Well, I figured I may as well have a proper build thread for once rather than just occasionally remembering to post, I collected the donor vehicle today, a Lexus LS400.

Rough spec:
4.0 V8 engine, quad cam, 32v, and only making 32bhp per cylinder to total 256bhp in standard trim with a standard rev limit of 6500rpm
Steel crank, steel rods, multi bolt mains, and enormous tuning potential

Auto gearbox, 3 speed + overdrive + reverse
Standard gearing is roughly 50mph in 1st, 90mph in 2nd, 140mph in 3rd, 155@5200(limited) in overdrive 3rd (which is effectively 4th)
On an 8K limit instead, which is what I eventually intend to run it at, it should be about 60 / 115 / 165 / 200+
It pulls pretty well from 40mph in 2nd, so on track I basically intend to essentially just leave it in 2nd gear for everything once its able to do 115 in 2nd, well except the initial pull away and on long straights where I will just sneak into 3rd for a few seconds, thats the good thing about these engines, REALLY good spread of torque.


This is the donor car:



This is the calibra that I will be doing the project with



Sadly, this will be the only update for several months I suspect, as before work can start on taking the two cars apart, we first have to build a workshop to do it in, as im all out of space at my place, thankfully my mate jason is up for us doing a workshop at his place, as he is building a 4wd corrado and we can share the space and tools and help each other etc.
Workshop space is looking like being (wont know exactly till we've removed a woodshed, a 8foot high bank and a couple of small trees) about 13ft wide by 35 foot deep, so hopefully should be ideal for the two cars to fit in with plenty of space to move about them, and there is another workshop next door that we can use for stripping donor cars etc, but just not for long term working on as that workshop is already in use.

Here is a picture of the engine I'll be using, its a "1UZFE" if anyone wants to give it a google, and its gotta be just about the worlds most well balanced engine and one of the best designed in general, its possible to stand a coin on its edge on top of it even at 5Krpm+



Here's the coin video:

And here is a video showing how well they rev for a fairly big engine
(I wont be going TB's though, I will be going forced induction eventually, but initial plan is just to get it in and running as standard first)