longitudinal to transverse swap

How difficult is it and what would be required (or fabricated) to swap a motor that is normally longitudinally mounted to a transmission to a transaxel that normally accepts transverselly mounted engines?

So basically you want to take a rear wheel drive car and turn it into a front wheel drive?

It would probably be very difficult for several reasons but I'm going to just list the ones that come of the top of my head:

New axles
New uprights
New rotors
Do I have enough space in that direction?
Fabrication of new motor mounts (even harder if its a unibody car)
Will the oil pans (both engine and trans)clear the subframe?
Will the axles be able to clear the subframe?
Is the current rear end solid or independant?
If solid, how am I going to remove it yet keep the suspension in line? (especially if on a truck with leaf springs)
If ind. how will I keep the suspension in line?
Computer controlled- Will the new transmission require a computer to shift? (almost ALL new transmissions do)

These are just some of the problems you can run into. Its a difficult endeavor that I would be hesitant to endure. Just out of curiousity, any particular reasoning in why you want to do this?

I think he just wants to use a RWD engine in a FWD or Mid-engine car (like your swap)

well i was thinking about a putting a rwd engine in a mid engine car that normally takes a transverse mounted four cyl. im pretty sure that if i kept the transaxel in the same place i wouldnt have to worry about the suspension geometry as much or axels or any of that stuff (besides strength).

my question (though i didnt state it as such) was more about the coupling of the bell housing of the the rwd engine to the transaxel, and also the output shaft from the engine to the input of the transmission.

You would need an engine similar to the one your replacing.

e.g. The Toyota 4age engine was used in RWD and FWD cars, and you can swap most of the engines between FWD and RWD models. However you need to have the right bell houseings to make it work.

In your case you might have to fabricate a bell houseing (possible but expensive) then you only need worry about the in put shaft matching.
Not as much of a problem as you might think, as it only has to match the clutch plate.
So all you need to do is find a clutch plate that fits the g/box, and also fits a housing that fits the engines flywheel.
In most cases if you can't find something that all fits, you can get custom parts made (again, its expensive).

In the case of the Toyota 4age, the later model 4age's need a Toyota Hilux clutch plate to fit them to a RWD gear box.

Durr, completely misread that, sorry. (For some stupid reason I thought he wanted to change the transmission....)

Depending on how drastic of a swap you were going to do, yes, you need to see if the bellhousing will match up. Also to see if the flywheel and or cltuch will match up correctly. In the case of the fiero, I need an adapter to mount the LT1 to the Getrag 282 Trans, (www.v8archie.com). Theres also the flywheel and flexplate, to handle the new torque and mount to the trans. There are other things about putting a larger motor in as well such as remote oil filter and custom exhaust. I hope this helps with some things to look at!

yeah that does help. i guess i need to look closer into the actual engine/tranny combo that im thinking of. its the 2jzgte (supra motor) and the celica gt/gts tranny (this isnt for a celica). there are some space concerns as the extra two cylinders might take up room where a wheel well should be but that ill just have to figure out on my own.

are there any concerns with moving a transaxle to the left or right and getting shorter drive shafts/cv shafts and then putting a longer intermediate shaft on the one side. concerns such as suspension or anything else?

Generally speaking, there shouldn't be any concerns about different length axles, but you have to make sure you get them the CORRECT length. As far as space goes the addage is "You can make anything fit with a welder." You will need to check spacing to see exactly how much work you want to put into your project. One other thing, you probably want to contact toyota to see if the transmission is rated for the amount of torque the new motor will put out. Generally speaking, they will underate them to keep warranty low.

Suspension, you're going to have to do a weight comparison. You're probably going with a heavier motor, and as such, will bottom your springs a lot easier.

Whoa, quite the mindfuck trying to imagine what you want to do...good luck with it!

Mouting an inline 6cyl engine transversly is not going to be easy.

Fitting a new model Celica g/box to an old Supra engine is not going simplify matters.

Japanese cars, like most others, are built in generations.
Each manufactor builds a range of models over roughly a 4-5 year period, then changes the intire line up. It makes it much much easier for them to share parts between differnt models, so when you are looking to make a radical hybrid it pays to stay within the same generation, or with similar generations.
For example in 2000 Toyota and honda both started on all new generations of veheciles, that had nothing in common with previous models.
Prior to that Honda had been useing similar deisgn princables since 1988, and Toyota since about 1983.
Its relativly easy to swap parts between models from those dates up untill 2000, when effectly both manufactors started with a clean slate.

In your case the Supra engine is from the old generations, dating back to the late 80s, with changes for each generation untill 2000. The Celica gearbox is from a totaly new generation, built from scratch to work with Toyotas new 4 cylinder engine range, not its old one.

I can think of several problems, Ill start with the fixable one.
Being FWD the Celica g/box is built to be compact, its also dsigned to fit a small engine. The Supra engine is RWD, and much larger.
I think you will have a hard time fitting the Supra flywheel into the celica bell houseing.
You could try a custom flywheel, but it will be expensive.
A custom bell houseing will be almost impossible to make. An adaptor plate could be used to fit the engine to the g/box over a smaller flywheel, but the bell housing itself is cast as part of the gearbox case, and can not be removed or changed.

Now the unfixable one.
The Celica g/box is designed to handle the power from a 180hp 1.8l 4cycl engine.
It will hold the power and torque from a naturalty asperaited supra enigne.
It might hold the power from turbo charged Surpa engine, but not for very long, and only from an oringal spec engine. My guess is it would break something on a regular basis.
A worked supra engine would simply split the gearbox apart and spew gears and teath all over the place.

Quite simply the chances of the celica gearbox working with the supra engine are very slim, and would involve more stress than its worth.



What you need to do is look at a toyota FWD gearbox from the same period as the supra that was also fitted to a 6cyl enigne. The only one I can think of would be from the Toyota Camry, and I don't know if there was ever a manual V6 Camry.

So your next step would be start measureing bell housing sizes on FWD manual g/boxs fitted to 6cyl cars. Find one that will fit the Supra flywheel and go from there with an adaptor plate and customised clutch to fit.

wow. thats the answer i was looking for. thanks a lot. i'll be renting a house with a huge garage in about 2 months and i figured i should find a project to work on in it. i have a 2002 mr-2 and i want more power than i can handle (without destroying the handling completely). I know about the options that everyone else has already done and they are fine but i want something different and better. im also thinking about getting a 13b and rebuilding it for the rest of the winter and see if i can make that fit. maybe instead of ruining my perfectly good 2002 ill get an aw11 of some year.

and man what i wouldnt give to have one of the longitudinal transaxels that the mr-s's use in the JGTC.