'95 Vienta MT clarification + looking for parts

[Dobby_The_House_Elf]

Hi Everyone

 

I'm looking to clarify what MT is in the XV10 Camry's/Vienta's here in Oz. Doing research gives conflicting info. Some say it's the E53 other sources suggest it's the E153. 

 

Also, I'm looking for a list of parts and general info on doing a manual conversion. My car is the 3.0L Vienta (which I'm finding out manuals hardly exist haha). First and foremost, I need to know what kind of nasty little surprises I may encounter whilst doing this swap. I know the firewall will need to be drilled to accept the clutch master cylinder, that's of semi minimal concern, what I'm looking for is clutch switches wether the ECU will need to be changed etc. Thank god the Auto bodyshell still retains the clutch brakct mounting dowels.

 

Parts I have already have

- Clutch pedal assembly

- Clutch hardline with flexible end

- Clutch master cylinder

Parts I need that cannot be sourced from Toyota anymore

- Manual box

- Shift cables 

- Gear lever

These are the big worry trying to get a hold of, They're very rare and the car I found in the wreckers has had the gear lever ends of the cables cut which is super aggrivating.

Parts that can be sourced from Toyota or Aftermarket

- Clutch

- Flywheel (toyota want 820 dollars)

- Clutch master cylinder

- Clutch slave cylinder

 

If there's anything I've missed or if anyone has information that could help. It would be greratly appreciated. 

 

Thanks

Corey

Edited November 26, 2021 by Dobby_The_House_Elf

[Ed.]

Check the VIN plate of the car, although apparently MR2 guys have used either E53s, E153s or combining gears from both to make a hybrid E53/E153 setup. You may need a custom half-shaft to use the E153 but the guy that said this wasn't too sure himself. The E153 apparently shares the same parts as the E53, but they just have different gear and final drive ratios.

Conveniently, the spot for the clutch master cylinder is already cut out on the firewall insulation, I can see it on my own auto camry near the brake master cylinder.

In the US market, E53s appear to have been used from 92-93 year camrys that had the 3vz, 94-96 they appear to have used the E153 mated to the 1mz. Mind you, this was for the US market - we seem to be different and there's little, if any, documentation specific to aussie camrys. As an example, replacing the struts a few days ago, our 92-96 front struts appear to be of the fixed lower seat type where the bearing is located in the top mount, whereas in the US, 92-93 used a bearing in the lower strut seat. Hell, even our outer tie rods are completely different from the rest of the world, I wish I knew that before buying the OEM ones straight from Japan...

Anyway, one thing I do know is that the mount that the right driveshaft goes through is slightly different between MT and AT vehicles, the offset of the hole is only about 2-3mm but it was enough for toyota to make two completely different part numbers. It's likely to cause significant wear issues if you didn't use the right one.

The ECU is definitely different between AT and MT vehicles.

This guy did a complete restoration of his 3rd gen camry, tearing it down to the raw shell and rebuilding the engine and tranny, doing a manual swap in the process. OP made a convenient list of parts needed just for the manual trans body and internals on page 12 of that thread, post #234. Note however, this guy is in the US so you may need to double check if the part numbers are specific to LHD vehicles.

Also, to hell with people who destroy stuff at wreckers just to get to what they want. I remember seeing a glovebox light cable being snipped for one of these camrys, when all that had to be done was to push the tab down and pull apart the connector.

Edited January 10, 2022 by Ed.

[Dobby_The_House_Elf]

Wow, It's been so long since I checked this. I didn't even get a notification saying there was a reply. Thanks for the info. I happened upon a whole complete car that is manual. I have everything I need to convert it. Best thing is the engine and box have only done 280k compared to 431k.

 

I have a few pieces of info, one very minor difference which would make the whole conversion unviable if you were to just stick a manual on the auto engine is that the end of the crank supposedly has a cutout to accept the input shaft of the manual box but thinkning about it that can't really be true because reasons. 

 

I just had a quick look at that thread you linked. A lot of it is non applicable to me as he's actually going to the 1MZFE, I'm going 3VZFE > 3VZFE it's good because all of the manual specific wiring is on the engine loom which connects to the main fuseboard and inside the cabin to the body loom. as far as I can tell there is no differences in the body loom between the auto and manual. Things like the ECT switch are simply not used in the M/T. the AUDM cars don't have a clutch switch either. Unlike the US and JAP cars. 

