takai's Basketcase MA61 (56k just dont try)

[takai]

Ok i figure i may as well crosspost my other threads in here. So here goes, this is catching up the past 2 weeks:

After much umming and aaahing about 5minutes really i snapped up a Supra in Wangaratta for use as a project daily/weekend thrasher/khana/other car, similar to what Clive has his R32 for, but for the things i cant be bothered or cant take out the race car for.

Thanks to some great kindness on the part of morerevsm3 on PF, who offered to transport it over from Wangaratta to Adelaide for free, it arrived today, and i finally got to see what sort of a basket case my $500 got me.

Oh and the hillarity of getting into the drivers seat to back it off the trailer and suddenly facing the roof was all good. Oh and going to steer and finding out that the steering wheel wasnt bolted on, we got it into the driveway. After chatting all the afternoon (much to the consternation of my wife) i pushed it into the carport, and had a quick squiz.

http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27879-1/IMG_2727.JPG
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27889-1/IMG_2730.JPG
Importantly no rust in the tailgate, they are always prone for rusting there. No idea how this one survived without it.

http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27892-1/IMG_2731.JPG
Interior in the car, well sort of. All in boxes. Interestingly enough this car still has an uncracked dash and good door trims... IN BLACK. Which is about as rare as hens teeth.

http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27895-1/IMG_2732.JPG
I wonder why it doesnt run, thats high on the agenda.

http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27886-1/IMG_2729.JPG
Oh and the Simmons, which will be going on the race car soon.

All in all its not bad for the money i paid, need to assemble the interior, and refit the fuel tank (since its sitting in the boot), but im not going to complain much at all, especially as most local people wanted $3k for stuff with rust in it.
The "big" problem is the engine, as i cant just slap the 2JZ in it and take it anywhere near regency. Instead what ill have to do is put a 5ME back into it, and then get it registered before putting the 2JZ into it. All a good excuse to sort out the suspension and other bits.

List of things to do are:
Refit interior of supra
Rebuild engine
Pass regency
Otomoto coilover kit for the front
R33/BA brake upgrade
VP rear shocks
SW20 front shocks
6kg front and 4kg rear springs
Sort suspension
2JZ VVTi


I have a 2JZGE VVTi waiting in the wings for it when i finally get it sorted. Should be a good ride.

[takai]

So before i hustled off to work today i spent about 15mins ripping out the interior of the car. Not particularly hard when its all unbolted and just sitting there.
The pile of bits which came out looks like this:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27898-1/IMG_2733.JPG
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27916-1/IMG_2739.JPG

Stripped out car like so:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27901-1/IMG_2734.JPG
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27904-1/IMG_2735.JPG
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27907-1/IMG_2736.JPG

All in all very damn good, really not overly concerned about it being a complete headache anymore. Only a mild one :)

Pretty much everything was all neatly boxed up and sitting in chinese food containers or icecream boxes, neatly labeled so that i know where they go. So now i have eleventy billion little containers with "Glovebox screws" and the like on them, all of which contain the same screws :lol:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27925-1/IMG_2742.JPG

Only things which i really found were something, probably oil, spilled in the passenger side:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27910-1/IMG_2737.JPG

A bit of surface rust in the spare tyre well, which is pretty normal.
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27928-1/IMG_2743.JPG

And a cat or something has had its way with the roof lining:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27934-1/IMG_2745.JPG

Other than those things most of the interior can go back together relatively easily. Ill give the carpets a good wash, and maybe try to dye them black before they go back in, and everything else should just go back in easily. Im considering getting some dry ice to take out all the sound deadening, especially that nasty tar stuff, but im not sure if i can be bothered at this point.

Other things in the car apart from the interior are a little worse:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27919-1/IMG_2740.JPG
Engine is completely seized, even the breaker bar with a 3m exhaust tube extension couldnt budge it. Ohwell, time to find a new one for a case or something.
Its also missing a tailshaft, which i should be able to get at a wrecker or something, and i couldnt find the locknut key in any of the little boxes, which was a big bummer. Not sure if i can get one from a tyre shop or if i am going to have to weld a normal nut to each of the locknuts and go from there...
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27922-1/IMG_2741.JPG
Not overly keen on welding as they are quite nice rims :)

On the upside of it all the fuel tank is already out:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27931-1/IMG_2744.JPG
Which means i wont skimp on putting a decent fuel pump in it now :)

Edit: oh yeah, i almost forgot. I found that there is absolutely no engine number stamped anywhere on the body, which makes re-registering it a lot easier with another engine.

Interestingly as well it was also silver at some point, the red is exterior only.

[takai]

In a probably completely vain effort to create a thread which will rival Babs' Hako thread im going to document nigh on everything that im doing.
All in all ill probably fail.

After cleaning up the BIG pile of parts and sorting them into the shelves in the garage space which the car will occupy (probably on the weekend when i can call on some other grunt to get the car maneuvered in, i started on the rust.

Remember this rust in the spare tyre well:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27940-1/IMG_2747.JPG

Well Mr Rust, meet Mr Rust Converter
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27946-1/IMG_2749.JPG
In this case in a wanky bottle called RustBuster.

Simply splash some onto a rag and wipe over all the rusted surfaces, allow to dry and a little while later it looks like this:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27949-1/IMG_2750.JPG
No rust left.

A little application of rattlecan silver and voila:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27952-1/IMG_2751.JPG

Yeah, i was sick today, couldnt be bothered doing much else, over the weekend ill get the car shifted in next to the race car and start looking at suspension and maybe pulling out the dead 5ME.

[takai]

Spent most of the weekend out at UPullIt getting bits for the Supra. But first i rolled it into its home for the next little while:

http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27957-1/IMG_2757.JPG
Making good friends with the Sprinter now. I also hooked up a battery so i could see how the electrics were, and given that nothing went smokey i went further and hit ignition and was happy to see that pretty much everything i had expected worked. Aircon is a bit weird, but thats ok, because im ditching the automatic AC and going to a manual setup. Digi dash worked, but im not entirely sure that ill end up using it. Power windows worked, but a bit sluggish, which could be just the battery being low.

So onto the bits that i got at UPullIt:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27963-1/IMG_2760.JPG
Picked up an analog dash, which should be relatively compatible with what i have, although it will require rewiring completely to work. The CelicaSupra guys have a whinge and say its too hard, but with <20 wires to swap around im sure it will be fine.

http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27984-1/IMG_2767.JPG
Picked up a fuel pump bracket and the lines associated, to finish off what was missing in my fuel tank, as well as an analog level sender. Which ill need if i use the analog dash.

Onto the suspension, i picked up everything for both of my options:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27966-1/IMG_2761.JPG
MX83 Cressida steering arms, and RA40 tie rod end tubes.

http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27969-1/IMG_2762.JPG
GH Sigma (left) and MX83 (right) lower control arms.

http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27975-1/IMG_2764.JPG
MX83 struts, and hubs.

I also found another Cressida with a black interior, so i picked up a few things which i had missed out in my car. Adding to my big pile of black bits:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27987-1/IMG_2768.JPG
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27990-1/IMG_2769.JPG

Bonus boot carpet:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27999-1/IMG_2772.JPG

Plus there was an EF with a trans cooler hanging out the front, so that came with me too. If i stick with power steering ill end up using it as a power steering cooler:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27981-1/IMG_2766.JPG

Also some pretty pics of the engine which will be powering it:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27978-1/IMG_2765.JPG
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27993-1/IMG_2770.JPG
VVTi 2JZGE, pretty standard atm, and ill have to do a bit of cleaning up of the wiring loom and sort out what the other ecu plugs are.

Plus on the downside of the weekend was finding a touch of rust here:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27996-1/IMG_2771.JPG
As a bonus its in the removable cowl, so not in the body which is nice. Ill cut it out and a bit of fibreglass and things will be all good.

So onto the suspension. Currently i have a few options, but the one which appeals to me is using the MX83 struts at the front for the 5stud. However, the kingpin angle is different between the MX83 strut and the MA61 strut, with the MX83 giving positive camber (signfiicantly) if used with the MA61 lower control arms.
The MA61 LCA is 295mm eye-to-eye and the MX83 LCA is 330mm eye-to-eye. Which is all well and good on paper. However, going from the GroupA cars the Supra works best at about 4-5deg neg camber on the front (and the AE86s seem to support this with 6deg neg working really well).

I havnt figured out what the static camber will be with the MX83 strut and LCA, so that is first thing to do on the cards. If its looking to be too high, then ill have the following options as i see it:
- Get the struts rebent to add more negative camber
- Find longer LCAs (dont want to do this as it adds more track at the front, and given that the GroupA cars ran 50mm extra at the front i dont want to add more)
- Find MS65 hubs and use the stock MA61 struts with the GH Sigma LCAs.

Thats about it for options, but i guess the first thing is to figure out the effective king pin angle and get cracking with some trigonometry and figure out what the camber adjustment is.

[takai]

I had a bit of time this afternoon to get the car up on jack stands and measure the king pin angle (angle between the mounting face of the hub and the strut tube) of all the struts that i have in the garage.

Now the long and the short of it is as follows:
MA61 strut KPI: 10.5deg
MA61 LCA length: 295mm
MX83 strut KPI: 13.1deg
MX83 LCA length: 330mm

Thats a 2.5deg difference in KPI angle between the MX83 and MA61 struts which would mean that if i just bolted the MX83 strut to the MA61 LCA i would probably get roughly 2.5deg positive camber (assuming 0ish camber stock on the MA61)
This seems to be roughly what Norbie got when he did his:
http://www.norbie.net/Project2JZ/BrakeUpgrade/Finished5.jpg

However, with the MX83 LCAs i gain an extra 35mm of track on each side. But what does that translate to in terms of camber. I dont have enough time right now to do the trig, as i have to go meet Gav for dinner before the IPRA meeting. But anyone want to try before i get back?

[takai]

Dave: unsure on the Kelsey controller, and to be honest i havnt had a chance to look at it. Also isnt the Enduro on the 8th?
I probably wont be driving or crew, but probably going to be Media.

Anyway, after that slight discursus, back to trig and strut angles.
Last night i sat down with a pen and paper and a scientific calculator and made some pretty diagrams with numbers on them. I made some pretty bodgy assumptions, such as the LCA being horizontal, and when the LCA is horizontal the stock camber is 0deg, neither of which are particularly true. But on the other hand it does let me treat it all as a right angle triangle.
If anyone is interested in the maths its basically "Given strut angle (90*-AoI) and LCA length, solve for other sides", then "Given shock length (from part A), and LCA length, solve for strut angle" then subtract strut angle from AoI to give effective camber.

Now with my bodgy assumptions i came to the rough conclusion that i would have about 0.9 deg negative camber with the MX83 suspension bits.

And then i woke up at a ridiculous time this morning, given that my wife is on an ambulance shift and had to be there by 7, and went out to the garage to test it. I basically dropped out the strut quickly, and then put the strut top onto the MX83 strut and bolted that in. Now i buggered the thread on the already stuffed steering arm at UPullIt getting it off so i had to just let it sit together to see if it worked. Onwards and upwards with the jack.
I took a measurement of the hub to guard distance on my Cressida for a
rough guide, and jacked it up to that height (350mm).

http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28052-1/IMG_2789.JPG

Breaking out the inclinometer i measured the angle:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28055-1/IMG_2790.JPG

1.3deg negative camber, not bad at all for some bodgy trig. Now the 0.4deg difference im putting down to the stock camber not being 0 when the LCAs are parallel to the ground.

I then had a bit of time on my hands and went and got the spare out of the Cressida to just have a quick test fit:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28058-1/IMG_2791.JPG
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28061-1/IMG_2792.JPG

Looks about 1.3neg too:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28064-1/IMG_2793.JPG

I cant jack it up any higher, because i havnt removed anything from the other side, including the swaybar, so if i try to jack it up higher the swaybar just binds up the chassis and lifts the entire chassis off the stands. Ooops.

Thats about it for now, i might get a chance to fiddle later if i go home early from work, as the stupid workmen are drilling again and i cant hear myself think.

[takai]

http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28067-1/IMG_2794.JPG

Picked up some calipers and a couple of discs today. Complete bargain price. Couple there for Gav as well. As a bonus it looks like they come with Endless pads, or at least something with a blue coloured backing.

[takai]

So, in the ubiquitous words of Martin Lawrence:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28146-1/real.jpg

I headed out to RallySA yesterday, and came home all geed up to do some work on the car, but without being able to turn on the air compressor and really get stuck into the engine bay i settled for doing this:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28089-2/IMG_2803.jpg
Was basically a matter of sitting there with a few screwdrivers and sockets and figuring out which screw came out of which area to release the whole shebang.
Finally got it all out and this was the pile of screws and bolts to go back in:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28098-2/IMG_2806.jpg

Dash looks half decent, and will get a clean up and sprayed black in the near future:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28092-2/IMG_2804.jpg

And there was a crap load of other stuff which is probably going to be ditched.
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28095-2/IMG_2805.jpg
Unsure about the heater core at the moment, as im not sure if ill be able to reuse that box or if ill need to get a manually controlled one for the manual controls.
The annoying bit was disconnecting the hundreds of wires which go into making the climate control work. So glad all of that is gone.

The old starwars dash is also out:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28101-2/IMG_2807.jpg
Awaiting me playing tracing time with it and the analog dash to figure out what needs to be repinned where in order to make the analog dash work.

I then got stuck into removing the cowl, and looking at what was under there:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28107-2/IMG_2809.jpg
Honestly i was expecting the worst, to see rust at the bottom of that area and lots of crap filling it up.

But it really wasnt bad at all:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28116-2/IMG_2812.jpg
No visible rust and i poked around a bit with a screw driver and couldnt see anything either.

So then without having much more time or stuff to do i got the engine ready for removal:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28086-2/IMG_2802.jpg

And treated the rust on all the under dash bracketry:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28080-2/IMG_2800.jpg
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28083-2/IMG_2801.jpg

Seriously, i dont understand why Toyota didnt bother to paint those bars, in every Toyota ive had they have been rusted to all hell.

Sunday rolled around and brought with it some glorious sunshine. In addition to a few other progress bits which i wont post up until they are finished, i got stuck into the drivetrain.
No interim pics, but the engine bay now looks like this:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28122-2/IMG_2814.jpg

With the 5M unceremonially dumped outside. The W box is sitting underneath the front bumper:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28125-2/IMG_2815.jpg

As Gav was around we decided to drop the rear subframe so i can get started on the camber bolt mod for it. After a bit of shifting stuff around and undoing some bolts it came out nicely:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28128-2/IMG_2816.jpg

Toyota wernt kidding around when they wanted to attach the snout of the diff to the subframe
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28131-2/IMG_2817.jpg
8xM10 bolts, 2 in each side AND 4 on top. Makes me wonder what the engineers were thinking when they thought a single snout bolt on the MX83 was a good idea.

In addition the rust conversion from yesterday turned out quite well:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28143-2/IMG_2821.jpg
Its had a second coat and waiting for it to dry.

I bought a present for the car as well:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28104-2/IMG_2808.jpg
12 cans at $1.50 each, quite worth it I think as the cans seem to do a much better job than the concentrate.

Next on the agenda is finishing off the subframe disassembly, testing the LSD, and starting the subframe mod for the camber adjustment. That should keep me busy until my 5 stud MS123 hubs arrive, and then i can start putting together the rear brake upgrade. While all thats happening ill be waiting on some shocks from the US and on some local suspension stuff for the front.
On the interior front im not going to do a huge amount for now, mainly checking the heater core and starting the manual heater control conversion, and also repinning the dash loom to use the analog dash.

That should keep me busy for now.

[Cap'n 2jz]

I'll be watching your progress, subscribed :thumbsup:

[zuprax85]

i need a damn garage...im on this too...

[memories83]

This project brings back a lot of memories as it look a lot like mine used too. Good luck and I'm glad too see another Supra being resurrected.

[deaf_rattle]

what you should do with those bars that sit behind the dash, is take them in for powder coating. leave some spare bolts in though, so the thread doesnt get caked up.

Looks a million times better.

