MK1.22 Build

[toyotaspeed90]

So I've made a mention of this in the other threads.

I will be following Bill Strong's build thread he created on the MR2OC titled "quick and dirty MK1.22" or something like that.

No photos at this time as... well, I don't have any parts yet (hopefully tonight).

Why? 4age's in this area are getting rare. No importers have any... anywhere. They have waiting lists. I don't want another gze car (we already have one). I don't want a boosted car. I don't want a high strung, high revving engine that only makes power up top. Though this works well with the driving I have learned in an AW11 there are other people who drive the car and they have.... well.... the car has had 3 16v's in 3 months. I'm tired of fixing/replacing motors in this car. I want a decent engine that gets decent gas mileage and is super reliable. In the event that it decides to not be reliable... I can EASILY source another engine. 5S-FE seems to foot that bill. Good torque, good ratios with the SW20 S54, good fuel economy... and doesn't rev to the moon & back.

So... the plan:

1991 SW20 5sfe, S54 and all necessary bits
Have the harness, ecu, and coolant fill neck coming


Will decide if we cut the mounts out of the chasis and weld new mounts to fit the stock SW20 mounts... (and leave the possibility of areas that might rust) or if we can build adapters/brackets to fit between the stock mount/location and the 5sfe/s54 for the side mounts, and then just modify the aw11 mounts to fit fore/aft mounts. Getting this mounted in will require the assistance of a good friend... he's the builder of the STI Celaru (if you don't know it, google it).

Unless I can find an inexpensive Rav4 3sfe header I will use an ebay 5sfe header and customize the exhaust to fit.

From what I have read the S54 axles, if lined up properly, are a direct fit into the AW11 body/hubs. Also that you just purchase 2nd gen hoses and cut them to fit, if you use the SW20 coolant fill neck (which is why I ordered it).

Will hopefully keep the battery in the stock location.

Wire in the SW20 ecu into the AW11 body. I have a full spare 86 AT harness so I'm hoping I can just cut the engine side of the harness of both the 4age and the 5sfe harnesses (I completely redid the harness in this car and as such I don't want to cut it) to make wiring straight forward... hopefully just "wire A to wire B" basically. I will be using the Paul Woods and Bill Strong instructions on how to wire this in (Paul Woods stuff is for 3sgte but apparently it's similar but easier)

This is the body it will be going into:

which is my wifes MR2.

It spun a bearing in it's 3rd 4age in 3 months (first one low oil pressure after rebuild, 2nd was fine in the ae92 but then within 2 weeks burned a quart every 90 miles... this 3rd one was a very good condition JDM motor a friend had.... yet didn't last).

this is what has to be pulled (I previously didn't want it 'announced' as to what was going in... now it will be a little too difficult to do that)

It currently has a JDM bigport shortblock with a smallport head.... cut 10 thou, 7a MLS HG, and has bigport cams. The harness was rewired/rerouted under the intake manifold, injectors flipped upside down to clean up wiring. Purpose of rewiring the harness was because the main alt cable had fried... which requires you to take the harness down to almost nothing. However I also went through and removed all unnecessary wiring (stuff like power accessories the car doesn't have and cruise control that was removed) in the engine bay.

This set up should come out in about 2 1/2 hours or so..... there was a lot of money spent on other new parts so I'm not entirely sure what I'll do with them at this point. The ae92 just received a newly rebuilt smallport 7age... maybe just continue to hoard 4age stuff, I don't know.

Will update as things happen.

[MR2Jedi]

Interesting project. I can see it's practicality and I picture the 5sfe performing better in the lighter AW11.
I hope you'll post pics of your progress.

[toyotaspeed90]

I will.

Picked up the motor yesterday.... seems to be in decent condition but I didn't have a lot of time to look at it closely.... it seems to have common leaks (dizzy and valve cover) and looks it's age (it's a 91) but could be far worse.

This is being done purely for practicality. I was thinking about selling my 87 s/c, possibly the ae92, and my stash of 4a parts in hopes of helping fund a 3rd gen... which the 5sfe apparently will help me get to the point I wanted with the 3rd gen.... which is not a high revving engine, something that can get out of it's way throughout the band, reliable, and plentiful engines.

since the body needs attention on the car the plan is to just get the motor/trans in the car up/running.... not really going to take much time to make it pretty. I'm not overly concerned. After a few miles on it... then I might pull some pieces to clean up and maybe paint.

[toyotaspeed90]

progress is anything but exciting....

changed the spark plugs in the 5s, the dizzy outer seal (though I suspect it's the inner seal that's leaking) and change the valve cover gasket & spark plug tube seals. The internals look much cleaner than the externals. That is a good sign for me.

I have just possibly figured out a solution that gets me out of finding SW20 cables... and it's a rather simple solution. 1 cable is too short for the S54 setup, so I have heard, and most replace them with the SW20 cables. The SW20 cables are 50" long. The AW11 cables are 49" and 47" long as I measured my spare set. If I pull the 47" out and replace with the 49" I'm guessing it will be all gravy.

anyways.... nothing exciting but I promised photos....

as the aw11 engine bay sits today:


this is a better, pulled back, shot of what the wiring/injector setup looks like...

