TA60 (1983 Toyota Carina) 2TGEU Swap - A complete story!

[xgrapher]

Me and my buddy decided that we install the Mikunis anyway and deal with it later on. I have had some fair knowledge about carbs since I was forced to tune/clean them every now and then on the dirt bikes that we had last winter. Dual carbs are a lot bigger fuss in proportion but even that I had caught a glimpse of by overhauling and fine tuning on my 240z's SU carbs. The only thing that was killing our excitement was that we wouldn't be able to fire up the engine as soon as wanted to fire it up.

Now that we were ready to move forward with the drop in, we brought the hoist as quickly as we could and lowered the 2TGEU engine in the bay. Only after lowering it did we realize that the bell housing mating plate that goes behind the flywheel (not sure what you call it) was missing! We were laughing at ourselves for the amateurs we were. The other reason that got us laughing was because we quickly and foolishly concluded that the bell housing was different and we had failed; discovering that it was not true could only bring joy to us. Anyway, we undid the clutch and the flywheel and fixed the "mating" plate behind them and dropped in the engine.







After tightening the engine mounts and the tranny bolts the engine was technically installed (as simple as that). I forgot to mention that we had a great deal of difficulty in finding the engine mounts since both of them were totalled. Next I wanted to do the manifolds buts since the oil filter and oil cooler lines were under the intake I decided to have that tackled first. I remember seeing the oil cooler still fixed on to the fender of the Caterham and hence decided to pull it off for our use since it wasn't being used there anyway. However, I had to put it back on as it left a wide open area in the Caterham's fender. So we decided to cancel the oil cooler for the time being and hence put a hose around the inlet and outlet to recirculate the oil. Having done that we put in the filter and then the intake manifold and the exhaust manifold and connected the downpipe. Wiring was a joke (piece of creamy cake compared to EFIs): plugged in the oil pressure switch, water temp sensor, alternator cables, starter cables, signal cable from distributor to coil (I used the existing coil - please comment if not correct), starter cables and battery. Now that everything was done (some bits and pieces I may have forgot to mention but feel free to ask) I thought of installing the fan before the radiator but couldn't find it. So I decided to use the 2T fan but that didn't fit and now we had to look for an electrical fan with shroud. Pretty easily we were able to source a Nissan Maxima's twin fan that sat in perfectly with a bit of chopping here and there. Hosings were also somewhat different in size but wasn't an issue at all. Looks like pretty much everything is done.







For the fuel we had to install an aftermarket external fuel pump (not so powerful because these Mikunis don't have return lines) since the orignal 2T had a mechanical fuel pump and 2TG-EU being originally a EFI engine lacked it. Mikunis didn't have a return line and therefore I just left the return line unhooked for the time being.





I guess everything is set to fire it up, not to mention that the accelerator cable was still pending but not quite needed for startup and idle. We attempted start and just within a couple of attempts we heard it roaring. And guess what? No carb overflow!!! Our biggest worry turned out to be a myth - not exactly.The reason why I think it overflowed was due to a high pressure fuel pump that overstressed the floats and caused them to overflow. Anyway since its not our problem anymore I wouldn't want to dwell around it any further.

I leave you with these videos:


First start attempt:

Second start, exhaust manifold installed and carb mildly tuned