This latest episode of Carnage sees Scotty finally begin the long process of piecing together our Toyota 1UZ V8, which we robbed from a ratty old Toyota Soarer to put in our sleeper Lexcen wagon project.

In last week’s episode, Scotty had intentions of putting the engine together until he found some scoring in the bores. That meant rods and pistons out, and a Scotty’s Garage hone job.

This week’s episode picks up from there, with Scotty re-assembling the bottom end with some fresh rings, rod bearings and ARP rod bolts.

With that done, the reconditioned factory heads also got bolted on with some ARP clamping gear and boost-ready Cometic MLS head gaskets.

As the 1UZ is a quad-overhead-camshaft deal, it’s not as simple to piece together as the pushrod mills we’re accustomed to. That meant Scotty was being super thorough with this Toyota donk, checking and re-checking everything to ensure a safe unit.

It was a good thing, too, because he found multiple issues throughout the process. First, one of the head studs was fouling on the camshaft sprocket, and then the bolt that holds one of the tensioners for the timing belt on turned out to be a bit on the piss.

Given it’s a very specific type of bolt, that’s where the progress ground to a halt for this episode. Nevertheless, crack open a cold one and enjoy this winter-warming episode of Carnage, and rest assured there’ll be more 1UZ progress very soon.