How hard would a 1UZ swap into a Camaro be?

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May 1, 2022 | 11:48 AM
  #1  
Back in February I bought a 86' Camaro base 2.8l as my second car. It had 95k miles, and I paid $1,300 and my first car (2001 Ford Expedition 235k) for it. When I got it the only issues I knew it had was the ac and shocks were bad. Days after I got it I found many more issues and ended up needing to replace the shocks as well as the brake lines, exhaust manifold and a bunch of other small stuff. A few weeks ago a radiator hose popped but I replaced it, and it ran fine. Then a week later a heater hose popped and it started knocking and spraying coolant out of the reservoir after 10 minutes of driving. I fixed the hose but it didn't make any difference. I took it to the shop thinking Id replace the water pump or radiator and then it would finally be functional with no issues. It ended up being the head gasket.... less than 5k miles after I bought the car. It doesn't make really any sense to rebuild it, so I was wondering how difficult it would be to swap a 1UZ in? I know its definitely not a typical swap but I found one with a 240sx transmission for 1.4k on fb and I think it would be pretty awesome. Let me know, thanks!
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May 1, 2022 | 02:53 PM
  #2  
Re: How hard would a 1UZ swap into a Camaro be?
My god, have you gone temporarily insane? I honestly cannot answer your main question, the best I can do for you is talk you out of it. Not because its a Toyota engine, but because it just doesn't make any financial sense. You would have exactly zero support for parts and have to make everything specific to the car yourself let alone electronics drive etc. Interesting? Yes, but you would be happier and big money ahead getting yourself some flavor of LS.

If you decide to do it I will be glued to the build thread you absolutely must keep updated here!
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May 1, 2022 | 09:14 PM
  #3  
Re: How hard would a 1UZ swap into a Camaro be?
Quote: My god, have you gone temporarily insane? I honestly cannot answer your main question, the best I can do for you is talk you out of it. Not because its a Toyota engine, but because it just doesn't make any financial sense. You would have exactly zero support for parts and have to make everything specific to the car yourself let alone electronics drive etc. Interesting? Yes, but you would be happier and big money ahead getting yourself some flavor of LS.

If you decide to do it I will be glued to the build thread you absolutely must keep updated here!
I know its a pretty insane idea, but I feel like if I bought a salvage SC400 as a donor it would be doable... then again I dont really know
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May 1, 2022 | 09:29 PM
  #4  
Re: How hard would a 1UZ swap into a Camaro be?
You'll be mired in custom fabrication problems all the way, only to make less power than the ls platform. If you want to do a swap, go in the ls direction. Or sbc since that's basically an oem swap.
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May 1, 2022 | 11:31 PM
  #5  
Re: How hard would a 1UZ swap into a Camaro be?
The reality is you will be trail blazing on everything on this and for the most part there will be almost no interest in assisting research into how to make this work. The fact that there is an abundant, cheap, reliable, powerful, inhouse, alternative, LS obviously means if you want to do this then go for it and pretty much good luck.
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May 13, 2022 | 04:33 PM
  #6  
Re: How hard would a 1UZ swap into a Camaro be?
To be honest I'd just put some work into the SC400 donor car & LS swap your Camaro if you have the financial ability to do so. Lexus SC400s are sick cars & are essentially luxury v8 mk4 supras
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May 13, 2022 | 10:59 PM
  #7  
Re: How hard would a 1UZ swap into a Camaro be?
Don't do it!. I thought it would be a fun idea to harvest the majority of a gs300 and cram it into a 84 buick regal. I did it, the dash fit pretty nice. The engine ran, the driveshaft was very expensive. At the end of it all. It was a running driving 2jz buick regal that I could have LS swapped 4 times for the same price. And I did all the work myself.
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May 14, 2022 | 09:25 AM
  #8  
Re: How hard would a 1UZ swap into a Camaro be?
I guess the only real question that needs to be asked is, "Do you have the tools and know how to fabricate all the custom parts you'll need?"

Because if you can't, forget it, all you'll end up with is 2 non-running hacked up cars.