In fact, look at my build thread, you will see what i mean. Heaps of powder coated parts.

keep up the good work.

[takai]

Nah, no powdercoating. But i do forsee a 1L tin of Silver Wattyl Killrust in the near future.

[CSupraNick]

Out of all of this, my favorite part is the "don't eat poo" sticker on your tool box.

[takai]

Hahahha, im surprised anyone noticed that. Both of my tool boxes are heavily stickered up.

This is the bigger box, a while ago:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27016-1/IMG_0378.JPG

Ill take some new shots of both of them, as a few people have commented on them.

[takai]

Tonight i had some time before dinner and got stuck into one of the rear trailing arms, preparing them for bigger brakes and the MS123 5stud hubs. After dinner i went back and did the other one in like 10min and took some photos.

Take one stock rear trailing arm:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28152-1/IMG_2822s.jpg

Remove brake lines
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28155-1/IMG_2823s.jpg

Attack with rattlegun:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28161-1/IMG_2825s.jpg
2x 14mm bolts holding the brake calipers on, and 4x 14mm nuts holding the driveshaft to the hub.

Looking in under that driveshaft shows a nice large 27mm nut holding the hub to the driveshaft flange, staked nicely, its probably been like this from factory.
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28167-1/IMG_2827s.jpg

Thankfully the staking has a little taper in the counter clockwise direction and the rattlegun makes damn short work of it:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28170-1/IMG_2828s.jpg
You can see here where the slight deformation in the nut is.

And once you pull off the hub and disc, you get something like this:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28182-1/IMG_2832s.jpg

Ok i cheated there slightly, thats the predone one, which has also had the guts of the handbrake removed for the R33 brake conversion.

Onto the more interesting stuff, the R33 brake upgrade.

Firstly, the obligatory comparison between the R33 disc (underneath) and the MA61 disc (ontop) Its not a huge difference, and to be honest i dont expect it to really add much in the way of braking effort. That said the little twinpot caliper is MUCH lighter and i do expect that to add a touch.
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28185-1/IMG_2833s.jpg

Thickness wise its much the same story, both being 18mm thick.
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28188-1/IMG_2834s.jpg

Where they differ on the other hand is the handbrake area. The R33 is a huge ~190mm ID for the handbrake:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28193-2/IMG_2835s.jpg
Wheras the MA61 is a stonkingly 22mm smaller:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28196-2/IMG_2836s.jpg

This will cause some issues with the handbrake, but from some reading most people have overcome this by simply getting extra material bonded to the shoes, 2-2.5mm extra is what i have read so an extra 5mm OD, and then i assume extending the adjustment for all its worth.
Luckily for me my handbrake shoes are rooted anyway, so theyll need to be done regardless, hopefully the rebonding isnt too expensive over new shoes:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28179-1/IMG_2831s.jpg

Now, onto the bracket. I had a very minor dilemma with the fact that the brake rotor is a 5stud rotor and the hubs are still 4stud until the MS123 ones arrive. However, they are the same stud pattern, so the problem is easily solved with a 2lb mallet. I quickly bashed out 3 of the studs and left the 4th to act as a locator along with the central hub flange.
Slapping on the R33 rotor and securing it with a spare wheel nut and then holding the caliper onto the disc (while juggling the camera) yielded this:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28197-1/IMG_2837s.jpg

The verniers say a 5-6mm backspace to the stock mounts depending on how the caliper is mounted. In addition the disc when just bolted to the hubs on its own fouls on the back of the handbrake, and wont sit completely flat. This would be a bit of dilemma, apart from the fortunate nature of the already backspaced caliper. What i shoudl be able to do is add a 5mm spacer to the underside of the disc (between the hub and the disc) so as to space the handbrake mechanism away from the disc face, and also as a bonus give a completely flat surface for a brake caliper adaptor.

To test this i pulled a couple of 3mm washers out from my box of washers and installed them:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28206-1/IMG_2840s.jpg
Trust me, thats 6mm.

With them installed and the disc over the top, with the trusty random lug nut holding it all together the caliper spacing was about 1mm positively offset:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28212-1/IMG_2842s.jpg

This seems to indicate that i can just create a caliper bracket which bolts to the back of the standard mounts (you can see me testing a bolt clearance in that picture too), as the standard mounts are not threaded (the threading is in the caliper). That bracket will then bolt through the "front" outwards to the R33 caliper and it should all line up.

I dont see any reason why this should be overly hard.

While i was out there before dinner the angle grinder with a sandpaper disc made very damn short work of the Nissan logos on the calipers:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28221-1/IMG_2845s.jpg
and
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28224-1/IMG_2846s.jpg

So off to source some 5mm spacers i go. Next project is to look at the camber eccentric bolt conversion for the suspension subframe.

[takai]

As per one of the things im going to do with this car is convert the starwars digi dash to an analog cluster. Which is relatively easy, but some people seem to think that repinning the 24 odd wires in the cluster is too hard.

http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28236-1/ma61analogtodigital.jpg

Thats the repinning, and only 6 wires need to be cut and soldered, the rest are straight repins.

[discoelk]

From what I understand, the digital clusters have different sending units.

[Dangerous Ken]

The dimmer pot is different too.

What is interesting is that the car looks to be 84+ with the wrap around front corner lights, but then it has the two plug 'orange plug' pre-TCCS ecu:

http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27925-1/IMG_2742.JPG

Makes me wonder if only the 5mge cars 1983 and on got three plug 'green plug' ecus and the associated dash and engine bay wiring. i.e. are the 5me cars more like the bastard child 1982 5mges?...

Ken

[takai]

Over here in Australia we didnt get the sheer number of types that you guys got. We got only one, Digi dash, 5ME. So basically a L type. But we were blessed by the lack of California spec bumpers :)

Also the fuel and oil senders need to be changed. Oil sender is the same as eleventy billion other Toyotas out there. 4AC, 4AGE, 2S, 3SGE, and for that matter whatever was in the celica that you get the dash from.
The fuel sender is a touch harder, by a touch i mean about half a bees dick. Just get it from the car you get the dash from.

[moonpie33]

Takai, I am deff subscribed to your build, and cannot wait to see the outcome of the beautiful car.
good luck and dont get to much of a headach!!!! ;)

[takai]

Phew, the Supra just occupied another full day of my time.
I was intending on getting up at a lovely leisurely time of 10am, but that was interupted by the need to call a BMW parts dealership in the US before they closed on the Friday. What you might ask do i need from a BMW dealership?
Quite easy really, M12x98mm eccentric bolts. Which come conveniently from the arse end of a BMW E39 5-series. Now the BMW dealership locally wanted $38 per bolt set (one side) and i needed 2, and 2 for Gav, so that was getting a bit expensive. All hail BMA parts in the US, who want only $9.35 for them, and postage for 8 sets (4 for BMWTurbo) is around $30. Laughing.

And then i got a call from Repco and threw down a coffee before ducking off to pick up these:

http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28239-1/IMG_0546s.jpg
Brand new MS123 crown rear discs. 269mm and solid rotors. Completely useless, apart from the handbrake assembly. If you remember from before i was going to run a 5mm spacer under the disc to make for a flat caliper adaptor. Well in this case there is no need, the MS123 disc will sacrifice itself to provide me a handbrake drum, and the 5mm spacer all in one.
As a double bonus these discs are on clearance at Repco for $22.50. The only reason i bought new ones.

So off i trundled to TKs to borrow the lathe:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28245-1/IMG_0548s.jpg

Just a matter of machining the rotor 99&#37; of the way thorugh, and then hit with a hammer to seperate from the hat/drum. Believe it or not that disc is currently spinning there.

http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28248-1/IMG_0549s.jpg
After smacking it with a persuader and now im just cleaning up the sharp edge left behind.
I did the first disc in 1hr, and the second in about 20mins. Not bad i dont think for not having used a lathe in about 6 years, and the last time i used it i had a guy standing over my shoulder the entire time.

http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28254-1/IMG_0551s.jpg
And this is what im left with, one MUCH lighter hat/drum from the MS123 Crown Royal.

http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28257-1/IMG_0552s.jpg
And here it is sitting pretty on the hub, now im still using my MA61 rear hubs as im testing. More on the MS123 stuff later.

http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28260-1/IMG_0553s.jpg
With the UZZ30 disc placed over the top and tightened down.

http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28263-1/IMG_0554s.jpg
And this isnt a duplicate, thats the same clearance as before :) Yay, all the theory works.

And then i set about making a caliper adaptor template. I grabbed a bit of 3mm alloy plate i had lying around and started hacking into it. After a few minutes i had this:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28287-1/IMG_0562s.jpg
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28293-1/IMG_0564s.jpg

Now all i have to do there is clean up the bracket for duplication into either 5mm or 10mm steel plate. Havnt decided which yet.

Next on the agenda was pulling the hubs so i could fit these:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28251-1/IMG_0550s.jpg
They are complete MS123 rear trailing arms. Thanks CLG for the hubs, and accessories.
Now they are reputed to be quite a little bitch to pull the hubs out and fit the new ones with many people opting to use a 20t press to get them apart. But the Toyota Repair and Service Manual says you can use a slide hammer to do the job. So i thought i would give it a go.
http://www.cygnusx1.net/Supra/Library/TSRM/MK2/RA/RA_006.gif

On the way back from TKs i ducked into JMS and picked up a junker S13 rear disc:

Once i had it on the bench i bolted it to a 5x114.3 disc and marked out the holes to be redrilled. With that done the drill press made pretty damn short work of the holes, and you then have what you see there, a double drilled disc, fits both on 4x114.3 and 5x114.3

http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28266-1/IMG_0555s.jpg

A bit of 25mm SHS was then the donor for a crossbrace
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28272-1/IMG_0557s.jpg

And then i welded a nut for my existing slide hammer onto it.
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28278-1/IMG_0559s.jpg

After assembling it all on the MA61 hub
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28284-1/IMG_0561s.jpg
I proceded to try and slide hammer it out, to absolutely no avail, despite trying as hard as i could. So i gave up on it for the time being as it was annoying me too much.
In hind sight i can see the essential step that i missed. In that TRSM on Step5 it says you need to remove the axle flange first... duh. So ill get onto removing the axle flange tomorrow. Hopefully the hub will come out then.

I continued on by making up some jigs for the engine mounts:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28305-1/IMG_0568s.jpg
And then realised that i had completely neglected to buy the 5mm plate i needed for those mounts... DOH. So that will have to be done when i can get some 5mm plate.

I then finished stripping and degreased the entire engine bay, and got it all ready for painting tomorrow. That was an entire day of work. Scary.

[takai]

And just to top off today ive drawn up the rear caliper adaptor. Now to just transfer it to CAD
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28310-2/Image281censor.jpg

Numbers removed until i find out whether its the right sizing.

[takai]

http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28311-1/rearcaliperadaptorcad.jpg
Now in CAD too,

[takai]

Now with one painted engine bay:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28314-1/IMG_0570s.jpg
Not too much to say, just plain old "Aluminum" Wattyl KillRust, thinned slightly and sprayed. Now i cant go into the garage because of the fumes :)

Will take a while to dry, but thats ok, nothing engine wise just yet.

[Supra_5tAt1c]

nice!! subscribed!!

[takai]

The 2JZGE VVTi that i bought for the Supra helpfully came with the ECU for it as well. But i have no idea of what car it came out of, and hence the pinouts on the ECU. Here it is though:

http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28317-1/IMG_0577_s.jpg
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28328-2/IMG_0580_s.jpg
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28325-2/IMG_0579_s.jpg

Engine is a stock front sumped version, and the wiring looks to be power through the body loom within cabin, rather than the Supra style of power through the body loom near the fusebox in the engine bay.
I cant see any alternator wiring on the engine loom, so im going to assume thats body loom too (makes life easy :) ).

Anyone able to identify what ECU it is? Better if you can give me the wiring diagrams for it too, but ill settle for knowing what ECU and car it came from.

[tiksman]

Well I have enjoyed your posting so I will help out.
My wife is Thai and all I found was in russian or thai by that ecu part #
The part # is 89661-3A140
Very close to 3A110,3A130,3A140.
I could not locate a pinout or a manual yet, I will keep looking.
Engine is out of a

1997 Toyota Crown jzs 155

http://www.cars-directory.net/pics/toyota/crown/1997/toyota_crown_2442650.jpg

[deaf_rattle]

nice heater trick!
are you able to take a pic of where the fuel lines and hard vacuum lines go? i bent mine slightly when i masked mine up and just need to know where all the hard lines sit.

cheers

[alfun]

List of things to do are:
4. Otomoto coilover kit for the front

Where can I buy these?

[takai]

Got a bit more done today on the old girl.

Firstly, i finished spraying the cowl, and demasked everything, so now the engine bay looks like this:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28408-1/IMG_0588_s.jpg
Pretty spiffy in my humble opinion.

Next, out came the S13 cambertops from Tim, and while they need a bit of a cleanup to get rid of the black paint, they fit like a charm:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28411-1/IMG_0589_s.jpg
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28414-1/IMG_0590_s.jpg
Simply have to file out the holes by a mm or so and it just goes in. Now due to the rotated design of the MA61 struts, i get negative castor as well as negative camber, which im not particularly complaining about.

Next i setup my little weeny cheap shop press which i bought on ebay for a steal:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28423-1/IMG_0593_s.jpg

Its not overly large, and i mainly got it for doing ball joints and suspension bushings, but i thought i would give it a try with the rear hubs, and successfully got one hub off the swingarm.
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28426-1/IMG_0594_s.jpg
But all in all it was a very frustrating process due to the height off the ground of the unit and the overall size of the thing. I think ill end up welding some leg extensions to it and bolting it to the ground.

For the hub though, i really cant see why it is so damn hard to get off:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28429-1/IMG_0595_s.jpg

Next on the agenda was spending half an hour or so making up engine mounts:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28417-1/IMG_0591_s.jpg

Thats the exhaust side, and i have altered the design slightly, but i dont think i have compromised at all on the strength, the main reason for the design alteration was due to the extra bulk of the 2JZ intake and exhaust manifolds.

http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28420-1/IMG_0592_s.jpg
Thats the intake side, almost complete, although i need a new tip for the MIG as its starting to stutter a lot (as you can see in the top weld).

Finally, i picked up a set of R32 GTST wheels and tyres for runaround and starting wheels.
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28405-1/IMG_0587_s.jpg
Ill probably move on from these once the Supra is complete and i can figure out offsets and the like.

Thats about it for now, my list of things to do is a mile and a half long, so there is much more to do, but as they say, no rest for the wicked :)

[RedP85]

....i dont think i have compromised at all on the strength
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28420-1/IMG_0592_s.jpg
you sure did, with half the ribs, half the strebght !
You have lots of special tooling !

[discoelk]

I'd beef up that exhaust side just to be safe. Not only have you effected it's ability to support the engine, you've also made it more prone to rotation and twisting. The welds are pretty though!

[takai]

Hahaha, i didnt think that it would be interpreted in that way.
I was referring to this picture:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28417-1/IMG_0591_s.jpg

When saying that the design was changed slightly. The change is that the ribs arnt quite as tall so they dont foul on some parts of the NA 2JZ manifold.

The exhaust side there is only half complete, i stopped because i need a new tip for the MIG.

[Dangerous Ken]

Let me congratulate you for this :twodrunkg :

http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28429-1/IMG_0595_s.jpg

I've paid a shop before because mine were stuck in as well.

I was wondering if you think there is enough room to use something like this instead of that press? - http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=95326

Only $60 as compared to the 'professional' tool where the jaws bolt on for $250...http://www.napaonline.com/NOLPPSE/(S(ukfwz0yv1oxprl453qvfufze))/Detail.aspx?R=SER2251_0006402400#

EDIT: looks like the napa link expired. It's part number search SER 2251 to bring up the tool you bolt on.

I have a couple more cars to do the rear bearings on so I'm hoping the $60 tool could be made to work.

Ken

[takai]

The problem with the gear puller design is that there isnt anything to pull against. You have to push it out and get tricky with jigs to get around the MASSIVE swingarm.

