[Ovais]

Thank you so much. Yes, there will be enough space for an AC condenser. However, the hood latch will not fit because its installed right in the center. With the previous radiator, there was space to install the hood latch but with the wider radiator and condenser, there wont be space to install the latch and its support as it is. I will design the latch to go around the radiator and condenser.

Regarding the shroud, yes, with the car moving, airflow would not be an issue at all if I hadn't used the wider shroud. However, with the car parked at a traffic light or maybe in a traffic jam, the fan would be running on and off, so it would be ideal for the fan to cover the whole of the radiator instead of about 65-70% only, especially because the fan will be dissipating the heat coming from both the radiator and the AC condenser so leaving the ~30% of the radiator out of it would greatly impact the cooling. That said, with the car running, there shall be enough room for the air to flow through the whole of the radiator, only, it shall be routed through the opening where the fan is, enough for it to cool the radiator.

The real test for this setup shall be in the summers with the A/C on. I will be better able to comment on the efficiency then.

[Ovais]

Time for some updates. The dummy engine is out for the final time. Before doing anything else, I needed to clean the engine bay thoroughly because this is the last chance that I’ll get to have access to all the nooks and crannies. I washed the engine bay and cleaned the hard to reach areas with brushes. This is the engine bay before cleaning.




Once the engine bay was washed, it was time to clean it further with cutting compound. I used Glasurit cutting compound to clean the engine bay.




Here’s a 50/50 shot of the engine bay which shows the difference that the cutting compound has made.




Here’s the engine bay after a whole day’s effort.






These are all the major parts that I fabricated to make the engine swap possible. Seeing all these parts together like this, it was a proud moment for me. I sat and kept looking at them for a little while :smiley: There were of course more parts built later but these were the ones to make the engine sit inside the engine bay. I prepped these parts and sent them out for paint.

Here, you’ll also see the final iteration of the bottom crossmember. It has the fourth side added and another bar added between the two sides. This bar was added to provide the oil sump with protection in case it bottoms out on some rock.







And the parts are back from paint! They look delicious, if I may say so myself. Metallic blue was the color that I selected. I’m really happy with how they turned out, the shine and the color both.







Here are the nuts and bolts that hold these parts together. I left them submerged in petrol for a day and then cleaned them with a brush so that they don’t have any grime on them.




Aaand the engine is here! I’ve finally gotten the actual engine and said goodbye to the dummy engine. I was able to source an apparently low mileage L13A with a CVT transmission. Under the grime, all the brackets and bolts etc. had retained their color really well, which points towards the engine being a low mileage one.







Here’s a peak inside the oil cap. Pretty clean! The oil cap was broken so it was replaced.

[Ovais]

The engine was then taken home where it was degreased and washed properly. I was really glad to see a very clean engine emerge after a wash. Here’s the engine on the engine hoist.








While the engine was on the hoist, I took the opportunity to take out the spark plugs and inspect them. The intake manifold had to be taken off anyway to help the engine fit in the engine bay. It was great to see that the coils looked extremely clean. The rubber insulators were in great shape and the color hadn’t faded, which pointed towards the engine not being heat cycled a lot. The plugs were really clean as well. I cannot be certain when the plugs were changed, but the color of the plugs and the state and the lack of any odd residue on them showed that the engine was running well before it was turned off. While the engine was out, I also replaced the accessory belt as it is much easier to do so before it went inside.





Here’s a look at the plug wells. This is how they were; Squeaky clean!








The engine finds its way into the engine bay for the final time! Fitted with all the newly painted parts.












Next up is the electrical bit of the engine. Before putting the engine in, I took the wiring off of the engine and took the wiring and the ecu inside, on a table top as its much easier to work with the wiring there, compared with working on it in the engine bay. I labeled all the body-side wiring against the wiring diagrams and the pinouts for the engine so that I know what wire goes where once I have the ecu and the wiring on the car.






I checked the continuity on all of the connectors on the engine side wiring to ensure that everything was in order before I put the wiring on the engine. Everything was proper.




The connector on the ecu that is responsible for the body-side interface of the ecu had small tails cut. So I extended the wires and soldered the joints and then covered them with heatshrinks. All the rest of the joints were crimped and then covered with heatshrink. The joints inside the engine bay were crimped, then I applied silicone/ rtv on the joints and then used heatshrink on them while the silicone wasn’t set. This forms a very waterproof joint once the silicone sets, so that the wiring can last a long time.






Since there wasn’t enough space for the battery in the engine bay, it had to be relocated in the trunk. In order to keep the voltage from dropping while cranking the engine, this is the wire that I used from the battery to the front.

