... besides, the Toyota ECU is in one box, for both the engine and transmission, so you'd be Megashifting it to get it to run at all. The 4.7V8 box may be an option, but the above length issue negates it in our opinion. That and the fact they were only available in the US.... The 4.5l is different again, and has a centre rear output: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2004-Toyota-Land-Cruiser-Gearbox-4-5LTR-Petrol-AUTO-/320642559181?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item4aa7c92ccd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longlandy Posted May 23, 2011 Author Share Posted May 23, 2011 use whatever gearbox you want then make the lt230 remote with custom propshafts. easiest route by far. No it isnt as you need to align to seperate boxes for drivetrain angle , and in a 90 there just isnt room. Ive done a few divorced transfer cases so I know how much extra room you need, and even on a 110 the rear prop ends up a bit short .Also you have the annoyance of making longer speedo cables handbrake cable, etc . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1uzfe90 Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 qyiue simply I have done this using the lexus engine and auto box mated o the lt230, the props are standard so all this custom prop nonsense is just that- mine will be on the landyzone stand at bath and west this weekend fore those who want to look Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abdur Posted December 18, 2017 Share Posted December 18, 2017 On 23/05/2011 at 3:18 PM, Bowie69 said: It may be easy-ish, but it is by far not the easiest route. The easiest route is to Lexus Soarer V8, Lexus Soarer ECU, surf autobox tail housing fitted to the Lexus autobox (getting this to fit up takes about 2 hours, tops), Surf transfer box. The V8 with the autobox attached is pretty long, in fact in the Rocsta we are having to stretch the wheelbase to ~93" just to get it all in, if you made the transfer box a remote LT230 it wouldn't fit in a 90 for sure. The other problem with making it longer is the sump position, the LS400 has a front sump, the Soarer a rear sump, so unless you like fabricating your own sumps you will do well to keep the engine back in the chassis as far as possible -this won't happen if you use a remote transfer box. Sump + axle pumpkin = dead engine! Nicks90, you are probably completely correct, TBH, I ahve probably forgotten as much as I know about gearbox options for the Lex, though I do remember the Cruiser boxes being prohibitively expensive, and this is supposed to be costing less than £3K to put together Is this an offset rear transfer case then, rather than centre? *EDIT* Done a bit of looking, the Cruiser box is full time 4x4, with a centre diff, this makes the transfer case even longer, and less suitable for our purpose. The other thing is the 4.5l engine is a straight 6, the V8 is much revvier than this, so the change points may well be completely wrong for it..... besides, the Toyota ECU is in one box, for both the engine and transmission, so you'd be Megashifting it to get it to run at all. The 4.7V8 box may be an option, but the above length issue negates it in our opinion. That and the fact they were only available in the US.... The 4.5l is different again, and has a centre rear output: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2004-Toyota-Land-Cruiser-Gearbox-4-5LTR-Petrol-AUTO-/320642559181?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item4aa7c92ccd Hi Bowie, I know it's been a while since this post but can you kindly let me know what gearbox of Surf tailhousing you used on Ls400 gearbox for this conversation and what rear excel to be used. I'm in the middle of it at the moment. Also with this conversation how reliable is this. I appreciate your response. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowie69 Posted December 18, 2017 Share Posted December 18, 2017 It's the Toyota Surf diesel auto gearbox tail housing you need, they are all the same AFAIK. Buy the whole box, they are pence when I last looked. You then cut the output shaft down on the lexus box to match the Surf box, bolt it up, drill and tap for one new bolt, and then fit and forget. I think you need to swap the speedo 'star' over as well, this gives the road speed to the gearbox ECU so is kinda needed. Use a Patrol rear axle, they are a centred axle, and pretty much bullet proof compared to anything LR ever made. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowie69 Posted December 18, 2017 Share Posted December 18, 2017 Hmm, actually since doing this, I found out that RED WINCHES have made a few Jeep AW4 gearbox tailhousing to LT230 adapters. Given the Jeep AW4 box is an A340 in every way, you can swap this onto the Lexus box and then bolt our favourite transfer box to it. This allows you to retain the LR axles. The adapter is not cheap, £450 when I last asked, however it could save a load of headaches with the rear axle, and the cost of refurbing it, and you probably already have an LT230 lying around somewhere... