1978 Scimitar SE6A, 1UZFE V8 powered.
Discussion
My Dad purchased this car for my Mum in 1982, and it was used for at least the next ten years as her only car, and was always garaged whilst at home, to this day it’s the only car I have that lives in the garage.
It was used less as she went through a load of other cars, ending up being left unused for many years. At which time I was doing lots of track days in my Dolly Sprint.
I persuaded my Dad to pump up the tyres and bring it on a Goodwood Classic track day, which he did, and had a great time. A few more track days followed where the lack of grunt from the Ford Essex V6 was being felt, so tuning options were explored, and promptly dismissed. An engine transplant was going to be far easier, even if it wasn’t going to be easier, a decision had been made.
1UZFE transplants were getting quite common, in lots of things, other RWD Japanese cars, Triumph Stags and TR7’s, pickup trucks and a Reliant Scimitar.
A 1994 LS400 with 9 months MOT and Tax was purchased and smoked around in by firstly my wife and then my Dad who were going to share the Scimitar as a track day fun car.
They both agreed that for a big old barge the LS400 could pick it’s skirts up quite well, with a lot less weight in the plastic pig, it should be fun.
The LS400 strip down began, leaving just the engine/auto box ecu but still driving through all gears. A ‘how to wire up a 1UZFE’ plan was grabbed off the superb Lextreme web site. That site had loads of stuff on 1UZ swaps at the time.
The body was taken off the Scimitar and the Essex lump and box was donated to another Scimitar owner.
The 1UZFE was fitted to the Scimitar chassis, Dave Mac made the prop out of the two propshafts, and the Scimitar back axle was replaced with a Jag MK2 with LSD, we did change the axle ratio a couple of times after trying them out.
We bought a couple of Toyota Tundra stainless steel manifolds a load of stainless tube and some silencers, then got my brother to slice them up and tig the manifolds and system together.
The front Triump trunnions were replaced with Jag ball joints, Jag uprights and Jag four pot brakes. I think the front disks were off a Renault Traffic van. My Dad was let loose in a motor factors until he found something that would fit.
And the rear disks were AP racing four pots.
A Toyota Land Cruiser rad was used, thoughts were moving to dash and suspension.
Once the engine and box were put into the Scimitar chassis, the manifolds and exhaust system fabricated, the Lexus ecu was put onto a bit of ply and the engine fired up.
Now we needed shocks and springs, a chap from Spax has a BMW Turbo Diesel Scimitar, and he sorted out a custom set of TrakSpax for the car, an absolutely lovely guy, Spax were superb.
The body now had to be put back onto the chassis, some minor fettling was needed, and the dash we chose was a SPA dash the same as used on this vintage Ariel Atoms.
BMW E30 sports seats were used, the battery put under the rear seats and lots of other tinkering done.
We trailered the car to a Goodwood classic track day and ran all day with no problems.
A few years later, I had the body stripped back to the gel coat and repainted.
The old girl has a few problems ATM, the power steering pump needs replacing, the prop shaft has a knock, it’s a bit loud and still setup mainly for track days.
My plan is to get it more usable as a classic, put the original interior back in and quiet it down a bit, probably with some other little bits and bobs to make it more friendly.
That’s because the wife and my old man moved on from a V8 Scimitar to other things to thrash around a track. That will lead nicely onto my next readers car thread.
I will try to keep this thread updated as we move this old thing on so it can be used.
It was used less as she went through a load of other cars, ending up being left unused for many years. At which time I was doing lots of track days in my Dolly Sprint.
I persuaded my Dad to pump up the tyres and bring it on a Goodwood Classic track day, which he did, and had a great time. A few more track days followed where the lack of grunt from the Ford Essex V6 was being felt, so tuning options were explored, and promptly dismissed. An engine transplant was going to be far easier, even if it wasn’t going to be easier, a decision had been made.
1UZFE transplants were getting quite common, in lots of things, other RWD Japanese cars, Triumph Stags and TR7’s, pickup trucks and a Reliant Scimitar.
A 1994 LS400 with 9 months MOT and Tax was purchased and smoked around in by firstly my wife and then my Dad who were going to share the Scimitar as a track day fun car.
They both agreed that for a big old barge the LS400 could pick it’s skirts up quite well, with a lot less weight in the plastic pig, it should be fun.