If you can fabricate, and want to spend the time on the project go ahead.

I do not remember the name of the member who did it, but I'm sure I could find it, but he swapped a GM inline-6 into his Camaro and later added a turbo or two, I can't exactly remember.
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May 14, 2022 | 03:31 PM
  #9  
Re: How hard would a 1UZ swap into a Camaro be?
A 2jz has been done. Still sounds like a bunch of work. My theory is if I wanted to build a Toyota, Dodge, Detroit diesel or whatever, I'd buy one of them.
Reply 1
May 15, 2022 | 06:29 AM
  #10  
Re: How hard would a 1UZ swap into a Camaro be?
Quote: ..swap a 1UZ in....... it would be pretty awesome
An equally awesome---and impractical---swap would be a 12-valve Cummins instead.


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May 19, 2022 | 01:37 PM
  #11  
Re: How hard would a 1UZ swap into a Camaro be?
I have a 1JZ in my 92 and it required heavily modifying the crossmember for oil pan clearance an making new engine and trans mounts. It wasn't awful but alot of work.
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May 19, 2022 | 01:46 PM
  #12  
Re: How hard would a 1UZ swap into a Camaro be?
Quote: I have a 1JZ in my 92 and it required heavily modifying the crossmember for oil pan clearance an making new engine and trans mounts. It wasn't awful but alot of work.
You can't crop dust us with a statement like that without photographic documentation, I'm old and my imagination doesn't work that well anymore!
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May 19, 2022 | 02:13 PM
  #13  
Re: How hard would a 1UZ swap into a Camaro be?
Quote: I have a 1JZ in my 92 and it required heavily modifying the crossmember for oil pan clearance an making new engine and trans mounts. It wasn't awful but alot of work.
did you run a front sump oil pan?
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May 19, 2022 | 02:18 PM
  #14  
Re: How hard would a 1UZ swap into a Camaro be?
Here is the original short build post, haven't updated it in forever. I am running a JZA70 rear sump, that's the MK3 Supra.

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/engi...jz-my-1jz.html
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May 23, 2022 | 08:03 PM
  #15  
Re: How hard would a 1UZ swap into a Camaro be?
Quote: An equally awesome---and impractical---swap would be a 12-valve Cummins instead.

Westin Chaplin?? Did it in a Mustang!

that's pretty awesome.

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May 24, 2022 | 05:50 AM
  #16  
Re: How hard would a 1UZ swap into a Camaro be?
Quote: Westin Chaplin?? Did it in a Mustang!

that's pretty awesome.
LOL. I was being sarcastic; should have known somebody actually did something similar!



Reply 1
May 24, 2022 | 11:30 AM
  #17  
Re: How hard would a 1UZ swap into a Camaro be?
Quote: Here is the original short build post, haven't updated it in forever. I am running a JZA70 rear sump, that's the MK3 Supra.

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/engi...jz-my-1jz.html
I ran a front sump on the regal that I built and the entire sump sat in front of the crossmember with no modifications to the pan, crossmember, or steering.
with the 1jz and 2jz "rear sump" it's actually in the middle so I took that into consideration as I was bringing it all together.
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May 24, 2022 | 11:31 AM
  #18  
Re: How hard would a 1UZ swap into a Camaro be?
Quote: I ran a front sump on the regal that I built and the entire sump sat in front of the crossmember with no modifications to the pan, crossmember, or steering.
with the 1jz and 2jz "rear sump" it's actually in the middle so I took that into consideration as I was bringing it all together.
Yea I didn't realize it was going to be a more mid mounted pan when I bought it. If I had, I would have bought a front mount vvti 1jz instead for the same price.
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May 24, 2022 | 11:34 AM
  #19  
Re: How hard would a 1UZ swap into a Camaro be?
Quote: Yea I didn't realize it was going to be a more mid mounted pan when I bought it. If I had, I would have bought a front mount vvti 1jz instead for the same price.
yea it's very misleading. I swapped a aristo 2jz into a mk3 supra so luckily i had a little experience with it when i was putting one into a regal.
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