ok...so ive owned this tc for 2 monthes now and its fun but im a rwd man...i mean my only other fwd has been a celica whereas ive owned 2 240sxs 1 rx7 1 thunderbird and a mustang

either way....the situation im getting at is obvious
and i guess this can be for fun ( and if this isnt fun to you just dont post it wasnt meant for you) but im crazy and i like to do stupid things like void warranties hehe.....anyways i was thinking is300....roughly the same dimensions, the mr2 is out...and the supra a bit too extreme...altho if the part serves its purpose than why not , and if anyone thinks of anything that we could use from classic corollas and celicas than cool....anyways can a rwd tc be made from the proverbial toyota scrapyard...now i imagine a custom driveshaft is necessary, as well as motor mounts....but i wonder if the firewall would have to be cut..could we retain corssmembers...probably not, and would need a new differential setup...well if there is a write up somewhere else about this then someone post the link, buit lets toss around ideas if this is a fresh one, because i not complaining but i miss driving rwd....and i love the tc

possible? yes! $$$ smart? definitely not.

Swap the engine, hack apart the firewall to get a transmission and a driveshaft to fit. hack apart and custom rebuild the floor to allow clearance for the driveshaft/differential in the back. completely redo the rear suspension to allow for RWD. complete redo the front to get rid of the FWD devices. and then you have to worry about bracing the back to make sure the torque doesnt twist everything to hell.

i would just get an is300 and go with it :D

seee not quite what i was looking for...of course i know its not smart its theoretical.. it would be expensive..im sure someone told the first person to stuff an rb26dett into a 240sx that it was too expensive and it happened, now i know thats a little easier than going fwd to rwd....but alot of fabrication was necessary...like i said this is a fun idea for people who find rediculous ideas fun....now back to looking for ideas....i mean im going to own an sc300 or something along those lines...but this is an idea id like to kick around a little more than this

Id support it and would love to see it but I aint got the funds to do it myself. For me, I'll go a different route. Good luck if you get serious into this!

I think it would work........the IS would be the logical choice form what to get parts from. Id love to see this done.

There was some talk about this last year...more flamefest than anything productive, but thtere was an interesting idea of AWD using Rav4 tranny and drivetrain.

http://www.scionlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=66664

Hope that helps.

You do know if you do this your cars value will most likely drop to 0. The reason I say this is the body tweaking and possiblity of having to cut the frame. Anytime the frame is cut the car is immediately worth nothing.

A lot of us could care less what the value of the car is at. I drive cars until they have 150k - 200k on them. Unless it is a POS from the start, I dont trade it or sell every few years. I like to pay off and actually own my car, so I am not too concerned about resale value, especially by the time a car becomes nothing but a project car.

And smart, or valuable are both not part of this question. Is buying a 69 camaro (easilly worth 10 grand in good shape), cutting on it, dropping a blown motor in it and using it solely to run ridiculous times on the track valuable or practicle? No. But its fun. So lets forget about all that.

I have looked at this as well. I think it would be a fun project. I believe Rick is also contemplating AWD on his. As of now I am house shopping and such, so I dont have the time, space or spare money to spend on such a project. Also, it is something I would do down the road when the tC is purely a toy and not driven as much (I do have another car I drive, but I still use the tC most of the time). But, it is something I haved looked over in my mind.


I would be looking at RWD if I did it. But it will take a lot of work, which I would be doing myself. If someone is looking to pay someone to do it, it would get ridiculous in cost real quick.
The firewall would most likely need some restructuring for sure.
You would have to fab up support and mounts for the engine.
The tunnel would have to be cut out and a new one created most likely.
Mounting for the rear end would need to be created
Some suspension mods would need to be performed in the rear
Front suspension would need to be changed to allow for a heavier motor

I think the biggest challenge would be under the hood trying to make everything fit properly.

^^^

Just curious, would you keep the transverse engine configuration or would you align it with the driveshaft?

If so, I think you would have to re-locate the firewall further back, and at that point the project becomes more trouble than it would be worth to almost everyone.

If you keep the transverse engine as is, there would be a lot of energy loss getting torque to the drive shaft, but what the hey, this idea isn't about practicality to begin with.

hmm...well as far as the firewall goes, i dont know dimensions but while forming new motor mounts looking for the best center of gravoty for the motor...see this is where doing this would help...but seeing how low and far back you could sit the motor transmission combo to acheive minimal firewall damage and still obtain that nice low center of gravity....and hey if your sure the tunnel would have to be re-formed than thats the killer...unless of course with the aformentioned placement of the motor maybe that would free up space......and you would want the inline setup instead of the transverse, how does the IS motor sit? its inline right? (use of the world "inline" is wrong but i cant thing of the word for "|" that position) and or the sc300 motors...if someone had the money to slap the sc400 setup in this for a drag car thatd be crazy, either way im interested in the AWD thread because that should be a little more reasonable....but i think we have a good idea on what we'd NEED to do for rwd and if i had a spare 20K or so id start fabricating...oh well on to the AWD thread....


but yeah i forgot to mentian the sc300 in the first post i think...but i wonder if that would work out better or worse

I don't remember too much about that rav4 thing, I read it a looong time ago but I think they decided that would be a better idea because the dimensions and such would match up better than a rwd conversion. I personally think that AWD would be amazing on a tc but that's just me.

A RAV4 tranny on a tC would sit the tC nice and high and give it some "command seating."

I can't say I like the idea of 4x4-ing the tC. Strikes me as a city car more than anything else...

The SC400 would be a very crowded install and it is far easier to make power with the SC300 engine, just ask Retrodrive about his 2JZ power LS400:)

I looked at a few ideas for RWD and decided AWD was easier and it looks like the RAV4 setup would be the best.

Not likely to needed to cut the tunnel, etc. it is available in AWD so there is the rear end taken care of, just a few mods(maybe quite a few though!) Already a place for the driveline but the exhaust could be an issue, most likely I should say. Gas tank would have to go, maybe run a fuel cell just on the passenger side.

Overall not that tough, just time consuming.

Rick

well hey when you get into that let me know id be interested on what you had to do...

Will do, no garrantees we are doing it yet but giving it some very strong consideration as it would be less costly and easier that starting another car project from scratch and more fun since have not done it before:)

Rick