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LEXUS 1UZ-FE Engine Swap My blood sweat and tears. It will be worth it!!

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  #1  
Unread 04-24-2006, 10:20 PM
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Yes this is a very complex topic in itself! I'm researching the options all the time.
There are a few systems out there and not much information on how they apply to the 1UZ engine. Here are some options I have learned about:

Megasquirt - Least expensive option. Make it yourself or buy it assembled homebrew kit. Most flexible system and the most time consuming as well. This can be used with the Ford EDIS ignition system to compose the whole engine management system. Very attractive option.

Electromotive - Expensive option but comes with factory support and seems to be very high quality. Electromotive has a great reputation and the owner is very involved and loves autosports from what I've read of him in Grassroots Racing Magazine. Plus the system can be used on any engine from 3 - 12 cylinders but I don't see this as a plus since I only plan on using it for the 1UZ only.

SM4 - I need to do more homework on this one but a friend of mine says a guy in Sweden is controlling his twin turbo 1000hp 1UZ with this system.

AEM - Many tuners are having good luck with this system. It's widely used outside of the states. Same with the Link controllers.
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Unread 10-17-2006, 08:41 PM
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It seems that Motec is addressing the 1UZ-FE engine specifically with the introduction of their MLS system. I have contacted Motec and it is the M4 system detuned of some advanced functions in order to offer a more economical package. In addition to the MLS you must purchase the wire harness made for the engine. I think this is a great product and it has been set up on a couple of engines already with great results. I am definitely partial to this system as Motec is a great contributor to the Lexus community.

Here is a quote taken directly from an email that was sent to me from Motec USA: "The MLS is an M4 that has been specifically limited to work with a small engine family at a reduced cost. A Motec M4 will do exactly what the MLS will do plus additionally it can support other trigger system configurations. "

I was also told that the M4 owners manual is availible for download and can by used for reference for the MLS system. Here is a link to their website

Motec SM4 ECU
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Unread 10-17-2006, 09:14 PM
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As far as hooking up the existing fuel lines to the Lexus V8. I'm not worried about this. All EFI needs about the same amount of pressure and being Toyota it should just bolt right up almost. I do plan on installing a pressure gauge/regulator as they run around $50-$70. I think I have one laying around that I used on a previous car. As long as I don't modify the engine much I will be safe with the current system. I'll just have to make sure about the filter as the 3RZ engine has the filter attached directly under the manifold on the engine itself.

Not a big deal at all. I'm more concearned with what I'm having for breakfast tomorrow morning.

So I did a little checking and the fuel filter on the LS400 is near the middle of the chassis underneath. It's a simple filter and I will have to add a filter inline somewhere. I could put one underneath by using a flare tool but I want to make sure it's not vulnerable to rocks or anything. No stress. I'll figure out a nice place to mount one.
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Unread 01-10-2007, 05:36 PM
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Oh boy things are heating up! Over at http://lextreme.com we are putting together a group buy for our Lexus 1UZ-FE Adaptronic ECU. This is a very nice ECU that has a lot of R & D behind it from the man Andy Wyatt who must have burned some serious midnight oil in order to bring this product to market. From the applications of this product it seems to be working quite well.

So, I was looking at it before the group buy was brought up. Having members from Lextreme behind it really is important to me as experienced users can hopefully give me answers that are specific to our engine. I've seen engines run great on really old Haltech and Electromotive systems and this one has a couple features I haven't seen in the competitions systems. One thing I really like is that we can use the factory cam/crank sensors where other systems require you to physically buy/make and mount a trigger wheel to the crankshaft. Then you need to buy the sensor... buying addons for a basic brick of a controller is not a good deal. I'm pretty convinced we can use this to control everything with less hassle. I'm also concerned with running my engine in extreme heat and extreme cold. I will be driving my truck everywhere from the sand to the snow and I DO NOT want to have to tune the stupid thing for different elevations and temps.

So using this ECU for my 1UZ-FE looks like the best option for the money. Now Lexus owners reading this keep in mind that this won't talk to the factory dash very easily and it won't control the factory auto transmission (which I am not using). Nothing is easy but I will be posting everything it takes for me to get my engine running properly so it my work as well as some info available on Lextreme.com should be a huge help to people. For some reason people don't like to talk about their aftermarket ECU's or how they got them working. I can understand since it's pretty difficult and people sometimes don't even read their own instruction manuals before they start asking around for easy answers. Hopefully my notes will help others take the plunge into this modification.

I've seen pretty unexperienced people put aftermarket ECU's on engines and make them work good. I can't be that difficult.
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Unread 01-11-2007, 09:05 AM
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Since I have decided to use the Adaptronic ECU to control my ignition and fuel I'm going to leave this thread here for good and direct you all over to the Tech Talk section of this forum.

I will split the notes I post of this topic into 2 sections respectively since they will be long.
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Unread 02-17-2009, 11:45 AM
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A couple more links of the Motec MLS. If I had to do it over I would have bought one. Now the pricing of them is right on and they are available. Looks like the way to go for the 1UZ. They have a great reputation and extremely good reliability.

http://www.m-cal.com/MoTeC_MLS_ECU/
http://www.motec.com.au/mls/mlsfeatures/
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Unread 02-18-2009, 08:50 AM
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Also there is a great conversation about fuel lines over at Lextreme.com They discuss a lot of things and there is some advice with a lot of experience behind it but without the attitude. These are good people. Always think and learn for yourself but here is a good start for everyone who is continuously working to understand fuel injection:
Here is the basics of why it wont work.
Injectors in EFI engines work by opening and closing (pulsing) and the period of time that they open and close for is the duty cycle.
Your engine management system whether factory or aftermarket needs to be able to calculate the amount of fuel going into the engine to keep the AFR's correct.
It manages this by knowing how much fuel is in one pulse of the injector and it relies on that pulse always containing the same amount of fuel.
It measures the air volume by either map or maf and then matches the fuel requirement to get the right ratios.
Then the O2 sensor relays back how well the operation went.
If you don't maintain constant fuel pressure then that pulse by the injector may contain more or less fuel than the management system is expecting.
It is the variation that is the problem, so no it wont work.
There are do's and donts with efi and this is definately a dont.
Factory management systems can generally cope with a few changes to the fuel system for example a slight increase in injector size.
Now each pulse contains more fuel because of the larger orrifice in the bigger injector but again it is constant.
This is when the system will relearn and trim the duty cycle until it once again has acceptable AFR's.
The same can be said for increasing fuel pressure to the injectors.
If the injectors see higher pressure then they will deliver more fuel per pulse, but once again it is constant and the management system will compensate for it again by trimming duty cycle.
Cheers
tRev
Have a read about some fuel issues as related with aftermarket engine management systems. http://www.lextreme.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4629
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Unread 10-27-2009, 02:40 PM
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Hey D.
Yeah those are great products - they just take a very knowledgeable person to assemble them and get everything working properly. For a project car/ hobby those are awesome systems.

If you have a thread that you are posting any info or project updates on let me know! Sounds like fun.
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