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abdur Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 10 hours ago, Bowie69 said: It's the Toyota Surf diesel auto gearbox tail housing you need, they are all the same AFAIK. Buy the whole box, they are pence when I last looked. You then cut the output shaft down on the lexus box to match the Surf box, bolt it up, drill and tap for one new bolt, and then fit and forget. I think you need to swap the speedo 'star' over as well, this gives the road speed to the gearbox ECU so is kinda needed. Use a Patrol rear axle, they are a centred axle, and pretty much bullet proof compared to anything LR ever made. This option is probably better suited me. I checked there was some difference between 1989-1995 model and 1995 onwards gearbox. I will go for 94-95 model then. But what do you mean by Speedo star? Rear axle of Patrol 90s would be easier to find I believe but now sure about the width. I will measure it. Do you have any pictures that you might be able to share as I'm not the most technical person you would meet :(. Everything is very expensive in Dubai so making a small mistake in choosing the wrong gearbox or axle will cost me fortune sadly so asking all these lame questions. If you can share more details that you think might help me would be very much appreciated. Abdur.sheikh@gmail.com. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowie69 Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 The speedo star fits onto the output shaft of the gearbox, it is a while since I did it, but on some I drilled, tapped and grub screwed it in place, on others, I used loctite 2-part stuff to glue it. It is all pretty self-explanatory once you get the two tailhousings apart. Transfer case/autobox is from a mid-90s Surf. A good Patrol axle is as you suggest is the Y60 variant. I don't have any good pics I am afraid, I tried looking it up on one of the Aussie forums where this sort of conversion is quite common, but appears they don't like people outside their own country any more... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowie69 Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 Aha, found another pretty good write up! http://www.lextreme.com/forums/index.php?threads/1uz-into-1990-lj78-prado.17108/#post-142592 Note you do NOT need to remove the output shaft from the gearbox, they have just done so for no reason at all -cut it in situ, it shows well the gasketing, drill/tapping, cutting and moving the speedo star that you need to do! First time round it takes around 2 hours, tops... Good luck, have fun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowie69 Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 One final point when trying to find the transfer box, it is the chain drive version, helps to narrow it down a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paintman Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 (edited) You mean the LR chain drive transfer box? That's the Borg Warner, not the LT230. The LT230 comes with a few different ratios, any advice on which one if they go that route? ETA Ashcroft's site says there are different BWs depending which RRC or P38 it's on. There are 2 types used on the RR Classic, the early type used on the 2.4 VM and the 3.5 V8 and the later ones used on the 2.5 VM and the 3.9 V8, the latter having a temperature sensor, there are also 2 types used on the P38A RR, one for the manual and one for the auto, http://www.ashcroft-transmissions.co.uk/transfer-boxes/borg-warner.html Edited December 19, 2017 by paintman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowie69 Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 No, Toyota Surf transfer box. Ratio if using an LT230 is very dependant on diffs, wheels so very hard to get down in a few sentences. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedLineMike Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 syncro gearboxes also do an adapter plate now to mate the lexus v8 to an R380 gearbox 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowie69 Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 Hmm now that is interesting... Could be a cheap way to 2WD for kits cars as well, given Supra boxes and the like seem to go for silly money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abdur Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 3 hours ago, Bowie69 said: Hmm now that is interesting... Could be a cheap way to 2WD for kits cars as well, given Supra boxes and the like seem to go for silly money. I actually got a custom made adapter plate but it's of no use as LR gearbox goes into limp home mode if it doesn't get the RPM information. I have tried all solenoid input output and there is no megasquirt available to make it work with LS400 ECU. If there is a way to make it work that would be great but still if Lexus gearbox with Surf 4x4 would cost same I rather take the 2nd option as it should be more reliable. What do you think guys? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowie69 Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 Yes, second option makes most sense for you , parts are probably cheaper where you are as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.