So I am having my AW11 swaped in with a 4AGE Silvertop engine. As of right now the Engine is in, and all the major wiring is done. We have gotten the engine to turn over and run for a short 30 seconds. There have been many issues along the way however many I thought I would post here just in case anyone else was looking at a Silvertop swap. I bought this car for about 500 with a bad engine...and well bad everything really.
Exhaust manifold/header: Before attempting the swap make sure the exhaust is in good condition because more than likely you want to use your original set up and not the one that comes with the engine. This is because the starter will have to be moved to the front and the stock manifold of a Silvertop does not give enough clearance for it. The stock 4AGE will, but if you run into the situation that I did, many times if the car is not taken care of the manifold will be cracked in several places making it unusable, luckily I found manifolds online that are rebuilt for the 4AGE.
Wiring:Now that I know, I would recommend going with a Megasquirt system instead of a stock ECU for Silvertop. One reason that I have found out is that many of the JDM import companies do not guarantee that your ecu will come with all the neccissary plugs and pigtails like mine which did not have the 12 plug pin. If you do go with the stock ecu(dumb part on me that I didnt think of it earlier) open the case to see the what wires to where...makes things alot easier. Lastly you wont know what condition your ecu is in, mine was probably soaked at one time by coolant making it no good for the swap(started to smoke, when we fired up the engine).
Other things:Be aware that with this process, the clutch should be replaced, you have new custom hosing for the coolant lines, your throttle line will need to be changed.
Cost:Look around and talk to different shop around your area and ask if you can see some of their other work. I went into the shop I finally took it to and looked at their work and saw the car's they had in the shop. Make sure to get updated quotes as the swap goes on. I was quoted at 1200 for the swap and so far my cost has run me about 1500 without the megasquirt system in. So a grand total of around $2000 for a complete swap compared to others that quoted me between 3k-4k
I am still doing some finishing touches and it will be ready within the coming weeks.
Forum for every generation Toyota MR2. Including the AW11 and SW20.
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