Ill take pics next time i do it.

[alfun]

Isn't there someone in the AU that already makes 2JZ motor mounts? Why didn't you just buy those?

[takai]

Yep, there is. At the moment its me.

[takai]

Sadly very litle progress this last weekend, as i was out most of Saturday shooting the IPRA races at the HQ Enduro, that said i still managed to squeeze in a bit of time, here and there.

First of all my little $70 shop press grew some legs.
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28470-1/IMG_0606_s.jpg
Now its actually usable without being a complete midget. Yes i know i was welding gal, but for half the price of the blue at the same sizes i didnt care. Especially when it was just that press. All of $80 now.

Next up i pulled the rack end off a spare MX83 rack, which was a complete pain in the arse, as the person who had built the MX83 rack had stuffed up and got the crimp washer caught in the threads of the rack and so i was having to fight against galled metal in the threads. Anyway after pulling it off ive confirmed that the MX83 rack ends fit perfectly in the MA61 rack, and add the extra length needed for the 325mm LCAs:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28473-1/IMG_0607_s.jpg

By that point on Friday night it was getting a bit late to start anything new, so i resigned myself to just pulling apart the Aircon and heater boxes to give them a good clean, and in the case of the aircon remove the core:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28476-1/IMG_0608_s.jpg

Now nice and empty:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28479-1/IMG_0609_s.jpg
Ill probably glue some plastic in there too to seal off the holes, and maybe enlarge the hole that the wiring loom goes through from the engine bay.

The heater core now looks like this:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28482-1/IMG_0610_s.jpg
The actual core itself has a couple of little cracks around the necks of the inlet and outlet and ill need to solder it up. Pretty easy though, so ill get around to doing that later.

On the Saturday after going out to Mallala and before the quiz night Gav (Gavatron) thought i was being a weeny little man and not being able to use the slide hammer hard enough to get the stub axle out, so he had a go:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28554-1/IMG_0634_s.jpg

The stub axle merely sniggered at him, and called both of us weeny.

Finally i borrowed a rad off a friend to check on fitment and have confirmed good fitment and ordered one off eBay... what is it you ask. Well that will come later:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28557-1/IMG_0635_s.jpg

Thats about it for now. The eccentric bolts have shipped from BMA Auto in the US, and should be here soonish. Im also waiting on a big order of shocks from SummitRacing in the states and hopefully that will arrive sometime in September, as they are backordered, although i notice that the rears have arrived in their warehouse, so maybe it will come early.
Next on the agenda is to finish cleaning the crossmembers and stuff and get it back in the car so i can start fitting up the rest of the parts i already have.

[takai]

Didnt get much done this weekend either, apart from coating half the backyward in overspray due to the winds being so horrible.

That said all the bits for the car are nice and clean and either silver or black:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28577-1/IMG_0640_s.jpg

http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28580-1/IMG_0641_s.jpg

I also had a chance to sit down and redrill the MX83 LCAs and get them all setup for the MA61 castor rods:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28583-1/IMG_0642_s.jpg

In addition i went round to TKs and his press comfortably popped the hubs out where my weeny press completely failed:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28586-1/IMG_0643_s.jpg

What i couldnt do though is get the UZZ30 discs to fit on the lathe, as the edge of the disc just touches the bed when its secured to the jaws. So i still have to get the center hole enlarged out to 67mm to suit the nice larger MS123 hubs.

On the other hand absolutely everything else has shipped. My shocks are on their way from the US, and the camber bolts have arrived at the post office (according to the USPS site, and how it tracks stuff 10x better than the AusPost site always amazes me [at how crap the Auspost site is]). I sourced a JZA80 bellhousing this morning, and im going to splash out for a cromo flywheel.
The radiator that i have ordered is at the courier depot and im going to go pick it up this afternoon.

Next on the agenda is to testfit the MX83 struts in the front so i can work out how much i want to shorten them by and still have reasonable cleraance and suspension travel.
Then i have to make up the slotted tabs for the rear suspension, and weld them up.
After that its all childsplay, simply just bolting it all back together.

[takai]

Feeling like a small kid at Christmas, more stuff arrived in the post today:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28589-1/IMG_0644_s.jpg
Aforementioned camber bolts.

http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28595-1/IMG_0646_s.jpg
Alloy radiator.

But most importantly:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28598-1/IMG_0647_s.jpg
Mark Webber collectable memorabilia stamps.

[takai]

So, what do you do while watching a rerun of the Valencia GP?
Well sit down on the couch with a BMW eccentric bolt and do some drawing.

This is what i came up with:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28601-1/IMG_0650_s.jpg
Top right is the eccentric bolt looking down the shaft and you can see the inner circle which is the bolt shaft itself and is offset by 4mm from the center of the eccentric washer. This will give us a total adjustability of 8mm.
Top left is the plate im going to make up for the bolt. Its measured out to 26mm wide because i was being lazy and didnt want to use the half grade measure with an 0.7 lead, and it would have distracted from my TV watching. In reality it will be somewhere between 24 and 26mm due to the sheer innaccuracy of the angle grinder. In that diagram you can see the slot which will have to be drilled out of the center. Probably a pair of 12.2mm holes and then some filing to complete.
Bottom is the side on view of the bracket, which ill construct out of 3mm plate (as i have it around) and the tabs will protrude 5mm from the plate, for a total width of 8mm. Will need to cut blanks of 25x50mm. All neat and tidy.

Now just to do it.
Also, quite remarkably i got a note today from DHL saying that my shocks had arrived from the US. Im getting them redelivered to work tomorrow.

[takai]

Well that was THE most unproductive night in the garage ever.

I was out there for about 2 hrs and got buggerall done, however here is what i did do.

Firstly, i want to figure out how much i need to cut off the strut to shorten it for the short stroke shocks. So first of all i had to refit one of the LCAs with a ball joint and then bolt on the steering arm. Easy enough, i then fitted it to the car. Also easy.
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28613-1/IMG_0653_s.jpg
After fitting up one of the MX83 struts as so:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28610-1/IMG_0652_s.jpg
And setting it to maximum camber and caster:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28607-1/IMG_0651_s.jpg
I then went and rescued one of the wheels from their day job of holding a friends tent in place in our carport so it can dry. The advantages and disadvantages in living in a house while friends live in flats:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28616-1/IMG_0654_s.jpg

I bolted a wheel on and then jacked it up to an approximate (very approximate) ride height:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28622-1/IMG_0656_s.jpg
I figure at least this way i can work out somewhat how high the spring perch needs to sit.

Taking the wheel off i measured a 460mm overall strut length, compressed of course:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28628-1/IMG_0659_s.jpg

Interestingly enough this yields 3deg neg camber:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28631-1/IMG_0660_s.jpg
But a touch over 8deg caster:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28634-1/IMG_0661_s.jpg

After all that i completely forgot to measure the hub to guard distance so i can compare it with other MA61s for ride height equivalence. So ill have to do that later.

With that done i moved on to making some of the camber adjust bolt plates, and here is where the real fun started.
Due to some mild brainfarts i was under the impression that i needed to cut 25x50mm plates out of 3mm and then slot them up according to my measurements. Unfortunately i was highly mistaken. I actually needed 25x44mm plates and would then slot them accordingly. That slight mismeasurement cost me 2 cocked up plates before i figured out what i was doing wrong.
Anyway, this is how i was making them, basically drilling 2 holes and then slotting them out to be 20mm OD long.
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28637-1/IMG_0665_s.jpg
Clamping them in a vice at the end:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28640-1/IMG_0667_s.jpg
And then beating the absolute crap out of them until they had formed flanges:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28643-1/IMG_0668_s.jpg
And voila, one finished:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28646-1/IMG_0669_s.jpg
With free bonus flash glare.

After being so totally frustrated with that, i decided i would do a few other little jobs in the garage, like cleaning up a bit, and measured up my rad for fitment later. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) i dont have any 50x50 angle otherwise i would have started fitting it up and probably cocked it up too.

I fitted a few other little things to the engine bay:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28649-1/IMG_0670_s.jpg
All with M6 stainless capscrews (surely to Gav's delight) for a touch of bling.

Finally i got around to measuring up the shocks which arrived today and came up with the following:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28661-1/IMG_0674_s.jpg
360mm body length
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28664-1/IMG_0675_s.jpg
550mm overall length.
So a 190mm stroke.

Thats about it for now, ill do some calculations tomorrow as to how long i need the struts to be, and we will go from there.

[takai]

This morning i woke up with a strange realisation that given the hub to strut top height of 460mm the strut really couldnt be that long.
So off i trundled to the garage, tape measure in hand ready for the showdown.

What i found was interesting, the strut tube body is already a mere 360mm, which is a perfect fit for my SW20 struts, and i have no option as to how much to cut down the struts as i cant. As people say in South Australia "Problem Solvered".

I also measured the full droop distances for the strut and the hub to guard, and while i cant remember the measurements off the top of my head after some "very tricky" mathematics, namely addition and subtraction, the hub (center of the hub) to guard lip height in the photo above is approximately 350mm.

So that makes my life a lot easier, i have absolutely no option as to whether i can cut down the struts or not, and now just have to decide how high to put the coilover sleeve.

[takai]

Today i had the afternoon to get some work done on the car, and seeing as the rear eccentric bolts were in and sitting there looking at me (along with the 40x3 RHS) i got started on the rear camber mod.
Now the whole reasoning behind this is that the MA61 with its super duper high tech 1980s dual blade rear suspension gains camber like a mofo when you lower it, so much so that you really need adjustable camber. Infact in this case im only going to be adding adjustment for more positive camber because its really a bit excessive otherwise.

Out came the 40x3 which i aquired on Friday, and i set to work. Firstly i cut the RHS into 25mm segments and then halved them.
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28701-1/IMG_0684_s.jpg
Marked it all up, and started drilling:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28704-1/IMG_0685_s.jpg
I then cheese holed the bracket with a 4ish mm drillbit:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28713-1/IMG_0688_s.jpg
Then i went absolutely nutso with a round and half moon file and ended up with this:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28719-1/IMG_0690_s.jpg
Cut the sides down and voila:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28725-1/IMG_0692_s.jpg

And then i made another three:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28731-1/IMG_0694_s.jpg

After a brief rest, and a beer, i set about preparing the crossmember for its new friends. A bit of angle grinding here and there, and slicing and dicing came up with this:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28734-1/IMG_0695_s.jpg
Just mocked up at this stage.

A hell of a lot more slicing, dicing, welding, filing and slotting followed and i finally ended up with this:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28749-1/IMG_0700_s.jpg

Other side is approximately the same. Reasonably nicely welded in, good penetration, and it all works :) yay.

To round out the night i then started on making the radiator mounts, and got one done before i had to call it quits for the night:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28752-1/IMG_0701_s.jpg
Its a pretty darn big radiator for that spot, with the lower water outlet only just clearing the swaybar/castor rod bracketry, thats ok though, so long as it clears the bigger the better.

But now im kind of stuck. I cant reassemble the rear end as im still not sure what to do with studs for the rear of the car. Nice products are out of stock and ridiculously expensive, so it might be OEM toyota for the job.
I cant rebuild the front of the car as i dont have the coilover sleeves yet, and i cant redo the interior as i dont have carpet.

Therefore, ill be ordering carpet first thing on Monday morning, and we will see if i can get the interior fitted up next.

In other news i cant get an ID check any other way apart from putting a 5MPOO back into the car, and so as such Rob has kindly offered to bring one down for me at a reasonable price. Once that arrives ill be able to pop it in and get the car back on the road.

Also my 2JZGE bellhousing arrived, but thats kind of boring really.

[takai]

Today i had an early start at work trying to get some stuff done while i was feeling fresh and not so headachy, and then the stupid workmen who dont care anymore because they are so far behind on the project that the penalty clause is in full swing, started drilling and made my office into a 105db hell. Hence i left and went off up to Edinburgh to sign and recieve a document (which i already had, kind of pointless really), dropped off my UZZ30 discs for machining out to 67mm ID on the hub (as TKs lathe is only 300mm swing over the bed and cant fit my 308mm disc), and then ducked in to UPullIt on my late "lunch break" before heading home.

While i was there i scored an MX83 brake master cylinder:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28761-1/IMG_0704_s.jpg
Manual heater controls, with all their assorted cables:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28758-1/IMG_0703_s.jpg

But most importantly i did some searching for studs for the rear of the Supra. Now because im running a disc under disc setup i need studs which are 5-6mm longer than the stock ones, which are 27mm exposed length. But Toyota use a 14.1mm knurl on the stud and are reasonably hard to find replacements. To the poitn that Nice studs have no stock of the longer NS3400s currently.

I had a heads up that some Mitsubishi commercial ones might fit as they are a 14.3mm knurl and as such will interference fit nicely in without too many problems. I also knew from the Toyota parts cattledog that Hiaces had longer studs in the rear, about 45mm overall length rather than the 40mm that the Supra ran.

So off i went hunting, and out of all the cars in the yard there was only one Hiace which didnt have rooted studs already, and i pulled those out. But there were about 5 econovans which lost their rear studs as well.

When i got home i took some measurements:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28773-1/IMG_0708_s.jpg
It seems that the Hiace studs are 4-5mm longer than the MA61 ones and the Mitsubishi ones are 5-6mm longer than the MA61 ones. Both press into the hubs quite nicely and easily as seen here:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28779-1/IMG_0710_s.jpg
That hub is running one of each studs, MA61, Hiace and Econovan

And here is a direct comparison of length:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28776-1/IMG_0709_s.jpg

So thats my studs almost solved, i now just have to decide between the Hiace (which i only have 10 of) and the Econovan studs (which i have about 20-30 of).

On my way home i picked up some vinyl dye, which is absolute golden stuff:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28764-1/IMG_0705_s.jpg

and then painted my dash:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28767-1/IMG_0706_s.jpg

Should come up quite nicely once its dry.

And finally i pulled my JZA80 bellhousing out and confirmed fitment:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28770-1/IMG_0707_s.jpg

All in all a fairly decent couple of hours. Sadly things will take a bit of a break for the next week or so, as my parents are in town for my birthday and i have some other things to do. Hopefully it will all start up again in the second week of September.

[Muchbzy]

Good stuff! You deserve a day or so off! Can't wait for you to get back in there makes for great reading...Oh and happy birthday!

[takai]

Thanks Muchbzy

I know i said i woudlnt get much done in the week or so that my parents were around, but i couldnt help myself. After gardening one day i ducked out to the garage and fitted up the rear stubaxles. Its a pretty easy process, simply regrease them and pop them into the carrier, then pop the driveshaft flange on the other end and the appropriate washers and start to tighten. I used my slide hammer plate so that i could stand it up in the vice to tighten against:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28792-1/IMG_0715_s.jpg

Once its tightened just stake the stub axle nut so it cant come undone:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28795-1/IMG_0716_s.jpg

Pretty easy all in all.

With that out of the way i turned to the fuel pump. Now the old Bosch unit had to go, because i had no idea of the details about it and even whether it worked. Gav and i both got Walbro GSS 342s to install.

Pretty piddling to fit to the bracket:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28798-1/IMG_0717_s.jpg

But the stock Walbro GSS342 pickup filter is at a very awkward angle, and fouls on the bottom of the tank:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28801-1/IMG_0718_s.jpg

I know others have cut the pick up and made it fit, but luckily the pickup from the Bosch pump was a direct fit on, and popped on easily.
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28804-1/IMG_0719_s.jpg
Add one hose clamp and its all done. I ended up repinning the existing wiring into the Walbro plug and voila, one completed fuel pump.

In addition while i was gardening yesterday the nice postie came around with this:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28891-1/IMG_0748_s.jpg
Fresh black auto carpet from Knox.

Plus as a birthday present to myself i picked up a set of AVS Model 6s replete with Adrenalines RE01s.
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28896-1/DSC00326.JPG

The list of things to do is rapidly diminishing.

[takai]

Ive had a few minutes tonight before everyone gets home to quickly testfit the AVSs, and all i can say is OOOOOH yeah.

