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5sfe to 1MZ-FE swap

22488 Views 31 Replies 13 Participants Last post by  Michael Quillen
Ok, after some searching it doesn't seem like to many people have done this swap. Assuming that I had a complete donor car for the v6, how hard would it be. I assume that I can just take out the 5sfe and it's wiring harness, and put in the 1mz-fe using it's stock mounts, engine harness, and dash harness/ecu. Is there anything that's really tricky about this what I'm forgetting?

The only part I am concerned about is the tranny. My car is a 5spd, and the donor would be an auto. So it'd basically be doing a motor swap and a 5spd swap onto the v6. What tranny would I want? I thought that the e153 was preferred, but I've also read that the ratios are too short or some such thing. So what tranny would be best? (keeping in mind that after the swap, this motor would probably be seeing boost with in a few months.

Which leads me to my final question (as of now). Will the SMT piggy back be able to override the OBDII and not just keep moving the ecu back to stock after it's boosted? Basically I want to do the swap and then put a reliable, not insane turbo setup on it. 250-300hp, basically what this thread is talking about: http://toyotanation.com/forum/t174209.html

So, am I insane or what?
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the swap is easier if you take the entire subframe out and switch it all over. the thing about it is you need a 95+ 1mzfe due to the fact there is no hydrolic fan.
well the donor car I'm looking at is a 95, so that should work? how much of the harness needs to be switched out?
ENTIRE harness. ECU needs to be switched. and POSSIBLY the dash harness. But as Gino (2wicked) said, swap the subframe. :)

Gino, you never called me back you prick. :lol:
well most people who dont own a camry would say yes, insane. but if u have the time and money, i say go for it, i know some people who hate to loose to my camry:lol: i think most people do the E153 solara swap. heres a link that should help.
http://www.tt-cc.com/ratko/swap/index.html
u could also try the 97+ 1mz. if ya do that, u can mat the trd supercharger(if u can find one) to it and u dont have to fab much of anything cept trying to get it to fit under the hood. thats the way i think im gonna go.
Do it!...I can't and won't touch my 5sfe until blows.
bigbird said:
well most people who dont own a camry would say yes, insane. but if u have the time and money, i say go for it, i know some people who hate to loose to my camry:lol: i think most people do the E153 solara swap. heres a link that should help.
http://www.tt-cc.com/ratko/swap/index.html
u could also try the 97+ 1mz. if ya do that, u can mat the trd supercharger(if u can find one) to it and u dont have to fab much of anything cept trying to get it to fit under the hood. thats the way i think im gonna go.
Well a while back I posted about swapping an MR2 e-153 tranny into my car, and people said it was a bad match for the v6's. So the Solara Trannies are different?

Also, there is no way I'd want a SC, seeing as how for the price of that, i could put together i nice turbo setup. And Fabbing is 85% of the fun, so why would I want to avoid that.

I assumed the whole engine harness had to be switched, I was mostly wondering about the dash harness. If the dash harness doesn't need to be swaped, we could do this in a long saturday, and spill over into sunday if needed. If I have to pull out the interior harness, it would take another day or 2.
if ya have the time and resources to fab then, yeah turbo is the way to go. the mr2 tranny does have different ratios i think, but the tranny is still the same from 92 all the way to 2000, just get one from a solara. i wish i had acess to fab equiptment then id turbo too but the S/C will have to do, plus i love the whine.
yeah grayguy, i think the ratios between the MR2 E153 and the Solara E153 were different... there were also the really rare ones that came out of the es300 like redphoenix had about a month ago... not sure about those ratios.

You could probably sell some of your s54 parts to someone here on the boards Ill bet...
as others have said, the gear ratios are different between the mr2 and the solara/camry e153 trannys

and they did change in the es/camry/solara, from the e153 that was matched up with the 3vz, and the ones that were matched up with the 1mz (97+)- they added more synchros for better shifts

as well, don't worry about fitting an s/c under the gen3 hood...been there, done that...no need for a 97+ engine either, though it IS more work with the gen1 1mzfe though...I'm running kind of hell right now...I don't think the ecu is smart enough sometimes
Quit & swap your mods to an OEM v6 Camry, or ES. It's too much less work & by the time you get yo couple of things swapped over, or re-done You've probably got a better car with afew better components.
But what ever ASG says it takes tos wap it over. That's what it takes.
and they did change in the es/camry/solara, from the e153 that was matched up with the 3vz, and the ones that were matched up with the 1mz (97+)- they added more synchros for better shifts
No they didn't. They added synchro's between the '91 E152 and the '93 E153. Not the later E351 transmissions which have a hair different gearing that match the other E53 series transmissions in the MR2's.


