R154 Swap..My Version

[Eminence]

Well, there have been alot of documented steps on doing the R154 swap for the IS300. I have searched and searched many days, weeks, and months on this forum and came out with alot of useful information on the swap. However, there were a few unanswered questions that were left for me to ponder and find out on my own. The original R154 swap thread with the OG lack alot of pictures; I don't like to read, I love to look tho.

I am not going to do a step by step tutorial, I have just starting this thread to clarify a few questions and to show a few things I have done differently.

Here are the specific details of the parts I have, as many things may vary for some guys.

-Rebuilt R154 Transmission (86.5-92 Toyota Supra Turbo 7M-GTE). The transmission have the Marlin Crawler upgraded parts.
- W55 Ralco Short Shifter
- Machined Aluminum Crossmember
- MKIII R154 Rubber Mount
- ACT Clutch Kit
- 1J Flywheel
- MKIII Slave
- Shifter Housing Extension
-1JZ Bellhousing
- ARP Flywheel bolt
- Driveshaft Shop Steel driveshaft

W55 Short Shifter

There have been quite a few talk over on SF about whether or not the W55 shifter will work on the R154. The answer is No and Yes. The OEM W55 shifter will not work, however the Ralco (B&M) replica does work with modifications. It took me 3 days to figure out how to get this thing to work. And it also took me 2 more days to figure out why my initial adaptor didn't allow me to get into 5th gear. I finally got everything figured out and the adapter machined to work. I am truly amazed by the shortness of shifts, compared to the OEM MKIII shifter. With the MKIII shifter, inorder to get it into reverse the hand brake has be up and all the other gears the shifter would hit something.

The shifting is VERY crisp, unlike the sloppy MKIII OEM unit. This is because you are getting rid of the spring/pivot ball.

I will not disclose what I did in detail as a repect to my machinist and myself. I truly put alot of R&D into this part of the swap. However, I will say that you will need an adapter piece which I spent numerous hours on CAD to draw out.



Shifter Housing Extension
I did not do the typical dogtail trick to the shifter assembly, instead I extended the shifter housing. Without this you will not be able to get the W55 shifter to work at all. So this is a MUST if you're planning to use a W55 SS. The extension lands the shifter hole almost centered.



Crossmember/Mount
There have been members on here who have said all they need was a few spacers to use the OEM mounts. I couldn't really see how that was possibly because with mine, I needed a 2" spacer. Instead of reusing and redrilling the OEM IS300 crossmember, I had aluminum stocks machined out. With the MKIII rubber mount, all I had to do was mark and drill one hole because those mounts only have one 1/2" bolt holding them down.

I really don't like how low the mount seats, with the head of the bolt it is 1/4 lower than the frame rail. I might come up with a one piece solid mount with rubber inserts.



Electrical
I haven't gotten this far yet but once I do, I will update.

[Grt06]

did you forget the 1jz bellhousing in the parts list?

[Eminence]

Correct, I am using a 1JZ bellhousing.

[Kaiyin]

this is next on my to-do list.

[Eminence]

^ Save yourself from the headache! This is the easiest way to resolve your shifting issue.

[Kaiyin]

Originally Posted by Eminence

^ Save yourself from the headache! This is the easiest way to resolve your shifting issue.

I know. My tuner said to stop wasting time and money trying to figure out how to get Manual mode working again and just swap to a manual. Plus, I think my trans is going out.

You still got a line on those r154s?

[BERK]

I dropped my auto yesterday, and my r154 should be back from marlin tomorrow. Only thing I'm not sure about is the electrical side, so let us know as soon as you figure that out.

And Kaiyin, Marlin Crawler now has r154 cores if you want a rebuilt, upgraded tranny without any work, but I found one locally much cheaper and sent it to them.

[Lexotic Concepts]

i also used a w55 shifter on my r154. however, i went the cheap ghetto route lol. just cut the ball off the bottom of the mkIII shifter, cut the ball off the stock w55 shifter, then welded on the ball from the mkIII shifter. seems like it will work just fine. the throw is short enough and now the shifter angles a little toward me which is a good thing.

good luck with the build... btw, what clutch are you going to run?

[Eminence]

Originally Posted by Kaiyin

I know. My tuner said to stop wasting time and money trying to figure out how to get Manual mode working again and just swap to a manual. Plus, I think my trans is going out.

You still got a line on those r154s?

The salvage yard that I spoke with gave me the b.s, after driving an hour to go pick up they were automatics. I wasn't sure how they couldn't tell the difference between a auto and a manual.

Berk, there's not much to the wiring. From a auto to r154 swap, the speedometer wiring is all done for you. For the autotransmission 1st GEN Is300, the speedmeter signal comes directly from the ABS ECU. The only wiring you need to worry about is the reverse light.

Lexotic,

The way you have done the shifter mod, was exactly how I was going to do it after playing around with the SS for a few days. I got very frustrated and almost just chopped the two shifters and welded it together. But then I was like ah WTF let me modded the adapter I had made and see how it goes, and what do you know it worked! If you felt how firm the SS was you will love it. When I say it's short, I mean it is short.

The picture in my first post shows the shifter in neutral. This is a picture of it in 1st.

The shifter also is directed towards the driver like the w55.

[R_TUNED]

nice.... good luck!

[adamgamz]

two questions, where did you buy that Ralco shifter? and can you make another adapter, I'm interested.

[Kaiyin]

Originally Posted by BERK

I dropped my auto yesterday, and my r154 should be back from marlin tomorrow. Only thing I'm not sure about is the electrical side, so let us know as soon as you figure that out.

And Kaiyin, Marlin Crawler now has r154 cores if you want a rebuilt, upgraded tranny without any work, but I found one locally much cheaper and sent it to them.

sweet, I will have to check them out.

Originally Posted by Eminence

The salvage yard that I spoke with gave me the b.s, after driving an hour to go pick up they were automatics. I wasn't sure how they couldn't tell the difference between a auto and a manual.

that sucks. I'm going to wait till the winter anyways. I've got a lot of other stuff going on at the moment.

[green_machine]

Originally Posted by Eminence

I really don't like how low the mount seats, with the head of the bolt it is 1/4 lower than the frame rail. I might come up with a one piece solid mount with rubber inserts.

have you thought of countersinking it and using allen bolts

[Eminence]

Originally Posted by green_machine

have you thought of countersinking it and using allen bolts

Neither of those should ever be an option for securing the mounts.

I am using 1/2" thick aluminum stock, this is the bare minimum thickness I would recommend for crossmember support. I can't recall the head length of 10MM allen head bolt, but I would assume alteast 1/4". This would mean I would only have approximately 1/4" left to support the load and stress.

The head length of the bolt I currently have on there right now is only 1/4", which is doable for me. There's really no gain in reducing the overall length by 1/4". If I could gain 1-1.5" by countersinking then that would be worth it.

[xboostx]

Nice John. Only thing i dont like is how high the SS sits.