Wild Hellephant-Swapped Toyota Supra Is Officially Up & Running

By Brett Foote - May 3, 2025

While the 2JZ is an ultra-capable legend of an engine, this Hellephant- swapped Toyota Supra isn’t exactly a slouch, either.

The Hellephant is something of a unicorn in the world of crate engines, given the fact that there simply aren’t that many supercharged, 7.0-liter, 1,000 horsepower crate engines out there ripe for the picking. The Hellephant is obviously meant to be stuffed in things like classic Mopar muscle and newer rides like the Challenger and/or Charger, but that obviously won’t stop some folks from installing it in other rides – including, it seems, a Toyota Supra.

YouTuber ScrapLifeLee has been working on cramming Mopar’s finest crate engine into his 1993 Supra for a while now, having previously getting it in the engine bay, but falling short of making those two things work together in harmony. Now, he’s back with a new video documenting the final steps to achieving a running, driving machine, which isn’t exactly easy given how much larger the Mopar mill is compared to the original (and legendary in its own right) 2JZ powerplant this left the factory with.

That list includes a lot of things – starting with installing a couple of Porsche radiators and a full cooling system, an ice tank, finishing off the fuel system, figuring out how to make the hood clear the rather tall engine, wrapping up the exhaust system, installing the driveshaft, 3D printing a smaller velocity stack, hooking up the Holley Dominator ECU, swapping out the pedals, installing the new dash display, and sorting out many, many more small details.

The entire process actually goes surprisingly smoothly, but in all fairness, this particular channel has its fair share of experience with similar types of builds. After ensuring everything has the appropriate amount of fluid – including the TH400 gearbox – it’s time to hit the laptop and start tuning everything (at least, after they fix a coolant flooding issue). They put some E85 in the tank and pray for the best, and that’s precisely what happens.

The Hellephant cranks right up, which shouldn’t be hugely surprising given the fact that our hosts had previously tested it out on a stand, but it’s notable, regardless. The behemoth of a mill sounds pretty amazing as well, and there are no leaks or other problems – somewhat surprising given the fact that it only took nine days to put the whole thing together. Obviously, it would have been easier to just stick with a 2JZ and build it to crank out similar power, but you have to at least tip your cap to ScrapLifeLee for daring to do something very different.