1992 Cressida

[command__]

Hi there, I thought I might share my swap experience with my 1992 Toyota Cressida.

I bought the car from a neighboring town for $500 not running. It has about 140k miles on it and light front bumper damage. I have since pulled the damaged 7m and trans from it. The 7m still ran, but has some unusual damage to the crank pulley. Apparently the pulley had folded over the key and spun. The previous owner had come upon this when making repairs to the front end. He managed to get the pulley off, but snapped the bolt off. I wasn't really interested in the engine anyway, I was looking for a shell for a 1jz.
I purchased a 1jz auto from a JZX90 on the internet, arrived in good shape and here is what I have done so far:

1JZ-GTE (JZX90) Auto
New water pump (hydro fan delete)
New stainless Y-pipe and 3" downpipe for stock twins
Swapped the A/C port plates on the A/C pumps
Wire harness mod by the good Dr.!
New timing belt (Hint 1990 Isuzu Trooper I4)
Underdrive pulley kit w/ belt (crank pulley was banged up in shipping)
Reman. alternator
PS hoses
Extend alternator wires to passenger side of bay
Drilled and slotted rotors, pads, calipers, and SS brake lines
New radiator and electric fans
Front mount intercooler and pipes
Walbro 225
Various tuneup/oil change parts.
Sorted out the bumper and light no other damaged body parts

Just got the wiring today, engine is going in car this weekend. I don't think the intercooler kit will be here in time, so some time next week.

I also have another 1992 Cressida, blue, ABS, that I bought for parts, but It was still in good shape, so I used my leftover auto from the 7m to fix this one up and It runs. I just put a fresh head gasket on it last week, it's at 160k. I have a 1982 Cressida gold. this car is just too cute to touch. it has 114k on it (109k when I bought it), paint is a little faded up on the roof, but it is straight. has the 5m-e (single cam) also auto, gets me lots of complements and questions (i have a remote start system on it as well as door and trunk locks), I have not encountered another one on the road yet.

Sadly tho, I do not have my 2 favorite Cressidas, the mx32 (78-80) and the mx73 (86-88). I started with my mx62 1982 but found that the required modifications were to to much on the pocketbook, and finding a mx73 in our area was heartbreaking, as every one I looked at was just standing inline for the crusher.

I am a total Anime adict and am looking for someone to cad/vector some art for wraps. Kinda a mild Itasha (Japanese: Lit=Painful car, Def=Decorating a car with anime and manga art and other of the subculture ex.- Often this is practice is taken to the extreme, Painful as in to the wallet or the eye)
I'd like to get some pictures up soon.

[Dr Tweak]

Very nice project, let's see some pictures!

-Doc

[command__]

Well I am a little disappointed today. Turns out that my decision to leave the engine forwards does put it awfully close to the sway bar up front. It also puts a lot of the pulleys very close to the fans. Not to mention having to extend the drive line. At first it seemed like things were working out and I had planned on needing a drive line. I didn't like the idea of having to pound out the firewall to make the engine fit. I did a lot of reading, and nowhere did i see it mentioned that fire wall modification was needed, until i asked in the form of a question. Reason being, I guess not many people leave the stock twins on, having a single turbo kit would eliminate this problem. So let me spell it out for us all, based upon personal observation:

If your putting a JZX90 Chaser 1JZGTE in a 91-92 Cressida (MX83 rev2):
You must turn the brackets around, they are labeled IN (intake) EX (exhaust), swap them backwards
If you are keeping the stock twins on a LHD body, you must pound in the fire wall next to the AC lines (HVAC box). This is because the rear turbo's intake U-pipe will hangup on the firewall and your engine bracket on the same side will be off by 1-1.5"

ELSE:
You can leave the brackets as installed for the JZX90, BUT! you will have clearance issues with the sway bar and radiator fans. You will need to extend your shift linkage and drive line.
I was going to try it this way but am seriously reconsidering a.t.m.

Notes on using the A341E (from the same engine set as above):
You will need to swap the tailpiece with your Cressida's A340E: Reason being, the A341E uses 4 bolts on a flat surface, and its rubber mount uses 4 studs that do not line up with the Cressida crossmember. The JZX90 crossmember is not long enough. The Cressida's rubber mount uses 4 bolts on a V surface, with 4 bolts to secure it to the crossmember.
I was able to get the tailpiece gasket from my local Toyota dealer for about $13 (i gave them just my cressida's year and o.e. A340E). You should replace the output gasket too while your at it. If your keeping abs, you need to swap your worm gear and VSS cog off the output shaft. If you don't have ABS, you can block off the hole for the VSS, or install it just as a hole plug (it will not register anything unless you put the cog on the tail shaft).