When i bought them i was intending for them to be basically track thrasher rims as i didnt think they would look that good on the car. But now im not so sure:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28897-1/IMG_0749_s.jpg
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28903-1/IMG_0751_s.jpg

Fitment is great:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28900-1/IMG_0750_s.jpg

I cant get them any higher in the wheel arch currently as im having to jack up off the lower control arm so far inboard (8" rim) that part of the jack overlaps the engine xmember. That point there is with the LCA parallel with the ground (any higher and i start jacking the car up entirely).

I quite like them, and not sure if ill use them as day to day wheels or track thrashers. I still think some nice meshies would be good for daily rims.

Opinions are needed now on whether the fitment is good, and more importantly whether to keep them black or get them powdercoated some other colour.

[takai]

Maybe something like this, a volk style bronze:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28915-1/IMG_0749_s_bronze.jpg
Cant quite get the colour right in W7Paint.

But this type of colour:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28914-1/newvolk0051tl4.jpg

[takai]

Did a bit of work on the car this weekend, after setting up the new computer in the garage, and dealing with guys coming to buy wheels i set about getting the rear subframe back in, so doing a fair bit of work fiddling with getting the rear handbrake shoes all setup correctly so that it all works nicely. I have decided that i completely hate handbrake shoes and especially the little ones which are setup for 167mm handbrakes under discs. Loads of nasty fiddling. Gav came aroudn as well to do his camber mod on the subframe.

Anyway i got all that setup and Gav and I popped it all back in, as so:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28918-1/IMG_0754_s.jpg
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28933-1/IMG_0759_s.jpg

We mucked around a bit with testing wheel fitment (i forgot to take pictures) before calling it a morning for lunch and got out of the hot garage and went to pick up some lunch and a set of Simmons V4s for the race car :)

In the afternoon i ended up welding up Gav's subframe after he set it all up, and then replaced the MA61 rack ends with the MX83 ones:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28921-1/IMG_0755_s.jpg

After then having some issues finding stuff in the garage we called it a day.

Today i ended up having a couple of hours in the afternoon to do some work, and decided to get going on the interior. After sorting out where all the various bits were in the boxes i set to work at getting the new carpet in. After a couple of ours i had fit both the front and rear carpets, and cut most of the holes:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28924-1/IMG_0756_s.jpg
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28930-1/IMG_0758_s.jpg

I also installed my two lower harness mounts for the harness when it comes:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28927-1/IMG_0757_s.jpg

In adddition we have a nice new to-do list, with some stuff already crossed off :)
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28936-1/IMG_0760_s.jpg

[Levdir]

Looks like it's coming together great. I'd love to see that dash when it's dry; I'm curious.

[takai]

That is the dash when its dry, i took that photo about 6hrs after painting it.

[takai]

Nothing got done on it today, but i had to upload some pics for wheels im selling so i thought i would jsut add what i have bought for the car recently.

I went past JB today to remedy the situation with the stereo, and now i feel like a freaking ricer. Bought a nice understated Alpine deck which was the cheapest one there with a USB input, and then had to sully myself with buying 6x9s as the holes in the car are ugly arse holes cut for 6x9s :(
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28939-1/IMG_0761_s.jpg

Ohwell, i then felt even more like a ricer to find that my cheapo off NS catchcan had arrived at the post office:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28942-1/IMG_0762_s.jpg

At least its 2L and fulfils the requirement for CAMS for a 2L catchcan.
Thats about it for now, hope to get a few more little bits done on Wednesday evening.

[Levdir]

That is the dash when its dry, i took that photo about 6hrs after painting it.
Oh, okay. The text indicated otherwise. Looks good, near as I can tell from that photo :)

[takai]

Got a bit more done tonight, notably i finished off the radiator mounts.

As some eagle eyes have noticed ive decided to use an S13 alloy radiator, courtesy of eBay for the job. It fits pretty much perfectly, and as a bit of a random bonus the MA61 has bolt on lower mounts, which means that i could very simply fabricate up bracketry for it. In addition the S13 came with both CA18 and SR20 so i could decide which side i wanted the top water outlet to be on for the task at hand. In this case ive gone with the SR20 variant which has the lower outlet on the drivers side and the upper on the passenger. All mounted up it looks like this:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28978-1/IMG_0778_s.jpg
Fairly simple alloy strapping with 3/8 wiring grommets for the top:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28981-1/IMG_0779_s.jpg
And there you can see the pretty much perfect width for the job.
On the bottom we can see the custom mounts made up to house the stock S13 rubbers:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28984-1/IMG_0780_s.jpg
And as an added bonus you can see how they bolt to the stock mounting locations. To make the new mounts and bracketry i ended up ducking out to bunnings to pick up my new friends:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28999-1/IMG_0785_s.jpg
A nice set of stepped drillbits which they had on sale for $25 (3 in the pack) and they cut through metal like butter. Made it all a breeze, from drilling out the spotwelds from the original rad bracketry, to drilling the 16mm hole for the rubber insert on the lowers, this ate through it like butter.

Next up i decided to pop a coat of paint on my calipers. I decided a while ago to use VHT caliper paint in black and that went on a charm. On the instructions it says to bake the item at 100deg for 1hr, which i dutifully did:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28969-1/IMG_0773_s.jpg
NEVER AGAIN, i should have remembered from painting my exhaust wrap that as the VHT cures it gives off this smoky fumes and indeed this one did the same, and the entire kitchen was covered in it. Thankfully with some fans and exhaust vents the kitchen cleared quickly and i roasted some garlic to get rid of the smell.
On the upside the calipers did come out quite nicely:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28972-1/IMG_0776_s.jpg
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28975-1/IMG_0777_s.jpg

While that was happening i turned my attention to the rest of the car. First on the list was cleaning and replacing the steering rack, which was a complete doddle:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28987-1/IMG_0781_s.jpg
Its amazing what a can of degreaser and a little elbow grease followed by the high pressure hose will do.
I then popped on the brand new TRW tierod ends, and struck a slight problem:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29002-1/IMG_0786_s.jpg
While the balljoint itself seems to be the right taper, the castleated nut is just way too thin, and in addition the thread of these new balljoints is different to the shagged ones i removed and so i cant just reuse the old nuts. Hm, kind of a problem.

Setting that aside i pulled out the next thing on the agenda, fitting up the high pressure fuel filter. This unit which you see here is an AE92 unit which ive had sitting around since 2003 when i built my GZEd AE92, and ive kept tryign to find uses for it and then misplacing it once ive found them etc etc. This time no more, its bolted in the car now:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28996-1/IMG_0784_s.jpg
That stepped drillbit above came in handy again too, popping 6mm holes in the chassis almost faster than you could say boo, this time i used it with my air drill rather than the electric and it ate it like butter. My new favourite toy.

Lastly while waiting for the calipers to dry and then for the kitchen to destink i put the dash back in, and finished off the heater controls:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28990-1/IMG_0782_s.jpg
The black vinyl dye came out quite nicely i think.
And one gratuitious interior shot:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28993-1/IMG_0783_s.jpg

The to-do list is shortening up quite nicely now:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29005-1/IMG_0788_s.jpg

From now i wont get much time to work on it until Saturday when Rob is coming down from Sydney with both my new Poo engine and another set of AVS Model 6s which will fit better on the front (more on that later).

[takai]

Well between buying huge amounts of meat and salad materials, i had a bit of time in the afternoon to get stuck into the car. First up was filling the diff full of LSD oil, a nice boring and slow task.
After that came putting the fuel tank in, pretty easy and straight forward, excpet that i realised now that its in i cant get to the fuel feed fitting to connect the pump to the filter. EPIC fail for whoever designed it in that way.

Anyway, shortly after that Gav came around and procrastinated a bit, and then we got slightly worried about radiator to bonnet clearance (despite Rob's assurances). A quick testfit of the bonnet revealed that Rob was indeed correct:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29013-1/IMG_0790_s.jpg
And nothing will foul there.

Then Rob, Miick and Nath arrived down from Sydney, after getting a little bit loose in Mildura.

With them they brought a poo-engine.
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29019-1/IMG_0792_s.jpg
Hand delivered all the way from Sydney, for pretty much the cost of fuel. Thanks guys, you are champs.

And a set of wheels, which i didnt take any photos of.

After hanging around, drinking Asahi, and eating snags on the BBQ they headed off to find their caravan park for the night, and i set about trying to figure out where to store the Poo. In the end as it was already on the crane i decided to put it in the car.
About half an hour later, with much changing of engine mounts, and generally getting annoyed at the Poo, Gav and i had it looking like this:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29022-1/IMG_0793_s.jpg
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29040-1/IMG_0799_s.jpg

One Poo engine securely in the engine bay. Hopefully not there for any longer than it needs to be too. Over the next couple of weeks ill refit the interior and hopefully get all the fueling sorted out from the pump and filter, and then have it ready for going through Regency.
I also have to wait for a guy in Adelaide to swap over a set of stock MX83 struts for his new coilovers so i can buy them off him and take the Supra through with completely stock suspension.
Thats about it for now.

[jzar]

Keep up the great postings! You do a lot of hard work to get all these photots and get work done. I have become quite the fan. I thought you should know. :)

[takai]

Thanks jzar for the kind words

Anyway, today i had some fun with a Rivnut gun. Thanks to Joel (Bigpermage) for lending me the rivnut gun. Ive had a few comments on various places asking what a Rivnut gun is, and how to use it. So here goes:

This is the Rivnut gun in question:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29043-1/IMG_0800_s.jpg
Basically you screw a little threaded doovie onto the end of it, and the lever action of the pliers pull the thread twoards the flat plate at the end and compress it, basically locking it onto the plate you want the nut to be secured to.

So first order of teh day is to figure out how big a hole to drill:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29054-2/IMG_0803_s.jpg
9mm in this case, so out comes the trusty airdrill with the stepper bit:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29057-2/IMG_0805_s.jpg
Note the 9mm step marked in in black texta, this allows for nice and easy differentiation of the step you want to stop on.
With the hole drilled an M6 rivnut is screwed onto the gun/pliers:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29060-2/IMG_0806_s.jpg
Jammed into the hole, and then clamped close:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29063-2/IMG_0807_s.jpg
Pretty damn simple, and you are hopefully left with a rivnut that looks like this:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29066-2/IMG_0808_s.jpg
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29069-2/IMG_0809_s.jpg

With both of them drilled out, i popped the rad back in:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29073-1/IMG_0811_s.jpg
All fitted up quite nicely, and looks like ill only have to replace the upper rad hose,

A few other shots from the other day too:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29079-1/IMG_0814_s.jpg
Fuel tank in.
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29085-1/IMG_0816_s.jpg
Filter sqeezed in there nicely.

And a whole stack of AVS Model 6s brought down with the 5M by Rob, Miick and Nath.
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29091-1/IMG_0818_s.jpg
Thanks again guys.

Thats about it. But in Ed baller style, this thread update brought to you by Asahi:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29088-1/IMG_0817_s.jpg

[takai]

Got some more bling bling for the car yesterday, my Techno Toy Tuning MX83 RCAs arrived:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29104-1/IMG_0822_s.jpg

What are RCAs? Do i hear some people ask. Well thats a good question young Jimmy.
Basically when you design the suspension layout of a car you take into account the angles of certain components relative to each other at the usual ride height.
One of these is the angle between the steering arm and the tierod end, and this is quite important, as the tierod/rack end will travel in an arc with the rackend at the center of that arc. However, the steering arm while also travelling in an arc uses the LCA inner bush as the center of the arc. At various points on these differing arcs the difference in angle isnt overly great, and the car is designed to be operated within that range. However when you lower a car you take the operating range out of that designed area. We commonly hear the term "bump steer" thrown around, and this is exactly what it is. On a lowered car the steering arm is commonly in a different section of the arc to the tierod/rack end, and therefore during suspension travel the tierod/rack end and hence your steering is pushed around, and changes angle. You can commonly feel this as a jerk in the steering wheel as you go over rough ground.

So how to RCAs help this? Well the idea with an RCA is to help to push the steering arm down and back closer to the original arc of travel for both the steering arm and the lower control arm. "Hey what", you say, "that sounds suspiciously like raising a car again, i want my car to be hektic and lowahed bruv". Yes little Jimmy, it is like raising a car, only now you are basically pushing the axle upwards on the essentially lengthened strut. As this diagram helps to show:
http://www.technotoytuning.com/media/rca_diagram.gif

Pretty spiffy huh.

And one gratuitous shot of one sitting in place:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29107-1/IMG_0823_s.jpg

I got these RCAs, and indeed a whole bunch of other stuff that i get regularly from Techno Toy Tuning (http://www.technotoytuning.com)(free plug there Gabe), a company in the US which manufactures top quality gear, and are really nice people to boot.
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29110-1/IMG_0824_s.jpg
Ive bought a fair swathe of gear from them in the past, and never had any issues with any of it. Top notch.

[jzar]

Wow...I'be been dying to ask that question. Thanks for the great and detailed explaination!

[RedP85]

you could be a good teacher too, :good: explanation !

[takai]

Thanks guys, the comments and feedback is all appreciated.

Teeny update. All the interior is now back in:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29116-1/IMG_0826_s.jpg
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29122-1/IMG_0828_s.jpg

Need a new roof lining, as the one thats there is royally rooted, and it all needs a bit of a steam clean, other than that it looks good.

Fitted a lot more stuff into the engine bay too:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29119-1/IMG_0827_s.jpg

Just need a battery and a the power steering to be plumbed in and its all pretty right there.

Oh and who wants to play identify the connectors:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29113-1/IMG_0825_s.jpg

Waterproof plug one, and ring connector...

Tonights job is to get a battery and go to town with the analog dash conversion.

[takai]

Went on a bit of a spending spree today, and a whole bunch of other stuff arrived.

Firstly i headed off to Enzed to pick up some fueling bits:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29143-1/IMG_0835_s.jpg
Basically a nice M12 banjo bolt and banjo to suit, an easy solution for my fueling issues.

And then "while im out that way" i decided i would get the Cromo flywheel at the same time.
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29140-1/IMG_0834_s.jpg
Even though its completely unneeded for now as i have the 5MPoo in the engine bay.

Next i ducked past a wreckers and picked up a set of AU Falcon rad fans:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29137-1/IMG_0833_s.jpg
Which will fit up nicely on the S13 radiator.

Then i came home to this:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29127-2/IMG_0829_s.jpg
A nice M16x1.5 alloy bung which was kindly made up for me by JP and sent down overnight from Queensland, thats what i call real service. Tops job mate, thanks muchly again.

I went off to work and found a BIG parcel on my desk:
Containing firstly my coilover kit:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29131-1/IMG_0831_s.jpg

And also my steering wheel:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29134-1/IMG_0832_s.jpg

Both rather nice pieces of work. Thanks to Grant at Otomoto for supplying me with these.

Thats about it for now, this weekend will be a lot of getting stuck into finishing off the 5M build.

[takai]

A little bit of progress today, i spent the morning at TKs machining out various things, including my stock rear discs, so i was able to completely reassemble the rear end:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29155-1/IMG_0842_s.jpg
Spring and shock is only in on one side, but ill pull the driveshaft and do the other side tomorrow.

I also dropped the tank again and squeezed in my little fuel filter:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29149-1/IMG_0840_s.jpg
Pretty tight up there between the rail and the tank, but it should be ok.

Plus i mostly mounted up my little power steering cooler, just have to make a crossbrace back to the central upright tomorrow.
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29158-1/IMG_0843_s.jpg

Thats about it, tomorrow i want to put the steering column back in, and finish the dash off. Then im just waiting on a tailshaft and i can start thinking about getting it to start.

[takai]

Not much has happened as ive been away and sick, so its a bit of a double whammy, although i have managed to do a few little things.

Firstly, the one niggling little bit with the heater box has been solved:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29176-1/IMG_0844_s.jpg
The clip is where the Celica non-climate controlled dash normally sits and then because there isnt a post for the wire to clip over ive used a simple screw into the stock receiver to secure it.

