1964 Comet 4 door. A controversy in the making. Hello everyone

[Dalek_Trekkie]

Hello everyone! My name is Anthony and I've had my Comet for about 2 years now. To the best of my knowledge it was left in a shed somewhere in the 70s or 80s and turned up on a barn finds YouTube video in 2015 or so. Ill try to find it and post a link. Im not sure how many people owned it after that, but my guess is 2 or three before me, but all of them seemed to keep it in good condition since all the flaws and dents it currently has were present in that video. Thats actually how I know its my Comet since there's a distinctive wear pattern near the drivers side keyhole that matched. Luckily it has impressively minimal rust, though the paint job has clearly seen better days. The previous owner spent a lot of time and money trying to restore the interior, engine, and transmission as well as doing the job of painting most of the underside with rust encapsulator, so I sincerely thank him for saving me the headache of doing so. I don't know if he's still present on these forums but based on the restoration products he purchased and out on the car I can tell that he at least looked here at the list of buying links.

The engine was a 200 I6 with the 2 speed Merc-O-Matic and a 7.25" differential. The engine was probably quite sufficient for what I wanted out of the car, but that transmission was unfortunately killing the enjoyment. It was downright terrifying to take it out anywhere because of how unresponsive it was. After a few upgrades (redid the jetting on the carb, added a DUI distributor with mechanical advance, added a new fuel pump) I eventually came to the decision that I needed to can the transmission in favor of something with more gears and overdrive.

That leads me to the current status of the car and my future plans, which will make the title of my post more apparent. I will detail the whole process and chain of event in another post, but as now the Comet is close to being drivable again, with the new engine, transmission, and most of the electrical installed. "New engines aren't that controversial of a topic" I can hear you telling yourself. Dont you worry, I have you covered. Despite the fact that I was merely searching for a transmission that I could design an adapter plate for, I ended up having a Toyota 2JZ GE with a 5 speed A650E transmission basically fall into my lap. That's right, Im committing the cardinal sin amongst purists and am sticking not just another manufacturer's engine in my Comet, but a foreign manufacturer's engine.

Again, Ill go into more details on the chain events in another post, but my basic reasoning came down to the fact that I wanted a reliable engine that would offer great future upgradability, but keep the feel of an inline 6 engine. I must also admit that the uniqueness of such an engine swap greatly appealed to me as well. Ive only seen one other "Comet" with a 2JZ engine and it was actually a 64 Ford Falcon. The "Suisei" (Japanese word for Comet. Im still fielding ideas for what to call this fantastic abomination, so Im open to ideas) has one particular advantage over the standard v8 swap that is common; the cost of upgrades to net significant power is well below what I would need to do to a V8 to see the same gains, and I doubt the 200 I6 had hardly any parts available to increase its performance very much. A V8 has more power at its most basic level, but its not unheard of for 2JZ GTE engines to achieve 1000 HP with nothing more than upgrading the turbo system and some cams. Of course that is a GTE, whereas I have a GE. The difference? A thicker head gasket, more robust connecting rods, and oil squirters pointed at the undersides of the pistons, all to better accommodate higher boost pressures. The oil squirters help avoid blowing a head gasket but are not necessary unless you're really pushing it to the edge, so that leaves me in a prime position to seriously ramp up my power output for relatively little work and a turbo setup.

Something I was not expecting is that I had to do literally no modifications to the Comet itself to fit the 2JZ and trans into the car. The only thing I had to do was design motormounts, and a transmission mounts, which were easy enough given that I work as an engineer with experience in 3D scanners, and CAD. I also have experience in electrical design so the electrical side was also straightforward for me. I did have to grind off a structural rib on the 2JZ's oil pan in order to give enough clearance for the steering arm, but that took all of 5 minutes with an angle grinder with very minimal material removal.

While this entire endeavor will undoubtedly be frowned upon by many, Im still excited to share this project. After all, this is exactly the kind of thing that hot rodding is about, and Comets have a great history as hot rods, albeit that history has usually involved big block engines and are built to be dragsters rather than slim inline 6 engines and turbochargers built to be fun daily drivers.

[Boss/Cyclone]

From what I have seem to remember the GE engine will stay together if you keep the boost under 6psi while the GTE can push up close to 20. I would make sure you reinforce the chassis and you will need to upgrade the brakes and rear axle for sure. I heard of a guy doing a Barra Australian 6 cylinder swap in a Comet and have seen a 4 door 66 Fairlane with a 2JZ swap, i have not seen a Comet yet with this swap.

[poboyjo65]

Welcome on!

[Boss/Cyclone]

We had a guy do a Miata drivetrain swap, pretty cool work do on there. Here is a link to his work.

https://www.cometcentral.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4528

[Jims65cyclone]

Welcome aboard!

Jim

[Joe Travers]

Hey, Anthony!

Post some pics when you can. Sounds like an interesting build.
You were talking about a Falcon, was watching a video of a young guy doing a complete body swap; early Falcon on Lexus. Straight up fit.

Joe

[Dalek_Trekkie]

From what I have seem to remember the GE engine will stay together if you keep the boost under 6psi while the GTE can push up close to 20. I would make sure you reinforce the chassis and you will need to upgrade the brakes and rear axle for sure. I heard of a guy doing a Barra Australian 6 cylinder swap in a Comet and have seen a 4 door 66 Fairlane with a 2JZ swap, i have not seen a Comet yet with this swap.

Brakes and rear end are definitely on the upgrade list, but for now the goal is just to get it running and driving since the car has been off the road for a year now. Additionally, the brake master cylinder is going to be a problem that'll need design work to solve since the 2J's intake manifold occupies the space that a decent master cylinder would. Remote mounting the cylinder has been done, so its not a complete unknown but its still extra time and work that I don't want to spend atm. Both the brakes and the rear end should be okay for the short term as long I drive like a sane person and am cognisant of the fact that the brakes are what they are and the differential won't tolerate any abuse. They're somewhat moot points anyway since Im having a bear of a time even getting a driveshaft made. Im probably going to have to rig up my own jig and make one myself at this point

[Dalek_Trekkie]

Hey, Anthony!

Post some pics when you can. Sounds like an interesting build.
You were talking about a Falcon, was watching a video of a young guy doing a complete body swap; early Falcon on Lexus. Straight up fit.

Joe

That sounds interesting. Yeah, Ill post some pics tomorrow. I have to go through some folders to find where I saved them since I got a new phone a few months ago

[Rootsy]

Welcome aboard. Should be an interesting journey to watch.

[Jims65cyclone]

When you find your pics, or make some more, here’ a good way to post them. It will automatically resize them and save on band width.
https://www.cometcentral.com/forum/view ... ead#p97301

Jim

[Caveman49]

Welcome. Sounds like an interesting build, I’ll be following along. Pictures are always good.