(Grumble, grumble... Where's my hammer...)

Side note... A friend of a friend by the name of Matt (a local Supra guy) was over to look at my swap and my sick blue cressida with the stock 7M, he was able to fix it in 10 minutes. So the blue one is up and running after replacing the head gasket. FYI, after we did the head gasket, it would only kick over and sputter to a stop... long story short, the AFM had died sometime during tearing the head off, Tks Matt.

Pictures are coming, as soon as Noah gets here with is ark... been raining for days now...

[Dr Tweak]

Excellent info, that will be great for reference.

[command__]

OK, so continuing on the transmission a bit, you will need to use your Cressida's shift linkage. I mangled mine while wheeling the car around (was hanging). I thought i was just so lucky that my a341e had the linkage on it, but it is too long. Had to go find one at a wrecker. BTW, the shift lever arm is the same, and was much easier to get at then the cotter pin above, just take the arm and rod off together

I found that the old cruise control spot on the drivers fender is a good place for the igniter, and i put my map sensor up along the cowl next to the cabin heater valve. This worked for me as it was appropriate for the length of hose and wire i had.

On the cooling system, i choose the hydro fan delete, and to use all electric. I talked w/ the Doc briefly on this, but it turns out using the existing circuit is not possible. I monitored the plug for both the factory equipped fans on the Cressida with a voltmeter. Even when the engine temp started climbing over the normal range i had no volts. So if like me, you want to run electric fans (2x12" Mishimoto) i would recommend the Dakota Digital Fan Controller, which is what i plan on using. It is nice that it can piggyback on your existing sender, is fully programmable, and has A/C sense. The cause might be that the old 7m sensor does not exist, or the ECU does not support this, whatever... i'm not the expert, but the plugs are dead.

On to the intercooler. I will be relocating the battery to the trunk, and you probably should too. The piping on the Intake manifold side is pretty tight, more so with my choice of electric fans and the battery in place. I am routing my pipes out the radiator supports just under the headlights, they immediately 90 towards the intercooler. My intercooler's inlet/outlet rest perfectly on the bumper mounts. Since i have not completed this project i will comment more when its finished.

Oh and that's not the BEST PART!!! The damn thing runs!! like a champ! Started in less than 5sec on first try. Exhaust is nice and clean and after about hour and a half run time in all, i haven't found any leaks of any kind. I checked the oil/water yesterday once, and it was clean. I'll check it again today.

I could go on lots more, but i'll end it here for awhile.
Very sorry about the pictures, I've been very bad in that i haven't been keeping a photo record of everything. I'll get to it when i can.

[Dr Tweak]

Cool, watching for the pics

-Doc

[command__]

This is my Cressida the day I bought the shell. Still has the 7mge w/ buggered crank pulley. He included all the parts that were removed. Bumper reinforcement was tweaked, but plastic shell OK.

Here is the engine bay. This is a few weeks later in my yard. The area of the firewall that needed to be banged in is just below the heater return (brass nipple w/ white circle bit of firewall peaking around it)

Trying to collect more pictures from other sources (friends camera phones, etc.) trying to make good on my promise. Also, going to Sakura-Con shortly, would love to see some anime hotness on my ride! laters.

[command__]

So if any of you are following so far... I'm writing a bit in retrospect so...

I used a CXRacing 3" kit for a Eclipse/Lancer/Galant for my FMIC . I ended up cutting a few pieces to fit, and had a few left over. I did have to buy reducing 90deg. elbows to fit the turbo outlet and manifold inlet. When I get a chance I will make a diagram using my setup as an example. Looks nice and clean, and could easily be welded together for extra strength. I also used some 1" alum flat bar and L bar to make support struts for the FMIC.

Also currently I am completely rebuilding the brakes. New slotted/drilled rotors and metallic pads. Also taking the time to paint the calipers for a little touch of custom (i completely disassemble them before painting). BEWARE!!! My parking brakes were shot, and the shoes (yes shoes for the parking brakes inside the rotor!) cost a arm and a leg, and can only be bought at a dealership. Napa, Carquest, Advance, Autozone, and O'Reily did not have them in their systems. Expect to shell out $120+ for a set of 4 (individual).