Next up i added some paint to both sets of rims:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29188-1/IMG_0848_s.jpg
First up i painted one set with White Knight Metallic Charcoal paint, which i thought Babs was taking the piss about, but it as actually come out really nicely, im quite chuffed.
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29218-1/IMG_0859_s.jpg

The other set i decided to give a gold with a silver lip a go, just randomly, and this is how it came out:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29206-1/IMG_0855_s.jpg

Quite nice too imho, and i think i might go with that colour scheme for the other set of wheels, although im not sure which ill use as a daily set.

Next up i wired in the analog dash, a pretty simple exercise, although it appears that my previous spreadsheet was horribly wrong, and really only applies to LHD US cars, of which this isnt anything of the sort. So after a few panadol/telfast/codral/codine induced dramas with confusing a couple of wires it was all sorted out and everything that i can currently test works.
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29227-1/IMG_0869_s.jpg

Had a few dramas with the indicator stalk, but after "consulting" with some RA60s and other celicas yesterday at UPullIt i now have a small collection of good indicator stalks to use, and they are a piece of cake to swap over too. A circlip and repin 3 wires.

Up next on the agenda was wiring in the thermofans, and a fusebox for the thermos and my "hektic stezza bro".
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29224-1/IMG_0868_s.jpg
All made quite neat by my friend 3mm alu bar, and a bit of forward planning.

During this time i also popped in the tailshaft, filled the gearbox with oil, filled the engine with oil, and then started on the brake bleeding. Which turned out disasterously, because the MX83 master was pissing brake fluid out the back of the cylinder. No matter, a quick trip to Power Brakes in Holden Hill (highly recommended) and i had myself a 1" MX83 brake master kit. 1" i hear you say, i thought they were 15/16". Yes, well so did i, but it appears that the MX83s had a 1" master by default, but it seems that quite a few over the years have had 15/16"s put into them by dodgy brake shops (as my MX83 seems to have had) with little detriment, but possibly some slightly spongey brakes.
Never fear, after a quick reseal of my master cylinder, a bench bleed (made easy by a pair of brake lines borrowed from my rather sad looking race car) and we were back under way.
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29191-1/IMG_0849_s.jpg
After getting it all back together i taught my wife how to do the pedal end of bleeding brakes, and we set about doing a quick bleed. The first round found 2 stuck bleeder valves, but after that we were all alright. Ill do another round before we get stuck into it more though.

Now you might say, what front struts are you using, as last time i updated there wernt any in there.
Well on Tuesday i ducked up into the hills and picked up a pair of stock front struts from an MX83, expecting to have to chuck the MA61 upper hats on and use that. Well it seems that you dont even need to put MA61 upper hats on, the MX83 hat is the same as the MA61 one, and therefore the same as the S13 one. Nice coincidence:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29194-1/IMG_0850_s.jpg

Other than that i figured out my fueling stuff, wired up the ECU and got pretty much everything else sorted, im now champing at the bit to get some fuel and a banjo bolt so i can see if i can get the car started now :)

Oh yeah, and i cant figure out which of the 3 4pin plugs this sucker uses:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29221-1/IMG_0860_s.jpg

[takai]

Not overly much to show at for the last little while, just been tinkering and tidying up little things as i havnt been feeling well enough to get really stuck into it much.

However, i did find a fuel banjo bolt off my 4AGE which fits so i could bolt up the fuel rail and try for a first start. But to my dismay the fuel pump wasnt running and the ECU wasnt turning on. So after a hell of a lot of wire tracing i found that there was a previous alarm install where they had cut wires underneath the fusebox to disable the car. After some soldering and heatshrinking all was good again, and i was able to start the car.
Engine runs ok, but the first time i started it i had forgotten to plug in the fuel return hose near the tank, so i poured half a litre of fuel on the ground :).

After fixing that we were good again to go, but then i foudn that one of the fuel filter copper washers didnt seat down properly and has become crimped and isnt sealing properly, so ill need to replace those.

But for all of that the car is running, and it feels like im on the home stretch now.

I picked up my radiator too, from having the thermofan sensor bung welded into the bottom tank:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29331-2/IMG_0882_s.jpg

Then i modified the AU falcon rad fans to fit the radiator, which included taking almost 10mm of shroud off the front so it would sit closer to the rad:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29350-1/IMG_0895_s.jpg

Apart from that ive done a bit more on the interior, fitting up my speakers and tidying up wiring. Also i have finished off the manualisation of the climate control, which ill write up a little thing on later for future reference. Not many pics there, there are only so many pics you can take of heatshrunk wires and testlights before it becomes deathly boring.

Really feels like im on the home stretch now, just need to get some wheel nuts, sort out the upper radiator hose, sort out the fuel filter line, refit the interior, and do a brake bleed and we are pretty good to head off to Regency.

[takai]

Since that last post i havnt really had much time to get anything done, did a bit of interior refitment the other day, but other than that not much until tonight. What i have been doing though is trying to sort out this fuel filter leak, and tonight i just cracked it entirely and pulled all of it out and rejigged it.

At the back of the car i pulled the fuel filter and remade a basic straight hose between the two flare fittings, and to do that i scavenged fittings off the old engine bay rail and the existing one that i had the banjo attached to.
After some jigging around that was done and dusted, and no leaks, and it was onto the front of the car.

With the fuel filter removed from the back i had to find a place to put it up front, and i figured i may as well connect it to the existing inverted flare fitting on the end of the fuel hard line (which normally connects to a soft line on our ADM cars).
What i found was that there were a couple of captive nuts, in EXACTLY the right spot for a fuel filter, and exactly far enough apart for my AE92 (and others) fuel filter to be attached to:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29365-1/IMG_0906_s.jpg

And for an idea of where it sits in the engine bay:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29371-1/IMG_0908_s.jpg

Just needed the line to be bent slightly, maybe 10-15 deg, and it sat beautifully.
A really good solution in the end, as it fits perfectly. With that in place i crossed my fingers and fired up the car. After a bit of revving, settling down, and fiddling with the idle screw it idled nicely at 1000rpm. Which is about 1300rpm on the analog dash, due to the 4cyl tacho installed.

With that done there really isnt much left to do, as i picked up some wheel nuts the other day too.

Off the top of my head i need to reinstall the radiator, brake bleed, finish refitting the interior, an exhaust secondaries gasket, a good wash, and a wheel alignment, and she should be all chipper :)

[takai]

Right, today was a pretty momentous occasion. 3 months ago (calendar, not days) i rolled the car into the garage, and today it left. But rather than pushing it out i drove it out under its own power.

First of all i had to put the rad in, and get it all wired up, which was pretty much a walk in the park.
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29380-1/IMG_0911_s.jpg
The rad only just clears the engine, and im hoping that the 2JZ doesnt encroach any more on the rad, as its already quite close:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29386-1/IMG_0913_s.jpg

After doing that and bleeding the clutch, and putting the wheels on it was a nice walk in the park to drive it out of the garage.
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29389-1/IMG_0914_s.jpg

After that i gave it a quick drive down the road, and turned it around to pop it onto the lawn and give it as wash and i was quite surprised that it was in a lot better condition than i had first feared:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29413-2/IMG_0917_s.jpg

But there are still some niggling little problems. Firstly im running slightly too much castor:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29401-1/IMG_0918_s.jpg

Clears the front guard there by only a handful of millimeters there, so ill have to wind it out a bit again.
Secondly the interior needed a handful of refitting, which i spent an hour or so doing tonight.

Thats about it for now. Its now time to start getting ready to take it over the pits at regency, tidying up little things so i can make it presentable for that.

Really really happy that its out of the garage again in only 3 months.

[jzar]

Congrats!!! Wooo good job! You've worked so hard on this project and it must feel great to have reached this point.

[Supra_5tAt1c]

Very nice....very, very nice.....now i think it's video time?! !? :D

[takai]

A whole bundle of goodies arrived today from the grand old US of A, at a VERY damn cheap price courtesy of our rocking $.

http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29441-1/IMG_0933.JPG

In that picture you can see the oil filter relocation parts, the 3 gauges ill be running and the wheel nuts. Bit of a closer view of hte nuts here:

http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29444-1/IMG_0936.JPG
They are a splined drive nut, where each nut is essentially a locknut anyway, which i think is a pretty good idea. Now i just hope that i dont lose the locknut tool :) I think ill order away for a spare too.

Lastly the gratuitious shot of the oil filter bits.
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29447-1/IMG_0937.JPG
The two relocation parts were quite simply dirt cheap, at $10 and $12 for the spin-on and mount respectively. The adaptor and AN fitting certainly didnt break the bank either, rocking in at $4 and $6 each.
Certainly a whole lot cheaper than the local speed shop who wanted $49, $69, $9 and $16 respectively.
I also have a thermostat for the oil cooler which isnt pictured, and i picked up a 13 row cooler the other day as well.

Other than that ive been busy and away recently, and so i ahvnt done anything much. Did get to work grinding away at the struts tonight though, for about 20mins before i was called away to other things.
Wont get much time to work on it until this weekend, where some things need tidying up on the car... like the door lock which some prick decided to try and jimmy with a screwdriver.

Thankfully ive already rekeyed the guts of the broken lock into a new lock and we should be right to go.

[takai]

Now that the Supra is all through regency and i dont have to worry so much about having a stock car...
Let the modifications begin

However, on the downside, someone tried to break into the car the other day. Jammed a screwdriver into the lock and tried to force their way in. Thankfully they failed, and only because the plastic handle that the lock is incorporated in broke.
You can see here where it happened:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29459-1/IMG_0939_s.jpg
The left lug is where the lock is normally bolted to, and you can see that the twisting force that they applied broke the lug free of the plastic, and when i came back to the car the lock was hanging down inside the door.

Thankfully i have another handle around which i can replace it with.

Onto the modifications. I had a bit of a chance the other day to grind off the spring seat on one of my MX83 struts, and weld on the coilover sleeve:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29463-1/IMG_0941_s.jpg
Quite a simple process. Lots of grinding, lots of sparks, and then smoothing with a sandpaper disc.
I welded it all around the bottom, but only stitched it on at the top. I was initially worried about blowing holes in the tube, but once i realised that it was 2.5mm thick my worries went away.
Instead i used a fairly high amperage, and ended up getting some good penetration:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29466-1/IMG_0942_s.jpg
Not overly good on the photo, as the camera has decided to focus on the bottom of the strut, but you can see it there.

Also, i got around to fitting my steering wheel:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29475-1/IMG_0945_s.jpg
Which is all nice and stuff, but soddingly far away from the indicator stalk. Its a 70mm dish wheel, and i have a 80mm bosskit on there too. Pushes it a bit far away.
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29484-1/IMG_0948_s.jpg
Ill have to see if i can get a 40 or 50mm kit instead.

In addition to all of that, a gratuitous shot of the oil cooler i picked up for the car:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29493-1/IMG_0951_s.jpg
Fairly standard alloy 13 row cooler, with built in -8 fittings. Hopefully 12mm will be enough to do full flow.

This weekend holds more grinding and welding, as i want to get my coilovers pretty much done, and probably some work in the garden.

[the ghoul]

A whole bundle of goodies arrived today from the grand old US of A, at a VERY damn cheap price courtesy of our rocking $.


glad we ( the usa) could be of use to you..
now stop bragging or im going to start rumors that there is more oil in Australia than in all of the middle east ......
(always wanted to live in a recently bombed Australia!!!)

LOL
just kidding man,
looks like some quality parts you got there
keep up the good work!

[takai]

Well i ventured out in the 35deg heat to the garage, with long sleeves and jeans to grind and weld.
Bloody hell that was hot.

Anyway, i built up the second of the coilovers and they are pretty much ready to go. For those who keep asking, here is a little step by step:

Firstly, you have to grind off the old perch:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29496-1/IMG_0952_s.jpg
I use a 1mm cutting disc to get it reasonable, then a 3mm grinding disc to remove the bulk of the material, and then a sandpaper flapper disc to get it smooth.

Next up you slide the sleeve over the strut:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29499-1/IMG_0953_s.jpg
I tend to weld mine on about 10mm down from the top of the strut, i think that one was 12mm. That is mainly so i can get a decent bead on the top, and so i dont thrash out the gland nut thread too much.
I just use my welding ground clamp to hold it in place, as it should be a smooth but not loose fit.

Next up welding:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29502-1/IMG_0954_s.jpg
I weld a full bead around the bottom of the sleeve, in 3 sections. And then 3 shorter stitch welds for a 1/6th of the circumfrence each. Pretty damn simple.

Then its off to be painted. I add a bit of masking tape to ensure that the threads dont get all oversprayed and then carefully paint away from the sleeve to minimise overspray:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29508-1/IMG_0956_s.jpg

And then voila, all done:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29526-1/IMG_0962_s.jpg
I add a touch of paint down the guts of the tube too, just to minimise the chances of rust forming and jamming the inserts in the tube.

While i had the grinder out i lipped the dust shields on the struts too:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29514-1/IMG_0958_s.jpg
That is important for the brake upgrade, so that the discs clear.

While i was waiting for the struts to cool and then the paint to dry i got a few other things done.
Firstly, i refitted my R32 rims to the front, with tyres that have tread on them this time.
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29520-1/IMG_0960_s.jpg

I used the Gorilla nuts that i got from the US too:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29523-1/IMG_0961_s.jpg
Its both nice and scary to see how much, or more realistically how little, engagement you have on the stud.

I also popped the other door handle in with my rekeyed lock:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29517-1/IMG_0959_s.jpg

And put the space saver spare that i got yesterday into the boot.

While i was out getting the space saver, i found at the Jap importers a nice strut brace which will suit just fine:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29505-1/IMG_0955_s.jpg
The stud pattern is slightly out, so it will need to be redrilled, but thats no issue whatsoever. I think its from an ST202 Celica.
Big props to Smooth Garage (http://smoothgarage.com/) for their good prices on the space saver and the strut brace. Other importers wanted up to 15x the price of the space saver :o

Thats about it for now, ill test assemble the struts tomorrrow, to see whether ill need to put a spacer into the upper hats, and then they should be pretty much ready to go into the car.

Im still waiting on the rear caliper adaptors, so its likely that ill hold off putting the front struts in until both front and rears are ready to rock and roll.

After the struts are done, ill finish off tidying up the interior, and then get started on the 2JZ and sorting out the loom and replacing some stuff while its on an engine stand.

[jzar]

Nice, love the coilovers

[takai]

Havnt really done much on this since November, as ive been flat chat with airconditioners, work and being away.

However, this arrived from Brad today:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29589-1/IMG_0980_s.jpg
Rear brake caliper adaptors.

Need a bit of a file finish on the upper holes, and the lower holes need tapping. But other than those bits they are pretty much good to go.

Ordered springs again from a different supplier, should be in by Christmas. Hopefully ill get the suspension package in by the end of my Christmas holidays.

[Red83Mk2Supra]

dude i want everything on your ar from the front seats forward for my supra (RHD SWAP SWEEETTTTT):thumbsup:

[the ghoul]

man, your putting my project to shame, the way your blazing thru this!!!
keep up the great work!

[jzar]

'bout time you got back to work on this :) cool stuff as usual :)

[takai]

Got a bit more progress done on the car on the weekend. Got into the garage on Sunday and turned up another upper hat spacer:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29657-2/IMG_1004_s.jpg
Which was all going fine and dandy until i snapped the parting off blade. No matter, ill pick up another one after work.

Also machined a little recess into the upper hats, to locate the spacers (this one is actually for the one which isnt parted off:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29663-2/IMG_1006_s.jpg

And machined up another set of hub spacer rings for the brake upgrade:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29660-2/IMG_1005_s.jpg

Hoping to put the suspension and brakes in this weekend...

[tho323]

This is one of my favorite threads on this forum.
Keep up the great work - and posting pictures of it.

[takai]

Thanks man for the kind words.

I got a chance to do a little bit more on it this morning, and finished off the other upper hat:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29721-2/IMG_1027_s.jpg

Got the springs ready to go in:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29718-2/IMG_1026_s.jpg

And yesterday i picked up another set of wheels for it:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29715-2/IMG_1025_s.jpg
I truely am turning into a wheel whore.

Hoping to get the suspension and brakes in this weekend or soon after.