 

I've decided because I needed to pillage the donor for injectors, alternator and a few other parts which means taking the intake manifold off and various accesories to get to them. I'm going to just use the short block and use the best pieces from each motor. things like the nasty plastic vacuum switches on the intake manifold etc. The best thing is by far the donor wiring harness is not crusty or brittle which hopefully is a good sign that the motor has never gotten abnormally hot. My 3VZ has been ran hot a few times before I took ownership of it and all the plastic injector plugs, knock sensor plugs, plastic vacuum line ends all just break to the touch, it's highly annoying and severely inconvenient.

 

I'm going to put a heavy duty exedy clutch in it and a basic intake/exhaust setup. maybe a 3" Y pipe back with a "slightly" illegal cat delete (car was on 4 cylinders so the cat melted and I'm not bothering to spend nearly 500 dollars replacing it when the 3VZ enjoys a noticable differnece without it. thank god for NSW laws) I'm going to run a resonator because you know drone 😄 I'm having a hard time choosing big oval commodore spec tip or  2.5" dual tips. I'm going to knock up a ram air enclosure which will house a cone filter.

 

Anyhow in manual trim these cars are VERY decieving. They are not a slow motor car. 

[Ed.]

This forum is so dead and people usually don't post with helpful info so I hardly ever log in anymore. But that guy's thread is still very much relevant for you - he didn't swap to a 1mz at all. He rebuilt his 3vz. If you're taking off the heads, that is a very good time to go ARP studs - buy the mitsubishi 3000gt main studs (part 207-5801) and shave off a few mm for the studs going under the exhaust cam gear to get them to fit. That camry resto guy used arp studs in his engine because they are superior in almost every way to the factory torque-to-yield bolts. These engines are apparently known for blowing head gaskets at around 300,000 km, and it's probably because the tty bolts just get too stretched over time.

When you say 3 inch Y-pipe back, are you referring to the merge from the two cylinder banks to the cat? I think that should be ok for an NA build. Might actually be a bit too big but only real way to know is to dyno different exhaust pipe diameters. The mr2 wiki seems to recommend 2 inch y-pipe, and 2.25 or 2.5 inch post-cat. Either way, factory y-pipe is horrible for flow, it's more like a T-junction rather than a y-pipe. Get rid of that **** and tell an exhaust shop to do 2 inches from each bank equal-length (uneven length might be cheaper and not make a difference but again...dyno for sure), to a 2.5 inch at the merge. That alone on my old auto camry noticeably increased mid-range power. Not enough to knock your socks off, but certainly noticeable when you've been driving it for a bit with factory exhaust.  Doing 2.5 inch post-cat might improve flow as well.

Personally, I like sleeper builds but that's just me; it's your car so you do what you want to it. Once ****** off a flashy new jeep by launching ahead of him at a red light lol. The 3vz has so much low end torque which makes it perfect for daily driving. The jeep was ****** enough that he blew through the next red light and almost hit the rear bumper of a land cruiser already turning in the intersection. That was in an auto too lol. Can't imagine how much faster the manual would be.

Edited July 18, 2022 by Ed.

[Dobby_The_House_Elf]

Hi Edd, Yeah with the exhaust definitely going to get a more freely flowing Y-pipe made up. Although not sure if There'll be enough space before the cat to package everything properly, I might have to get headers made at the same time so I can control where the outlets are for them but either way the rear bank section of the Y-pipe is going to have an unfavourable bend in it somewhere. Though with that being said, it more than likely will be so much better than the current 180' degree bend the Y pipe currently does to join onto the front bank. 

 

I've had an interesting development, that is the body loom that has the one ECU plug going into it is different auto to manual. That poses a rather annoying problem. from what I can see doing minimal educated wire tracing is that the ECU plug on the body loom that goes to the ...

- RHS fuse block

- Instrument cluster

- Some other body functions

From what I can gather and theorize is the auto version of that loom has lighting and such for the A/T console and what not. So my theory is that shouldn't matter putting a manual box and engine loom in. My only problem is if the body loom makes a stop at the ignition barrel for the A/T start inhibitor switch, Then I'm in trouble. At this stage I am NOT puuling the dash on my auto just to find out lol. I'll link some pictures etc later.