Yaris Engine Swap: What Are Your Options? And Why Is It Really Hard?

The Toyota Yaris is among the best small vehicles offering comprehensive services and excellent and reasonable drive across various roads. Although you can use this tiny vehicle everywhere, it is around town that it shows its talents to the fullest. It offers precise steering when maneuvering the city streets, and parking in tight spaces is relatively straightforward.

Engine swap highlights

• Commonreasons:more power, death of the original engine
• Average prices:$1,500 - $7,500
• Average waiting time:10 - 18 days
• Common problems:additional upgrades, higher costs, finding proper engine
• DIY mods:impossible, in this case
• Level of satisfaction:medium

Which Engine Does the Yaris Have?

Irrespective of your trim of choice, the Toyota Yaris has only one engine option, a 1.5L, three-cylinder gas engine producing up to 114 horsepower when assisted by the duo electric motors. The engine is good for 0-60 mph splint in nine seconds, quicker than the Ford Fiesta Ecoboost 125 by half a second.

The car has only one option for the transmission, a CVT auto gearbox. It is good, but it redlines rather quickly when you accelerate hard. It can make real noise when you push it beyond its limits.        

Is It Possible to Swap a Yaris Engine?

Yes!

It is possible to swap your Yaris engine with either a unit with the same output or a more powerful option. However, considering the size of the Toyota Yaris, it would be safe to drive yours with the original engine unless you have no other choice.

Often, people swap engines looking for more juice. For instance, if you want to explore off-road sceneries without buying a new car, you can swap your engine with a more potent one and equip the vehicle with off-road components like tires and guards.

Nevertheless, is Toyota Yaris suitable for off-road even with a potent engine and off-road amenities?

When is it Inevitable to Swap Your Yaris Engine

The first reason anyone would want to swap their engine is the need for more power. This is a viable reason since every driver wants more power to tap when needed. You would like to swap your Yaris engine for the following reasons.

1) When The Cost of Increasing Your Engine's Power Exceeds the Cost of Swapping

If you own a relatively less powerful vehicle like the Yaris and want more out of it, you can rebuild the engine instead of adding performance upgrades. However, considering your engine's size, getting a reasonable extra power could cost a lot more than you can imagine.

If you desperately need more juice from your Toyota Yaris, you can swap your current 1.5L with a larger option. If your mechanic gives you a total cost of rebuilding your tiny engine that exceeds that of swapping, why not choose the cheaper option? After all, what you want is more juice out of your car.

2) Reliability

You might wonder why a modern car like the Yaris should have reliability issues. Reliability is a relative word; in this case, it means being able to use your car anytime, anywhere, and for any trip, you want to make. In its stock form, you cannot use Toyota Yaris for long-distance trips and have fun simultaneously.

Some people buy cars and build crazy attachments to them, so they would not want to drive any other vehicle. Your Toyota Yaris is not strong enough to drive as fast and often as you wish. If you push it quite hard, it might respond but reduce its lifespan in the process. While the body might withstand it, pushing the engine too hard might kill it prematurely.

To keep your Yaris alive and healthy for many years, you can remove your existing engine and swap it with a more powerful option - one that can withstand long-distance drives and still serve you for many years.

3) When you want to take it Off-Road

As mentioned earlier, building a crazy attachment with your vehicle can ultimately prove costly. For instance, if your car is a Toyota Yaris, taking it off-road will be a murder mission for the car. Although it might come back, it will never be the same again. If you want to explore the forests and deserts, you can turn your Yaris into an off-road beast.

It will be costly, but to make it, you must start by swapping the engine. You can combine a more potent engine with an aftermarket performance transmission and off-road tires. As mentioned, it might be costly to do this.

What Are the Difficulties When Swapping a Yaris Engine?

Why is it so difficult swapping a powerful engine into a Toyota Yaris? Well, start with the fact that a Toyota Yaris does not have the DNA of a performance vehicle. That explains why a super-powerful performance engine might be bad for the car.