[takai]

So i had some time today to get some stuff done on the car... and unlike Ed, i actually work on the car :P

First up was finishing off the suspension struts:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29724-1/IMG_1031_s.jpg

Pretty simple all up, painted the little top hat spacers the other day too.

Chucked them in the car:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29742-1/IMG_1037_s.jpg

Added a healthy dose of RCAs:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29745-1/IMG_1038_s.jpg

Bolted up the big rotors and brakes:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29757-1/IMG_1042_s.jpg

And then realised how much castor im going to have to pull out of the front struts:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29751-1/IMG_1040_s.jpg
Because thats a ridiculous amount of lock.

Need to get new brake lines made up at this point, as the ones i have are perishing and are a touch too short. I have tomorrow off so ill jack up the arse end in the morning and get some brake lines for there too. I have rear springs and shocks ready to go in there tomorrow along with the UZZ30/R33 brakes.

Oh yeah, and i got longer bolts for my mini bosskit:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29730-1/IMG_1033_s.jpg

More updates tomorrow or Wednesday.

[the ghoul]

hey man, any detalied drawings on your spacers, and top hat adapters would be great *for when i sac up decide to do the same*
every thing is looking great i love it! keep it up

[Kevin Kisseberth]

wow that what I call spending time in the garage GL with this project really doesnt seem like you need it though

[takai]

Just a quick little update before i go out for an Aus day BBQ. Yesterday i got the brake lines made up, and then set about getting the rear suspension in.
Springs, easy, just drop them in. Rear AGXs on the other hand, sweet pain in the arse getting the hard poly bushes into the hole on the AGX rear which is slightly too small, from the pics on another guide it seems that they have updated the Focus rear shock slightly with the outer bushing tube now being integral with the housing. So i had to grind that off and then i made up a little die to push in the bush with:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29763-1/IMG_1045_s.jpg

After that i bolted up the suspension and then put the rear dogbones and discs on followed by a lot of swearing when i realised that the idiotic machinist who had turned out the center hole on the discs had it off center so that the runout at the edge of the disc was 1.8mm on one disc and 2.9mm on the other disc.... so it was fouling on the inside of the caliper slightly.

After much mucking around i decided to see whether my lathe really oould machine out to 308mm, which it can.... JUST
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29766-1/IMG_1046_s.jpg
In that position the disc is about 2mm off touching the slide, and about 10mm off the ways. The cross slide is as far back as it can go, and the compound as far forward. Either way it worked, with lots of patience i now have discs which have about 0.2mm runout around the entire disc, i cant get them any better than that because of how the tooling sits and chatters slightly.

Either way it bolted up and worked.
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29769-1/IMG_1048_s.jpg

That was last night. This morning afte rmy wife left for work at 7:30 i did some quick tidying up, and mirrored the rear setup on the other side, and then after a quick boltcheck, lowered it back onto its wheels:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29772-1/IMG_1049_s.jpg

Looks quite good IMHO. Im yet to set the front suspension properly, as its not sitting on level ground there (its slightly slanted towards a drain which you can see by the rear wheel). Regardless i have to bleed the brakes anyway, as my speed bleeder has borked the valve in it, so that will have to wait until my wife gets home so she can operate the brake pedal.

Finally a couple of gratuitous shots of the new brake package:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29775-1/IMG_1050_s.jpg
This is with the new meshies i bought, they are a 16x7 stock Nissan wheel, no idea what they are off.
Im going to paint the R32 wheels the same charcoal as the rear, and these meshies the same leaving the outer section silver.

And then the rears:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29778-1/IMG_1051_s.jpg

Also, anyone know whether the front arches are actually higher than the rears? From a rough measurement it looks like they are, as the sills are roughly equal height there.

[takai]

Tonight i got a bit bored and couldnt sleep so i went out and did some machining for an hour or so. Turned up two things, first was a pair of steel spacers for the tierod ends which i was having troubles with before:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29781-1/IMG_1052_s.jpg
Pretty simple, just need to find my split pins now.

The other is a boss kit spacer:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29784-1/IMG_1054_s.jpg
First time i had used the autofeed on the lathe, and boy does it make chips, and fast. The only problem is that being aluminum they fly quickly and are bloody hot. I now have 4 decent burns on my neck and one on my upper lip which are going to cane for a while :(

[takai]

Not much news on the Supra as ive been working on the Spoonter. Just finished the steering spacer though:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29812-2/IMG_1062_s.jpg

Pretty simple.
Gotta pull the whole rear brakes apart though because i forgot to adjust the handbrake before i started... DOH.

[jzar]

I want to see these burns :) C'mon wounds are cool ...for a good cause anyway.

[the ghoul]

Rear AGXs on the other hand, sweet pain in the arse getting the hard poly bushes into the hole on the AGX rear which is slightly too small, from the pics on another guide it seems that they have updated the Focus rear shock slightly with the outer bushing tube now being integral with the housing.
LOL
i know the feeling...
The super pro bushigns going into the shocks werent bad... but the trailing arm bushings were a massive PIMA!!!
the bushings went in allright, but the trailing arms refused to go into the cradle correctly... took me about 3 hours of pushing, prying and pounding to make that happen!!!

Little trick for the readers out there that dont have access to a lathe.
I was able to get my shock bushings in by taking a long bolt, two over sized washers and a nut to squeeze the bushings in.

*stack washer, shock, bushing, washer, nut, with the bolt going thru the center of all of it then compress*

[takai]

Last night i got around to pulling apart all the brakes and adjusting up the handbrake. Unfortunately i have found that the entire cable has stretched so much that even with the cable adjuster wound all the way in and only about 0.5mm between the pads and the drum it only just engages, and is sloppy as.

Thinking ill have to pull the tbar out and see if i can get it recrimped shorter. :(

Which is another pain in the arse as its hard to get there due to the tailshaft in the way. Seriously considering just backing it into the garage and using the tailshaft as an excuse to shove the 2JZ down its guts.

[the ghoul]

I dont mean to insult or any thing like that.... after all youve shown massive fab skills here, but i gotta ask the obvious question before you go spending money on bits.....
#1 did you install the auto adjusters correctly? (on some cars it does make a diffrence how they are pointing
#2 did you turn them a bit to get a little bit of pre-adjustment on them?

[takai]

Yeah, the drums are about 0.5mm off the pads. But the problem is that there is just so much slack in the cable that the handbrake side adjuster cant remove enough of it.

[RedP85]

I undid the cable from the handle, removed the cable from the T, slid a SS nut on the cable up to the end, reassembled everything.
The SS nut was about 6mm thick, I got enough to have it "solid"

[takai]

So speaking of the 2JZ, i got started on pulling it down last night. After an hour or so it looks like this:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29866-1/IMG_1080_s.jpg

Nothing too drastic found. Couple of leaking cam seals which have spilled oil down the entire block, and worse in the spark plug valley.

Found that at some point in the past a wire had been crimped between the manifold and the plenum:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29863-1/IMG_1079_s.jpg
So ill have to solder that up before i get it going.

Oh and the one bit i already knew:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29860-1/IMG_1078_s.jpg

Plug is broken off the VVTi solenoid, so that will need to be replaced.
I have a new timing belt, exhaust cam gear and water pump coming for the engine, and soon ill pull the sump off to weld in an oil temp sensor bung.

All in all it needs a tidy up, but nothing drastic.

[takai]

So last night i ducked out and picked this little guy up:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29872-1/IMG_1083_s.jpg

Ill shelve that for a bit later, about when it gets some 272deg cams and an aftermarket ECU... :)

[Donn29]

I hope they are pretty close. And not too small being from a 2.6l.

[takai]

Yeah, it lines up pretty well. These pics are of Eds manifold that he started making before he went to the UZA80:
http://www.v-eight.com/images/Images_Forum/2jz_itb1.jpg
http://www.v-eight.com/images/Images_Forum/2jz_itb2.jpg

http://www4.tpg.com.au/users/loats/images/Image0025a.jpg

[Tire Shredder]

yaaay ITB race car!

[takai]

Heh, and i already have one of those:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/6220-1/IMG_0035.JPG
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/6205-1/IMG_0030.JPG

Dedicated track car

[the ghoul]

So last night i ducked out and picked this little guy up:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29872-1/IMG_1083_s.jpg

Ill shelve that for a bit later, about when it gets some 272deg cams and an aftermarket ECU... :)

awwww, wook at da widdol happy frottow bodys all in a wowe wike that..

they are just too cute

whos a happy widdol guy?
whos a happy widdol guy?
thats right!
you are!! :laugh:

[Donn29]

awwww, wook at da widdol happy frottow bodys all in a wowe wike that..

they are just too cute

whos a happy widdol guy?
whos a happy widdol guy?
thats right!
you are!! :laugh:

You know that Plenium is good for 500hp(just a guess). In stock trim a RB26DETT makes 300+ easy.

[takai]

The TBs are 45mm ID, they will easily flow enough for the 3L up to a few hundred HP. The inside of the GTR plenum is very nicely done, and will only require minor matchporting.

[the ghoul]

You know that Plenium is good for 500hp(just a guess). In stock trim a RB26DETT makes 300+ easy.

they are still cute :facesjump

[takai]

So after getting this all together i took it for a drive on Saturday, and found that im getting a nice knocking/clunking noise coming from the passenger front corner. As such all of the front suspension will be coming out for a check. I suspect its just the cambertop spherical bearing, but it cant hurt to check.

[supra_07]

those itb and ffim are flipping awesome!! and i will have to side with the goul and agree yes they are very cute lol.

[group a supra]

So last night i ducked out and picked this little guy up:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29872-1/IMG_1083_s.jpg

Ill shelve that for a bit later, about when it gets some 272deg cams and an aftermarket ECU... :)

rb26dett by any chance ?

[Donn29]

Yep, I said it was in post 103. Pretty sure its from a BNR32.

[group a supra]

missed that lol
i am pretty sure its r33 as i do a lot of work on one in the workshop

[takai]

I think its from a BNCR32. No casting differences betweeen that and the BNR33 anyway though.

[takai]

Finally got around to sorting out the knocking, was a combinaiton of a few things.

Anyway looks like this now:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29875-1/IMG_3345_s.jpg
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29878-1/IMG_3346_s.jpg
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29881-1/IMG_3347_s.jpg

Looks quite high at the front, so i think ill need to sort out a lip there. But it handles like its on rails, although ill need to figure out the dampening as its a bit over damped at the moment.

Currently im patching up the aerial hole and waiting for the coat of bog to dry over the patch. After that it needs a wheel alignment and ill drive it around for a while as it is to let stuff settle in.

[Zakk]

interesting build up and well documented too. i'm just starting to mod my mx73 with the intention of some track usage and a 5 stud conversion is 1st up, have you got any spare 5 stud front discs you'd part with? or a set of those 123 hubs ?

[moonpie33]

for a front you can run Q45 calipers and rotors 5 lug rotors that is....
then just get a hubcentric ring machined.

looks amazing :)

[takai]

Cant quite run Q45 gear in Australia, its a bit hard to come across.

Best way to do it over here IMHO is to use the MX83 Cressida bits, fixes a lot of the bumpsteer and ackermann issues. Slight bummer with it though is that you then get different offsets front to rear (+40 front, 0 rear)

[Zakk]

i haven't had too much of a problem with bump steer with my 73, but i've only lowered it about 50mm. my plan was just to use the 5 stud discs of the 83 and fit them to my existing struts (hoping they do just bolt up), as you know its the 5 stud rear thats slightly harder to come accross. i haven't done any searching yet but there should be a set of 123 hubs someware in Adelaide... i hope !! otherwise i'll have to search Yahoo

[takai]

Goodluck trying to find MS123 hubs in Adelaide. Well there is a set, i have one.
The 5stud MX83 hubs dont fit the front of the MA61/MX73, you want MS65 for that, which are about as rarea as MS123 as well.

Try Crownman in NSW if you really want a set, i know he is wrecking a couple of MS65s and MS123s atm.

[CLToy]

I have loved this post. Great car, and I learned a few things as well. Congrats and keep us posted.

[gteduck]

just curious takai how all the arm and disk mods affected the track of the car from stock with those rims?. what's the offset of the rims and what are they off? i assume the radiator and cam/cast adjuster's are from a nissan s13. I've got to do all the same sort of things to mine. A full rundown of part's used in the build would be a huge help either at the start or end of the build. :good:
BTW great thread ,it's answered a hell of a lot of of questions from all your details. Keep up the great work. i'm looking forward to seeing what happens to the 2j !:naughty::twodrunkg

[takai]

When i get a chance ill update a spec list at the start.

[takai]

Got the Supra wheel aligned today, which it didnt come in too badly at. -2mm toe out at the front, 1mm toe in at the rear, 2deg neg at the front and rear. Pretty well sorted.... at MIN castor though its still running 5deg castor :) Win.

[Zakk]

Goodluck trying to find MS123 hubs in Adelaide. Well there is a set, i have one.
The 5stud MX83 hubs dont fit the front of the MA61/MX73, you want MS65 for that, which are about as rarea as MS123 as well.

Try Crownman in NSW if you really want a set, i know he is wrecking a couple of MS65s and MS123s atm.


lol... guess i'm just lucky then :laugh: the 1st wrecker i went to this morning had a complete 123 out the back, so i bought the front and rear hubs. i'll use these fronts too so i can use a front wheel with a decent dish.

[takai]

MS123 hubs dont fit the front stubaxles, youll have to machine up collars to use the different bearings.

[Zakk]

MS123 hubs dont fit the front stubaxles, youll have to machine up collars to use the different bearings.

i'll look into getting the mx73 bearing races built up to fit the ms123 hubs. i've had a few motorbike crankshafts repaired the same way, they basically hardchrome the outer surface and this increases the diameter. then the 'enlarged' race is ground back to the required size.

anyway let me know when your next out at mallala and i'll try and get out there for a look.

[takai]

Outer Bearing (09067/09195/Q replaces LM11949/910/Q)
• Increase bearing cup OD by 3.988mm (new OD=49.225mm minus the material for
an interference fit required)
• Increase bearing cup seat ID by ~1.5mm (clearance hole for the stub axle)
• Increase bearing cup bore depth by 2.35mm (22mm to 23.45mm; measured values)

Inner Bearing (15123/15245/Q replaces LM67048/010/Q)
• Increase bearing cup OD by 2.869mm (new OD=61.912mm minus the material for
an interference fit required)
• Increase bearing cup seat ID by ~1.5mm (clearance hole for the stub axle)
• Increase bearing cup bore depth by 2.4mm (25.6mm to 28mm; measured values)
Thats what youll have to do for it, its easy enough, but a complete pain in the arse too.
Plus you dont get the benefits of better ackermann angles and less bump steer :). But you can run the same wheels all around, which is quite useful.

[takai]

Not much done over the last little while. Alarm installed, but no pics of that for obvious reasons, just driving it around a bit.

However ive started workign on the 2JZ to get it ready to go into the bay soon. Now that my timing belt and bits have showed up i got them installed:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29904-2/IMG_1085_s.jpg

Plus while i was cleaning things up i popped the cam covers off to put new gaskets on, and wrinkle coated them:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29922-2/IMG_1091_s.jpg

Plus i picked up the bits for my new exhaust, thanks to Drew at AAA Exhausts and PLAYA for the ECV:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29925-2/IMG_1092_s.jpg

Oh and a cheapo set of spanners to leave in the car :)

Once the wrinkle coat dries ill be able to pop the cam covers back on and put it all back together again, but that can wait for a bit. The weekend has pretty much been spent on the AE86 anyway. Ill probably start the 2JZ conversion in April as thats when my wife changes rotations to a more single car friendly roster.

One thing i do have to do before then is figure out how to cut this:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29901-2/IMG_1084_s.jpg
Basically i have to cut it down to just before the injector mounting bosses. Ive given an abrasion cutting disc a go, but it just tends to cake up. Ive heard that using soap on the disc helps though. Maybe ill try that, anyone have other suggestions?

[takai]

Currently I seem to be alternating my time between the Spoonter and the upcoming Supra conversion atm. Last night i spent a bit of time getting the Supra stuff sorted out.