[Ovais]

The plumbing of the coolant lines was also in progress simultaneously as the routing for the wiring and plumbing had to be decided at this point.

Here’s the stainless-steel pipe that I made earlier. I’ve now made the brackets to fix it on the engine. I’ve also added beads of welds on the ends of the pipe. Since the pipe does not have a collar, these beads will serve as a collar to hold the rubber pipe in place and prevent it from coming off.



The pipe is installed on the engine.






The honda ecu does not have the output to run a temperature gauge. It turns on a light in the cluster, blue/green when the car is cold and red if its hot. Since I have a temperature gauge in the cluster, I needed that to run. So I used this coupler to install Alto’s original temperature sender. I also have an Arduino based temperature display on the dashboard to which I’ve adapted an OEM Toyota temperature sender that shows the temperature on it. I also had space made for this sender in the coupler so that both the gauges work.









The radiator is also installed. There are four mounts, two at the bottom and two on top with rubber insulation in them. There’s enough movement in them to allow the radiator to move very slightly.




This is how the radiator cap sits with reference to the aluminum coupler. This coolant filler neck is just temporary as I had this in my stash. It was replaced once the plumbing was finalized.




Wherever the OEM pipe clamps could not be used, these band clamps were used once all the plumbing was finalized, instead of the jubilee clamps that you see in certain photos. The band clamps have a much better grip than the jubilee clamps and they do not slip like the jubilee clamps often do.






That is it for now. I'll share more updates when I have them. Its now getting close to the first start up!

[bobbyblr]

Originally Posted by Ovais

Attachment 2439205

The engine oil filter is mounted horizontally and it will be difficult to change the oil filter if everything (radiator & front bumper) is installed.

Better to use an oil adapter to convert it into vertical mount.

Below is an oil adapter used in both F8D & F10D Altos.

[Jabberwocky]

Pretty awesome Engine Swap, can't wait to read more. I do have a question however. Won't the bigger and thus heavier engine, along with all the heavy duty steel parts for the chasis stiffness, and the steel plumbing for the radiator make the car more front heavy and prone to understeer? The understeer might be even more exacerbated by the small wheels and tires of the Alto. Please ignore if the question is stupid and I have misunderstood something. It's just idle curiosity on my part. Either way I'm very excited to read more about your build. Thank you for sharing this with us readers.

[Ovais]

Originally Posted by bobbyblr

The engine oil filter is mounted horizontally and it will be difficult to change the oil filter if everything (radiator & front bumper) is installed.

Better to use an oil adapter to convert it into vertical mount.

Below is an oil adapter used in both F8D & F10D Altos.

Thank you so much for your input. When I placed the dummy engine in the engine bay for the first time, the ease of access for the oil filter was what concerned me as well and I had planned to use a filter relocation kit incase it does no fit. However, when I finally installed the filter, I realized that there's plenty of space to install/uninstall the filter, even with the radiator installed. These angles of photos may not show it, but the closest thing to the filter is the stabilizer bar, which too is a little over 2 inches far, when the filter is fully unwound and the filter opening socket is on the filter. Without the socket, you can add a little over an inch more to that clearance. That said, by now, I have changed its first oil and I'm happy to report that removing and installing the filter was a breeze.

[Ovais]

Originally Posted by Jabberwocky

Pretty awesome Engine Swap, can't wait to read more. I do have a question however. Won't the bigger and thus heavier engine, along with all the heavy duty steel parts for the chasis stiffness, and the steel plumbing for the radiator make the car more front heavy and prone to understeer? The understeer might be even more exacerbated by the small wheels and tires of the Alto. Please ignore if the question is stupid and I have misunderstood something. It's just idle curiosity on my part. Either way I'm very excited to read more about your build. Thank you for sharing this with us readers.

Thank you so much for the appreciation The question is a very valid one actually! The weight of the engine and the parts is indeed heavier than what it originally had, as per my calculation, about 40kg in total. It could've been heavier but owing to the fact that this engine itself is actually lighter than the F10 before it, as its an aluminum engine compared to the iron block/head F10A. The transmission with this engine however is a lot heavier than the previous one. So all in all, a rough calculation of the engine weight and other parts makes it a difference of about 40kg +-5kg.

Now coming to the handling bit. The good thing is that the increased weight is mostly right above the front axles, which means that the overhung weight difference is not a lot. If anything, this weight difference may actually help with traction. Apart from that, even before the swap, I had the shocks re-valved, and I have slightly stiffer, lowering springs all around. These two things help control the body roll quite a bit, so even before the swap, it handled a lot better than a regular Alto, now it has more power, with the added weight of course. I could stop there as this is very much sufficient for a daily driven vehicle. However, I have plans to install a stabilizer bar in the rear as well. I'm not sure when that will happen though, but its on the cards. That should further help with the handling bit.

