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VR4 motor swap in 3.0 gas?

Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2012 9:42 am
by 403delica
I have developed a problem and its called delica.ca... Im on my honeymoon and have been obsessing over sexy vans instead!

Last night I had a thought about swapping a VR4 motor(3000gt) in to a delica... Think it can be done? I know the VR is transverse so mounts and a different bell housing would be needed... Also I would run a HKS F Con V pro for mgmt.

Has anybody ever done this or had dreams of it like I do?

Thoughts?

Evan

Re: VR4 motor swap in 3.0 gas?

Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2012 1:23 pm
by FalcoColumbarius
Hi Evan,
I think I understand your, um.... shall we say ~ problem.
My advice is to get your lovely bride to use terms such as "Single Over Head Camshaft" or "VE Injection Pump" and see if that helps. Using a high temp & viscosity oil often works... grins.

Happy Honeymoon!

Dr. Falco.

Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2012 2:30 pm
by 403delica
I think that's what car people yell out during the heat of the moment... Camshaft!

Re: VR4 motor swap in 3.0 gas?

Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2012 5:08 pm
by Big-Bird
It worked in the first Transformers movie....okay only when Meagan Fox said camshaft

Re: VR4 motor swap in 3.0 gas?

Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2012 5:51 pm
by nxski
LIKE LIKE LIKE to all these comments! :-D

Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2012 5:58 pm
by 403delica
Just a bunch of delica dudes talking about car parts nothing to see here lol

Any thought on a VR4 motor?

Re: VR4 motor swap in 3.0 gas?

Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2012 7:30 pm
by Big-Bird
There are a few engine swaps that have been performed on both main Delica platforms. The most notable is the LS V8 equipped L400 which appears to have its 4WD in place. You can youtube that one. There are also several L300 with various engines, mostly V8's like Lexus, Chevy and Dragster engines but there have been a few VR4 and V63GT Swaps on the L300. I have not seen or heard of a VR4 swap in a L400.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6H1PHBIcLQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyavwnTS ... ure=fvwrel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_QOkLui ... re=related

Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2012 9:20 pm
by 403delica
Thanks! What LS motor are the swapping in? ... I have seen LS7 motors in FD RX7 before and there a really good setup

Re:

Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2012 10:19 pm
by Big-Bird
403delica wrote:Thanks! What LS motor are the swapping in? ... I have seen LS7 motors in FD RX7 before and there a really good setup

After a much closer look and some Google searching it looks like the owner stuffed a Lexus/Toyota V8 under the hood f his Deli. This image below is very similar to the one in the L400, but the intake configurations are different. this one is a single throttle plate system and the L400 has a dual plenum system

This motor is in a Hilux truck but the image is too big for our forum.
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q20/ ... lux042.jpg

I didn't see a single motor ID mark in the Delica videos and the owner is MUM so far on what he did to get the install to completion....still very slick and mean for an L400. He posted several videos that are more about after he got it running, nothing much on the install process.... :-(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab2TM7kELZM

Re: VR4 motor swap in 3.0 gas?

Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2012 11:12 pm
by Luna-Sea
Supercharged .....nice!

Right On! 8-)

Re: VR4 motor swap in 3.0 gas?

Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2012 6:21 am
by Feds
For the VR4 engine (and the 300gt/stealth) the basic block should be the same. So really, all you'd need to do is strip your engine down to the short block, put on the VR-4 heads/intake/exhaust, and wire and plumb everything else to suit.

I did a 8v/sohc to 16v DOHC swap using a mighty max block and a talon top end/ecu. I think I pulled it off in a weekend. It wasn't pretty, but it worked.

Re: VR4 motor swap in 3.0 gas?

Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2012 9:02 am
by 403delica
Nice you just used the top end from a 4G63? a 4g63 swap would be a good little motor to put in it!

Any luck with tuning the 3.0 gas or is reliability a concern with regards to their bottom end? :-)

Re: VR4 motor swap in 3.0 gas?

Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2012 10:10 am
by Feds
Yeah, I had a Mighty Max with a blown crank angle sensor, and a free Non-turbo Eclipse. I put them together.

As for tuning the 3.0 motor: How big is your wallet? 400 HP is doable:

http://www.daveblack.net/asp/DynoResults.asp

Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2012 11:47 am
by 403delica
I have Delt with lots of the tunning and such but is the bottom end the same as the VR4 motor? Robust enought to Handel it? Or time for a balanced and blueprinted bottom end :)

Re: VR4 motor swap in 3.0 gas?

Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2012 12:38 pm
by Feds
Looks like the bottom end is o.k. The NA engine has higher static compression, so you'd have to keep the boost down.

Here are some good guides:

http://bobthegreat.com/pages/mycar/mods ... index.html

http://www.3sguide.com/3000gt-twin-turb ... de-how-to/

Aside from the obvious, one of the biggest problems I ran into with the talon head in the Mighty Max was that hoses and sensors came out pointing at the firewall. So, expect to do some bashing of the fire wall/bending of engine components to get everything to fit.