well, been lurking about on here for a while and finally signed up today!
been on an ever slippier slope of cars since I bought a 200sx 4 years ago, that led me into drifting until all the safety regs meant a daily driver wasn't practical to compete in:( got sick of the nissan bandwagon and the bodykits etc that go with it too so sold it in favour of something older and cooler.
I do miss it sometimes, but tell myself it would have blown up and cost loads to fix by now haha
So, then I found myself without an interesting car and with a major yearning for a rod/custom. This led me to make a stupid impulse buy of a mkII consul custom, complete with roof chop, mini rear screen, capri suspension and running gear and no glass! I got fed up with the tired pinto and generally terrible driving experience pretty quick so vowed to get something a bit newer and faster.
then out of the blue came a friend with news of a weird old toyota for sale cheap (ish), and a quick glance at some of the owners club forums seemed to suggest almost any toyota engine was an easy swap (LIES!!!!). Cue arrival of my cressida - same owner since it was imported from South Africa 10 years ago and only used to go to church in! haha
wasn't long before bits started arriving at my house for it....
The suspension was a great buy, although the handling was surprisingly good for a landbarge the bodyroll was huge and the lack of an LSD meant sideways shenanigans were unpredictable and usually cut short:( coilovers and a welded diff soon solved that though, then the only problem was fuel starvation under cornering.
it stayed like that for a few months while I tracked down all the parts (or so I thought) for the engine swap, which started last month. I learned a couple of important lessons during the first few days of the swap-
a) Americans always assume you have an auto when telling you what fits
b) Nothing americans tell you will fit actually fits!!!!
with my car being an RX73 it had the 2.4 4cyl petrol from the hilux, an utterly curse word engine that performs like a diesel but drinks like George Best. I later found this to be a problem as the crossmember is totally different to similar toyotas from other parts of the world:(
Lesson number 2- no matter how many people say an X71/3 is exactly the same suspension wise as an MA61 supra, don't believe their LIES!!
After sourcing the crossmember from a supra to try and find an easy bolt in solution I discovered that a supras chassis rails are about 20-25mm closer together than a cressida.
so now it rests on my drive, no engine, no gearbox, no crossmember. just a constant reminder never to take anyones word and especially to never plan to get engine swaps done in a week haha
gonna move it to a mates farm to make fabricating mounts easier and take my time with it a bit more.
been on an ever slippier slope of cars since I bought a 200sx 4 years ago, that led me into drifting until all the safety regs meant a daily driver wasn't practical to compete in:( got sick of the nissan bandwagon and the bodykits etc that go with it too so sold it in favour of something older and cooler.
I do miss it sometimes, but tell myself it would have blown up and cost loads to fix by now haha
So, then I found myself without an interesting car and with a major yearning for a rod/custom. This led me to make a stupid impulse buy of a mkII consul custom, complete with roof chop, mini rear screen, capri suspension and running gear and no glass! I got fed up with the tired pinto and generally terrible driving experience pretty quick so vowed to get something a bit newer and faster.
then out of the blue came a friend with news of a weird old toyota for sale cheap (ish), and a quick glance at some of the owners club forums seemed to suggest almost any toyota engine was an easy swap (LIES!!!!). Cue arrival of my cressida - same owner since it was imported from South Africa 10 years ago and only used to go to church in! haha
wasn't long before bits started arriving at my house for it....
The suspension was a great buy, although the handling was surprisingly good for a landbarge the bodyroll was huge and the lack of an LSD meant sideways shenanigans were unpredictable and usually cut short:( coilovers and a welded diff soon solved that though, then the only problem was fuel starvation under cornering.
it stayed like that for a few months while I tracked down all the parts (or so I thought) for the engine swap, which started last month. I learned a couple of important lessons during the first few days of the swap-
a) Americans always assume you have an auto when telling you what fits
b) Nothing americans tell you will fit actually fits!!!!
with my car being an RX73 it had the 2.4 4cyl petrol from the hilux, an utterly curse word engine that performs like a diesel but drinks like George Best. I later found this to be a problem as the crossmember is totally different to similar toyotas from other parts of the world:(
Lesson number 2- no matter how many people say an X71/3 is exactly the same suspension wise as an MA61 supra, don't believe their LIES!!
After sourcing the crossmember from a supra to try and find an easy bolt in solution I discovered that a supras chassis rails are about 20-25mm closer together than a cressida.
so now it rests on my drive, no engine, no gearbox, no crossmember. just a constant reminder never to take anyones word and especially to never plan to get engine swaps done in a week haha
gonna move it to a mates farm to make fabricating mounts easier and take my time with it a bit more.
Then you know right from the start that its going to be trouble ;D 
this one topi? ;D pre ding..