The LS400 strip down began, leaving just the engine/auto box ecu but still driving through all gears. A ‘how to wire up a 1UZFE’ plan was grabbed off the superb Lextreme web site. That site had loads of stuff on 1UZ swaps at the time.
The body was taken off the Scimitar and the Essex lump and box was donated to another Scimitar owner.
The 1UZFE was fitted to the Scimitar chassis, Dave Mac made the prop out of the two propshafts, and the Scimitar back axle was replaced with a Jag MK2 with LSD, we did change the axle ratio a couple of times after trying them out.
We bought a couple of Toyota Tundra stainless steel manifolds a load of stainless tube and some silencers, then got my brother to slice them up and tig the manifolds and system together.
The front Triump trunnions were replaced with Jag ball joints, Jag uprights and Jag four pot brakes. I think the front disks were off a Renault Traffic van. My Dad was let loose in a motor factors until he found something that would fit.
And the rear disks were AP racing four pots.
A Toyota Land Cruiser rad was used, thoughts were moving to dash and suspension.
Once the engine and box were put into the Scimitar chassis, the manifolds and exhaust system fabricated, the Lexus ecu was put onto a bit of ply and the engine fired up.
Now we needed shocks and springs, a chap from Spax has a BMW Turbo Diesel Scimitar, and he sorted out a custom set of TrakSpax for the car, an absolutely lovely guy, Spax were superb.
The body now had to be put back onto the chassis, some minor fettling was needed, and the dash we chose was a SPA dash the same as used on this vintage Ariel Atoms.
BMW E30 sports seats were used, the battery put under the rear seats and lots of other tinkering done.
We trailered the car to a Goodwood classic track day and ran all day with no problems.
A few years later, I had the body stripped back to the gel coat and repainted.
The old girl has a few problems ATM, the power steering pump needs replacing, the prop shaft has a knock, it’s a bit loud and still setup mainly for track days.
My plan is to get it more usable as a classic, put the original interior back in and quiet it down a bit, probably with some other little bits and bobs to make it more friendly.
That’s because the wife and my old man moved on from a V8 Scimitar to other things to thrash around a track. That will lead nicely onto my next readers car thread.
I will try to keep this thread updated as we move this old thing on so it can be used.
FilH said:
Nice conversion.
Now ive heard these engines do well with a turbo or two added
They do, they are also quite good at having a supercharger added, which was all the rage when we put the engine in. But we were surprised at how good the package was as standard.Now ive heard these engines do well with a turbo or two added
It’s track days are over, replaced with something with three times the power, so it can spent the rest of it’s retirement plodding along.
The bottom end of the 1UZ is pretty much bomb proof, but getting the heads flowing takes quite a bit of work, as you say Turbo’s or SC’s can help up to a sensible price, after which, you have to look at more cost effective solutions.
9e25 said:
FilH said:
Nice conversion.
Now ive heard these engines do well with a turbo or two added
They do, they are also quite good at having a supercharger added, which was all the rage when we put the engine in. But we were surprised at how good the package was as standard.Now ive heard these engines do well with a turbo or two added
It s track days are over, replaced with something with three times the power, so it can spent the rest of it s retirement plodding along.
The bottom end of the 1UZ is pretty much bomb proof, but getting the heads flowing takes quite a bit of work, as you say Turbo s or SC s can help up to a sensible price, after which, you have to look at more cost effective solutions.
Heaveho said:
If it weren't for the rods being significantly weedier, they're pretty much a none turbo Supra motor. Still a hugely reliable proposition if left alone.
Oh yeah, I forgot about the rods.At the time of getting the donor ‘94 LS400, I now remember going for a ‘94 as the ‘89-‘94 rods are significantly stronger than the ‘95-‘97 (still non VVTI) and the VVTI ‘98-‘00 rods, there was quite a bit of info about the rods on Lextreme, even the 2UZ and 3UZ keep the really skinny rods introduced in the ‘95 model year, so all those need the rods upgrading before pretty much any mods.
That said, I have no idea if even the early rods are a patch on Supra rods.
We did have dreams of slapping a supercharger and set of injectors on the car and leaving the bottom end alone.
We’ll do the sensible thing and leave it standard
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