The wheel configuration that originally comes with the Alto is 145/70-R12 with a 4JJ rim. The wheel size that I currently have is 165/65-R13 with a 5JJ rim from a Nissan, so it is bigger height wise and has a wider footprint on the road as well. So on paper, the current suspension/wheel setup should work perfectly well for a daily driven vehicle. If I was building a track oriented car, the setup would be very different from this.

[PWRUP]

Simply loved reading your write-up from the start and can't wait to see the final outcome! I especially appreciate the way you made sure everything fit in nicely into the car. This is probably one of the best modification threads I have stumbled on.

Good luck with the engine swap!

[wankelenergy]

Awesome stuff! I really love reading your thread, great workmanship on your build. Really looking forward to the end product. You make me want to do swaps but unfortunately it's not legal here for road cars. I love how your car is very purpose built.

All the best!

[Ovais]

Originally Posted by PWRUP

Simply loved reading your write-up from the start and can't wait to see the final outcome! I especially appreciate the way you made sure everything fit in nicely into the car. This is probably one of the best modification threads I have stumbled on.

Good luck with the engine swap!

Thank you so much for the kinds words

Originally Posted by wankelenergy

Awesome stuff! I really love reading your thread, great workmanship on your build. Really looking forward to the end product. You make me want to do swaps but unfortunately it's not legal here for road cars. I love how your car is very purpose built.

All the best!

Thank you so much for the kind words! Please do enlighten me about the policy of engine swaps in India. Is there no policy that allows the swap of an engine into another roadgoing vehicle?

[Mortis]

Originally Posted by Ovais

Thank you so much for the kinds words

Thank you so much for the kind words! Please do enlighten me about the policy of engine swaps in India. Is there no policy that allows the swap of an engine into another roadgoing vehicle?

Banging thread Ovais !! Someone with better knowledge than me will chime in with more details but AFAIK such "casual" swaps are illegal. I think you can legally only replace an engine with the same one it was homologated with, unless it's a track only car or a classic car.
I'll still keep an eye on this thread because I want to get a Tata Nano and do something similar although with a more conservative K10 engine. But I would only go through with it if I could swap the stock drum brakes with discs either at the front of rear

[wankelenergy]

Originally Posted by Ovais

Thank you so much for the kind words! Please do enlighten me about the policy of engine swaps in India. Is there no policy that allows the swap of an engine into another roadgoing vehicle?

As far as I know it's not legal here. The RTO doesn't let us register cars with an engine swap, at least where I'm from. Kerala MVD is pretty stringent when it comes to registration, I heard Kerala MVD doesn't allow pickups to be registered as private vehicles due to load capacity and Toyota had to reduce Hilux's 1000 kg to 500 kg to be used as a private vehicle. I think that tells something. There are states with much more lenient policies like the north east, it might be possible to register swapped cars there.

[Ovais]

Originally Posted by Mortis

Banging thread Ovais !! Someone with better knowledge than me will chime in with more details but AFAIK such "casual" swaps are illegal. I think you can legally only replace an engine with the same one it was homologated with, unless it's a track only car or a classic car.
I'll still keep an eye on this thread because I want to get a Tata Nano and do something similar although with a more conservative K10 engine. But I would only go through with it if I could swap the stock drum brakes with discs either at the front of rear

Thank you so much for the appreciation. That is very interesting, I'm pretty sure they've done it for some valid reasons. I'm glad that we don't have that regulation, any engine can be swapped into any car as long as you can fit it 😄 and there's a legal way of having the new engine updated in the documents. K10 in the nano would still offer pretty good power to weight ratio. How much does the nano weigh? I'm guessing around the 500kg mark? Yes, brakes would definitely be an upgrade needed for it. Does the nano come with a servo or does it just have a master cylinder?

[Ovais]

Originally Posted by wankelenergy

As far as I know it's not legal here. The RTO doesn't let us register cars with an engine swap, at least where I'm from. Kerala MVD is pretty stringent when it comes to registration, I heard Kerala MVD doesn't allow pickups to be registered as private vehicles due to load capacity and Toyota had to reduce Hilux's 1000 kg to 500 kg to be used as a private vehicle. I think that tells something. There are states with much more lenient policies like the north east, it might be possible to register swapped cars there.

That is quite interesting. By register you mean the annual renewal of registration or the first time? Like even if its a registered car, and you swap the engine, you cannot have it updated in the documents?