First thing last night was getting the engine mounts sorted out:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29946-1/IMG_1097_s.jpg
Thats the fourth pair ive made, and hopefully the last, getting sick of cutting steel into smaller bits of steel and welding it together like some modern art piece.

Next up was getting all the engine back together, which went quite smoothly:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29952-1/IMG_1099_s.jpg
Ancillaries are all on, just need a belt for them, but that can wait for a bit, as i want to run it without the PS hooked up at first to make sure all is ok. Plus the PS there is attached by only two bolts, one to a thin tab on the engine and the other to a bar which leads back across to the intake mani reinforcement. To say im a bit sus about that is an undestatement, so ill be adding a third attachment point where the aircon compressor used to sit. Probably do it out of 10x25 bar Alu as i have some around.
I also repaired the wiring on the injector rail, and cleaned up the cam covers and painted them wrinkle black, replaced the cam cover seals, spark plugs and a few other bits.

Started work on the exhaust manifold too:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29955-1/IMG_1100_s.jpg
I havnt drilled the holes yet as my holesaw arbor snapped, and ill need to get a new one before i can drill them out.

Plus i built a simple merge collector:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29961-1/IMG_1102_s.jpg
Not the best welding in the world, as i kept blowing through, so i was moving quite quickly. Should have switched to 0.6mm wire, but i dont have any handy. Wish i had a TIG....

Oh yeah, this is the exhaust manifold im using:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29958-1/IMG_1101_s.jpg
The stock 2JZGE VVTi manifold is really quite a nice piece of kit.

Now while i had the oil adaptor out to put the engine mounts on i noticed these couple of plugs in the casing:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29964-1/IMG_1103_s.jpg
Im guessing from their location that they go straight into the gallery behind it. Im currently wondering whether i should simply tap a 1/8NPT hole into one of them for the oil temp sender, and tap the other for a fitting to attach the oil pressure sender.
Thoughts? It will be certainly much easier than welding a plug to the sump. I guess the real question is do those plugs actually lead to the gallery behind?

And finally:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29967-1/IMG_1104_s.jpg
Thats the 2JZ inlet manifold compared to the RB26 one. Dave of the Tomato has suggested that you can simply swap the runners in a 1/6 and 2/5 fashion and it will simply work. If i do that itll be a matter of figuring out how far down to swap them. Ideas?

Thats about it for now. Just gotta clean up the wiring on the engine, and sort out what will be plugged into the body loom, and terminate them into a plug for the body. All looking quite on track for an April start to the actual conversion.

[takai]

So i finally got them out, and it was actually really clean behind there. But a crapload of thread sealant gunk holding it in place
Looks roughly like this:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29991-1/IMG_1112_s.jpg
And those gallery plugs:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29996-2/IMG_1113_s.jpg

There really isnt much meat behind the capscrew socket so what im going to do is get new bolts in those sizes and turn them down to size on the lathe before putting a fitting into it. Should be pretty good imho.

Also got a chance to start fitting up the gauges into the replacement cluster. Just have to enlarge the speedo hole to suit and she is all apples:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29976-1/IMG_1107_s.jpg

Also almost finished off the engine ready to put into the car. Popped the blingy flywheel on, and a new spigot bearing:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29979-1/IMG_1108_s.jpg
Full organic clutch plate:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29982-1/IMG_1109_s.jpg
And then quite possibly the gayest clutch cover ive ever seen, so gay that i dont even have a photo of the gayness.

Finally im almost finished making the flange for the exhaust secondaries, and after the F1 Qualifying is over ill be back out in the garage finishing that off and then maybe tacking together some pipework for it :)

[Zakk]

i can weld those Y-pipes to that flange if you like, that is once you bore the holes through that plate and it becomes an exhaust flange. or if you cut the Y sections of exhaust down to a more managable size i could weld them up as well.

[takai]

If you hadnt noticed i have a welder, and the time to use it, plus i have 0.6mm wire now, courtesy of Bunnings ditching all their CIG stuff.

[RaceBredMK2]

TAKAI cant wait to see all the hard work payoff for you when its on the road:)

[rdorman]

nice progress man :) bet you're sick of making those mounts now... heh.

i still dont know how my exhaust will pan out, might have to get a jz lower half, as im wanting to keep it legal...ish.

[ma67 lover]

wait wait wait how gay was your pressure plate......?

[takai]

Ill take a photo of the gayness when i put it in.

[gteduck]

About your oil gauges Takai, I was after some plugs like the one's you took out off the oil adapter, but could only get solid stainless one's ,wiith a hex head on them from a hydraulic fitting supplier. Which are perfect for what you want to do. Check the one's you took out, they should be a tapered thread. It'll be hard to get a tapered bolt. Or i saw a alloy plate that sandwich's between the filter and body. That has four 1/8 npt tapped holes with plugs already in the plate at Autobarn. It comes with all you need to fit it.

cheers, Luke
PM me if you want to know who makes them.:good:

[SilverMk2]

Now while i had the oil adaptor out to put the engine mounts on i noticed these couple of plugs in the casing:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29964-1/IMG_1103_s.jpg
Im guessing from their location that they go straight into the gallery behind it. Im currently wondering whether i should simply tap a 1/8NPT hole into one of them for the oil temp sender, and tap the other for a fitting to attach the oil pressure sender.
Thoughts? It will be certainly much easier than welding a plug to the sump. I guess the real question is do those plugs actually lead to the gallery behind?



Why can't you just tee off the existing oil pressure sender bolt on the VVTI motor? The existing one is probably a switch anyways and not used if its like the GTE motors.

[takai]

VVTis run in limp mode if they dont have the pressure sender attached.

The bolts dont seem to be tapered, and my verniers say that they arnt either.

[takai]

Ill retract my last post, while im pretty sure that the plugs arnt NPT, the holes certainly are. I think the plugs are 3/4-14 and 1/2-14 respectively, but the holes are certainly 3/4NPT and 1/2NPT.

Ive already got a 1/2NPT-1/8NPT adaptor from my Autometer gear, now i just have to find a 3/4NPT-1/8NPT adaptor for the pressure sender.

[SilverMk2]

VVTis run in limp mode if they dont have the pressure sender attached...


Are you sure on that one? All the diagrams I have for GTE (including VVTIs) the pressure switch and level gauge drive idiot lights on the dash. They don't even connect to the ECU. I'd trace the wiring thru the harness to verify.

[gteduck]

I knew one of the threads had to be tapered. That explains why they had so much shit on the threads, (cheap bastards). Ideally a tapered hole should have a tapered plug, otherwise your relying on the first 2-3 threads only to seal it.

[takai]

Are you sure on that one? All the diagrams I have for GTE (including VVTIs) the pressure switch and level gauge drive idiot lights on the dash. They don't even connect to the ECU. I'd trace the wiring thru the harness to verify.

Wire for both the water temp and oil pressure go straight to the ECU as well as to the external plug.


I knew one of the threads had to be tapered. That explains why they had so much shit on the threads, (cheap bastards). Ideally a tapered hole should have a tapered plug, otherwise your relying on the first 2-3 threads only to seal it.
Yeah, i was fooled by just looking at the plugs.

[takai]

Here we go here we go here we go go. Since its April the 2JZ conversion is full speed ahead.

Firstly though, i assembled all the adaptors onto the oil filter bracket:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30001-1/IMG_1115_s.jpg
And popped it on the engine:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30005-1/IMG_1116_s.jpg

Fits nicely there

Next up was all the boring bits of getting stuff ready to be removed, which only took a couple of hours:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30011-1/IMG_1118_s.jpg
Only problem is that with the nosecone still on the car i dont have the reach to be able to take the bonnet off on my own, so i had to wait for my wife to come home from a friends.
That means engine out tomorow, which should be quite easy.

Oh and this is where it will live for the next few weeks.
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30008-1/IMG_1117_s.jpg

Welcome to Phase 3....

[takai]

Picking up from where we left off yesterday, my wife helped me take the bonnet off last night and so this morning i pulled the engine out. Under 30mins later it looked like this:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30020-1/IMG_1121_s.jpg

I was originally going to put a brass bushing into the gearbox to replace the shifter bushes, but after seeing this i decided not to:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30017-1/IMG_1120_s.jpg
Thats pretty much as it is brand new.
I tested the slop in the factory bush and the brass bush and in my case there was actually more slop in the brass bush. Saved a heap of work.

After that, the new bellhousing on:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30026-1/IMG_1123_s.jpg

5M left to sit in the naughty corner and cry:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30023-1/IMG_1122_s.jpg

And after a bit of trouble with forgetting to buy more M12 bolts to attach the gearbox, and a few issues lining up the splines with a sore back and then adjusting angles on my engine crane, it now looks like this:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30029-1/IMG_1124_s.jpg

http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30032-1/IMG_1125_s.jpg

All went in nicely after a bit of adjusting of the crane.

Not too many more pics as i only had 5hrs to work on it today as we have friends coming around for dinner and i should be cleaning the house a bit right now.

More to come soon...

[rdorman]

want pics of super gay pressure plate.

[SupraFiend]

man, I just discovered this thread and cruised through the whole thing in one sitting (when I could have been outside working on my own car, you bastard :p).

Very nice build, itb vti 2jzge is an awesome idea (been thinking about that one myself).

About the mx83 strut tubes and hubs, I've always thought the simplest thing to do to fix the camber would be to simply cut the casings at an angle when you cut them down to your mr2 shock lengths. However (and I did really cruise through your thread), were you saying the stock mx83 strut lengths were already the same length as mr2 rear shocks? What about the offset changes, is that from your camber bolt adjustments and the over hub brake discs, or is the axel actually further offset? I always figured for the section you cut out for shortening the casings, just cut the bottom cut at an angle and reweld the strut tube on to correct the postive camber (after some careful measurements of course).

[takai]

Offset changes are from the 30mm longer LCAs. The longer LCAs negate the camber changes from the different kingpin angle, and does a lot to improving the ackermann angle and bumpsteer changes.

[SupraFiend]

ahhh ok, I breezed over that a little, it sounded like you were trying to avoid using different LCAs. Extra track isn't so bad but it does suck for old school wheel fitment.

[takai]

Yeah, wheel fitment sucks, but i have got lucky with the wheels i have now. Still annoying at times though.

[takai]

Well not much progress as ive been really busy with other things, such as being alive and married (outlaws over for a bit).

Last night i did get a chance to scurry into the garage and fab up the exhaust mani:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30061-1/15042010193.jpg
All just tacked together at the moment.

Also got a chance to mount up the oil cooler and relocation bit:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30064-1/15042010194.jpg
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30067-1/15042010195.jpg

Gotta do the wiring soon, but thats pretty easy, and build the rest of the exhaust as well. Oh and get more stuff in from the US for the oil cooler bits, and generally tidy some stuff up.

But still, progress.

[takai]

Havnt had much time to get my hands dirty on this recently. But i have tidied up all the wiring diagrams and figured out the wiring for what i need to do.

Also got a chance to test assemble the dash:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30076-1/29042010204.jpg

Which i think looks pretty decent. Just have to pop the little plastic clips back in where the empty gauge slots were. Need to do the wiring behind it too, but thats not hard.

Also wired up this little sucker:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30073-1/29042010203.jpg
Which will let me trigger a 12v fuel pump relay from the PWM output of the ECU.

Thats about it for now, hoping to get out there this weekend to do more stuff.

[takai]

http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30106-1/IMG_3493_s.jpg

All this gear arrived today, which means i can do my oil cooler plumbing and finish off building the exhaust.

Sofar though ive been doing an absolute buttload of wiring, and thankfully the ECU is almost done. Unfortunately after that ill have to do the wiring of the dash and gauges and other bits. Joy of joys.

Ohwell, better get started.

[takai]

So I sorted through that big box of bits, and came up with a smaller box of bits:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30109-1/IMG_1133_s.jpg
Thats all the fittings and bits for both the Supra and the Sprinter, as well as a few other little bits.

I havnt had a chance to do the oil cooler bits just yet, as ive been doing other things, mainly on the Exhaust side of things. Finished tacking up the exhaust today:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30127-1/IMG_1139_s.jpg

Few little bits im not entirely happy with, but i can fix those easily when i weld it up fully. But overall it has gone together pretty well in the end.

Also when i was out in 'Lizbeff before a meeting this morning i ducked into UPullIt while i was killing some time and found this:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30121-1/IMG_1137_s.jpg

Factory MX73 lip which fits pretty well on the MA61, just had to trim off part of the inside to get the overlap right.

Lastly ive started fitting up the strut brace too:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30124-1/IMG_1138_s.jpg

Not too much to go now. Just have to assemble a small high pressure fuel hose, and fit the oil cooler stuff and then i should be ready for first start.

[RaceBredMK2]

http://forums.celicasupra.com/picture.php?albumid=90&pictureid=618

[kay_dubbs]

You've taken on quite the project! Looks good so far.
Anxious to see more pics!

[takai]

I havnt had the time to work on this that i wish i had. But today i got a couple of little bits done.

Firstly, i have been waiting for an MX83 speedo sender for almost two months now, so i can plug that hole in the side of the gearbox. When the seller finally sent it and it arrived it wasnt an MX83 one at all. So today i did a wreckers trawl and eventually found one and bought it (paid a bit too much, but im sick of waiting for one). This is what the MX83 sender looks like:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30178-1/IMG_1158_s.jpg
And then this is what it looks like fitted:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30184-1/IMG_1160_s.jpg

A nice 32pulse/rev unit which fits into the factory spot

As well as that i had a quick few minutes to finish off all the oil cooler hoses:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30187-1/IMG_1161_s.jpg
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30190-1/IMG_1162_s.jpg
And they just need to be taken out and have hose clamps attached and a small flush out. Im putting hose clamps on them because im a paranoid bugger even though the pushloc hose doesnt need it at all.

Oh and as well my Napolex mirror arrived, and is positively huge compared to the stock one:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30181-1/IMG_1159_s.jpg

Ive also finished welding up the exhaust, but thats a bit boring really, just looks like it did before but with welds.

I have a pair of new banjo fittings for my fuel line too, and just need to do a quick bolt check on the bottom of the car before i can get down to getting it started.
Probably not any time this week though unfortunately, pretty flat chat with work.

[SupraFiend]

very cool, getting close huh!

[takai]

Well everything seems to be conspiring against me atm. I wont be finishing this for a while as ive just had my appendix out and cant do any lifting, bending, or crouching for the next month or so, and guess what all the things i need to do on this involve.... thats right, lifting bending and crouching, core body strength.

FTL.

[Negative Boost]

Sucks to hear, hope you get better soon mate

[takai]

Just a little update. I havnt been able to get much done with the car as ive been knocked about with appendicitis.
However, tonight i felt up to tapping a few holes and mocking up the GTR manifold:

http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30210-1/IMG_1163_s.jpg

Pretty simple. The two centre ports match up perfectly, while from my measurements i think i can swap the runners of the outer two (i.e. 1-6 and 2-5) and have it line up.
This one is Gavs, but mine will be almost identical.

[takai]

Well i didnt make a jig. However, i drove past a welding store up the road today which was having a closing down sale. Pity, as it was a good store. Bonus though that he had a random 1/2kg Alu spool and a little mini-argon bottle around, that i scored cheap... cheap enough to be worthwhile for tacking stuff together.
So i found out my MIG can indeed tack Aluminum with the right bits, although it struggles a bit with getting heat into a join enough to lay a bead.

Regardless of that, i made this:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30221-1/IMG_1164_s.jpg

Runners 1 and 6 are swapped, and 2 and 5. Its overall around 90mm long including the flanges. Angles up slightly due to the natural angle of the runners:

http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30227-1/IMG_1166_s.jpg

Nothing really significant though. Will have to try and testfit it on Gav's 2JZ and maybe see if we can get it to hold together long enough to get into the bay, although the tacks seem reasonably strong.

Still no progress on the car, cant curl up under the dash to finish the wiring yet :(

[takai]

YES YES YES YES YES YES.... two wins tonight.

