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About Dr Tweak
An Autobiography of Sorts...
I first became interested in import tuning sometime
around 1998, and it started with Toyotas. My family was always a big
fan of these little cars and they always had one. In fact, the car I
learned to drive on was a 1995 Toyota Corolla. Naturally, it wasn't
long before I started trying to figure out how to get some more
power out of that little engine. So I hopped on the internet and
discovered Club4ag, a small
forum of Toyota enthusiasts which has remained tragically unchanged
over the years. (Come on guys, isn't it time to upgrade that
ancient forum software?) Anyways, that's where I first read the
terms "engine swap" and started learning about the 4AGE. Soon I
filled my days dreaming about how I would someday swap one of these
mighty engines into my little Corolla...
This is a '93 Celica Convertible
with a 3SGE BEAMS engine
So, fast-forward a few years now, I still haven't
swapped a 4AGE into my Corolla. In fact, I STILL haven't swapped a
4AGE into my Corolla. In fact, I don't have a Corolla right now...
well, back to the story. So, I'm married now, I have a house, and
I've got a few years of mechanic experience under my belt, and I
start talking about how I'd like to do an engine swap again.
(In-between the last two paragraphs, I owned two Corollas, an AE92
and an AE86, and also got heavily involved in the Ford SHO community
which was a great learning experience for me.) So finally I said to
my wife, you know, I've been wanting to do an engine swap for all
these years and I've read and read and read on the forums about how
to do them, and I know so much about these swaps but I never seem to
have the funds to actually do one for myself. I should start doing
them for other people!
So I did.
Little did I know that this "mad scientist"
picture would become my signature "Dr Tweak Pose"
Thankfully, I also had a place to work at the house
I had bought, one of my requirements was that I have a garage. A
well-sized two-car garage behind my house was a great place to start
my shop up. To get my first few customers in the door, I made a
great offer... FREE engine swaps! Well, for the first one anyway.
(It was a Corolla, by the way). Since that first swap way back there
in my unheated, uninsulated garage, I've done one swap after
another, and mostly, on Toyotas.
I'm unbolting the slave cylinder. MK1 guys, you
know what I'm talking about.
So anyways, after doing engine swaps part-time in my
little garage for quite a while and gaining a lot of experience, I
decided that I would go full-time into the business. Since it's a
risky move to take, I start half-looking for someone to go into
business with, someone with experience and maybe a bigger place to
work. Around this same time I began doing engine swap wiring
conversions by mail, which I do a lot of now. Through that service I
met a guy who owned a shop in South Carolina. After talking to him
for a little while, he mentioned that he had more work than he could
handle. I asked if he could use another hand, and that was the
beginning of a near-disaster. You see, this guy had a lot to offer:
a large shop, an in-house dynometer, and experience in other makes
of cars that I wanted to get into (Nissan, in particular). So, we
cut a deal, and I sold my house, left my job, and moved 1200 miles.
The trouble was, this guy was a real shady character. In fact, he
had been stealing money from customers for several months, and he
hadn't even been to his "shop" in weeks. So that didn't work out.
Thankfully I got wind of what this guy was all about before it was
too late, so I never got involved with him and I made sure that a
plan B was in place.
Wiring, everyone's favorite part
of an engine swap. Well... mine anyway :)
"Plan B"
Well, to make a long story short, I moved to
Savannah, GA, where I set up shop in a slightly-larger garage. This
worked out great for a couple of months because I was able to get
settled in and still pay the bills by doing swaps right at my house.
But, I wasn't in town for very long when I guess people started to
hear the whole story about how I ended up in Savannah and who I was.
(Savannah's a big small town that way). I got several phone calls
during that time from people offering me jobs at various shops, but
no one really had what I was looking for. Then I got a call from
George Meyers, the owner of Southern Car Customs.
4AGZE (Map/DLI version) swapped into a '94 Corolla
Southern Car Customs had been primarily what you
would call an "audio and rim shop". They had also gotten into
installing suspensions and some bolt-on performance parts. For a
long time they had really been wanting to get more into the
performance scene, they had a solid, established reputation and a
place to work, a good location... and it just seemed like we were
meant to meet right then.
Since then, I've been heading up the performance
division of Southern Car Customs, what we like to call "GET
SWAPPED". And we've been rolling one swap after another, true to
our name. Because of my heavy Toyota background, we still specialize
in them... but we work on everything else too.
Polished up 1JZGTE engine ready to go into an '87
Supra
And one of these days, I just might do an engine
swap for myself. In fact, I might even do it in a Corolla. Now which
engine should I use....
"MUAHAHAHAAA!!"
Thanks for reading.
-Dr Tweak, Toyota Engine Swap Extraordinaire
Email me if you want some performance work done to
your car, you need a wiring harness conversion, or you just think
that you have something cool that I should read or see.
drtweak@phoenixtuning.com
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