This Hellephant-Swapped Supra Will Beat You By An Inch And a Mile

Imagine if Paul Walker’s Brian O’Conner had not been able to overnight parts from Japan; if the 2JZ engine he wanted to get for the shell of a Supra hadn’t arrived. What if, late one night, after too many Coronas, Brian had a great idea: to take the supercharged Hemi out of Dom’s Charger (hey, he had been too scared to drive it for decades) and put that big-inch mill into the Supra’s shell instead?

The video at the end of this article is sort of like that. Only, instead of a classic Hemi, this build used something even better: a Mopar Hellephant crate engine.

Forget the 2JZ, This Is How You Build A Quick Supra

That’s not exactly how YouTuber ScrapLifeLee went about it, but that’s the end result: taking out a narrow inline six and replacing it with a notoriously wide-headed 7.0-liter beast.

Obviously, the swap wasn’t exactly simple. The first step was cutting out the front cross-member, leaving a big gaping hole where the car’s structure used to be. It needed a new oil filter mount, too, from a TRX, to angle it in the right direction to clear the steering rack.

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Of course, the Supra is on the list, but did you know the 2JZ powered nearly a dozen cars?

When they’re done, the engine fits perfectly. No, of course not. The 3.8-liter supercharger that is cramming air into this 426 Hemi block sticks out about half a foot above where the Supra’s factory hood would sit. That’s no problem, though, because it gets a new cowl carved from a hood for a Camaro and fitted to the Supra hood.

This video doesn’t cover the whole build, but it covers enough to make sure we’re subscribed for the rest. The engine is in place, it has a fuel system, and the transmission and differential are installed. Not connected, but installed.

1,500-Horse Hemi Monster Under The Hood

ScrapLifeLee’s Hellephant engine is far from even the crate engine that Mopar delivers. It starts with the 3.8-liter Whipple blower, with a throttle body opening that looks big enough to stick your head in. It also has different pistons and crank, and a supercharger-spec camshaft.

The engine hasn’t been on the dyno yet, and it hasn’t run the quarter, but it should easily be a 10-second car. It was spec’d out to make 1,500 horsepower, and you’re going to have a tough time getting that out of any 2JZ build.

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This 1,000-hp build took 5,000 hours to complete.

Will this car enrage both Mopar and Toyota purists? Absolutely. Do we care? Not at all. This car is going to be awesome. Maybe if you can catch it, you can complain about it?