Firstly and most importantly Webber won the Silverstone GP.
Secondly, the Supra LIVES!

Fired her up after the GP after i stuffed up the timing belt installation. I interpreted a picture of the VVTi timing gear as being fully retarded as being how you installed the timing belt. For the record you align the marks...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT315rsDi_I

[CLToy]

Very cool....Congrats !!!!! Can't wait to see more.

[SupraFiend]

woot! Thats an important milestone, now get it on the road!

[takai]

Not too much to update, the engine bay is now looking more complete:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30326-2/IMG_1173_s.jpg

And i just have to put the rad back in to basically finish that part up.
Wiring on the other hand looks like this:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30320-2/IMG_1171_s.jpg

Out of the 40 odd wires here:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30323-2/IMG_1172_s.jpg
Im using a huge total of 5, possibly 6 soon. Lots to tidy up and heatshrink out of the way before i remount everything.

[takai]

Mini update.

Heatshrunk and tidied up the wiring:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30354-1/IMG_1177_s.jpg

And then promptly realised that i had miswired the engine, because it wasnt reopening the ISCV after shutdown. So that needed a little bit of rewiring, and so now i have a new MREL relay, which is separate from the factory COR which is now essentially a glorified fuel pump relay.
Hooked up my little circuit which triggers the COR from the FPC pin of the 2JZ ECU and that works a treat too, so all is well and good. Just have to tidy up the 8 wires i use and put the interior back in.

Also finished off the intake on the car:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30357-1/IMG_1178_s.jpg

The intake pipe is 3" PVC pipe, which hopefully will hold together in the heat. On the Cressida i used an Alu pipe which had a really nasty resonance around 2500rpm, so i was keen to avoid that on this one.

At the end of the intake you can see the stock airbox:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30360-1/IMG_1179_s.jpg

Which isnt quite so stock anymore. Hides a little pod filter in it, and with a bit of black plastic shrouding will be completely invisible.
Just waiting now on some new radiator hoses, and added silicone vac lines so i can hook up the breathers and she will be good to go. Next big thing will be the new dash going in.

[CLToy]

lookin' great!

[takai]

Almost ready to get the car back on its wheels, and lo and behold Murphy reared his ugly head.
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30449-1/IMG_1184_s.jpg

2mm of clearance to the water pump for the fans, and 3mm from the fans to the radiator core...

http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30455-1/IMG_1186_s.jpg

Time to get new thermofans.

[takai]

While Murphy rears his ugly head for my car, we test fitted the fabbed manifold on Gavs car, and it fits perfectly:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30461-1/01082010231.jpg

Just a bit of coat hanger support and its all sitting in there a treat. Clears the strut tower nicely and just clears the heater box bulge:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30464-1/01082010232.jpg

Will send it off to be welded up properly now.

But for now some more gratuitous shots:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30467-1/01082010233.jpg
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30470-1/01082010234.jpg
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30473-1/01082010235.jpg

[SupraFiend]

Niiiice.

Looks like it might interfere with the brake booster on a LHD car but thats not something you need to worry about!

[RedP85]

the top plate of your driver strut needs to be turn 120 degress clocklwise.
the adjustment is to be from inside to outside of the car

[takai]

On which car? The grey one is just popped in to see if it fits (note no strut) and the silver one is running S13 strut tops.

[takai]

Have i ever said how much i hate interior? I spent a few hours each day this weekend putting it all back together again, after being apart for the dash and the ECU shenanigans.

Plus i had to replace the roof lining after the cat got to it last year, although thankfully i found one in good nick on a car i was pulling the hatch from anyway.

Put the dash all back together:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30713-2/IMG_1226_s.jpg
Only to find that the speedo pushes against the back of the steering column support. Arrgh. Ill have to space it out from the fascia, but its in there for now.

Fitted my Aerocatches too, which really wasnt as hard as everyone has made it out to be:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30720-1/IMG_1227_s.jpg

Now im just charging the battery after i left the door slightly ajar for half a week.
Engine bay is tidied up now though;
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30717-2/IMG_1228_s.jpg

Going to dump the water in the rad on Tuesday and put proper Toyota Red in it when i get some.

Biggest hiccup now is that the barn doors which lead out from the carport/garage area through to the street have swollen so much with all the wet weather that we are having that i cant get them open, despite much kicking and shoving. Just gonna have to wait.

[kay_dubbs]

When will the next image update be??
I've been following this thread for some time!
Looking good!

[takai]

Nothing to update really, since that last update i have been in Singapore for this:
http://photo.plebeians.net/d/2952-2/IMG_4777.jpg
and then preparing this:
http://photo.plebeians.net/d/3052-1/IMG_5761.jpg
for this:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/31113-1/67407_445397243842_566963842_5386048_3937216_n.jpg

Currently the car is at Rex Kelways as a dummy for the prototype strut brace which we have in the works:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/31155-2/1000000274.JPG

Plus its getting a Varex mufflers while its in there :)

[alfun]

Do you have a build thread for your Corolla?

[Tire Shredder]

how much camber on that corolla? looks like a lot!

[takai]

Build thread for the AE86 is on a few other forums. Probably the easiest is here: http://www.performanceforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67220605

Also, -5.1deg on atm, ill probably knock it back to 4.5 although it seemed pretty good at 5.1

[Tire Shredder]

Build thread for the AE86 is on a few other forums. Probably the easiest is here: http://www.performanceforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67220605

Also, -5.1deg on atm, ill probably knock it back to 4.5 although it seemed pretty good at 5.1

ugh that forum is horrible to navigate :(

[takai]

Just change the Display Mode to Standard or Linear, its up in the top right corner.

[takai]

Not much to report really. Been driving it on and off for a while. In that time ive cleaned up the dash and interior:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/31396-1/IMG_1280_s.jpg

http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/31402-1/IMG_1282_s.jpg

Installed a fire extinguisher:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/31399-1/IMG_1281_s.jpg

And had Kirby redo the exhaust and install a Varex:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/31408-1/IMG_1284_s.jpg

Sounds like this:
I_gMWnk96w8

Also got my speedo all working. So its down to just tidying things up now.

That said over the summer we are looking after a friends car as well, so i figure its as good a time as any to repaint the car. The problem is deciding on a colour scheme. Im thinking either the same as it is now, or pure white.
Thoughts?

[alfun]

That said over the summer we are looking after a friends car as well, so i figure its as good a time as any to repaint the car. The problem is deciding on a colour scheme. Im thinking either the same as it is now, or pure white.
Thoughts?
Two-tone red/black like it is now is good, so would pure white like your Corolla. Or do something like a TRD N2 color scheme. What kind of pedals are you using, why is the gas pedal so high?
http://ll.speedhunters.com/u/f/eagames/NFS/speedhunters.com/Images/Dino%20Dalle%20Carbonare/AUGUST2009/Random%20Snaps/AE86trdk1.jpg
http://www.hachiroku.com.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/retro1.jpg

[kay_dubbs]

How do you like that varex muffler?

I was researching the remote feature. Such an awesome idea!!!
If only it didn't cost over 400 big ones to ship to canada....dang.

[takai]

The varex is great, will be even better when i get around to wiring up an Arduino to switch it open when >3000rpm and >70% throttle.


Today i present Photochop time with Uncle Takai...
In order of luminosity:

All White:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/31433-1/White_s.jpg

All Red:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/31424-1/AllRed_s.jpg

Red/Black:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/31431-1/RedBlack_s.jpg

Gun Metal:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/31429-1/GunMetal_s.jpg

Black
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/31427-1/Black_s.jpg

Thoughts?

[takai]

Or maybe something like this?
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/31438-1/WhiteBlack_s.jpg

[Haxtun85supra]

Man this build is great and I vote all white, but im parcial to the all white.... LOL...

[takai]

Currently i cant decide between Gunmetal and all White.... arrgh.

[Yotaholic]

The Gunmetal looks good ,,, I wonder what a two tone gunmetal/ white would look like in the original design ?

http://www1.picturepush.com/photo/a/4646999/1024/Picture-Box/Picture008.jpg (http://picturepush.com/public/4646999)

[MrTechNIC]

white!!

[CLToy]

I know that lots of people love white; however, I see that as a rental car color...not a big fan. But that is just me. I am sure that whatever color you choose will be done with the utmost attention to detail...that is the key. Some of your two tone options were interesting...great photoshop work. Can't wait for more updates.

[takai]

Just a little teaser
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/31832-2/IMG_0538.JPG

[takai]

In between being annoyed by the door lock and the hatch glass assploding on me i did a bit of tidying up in the engine bay.
Installed a radiator flow panel thingy that i picked up ages ago:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/31838-2/1000000556.JPG

Added the obligatory Asahi can rad overflow bottle:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/31848-2/1000000550.JPG

The custom Kelway strut brace:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/31840-2/1000000554.JPG

And now it looks like this:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/31852-2/1000000548.JPG

Have to spend a little bit of time tonight putting the drivers rear "door" trim back together and the pillar plastics, but its all ready to go again :)

[SupraFiend]

Nice! Its so good to see this thing finally come together. I wonder how many people didn't realize that you did in fact paint it? That last teaser shot kinda looked like another photoshop, so much for waiting for summer!

Love that strut tower bar, are they going to be put into production? Would be nice to have an alternative to the LJM, which is very hard to get most of the time.

Thats awesome that you got a rad block panel, I assume its one of the original ones from Barry?

Digging the Asahi coolant bottle, but how does it vent excess overflow? Without a drain hole at the top its gonna explode if you ever overheat.

That vvti 2j looks phenominal in there man, post up some driving impressions. That must be a nice powerband in a mk2 with the ACIS, vvti and high compression. You need to find a header now.

[takai]

The strut brace is in production, and will be permanently. Its made by Kelway fabrications here in Australia, who just happens to be a good mate of mine.

The rad block panel was one made locally too, by some dude who had a supra ages ago, i bought the last two from him for this and its twin.

As for the overflow, you can just see the vent in the last photo, its just a hole drilled in the top under the rubber pipe which leads to the radiator.

Driving it is great fun, lots of torque down low, and with the low weight of the Mk2 vs the Mk4 its really a bundle of fun. Ive also got a short shifter in it, which is ridiculously short, but enjoyabl to drive with. Also FWIW the stock VVTi 2JZ headers are extremely good for a factory job, and will do up to about 200rwkw.

[RedP85]

to me, the RCA are not properly installed.
the adjustment should slide perpendicular to the wheel, not at an angle.
Nce set-up ! :good:

[takai]

to me, the RCA are not properly installed.
the adjustment should slide perpendicular to the wheel, not at an angle.
Nce set-up ! :good:

What you are talking about arnt RCAs. They are strut tops. RCAs are at the bottom of the strut dude.
And they are fine as is, its specifically set up that way so i add caster at the same rate as i add camber. Think dynamic camber gain with high caster setups....

[macka]

Amazing. I love the white. If I squint in a dark garage mine looks like its ugly twin. Haaaa.
I'm having a bit of trouble finding a cheap 5me to put in minefor rego. Mine has done bearings and has 3 different size bigends in it. Not worth spending that sort of money just to rip it out after reg, to fit a 7mge.

Don't want to pay $650 for a exchange 5me in melbourne either.

Thanks for a great well documented thread.

[supra_07]

ahhaahahaha i love that over flow can. so great, i am going to go make one right now lol

[takai]

Added the requisite CAMS sticker, and decided to slap an IPRA sticker on there too:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/31892-2/1000000578.JPG

Tonight i machined down the spacer rings a poofteenth so i could fit the 17" meshies. They need new tyres, because having retarded stretched 185/50/17s on a 7.5" rim is just stupid, but they look ok. Oddly the sticker on them says 16x7, when i measure them as roughly 7.5" wide and they are fitted with 17" tyres.
It would be ideal if they had a touch less offset, but as it is now at least they wont scrub.
Have to get tyres fitted to the rear before i can put them on though.

Also the elbow rest thing was really rooted when i got the car, so i got some new foam and retrimmed it:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/31888-2/1000000584.JPG

Not quite the family tartan, but hey, its a bit of period styling... yo.

[takai]

Took the Supra up through the Heysen tunnels today for a bit of fun, and aural pleasure. Unfortunately the GoPro stuffed up the first two times around and then on the second time up i had a cop blat past me. Second time on the way down i got this:
http://vimeo.com/20866573
Got out of the acceleration run though because i thought i saw a cop in my rear vision mirror and it would be annoying to get it defected for the entire reason i have the variable exhaust.

[takai]

Well thought i should update this as the car has been sold, and to give a bit of closure to the thread.
Im doing one last event in the Supra, tomorrow. ToyoShow motorkhana, which should be a good bit of fun. Was hoping to have the trutrac in the car by then, but ive been screwed over by the diff shop who was supposed to put the trutrac into the spare housing. Ohwell, its still got a LSD....

Anyway, the new owner wanted a half cage in it, so i organised with Kirby to have a bolt in half cage installed to the NCOP specifications, and picked the car up again last night, gave it a brief clean and prepped it for the Khana on Saturday.
Rolled it out this morning and took a few shots before i left for work. Here are the first few:
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/32138-1/IMG_1540.jpg
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/32140-1/IMG_1542.jpg
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/32142-1/IMG_1546.jpg
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/32144-1/IMG_1556.jpg
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/32146-1/IMG_1564.jpg
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/32150-1/IMG_1577.jpg
http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/32152-1/IMG_1596.jpg

Im sure the new owner will be on to post about the car, i think he is a member of most of the forums im on as well.

[Mercy]

So.. very.. awesome.

How were the harnesses with the stock seats btw? I've seen photos of that before but I've always been curious about the practicality of them.

Congrats on an awesome build, I'm sure the new owner is feeling very pleased with themselves. :)

[takai]

Car performed pretty flawlessly today at the Khana, apart from fogging up on the inside. Oh and the stupid centering thing on the handbrake balance bar popped out of the center and was all kinked, so we had no handbrake for the day :( And the stock LSD is definitely more Slip than Limited now....

Pics and vids from the Khana to come, but for now here is one of Gav driving and stuffing up the course and getting his static on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EubEVZLGNIg

[SupraFiend]

awww, why did you sell it after all of that work?

[alfun]

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSjMVprqyDwYaT23URG1AN9-OY4E_l5b4jhWT7yy_7HSlLFlk07&t=1http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSjMVprqyDwYaT23URG1AN9-OY4E_l5b4jhWT7yy_7HSlLFlk07&t=1http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSjMVprqyDwYaT23URG1AN9-OY4E_l5b4jhWT7yy_7HSlLFlk07&t=1http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSjMVprqyDwYaT23URG1AN9-OY4E_l5b4jhWT7yy_7HSlLFlk07&t=1http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSjMVprqyDwYaT23URG1AN9-OY4E_l5b4jhWT7yy_7HSlLFlk07&t=1http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSjMVprqyDwYaT23URG1AN9-OY4E_l5b4jhWT7yy_7HSlLFlk07&t=1http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSjMVprqyDwYaT23URG1AN9-OY4E_l5b4jhWT7yy_7HSlLFlk07&t=1http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSjMVprqyDwYaT23URG1AN9-OY4E_l5b4jhWT7yy_7HSlLFlk07&t=1http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSjMVprqyDwYaT23URG1AN9-OY4E_l5b4jhWT7yy_7HSlLFlk07&t=1

[onemancrew]

After spending my whole night reading 21 pages of this thread, im soo heartbroken.. lol That new owner would sure be a happy little vegemite!!

I cant even imagine ever selling my supra!!!

[Mercy]

lol..

I have it on relatively good authority that this car is being dismantled.

[SupraFiend]

Why??

[Mercy]

I believe the shell and cage are going to receive a more powerful engine and driveline conversion. Very little of the work in this thread will stay with the car though, as I understand it.

[SupraFiend]

pffft, if you want way more power out of it just throw an na-t turbo kit on and be done

[Mercy]

It's pretty hard to do a decent NA-T conversion on a VVTI 2JZ-GE, I've looked into it. It's not really my place to judge what people do with their cars, but it is a bit of a shock to know this one isn't going to be enjoyed in its current form.