Engine Swap, Transmission Swap. Question about some options

[dorifuto.boi]

Hey guys,

I4 broke. time to swap. since i can't find a cheap v6 manual, im thinking of doin a v6 + manual swap. then i was thinkin that that'd be too much money.

is the I4's manual transmission the s51 ?
if it is, should i buy a I4 manual and do a v6 swap or would it be better just to get a v6 auto and do a manual swap ?

which way is easier and which way is cheaper ? could somebody shed some light ?

[Stonegrave]

The biggest problem will be finding the 5 speed v6 engine harness. There is a ecu/harness for sale on solaraguy, not sure if it has been bought yet.

I would piece it together, unless you have a couple grand sitting around. Then I would buy a v6 5 speed Solara donor car. There are a few for sale on solaraguy as well. A donor car is going to be the best and easiest possible way to do the swap.

Otherwise there will be a lot of time and money into sourcing parts. For my 5 speed swap I spent easily $1500 bucks at the Toyota dealership, and that's with employee pricing.

The hardest part will be the 5 speed swap. Otherwise sourcing the 1mz and whatever other things you need for it will be fun and games.

To answer your questions:

If anything, get the 1mz with the auto trans and 5 speed swap it. Don't get the 5s trans. From what I remember it is weaker and has crappy ratios for the 1mz.

[dorifuto.boi]

thanks for the reply

solaras are so expensive~ haha.
so lets say i got a solara v6 manual. the engine/transmission mounts are in the same places as the gen4 camry right ? and then all the engine harnesses/ecu as well as the clutch cables and gear links i can just pull off the solara and it'll plug right up to the camry ? because the gen1 solara and the gen4 camry share the same chassis. that means that the frame is the same right ?

thanks again

[Stonegrave]

Well, from what I understand yes. I honestly havn't done insane amounts of research, but everything looks physically the same from my friend's solara to my 4th gen. I know for sure 3rd gen shifter cables will not work on the 4th gen, I found that out the hard way and ended up having to order my own cables from Toyota. The 3rd gen ones were too short.

As far as the clutch line and the shifter cables i'm not positive. I would go to the dealership and ask them to check part numbers. I had a SS braided line made for my clutch. Oh, I am also not positive about the harnesses. Or the axles. I'm sure someone on here will know. All of my crap I got was looked up under a 99 Camry, and all of it was a pain in the ass to find.

I know it's not helpful, but I wanted to reply anyways.

Good luck, and at the least try to have fun with the project!

=D

[Chris Crash]

Cheaper will be replace the engine and swap it.

Better results, though, will be achieved with the 1MZ 5- speed swap.