With the engine and gearbox secured I asked my mechanic to start work on the car - while I source the ECU. And then I had to travel overseas for work for a couple of months. During this time my friend managed to source a recon steering column and shaft from an EP91 . This was 2020 now and Covid 19 happened. I barely made it home before the borders were closed. For the next 3 months the project stalled (sadly during this time a rat had managed to chew one seatbelt while the car sat at the mechanics) Around June things were getting back to normal and the project recommenced in earnest. Eventually we managed to source an ECU and wiring harness from a guy who stocked his parts in an old shed in his parents house deep deep inside the backwaters of Minuwangoda. After rummaging through a pile of car parts in the shed at 9 PM in the pitch dark, with the thrilling possibility of being bitten by 32 different species of indigenous snakes, we finally managed to find the wiring harnesses and a few more parts we needed.
There was a few more things to be sorted - such as the condenser, A/C compressor, break and accelerator pedals and also the gear cable. Being a Toyota parts were quite easily found. The gear cable though was a bit tough to find and eventually we found out that a slightly modified AE110 gear cable would do the trick. Below are a few pictures of the engine swap.
Transporting the Engine in a bolero
The Original engine was a 2E with around 80Hp which was reasonable for a car that weighed 720 Kg.
The old 2E being taken out.
Out with the old - in with the new : 4e about to go in. The retro-style gear shifter that came with the Automatic versions of the EP71 would have looked a lot cooler than the EP82/91 gear shifter unfortunately which looks slightly out of place with the boxy/spartan interior of the car.
Notice anything weird in the first pic? Things got tidied up a bit before I took the car for emission tests.
Another change that I was not quite able to capture was the power steering conversion - which was basically swapping in an EP91 Steering column
Tune in for the next post - where I will write about the overall driving experience.
[Edit in 2022]
Happy New Year Folks! Before I go in about the driving experience- I thought about summarizing (as best as I can remember) the mechanical mods done on the car.
Parts :
4EFE Engine, Gear box wire harness and ECU (obviously).
Radiator
Oil Pressure Sensor
Engine mounts
Gear Cable (recon sourced of an AE110)
Axel shafts (recon off an EP91)
Fuel Pump (as with all Carb->EFI swaps)
A/C parts : recon condenser, condenser fan, drier filter
Wiper motor (Not directly swap related. The washer tank had to be relocated though)
Steering (Entire recon column off an EP91)
Brake wheel cylinders, Brake switch
New Horn (again not directly swap related but the old horn wasn't working)
Front shocks (to counter added weight as the engine is heavier)
Silencer bush mounts
This is all as I remember. I will add more if I remember.
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