To quote myself elsewhere:
Toysrme said:
OK... I get asked on a regular bases what the gear ratios for all the v6's & such are. So... Here they are. Again!
These are not negotiable!!! They are straight from the factory service manuals, and the factory sales brochures. If you think this information is wrong. That's because you don't know which damned transmission is which so stuff it, I don't want to hear it LoL!
(Why people argue when they don't know what they're talking about I'll never know!?)


"In the beginning for the v6's" <cough 1987 cough>, there was the 2vz-fe. And the 2vz-fe gave forth the E52 M/T, and the E52 was good LoL!:
1st 3.230
2nd 2.045
3rd 1.333
4th 0.972
5th 0.82
R 3.583
Final Drive 3.933

Then came the 3vz-fe for 1992 and the gen3 camry. Mated to a newer, I guess stronger??? E53(E153)
E53
1st 3.583
2nd 2.045
3rd 1.333
4th 1.028
5th 0.820
R 3.583
Final Drive 3.933
The E53 (E153) Recieved an extra third gear synchro in 1993. It was a rare option. For example! Of the 78,564 ES 300's sold in the US during 1992-1993 ES 300, there were only 2,194 sold with the M/T option! That's less than 2.77% of them sold~!?

Then came the re-introduction of the E53 (E153) in the 1997 Camry/ES
E53 '97-'01:
1st 3.230
2nd 1.913
3rd 1.258
4th 0.918
5th 0.731
R 3.545
Final Drive 3.933

THEN! Then E53 series disappeared, and reappeared! Re-designed to work with the 2az-fe, NOT THE v6's. To which is was then re-mated to the v6's :)
2002-2006 v6 transmission = E351:
1st 3.538
2nd 2.045
3rd 1.333
4th 0.972
5th 0.731
R 3.583
Final Drive 3.944

But don't forget! Before the E52 v6, there was the E51 i4 mated to the 4a-gze!!!!
E51:
1st 3.230
2nd 1.913
3rd 1.258
4th 0.918
5th 0.731
R 3.583
Final Drive 4.285

The E51 begot the E153 3s-gte transmission!!!
E153
1st 3.230
2nd 1.913
3rd 1.258
4th 0.918
5th 0.731
R 3.545
Final Drive 4.285


So that's every non S## block transmission that should mate to a v6. Now the S blocks are a whoooole different story, cause they used those little things in abot everything LoL!
And to quote Node:
Node said:
Nice job!

Quick note on the E51 off of the GZE. It requires the swap of a bell housing to work with a V6. I have a few sitting here and can attest to that.
AFA if <insert any> piggyback can deal with the OBD-II relaerning. it depends on what scheme you're running, how you trigger it, where you're needing modifications to the factory programming & finally how good the tuner is.
Ok, so I should be on the look out for an 97+ v6 tranny? am I getting that right?

Also, the reason I dont' just start with an OEM v6 car is that the donor I'm looking at has low miles and is wrecked, so I should be able to get a good deel on it.

As for the piggy back, that is something that could be figured out after the swap. My current theory is that if i get the donor car and tranny, I could swap that stuff into my car, and then start gathering the turbo stuff, and hopefully have it turboed by mid to late summer.
On an interesting note, the Gen 3 I4 AND V6 subframe are the same. So you can either drop the entire subframe with engine/tranny, and slap on a V6 one without touching anything, or use your existing one and swap it all over bolt for bolt.
ASG14 said:
On an interesting note, the Gen 3 I4 AND V6 subframe are the same. So you can either drop the entire subframe with engine/tranny, and slap on a V6 one without touching anything, or use your existing one and swap it all over bolt for bolt.
Yeah, the current thought is that we'd pull both cars into the garage, drop both subframes, and swap them around into the opposite cars. I want to put the I4 stuff back in the donor just so i have a way to roll it around easily before It's completely parted out.
don't forget to change the clusters.... the tachs between the different models were calibrated differently.
if it's a 95 you might be able to get away with just swapping over the engine ecu and the engine. oh i would keep your i4 ac compressor(main compressor is the exact same the pulley is different) and the i4 alternator (regulator will swap over and also take the plug)

yeah the v6 swap is well worth it. so far i've pushed it to 135mph and could have kept on going but my tires are bald :ugh3:
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95WhiteCamry said:
don't forget to change the clusters.... the tachs between the different models were calibrated differently.
yeah i found that out later:lol: my revs were going into the 8k before it shifted:whatwhat: i was freakin people out
^ You dope, haha.

Different. Gino, call me! Got Q about something u may want.


Tachometer, camry, 2.2l 95-96 $692.97 $519.73


Tachometer, camry, 3.0l 95-96 $587.68 $440.76
95WhiteCamry said:
don't forget to change the clusters.... the tachs between the different models were calibrated differently.
so that means i'd have the PRN12D indicator thing on the cluster. ohwell..well worth it if I had a v6 I suppose.
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