Point number two, engine swapping never has been and will never be a walk in the park, not just for a Toyota Yaris, but also for any vehicle you will ever want to swap its engine with a different one. The Toyota Yaris has a tiny engine bay, which might prove problematic when swapping your engine.  

While everyone thinks it is a simple task, an engine swap is a complex process requiring much planning. The following are some difficulties you may encounter when swapping your Yaris engine.

1) Finding the Right Engine

Before starting the swapping process, you have to ensure you got the right engine for your Toyota Yaris. Some of the things you must consider include the following.

• Weight of your new engine. If you swap your current engine with a massive, heavy engine, it will be hard to maintain the structural integrity of your vehicle.
• You must consider the dimensions of the incoming engine. Toyota Yaris has a tiny engine bay. If you get a massive engine, it might not fit perfectly into your vehicle.
• You must also consider supporting systems such as the transmission and axle. If you are swapping your engine to make your Yaris more powerful, you have to consider the transmission and the rear axle. Your existing transmission and axle may not withstand the extra juice from the swapped engine.

2) Another Challenge Is the Cost

To explain this better, whenever the idea of swapping your Yaris engine comes into mind, take the budget you have in mind, and multiply it by three. This way, you may understand exactly how expensive it is to swap an engine.

Going into the price specifics, it would be something like follows.

Usually, a mechanic will charge you between $50 and $100 per hour of labor to swap your Yaris engine. It takes between 20 and 40 hours to complete an engine swap project. The longer or shorter it takes depends on how complex the job gets. You could spend up to $1,500 on labor.

Additionally, you can spend between $500 and $9,000 for the engine. On the lowest end are small block engines, and performance engines are on the highest end. The exact price depends on your engine of choice. Remember, these estimates have not mentioned additional parts you must purchase to complete the engine swap project.

For the exact price for swapping your Yaris engine, consult your mechanic for a detailed quotation.

What Options Do I Have To Swap My Yaris Engine?

There are two ways to swap your Yaris engine. One is changing your old engine with a new one with the same specs. This way, it will be a drop-and-bolt operation and might not take as much time as using a foreign engine. The other way is by swapping your existing engine with a foreign yet more powerful option.

If you are considering a foreign swap, you can choose the following.

1) 1NZ-FE Turbo

The 1NZ-FE Turbo is a Toyota-manufactured 1.5L straight-four engine with four strokes. The naturally aspirated gas engine has been on the market since 1999 and features a lightweight aluminum block and cylinder heads. It has two overhead cams and 16 valves, four per cylinder.

Swapping your Yaris 1.5 Dual VVT-I Engine with the 1NZ-FE Turbo increases your vehicle's power output to 148 horsepower from 105 horsepower. Among the pros of this swap include excellent cooling efficiency.

2) 1.8L 2ZR-FE

The Toyota 1.8L 2ZR-FE is a four-cylinder gas engine with nearly similar power output as the 1NZ-FE Turbo. When the engine entered the market in 2007, it quickly became the 1NX-FE alternative. This means it is a better option than the 1NZ-FE Turbo. They might have the same output, but the modern design and engineering in the 2ZR-FE must make it better in other aspects.

The 1.8L 2ZR-FE has a maximum output of 138 horsepower.

3) 1.8L 2ZZ-GE

The 2ZZ-GE is a 1.8L engine built by Toyota in collaboration with Yamaha. The engine uses a multi-point fuel injection system with forged steel connecting rods. If you want to beast up your Toyota Yaris, this is the engine to fit in there.

The 2ZZ-GE will boost your output from 105 horsepower to 190 in the atmospheric version and up to 260 in the supercharged version. What more could you ask for?

However, there is a catch in this one.

While the 1NZ-FE turbo and the 2ZR-FE require minimum fabrication, the 2ZZ-GE will require a lot of work in fabrication and a few modifications to fit in your Toyota Yaris' engine bay.