First engine swap, is carbing a 4ag over my head?

tannerdanger · Post by **tannerdanger** » Mon Oct 10, 2011 9:30 pm

I recently acquired a Sr5 and the engine died on me already. I'm looking at getting a 4age from a junkyard and doing a light rebuild on it, but im curious what will be the easiest route for putting it in? I've heard that carbing it makes it go in simpler than if I would try to convert my Sr5 to fuel injection...but I cant find the answers to lots of my questions so any help would be awesome.

First Let me just start out saying this is my first engine swap, so although I'm somewhat mechanically inclined, I don't have experience doing some things.
second, I'm trying to do this on a budget so spending top dollar on the more obvious choices isn't always an option for me. For example, the cheapest weber side drafts I can find are $1500ish (unless i'm totally not looking for the right thing) and R1carbs seem to go for more around $300 so that is the route i'm trying to go.

The biggest questions I have right now, is
1) is this kind of build a lot more difficult than just swapping in a 4age and wiring my sr5 to work with the fuel injection system, or is it relatively easy?
2) what is the easiest way to attach the carbs to the intake ports? Do I have to have custom carb manifolds made by a shop or is there easier ways to get the carbs attached
3) is buying webers worth the money or will going the cheap route and buying R1 carbs not be too difficult?

also a side note: the person I bought the car from threw in some bike carbs, that i'm not sure what they are from but on they side they say "VP KEHIN"...havent found much info on the VP model and they are sort of rusty so I don't know if I will end up trying to make those work or just go ahead and get some R1 carbs in good shape.

any help would be awesome. and yes I have read that major "how to carb your 4age" guide which helps a lot but i'm still unsure about all these things.

Post by **dr.occa** » Tue Oct 11, 2011 10:07 am

Just collect budget information for both an EFI swap and a carb swap. Compare the 2 on both labor and financial investment and decide for yourself which is best for you. Then make it happen. Sometimes making it happen means hiring someone else to do it or paying someone to show you how to do it. That's called knowing how to get things done and doing it.

tannerdanger · Post by **tannerdanger** » Tue Oct 11, 2011 11:08 am

Im starting to think that just swapping in the 4ag as is will be easier/cheaper. I would just have to deal with the wiring right? I just don't trust myself to find all the right stuff to make the carb work. I guess my biggest worry really is making the carbs actually attach to the engine.

Dft69 · Post by **Dft69** » Sat Feb 25, 2012 8:12 pm

Yup just get a 4age front cut and swap it all in, so easy
[edit] lol just looked at the date of post , it's probably done and dusted by now

tannerdanger · Post by **tannerdanger** » Mon Apr 16, 2012 8:11 am

Dft69 wrote:Yup just get a 4age front cut and swap it all in, so easy
[edit] lol just looked at the date of post , it's probably done and dusted by now

lol not yet actually. The 4ac I had died right before I left for my deployment, and im looking to take care of this swap in about a month when I get back. IDK where I would find a 4age front cut though. Gunna hit up the pick and pull back home when I'm back and pray that there is a gts thats showed up in there since my last visit.

JDMwhiteboy · Post by **JDMwhiteboy** » Thu Apr 19, 2012 1:20 pm

the efi swap would be easier for you since this is your first real swap. However you will need a gts wiring harness, using the sr5 harness you will have to add alot of wires and repin the pcm connector. The efi swap may take longing just from sourcing all the parts needed but its more of a bolt on swap than what you would need for a carb swap.

Now if you still want to go carb, TRD made an intake manifold for the big port head and there are copys of this manifold made if you run duel sidedrafts carbs. The issue you deal with when swapping to carb is ignition for spark. You do go along the lines of cop with a hall effect sensor on the balancer (t3 makes a toothed wheel you can by) or use the stock gts dizzy with a msd box or even use a dizzy from a starlet and a msd box. Thats going to be the tricky part for ya. If anything I recomend for you its DO YOUR RESEARCH!!! Dont jump into it like me >___<

mandm177 · Post by **mandm177** » Thu Apr 19, 2012 1:28 pm

and if it's an MSD box you need, an MSD box i have for sale!

Teamsdmf · Post by **Teamsdmf** » Sat Sep 08, 2012 4:55 am

I went the carbs route cause it was cheapest for me I dont run a msd or any of that I use gsxr bike carbs that I got given to me then built an intake which really isnt that hard especially if you have side draft bike carbs mine were down draft so you have to put them at a 45° angle or so to get the float bowls flat or they just puke fuel out i.also.got a low fuel pressure electric pump that maxed out 5lbs and got a low pressure fuel pressure regulator and I used a cheap gm hei ignition module as the igniter and wired it up and run 32° timing total cost inlcuding the motor minus the header was $400 in which the motor was $300 its a big port from an 88gts

www.86garage.com