#ke55

ok so this is going to hopefully be a pretty long post that will sort of budget just how much it would cost to build a ke55 with a 2jz.

The engine: a 2jz-ge is pretty cheap, they come with gs300s with auto transmissions and you can pick up a good one for around $1000. The big money is when you start calculating the cost of the Triple DCOE setup, which would probably end up being around $1200 for a set of new weber copies from china. this goes without mentioning the fact that no one makes an off the shelf 2jz weber manifold, which means you would be looking at around another $1000 to get a manifold fabricated. all this on top of servicing the engine, buying a mounting kit from KE conversions and figuring out how to get the ignition to work would end up costing around $4000. this isnt going to be a budget build.

The gearbox: so this car wouldnt be any fun with a stock auto transmission, so i propose converting it to a manual box. the w50 and w55 boxes are sort of cool, but they have very very long ratios tat sort of spoil the fun of driving, so i suggest a budget conscious option [that will still break the bank tbh] of buying a tremec t56 gearbox and buying a custom 2jz to t56 bellhousing from the USA for around $1500. the t56 is a bullet proof box, so it will last forever. the next issue is finding a clutch kit for it that can handle 350hp and around 250nm of torque. i reckon this would end up costing around another $1000, so it would almost be worth just buying the complete bellhousing and clutch kit for $2800 as it comes with a twin plate clutch. this all costs around $4300. 

The rear end: So with great power come great rear axle. you could get a really decent 4.3 LSD rear end from a GQ 4wd for about $800, but it would be worth doing a full service on it to make sure it actually functions correctly. assuming its too wide, it would be sort of cool to let the rear end have a bit more of a stance. Run harder springs in the rear set a little bit lower and with a custom 3 link setup and an adjustable panhard bar. this would cost around $600 to make, and in fact it might need to be sent off for fabrication. so this whole part would be around $1800

The body: This part of the build is relatively straight forward. buy any ke35/55 2 door, preferably the 2 door sedan as it looks the nicest and the glass is easy to replace. this would end up costing you around $3000 for a pretty good example, and especially with something like this build, its worth knowing that you can buy something that does need a lot of work. The next job is stripping the car to the bare shell and repainting it to look like a 70s rally car. primer: $200 undercoat [white and red]: $400 and top coat: $200. then put everything back together, minus the interior. $4000 isnt too bad if you ask me.

Interior: This is the part of the build that excites me the most, getting to mess around with trim. by adding the stock dash back in, thats about as much of the original interior that i would keep. BIG tacho strapped to the dash. solid bucket seat with a 6 point harness. cool after market steering wheel. floor stays bare and a willwood pedal kit would replace factory pedals. shift tunnel has a shifter boot and thats it. at this point its worth adding a roll cage, probably a weld in 6 point cage with side intrusion bars and gussets joining the cage to the body. this would end up being about $2500

so from an optimistic perspective, this whole setup would end up costing you around $18000 to build, and that doesnt even cover the man hours required to put this monster together or all of the little things i didnt add in this list.