Oh well...

and the 5s/s54...

[toyotaspeed90]

Today at the junkyard I was able to find a few things that will help..

Map sensor
AIT sensor
5 various mounts (some 5s, some 4a... only picked up steel units that can be modified easily.... will see what does/doesn't work. It appears the camry mounts for the 5s changed through the years)
exhaust-side alternator mount & slider bracket

the ECU/wiring harness/coolant fill pipe should be arriving today as well. There were no tubular style exhaust manifolds for the 5s's there (though there were about 15 or so 5s cars there) so it looks like I'll be ordering a header for it.

Yesterday the 4age/c50 was finished being pulled. The car is still way up in the air but I gotta get in there and remove hoses and hopefully swap the shorter shifter cable before we get ready to start mounts.

[toyotaspeed90]

So we'll see how things progress..... next weekend is an auto-x in which I am the event chair.... so I'll have to spend Friday setting up, Saturday at the event, then sunday we're possibly having an added "practice" day. July 21-24 we'll be in Vegas.... so nothing will get done then.

the harness showed up and I started to hack it up a bit. I took my spare 86 AT harness out & started cutting it as well. The plan is to basically mate the SW20 harness into an MR2 engine harness to that when it connects to the body... it just plugs right in. We'll see how that goes.

So far a couple large differences I've seen are:

AW11 has the body connector in the trunk for the engine harness. It appears the SW20 has it in the engine bay near where the battery connector is

SW20 ecu has the 14pin connector that connects to the body harness in the trunk but is not a part of the engine harness. Luckily the AW11 harness I'm hacking up had the same 14pin connector -- which as I figured many of the wires from it connect directly to the AW11 trunk connector (that isn't to say they're right... I have yet to research anything)

I have cut the 4 necessary connectors out of the AW11 harness (the 2 grey connectors in the engine bay, the body in the trunk connector and the 14 pin ecu connector) with a decent chunk of pigtail left. I have also stripped portions of the SW20 harness apart.... the alternator will be rewired to the exhaust side and many of the body/power will be rewired to the trunk of the aw11.

[toyotaspeed90]

This was from a couple days ago:

In order for this to fit the stock engine latch has to be removed. Today I drilled out the spot welds that hold the latch in place. Now I have a few holes to weld up then repaint that section.

I also pulled the stock exhaust manifold/cat. Installed the exhaust side alternator brackets and swapped the passenger (front) motormount on the engine to a much later Camry mount. This option looks WAY easier to work with.

Removed from the car other various things in the engine bay that might get in the way and/or will require relocating.

The shorter shift cable was removed. The cable that needs to be longer is only to move on one axis where-as the longer cable pivots in multi directions.... So I had to take the spare longer cable and make it the same on the shorter end. The longer cable had a threaded end on it... so I actually just cut the shorter cable about 1.5" from the end of it... took it to the grinder to make the end a bit smaller, tapped it, then threaded it into the longer cable. After install I now have a longer cable that pivots as needed.





we'll see if I end up using this mount.....




And as of today...

the new engine/trans was pushed under the car (which has to be about 2" higher than to slide a 4a under) and the car is back on it's wheels.

I have also done a bit of research on the wiring and once the engine is pseudo in place I can actually start the wiring... (doesn't have to be bolted in but at least within 1-2" of where it will sit to get an idea)

[MR2Jedi]

Cool. Very crafty.

[not12listen]

nice build so far.

with the s54 trans, and either the 5sfe/3sge/3sgte - the NA axles bolt up without any issue at all. i cannot comment on the turbo axles.

also, you are correct about the shifter cables - one of the aw11 cables is too short, but the other perfectly fine, and one of the sw20 cables being the right length (the other too long). i do not recall exactly which it was, sorry.

also, be careful of the sw20 shifter assembly. if you get the 93+ stock setup (short shifter compared to everything else), it will constantly make contact with your center tunnel cover if you try to get into 5th or reverse. its best to just stay with the factory aw11 shifter setup.

[toyotaspeed90]

I'm using two longer AW11 shifter cables with the one modified as shown above.


the engine is now "in" the engine bay but sitting on wood blocks. It's within an inch or so of where I want it. It looks like the intake manifold support brace is slightly in the way. The axles are in (which was a pain in the butt since one of them decided to pull it's joint apart... luckily I had a spare tube of grease and a spare clamp) as well.

Once I get the engine where I want it I will let my friend know and we'll start fabbing the mounts. Until that happens I can, however, start the wiring.

The header showed up the other day and I'm amazed at the quality vs. price. It was $100 shipped and it's WAY better than anything you'd get for an AW11 at twice that amount. Welds are nice, inner ports are ground down of any burrs, has 2 O2 spots (one for stock and one for a wideband, if needed), and has very thick flanges.....

[toyotaspeed90]

So... the engine is "located" in the bay and sitting on blocks where I want it. Hopefully we will be building the mounts on Sunday (I hope).

In the meantime I've been working on the wiring.

I downloaded, from mr2oc, the BGB's for an 88 MR2 (though an 86... the harness should be similar) and a 91 MR2... and also the Paul Woods MK1.5 wiring guide.

The guide is just that.... a guide... it shouldn't be used directly to wire in a 5sfe...

I had to build an Excel spreadsheet that included all of the 5sfe 91 pinouts for the ECU, EA1, EB1, and I think EA2 harness... along with had the wiring colors figured out for the 91 COR and the 86 COR. I also had printed out a copy of the N1 cable that someone else had previously done.

Once I had all of that figured out... I could use the guide to figure out what I needed. If he said "connect this line of the COR to pin A11" I had to use the BGB to figure out what A11 was on the 3sgte... and then correspond it to my spreadsheet to find what it is on the 5sfe ECU (something like A1 or A2 I think). And so it went.

about 80% of the harness is done according to the guide and what I see as needed. COR and ECU seem to be done.

the 2nd gen N/A's don't use an engine bay fan.... I would like to see mine stay in place. The AW11 engine bay fan system is actually independant from the ECU (which I think is different from the 3sgte setup)... as I have had it working on a megasquirted car where there's no connection between the engine bay fan and the MS. the only problem I have at this point is when I hacked my spare harness up... I literally hacksawed it where it enters the trunk.... so in order to get the fan harness back together I'll have to unwrap the stock harness and rewire.

Not overly difficult but... just something I want to do. We'll see how that goes. I might just be able to cut the plugs and rewire the whole thing pretty easily. I think the engine bay fan ecu has like 8 wires on it... guessing it has constant power, switched power, ground, 2 wires for the sensor and 2 wires for the fan.... if that's the case then getting it in won't be an issue. If it's much more detailed than that... it isn't necessary and it'll get scrapped.


The harness at this point was also built so that I didn't have to cut into the trunk. Long story short the ecu is on the drivers side and the COR/N1 wiring is on the passenger side. Any connections between the two run into the engine bay and back into the trunk on the other side. This was done to keep it all simple. Sounds complicated but it really isn't.

[not12listen]

one thing that might help you settle the power plant in the 'correct' spot (i use that term very loosely) is to connect the near transmission mount to the power plant and the chassis.

that will settle your 'forward/rearward' placement, and since you already have the axles in place, that will roughly settle your side-to-side placement. the front mount, you eyeball it.

i hope that helps, and again, good job!

[toyotaspeed90]

It's already where I want it... the engine is on blocks (many of them) and the car is on it's wheels with chocks holding it in place.


the wiring should now be done (with the exception of a few minor battery wires that I will need to run).

I deviated from the Paul Woods wiring.... I ran one of the spare wires from the FP (on the COR) to the to the blue wire on the 8 pin boddy connection plug of the SW harness. This allows usage of the FP connection in the diag port.

the engine bay cooling fan has also been wired back in.

[toyotaspeed90]

Originally Posted by not12listen

one thing that might help you settle the power plant in the 'correct' spot (i use that term very loosely) is to connect the near transmission mount to the power plant and the chassis.

actually I thought about this for a minute.... because it didn't seem right...

the speedsource mounts have to be modified to fit an S54, which includes the rear mount...

I'm basing the front/rear on the axles...

[toyotaspeed90]

On the plus side:

All of the mounts are fabricated. Engine is bolted in the car and nothing but the mounts holding it up. Some of them are significantly stronger than the stock setup.... it's actually almost ridiculous.

Only 1 of the 4 mounts that retain the rubber portion was modified... the front mount was cut and raised about 2 1/2 inches. All other mounts (rubber side) are stock. Passenger side mount was installed upside down and turned 90*. Square tubing was bolted to it laterally and then rectangular tubing was then welded to the square tubing up to the stock (modified) camry dogbone bracket. Drivers mount... essentially the AW11 and SW20 lower mounts were cut up and welded together so that the S54 lower mount was attached to the ends of the AW11 lower mount. The rear mount was basically refabricated as well. The center of the S54 mount was cut out and the ends of the AW11 mount were cut then welded back together. (He then actually boxed in the lower portion of this mount... something that isn't done in stock form)


The ONLY cutting I did on the car was removing the stock engine latch. Everything else is 100% stock AW11 on the chasis. This setup is meant to unbolt and bolt back in to any AW11 if needed.


On the downside... the motor has to come back out. I wanted to use the Camry exhaust side mount. Cool... I also ordered an SW20 header... Cool.....

but they don't fit. We'll have to build a quick bracket to hold the alternator in place and then use a tensioner pulley down near the crank pulley in order to tighten whatever belt we end up using.

I also need to reinstall the grommet & retainer to the shifter cables on the firewall. After that the only customizing work that will need to be done is the exhaust. It will be getting the s/c's old single in dual out muffler... I hope it's quieter on this n/a motor than it was on the s/c.... we'll see I guess.

Won't get anything done this weekend because the wife and I are headin' to Vegas!