www.gt4dc.co.uk
Maintain, Modify and DRIVE your GT-Four


It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 10:27 am




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 379 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1 ... 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 ... 26  Next
Author Message
PostPosted: Thu Jan 23, 2014 11:32 pm 
Offline
Club Staff
User avatar

Joined: Wed Jul 13, 2005 12:14 am
Posts: 3265
Location: Camberley, Surrey
Car Model: ST205
Time for an update, work has been quite slow on the car and I didn't get that much done over Christmas mainly due to the very poor weather.

In the last couple of weekends though I have managed to get a fair bit done.

Closeup of the PS cooler shows how badly rusted it had become:

Image

Gearbox cooler bracket was pretty far gone as well:

Image

The bumper support bar also showing corrosion:

Image

So there has been a lot of time spent with the wire brush, drill, derusting solutions, acid etch primer and paint to get lots of stuff looking alright again and hopefully fine for another few years of service. The PS cooler I replaced with a good second hand item as I felt the original was too badly corroded.

As I am replacing the passenger wing, whilst I had it off I addressed any corrosion present and then painted and used a brushable seam sealer to hopefully limit further corrosion for a good while, to be fair there isn't anything more than a bit of surface rust but I felt it worth doing.

Image

After a good while in an electrolysis bath and another bath of the Deox C the gearbox oil cooler bracket was looking much better but lots of the strength had left the part - I think the rust was holding most of it together, my brother in law is building a car basically from scratch and has become quite handy with the welder lately, so I had him weld a strengthening strip onto the bracket:

Image

You can see here how much of the original was left:

Image

The bracket was then painted with acid etch primer and then several coats of matt black to finish off:

Image
Image
Much better :)

I had a delivery from CheapToyotaParts of a few bits including my shiny new chargecooler radiator:

Image
Image

All the fins are straight :shock: :D the same can't be said for my old radiator where at least 1/3 of the core's fins were compacted together from bugs, it will be interesting to see if there is any temperature improvement with the new radiator. Also of note is that the radiator does appear to be totally new including the end tanks, there was some suggestion it might be a recore that arrives but it does not appear to be.

I also fitted some ducting to direct air from the bumper up into the air box, I have had this for a while but hadn't got round to fitting it hopefully this will make a slight improvement as before the OEM airbox was sucking air from the engine bay due to my having removed the resonator box a long while ago:

Image
Image

Finally I purchased some Nimbus heat shield material in order to try and makeup a nice looking heat shield for underneath the chargecooler. I have come to dislike the standard method of lagging with silver backed material as it looks nasty in my opinion and also usually starts to degrade with the heat over time and looks even worse. I used some cardboard templates and then got busy with the tin snips. I am not fully happy with it yet but I think its coming along and looks a bit smarter than my previous lagging effort. The material is also reputed to be a superior insulator so we will see what my chargecooler improvements yield shortly.

Image
Image

The top edge needs tidying up to make it neater and to try and achieve the OEMish look I am after.

This weekend I'm planning to get most of the rest of the car back together so another update soon. :)

_________________
GT4DC Events Co-ordinator
1996 ST205 UK


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Thu Jan 23, 2014 11:45 pm 
Offline
New Poster

Joined: Thu Jul 12, 2012 9:52 pm
Posts: 1
Location: Somerset
Car Model: ST205
Could I ask what diameter piping did you use for the air duct?

_________________
James


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Thu Jan 23, 2014 11:48 pm 
Offline
Club Staff
User avatar

Joined: Wed Jul 13, 2005 12:14 am
Posts: 3265
Location: Camberley, Surrey
Car Model: ST205
Sure - its 3" pipe, its a tight fit through the holes in the inner wing - I protected the edges with some silicon hose sliced along its length.

You can adjust the end of the 3" pipe so its roughly triangular in shape to fit into the hole on the OEM airbox. I did originally try a 2.5" pipe but the fit into the airbox wasn't as good.

_________________
GT4DC Events Co-ordinator
1996 ST205 UK


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Fri Jan 24, 2014 12:03 am 
Offline
Group B
User avatar

Joined: Sat Sep 02, 2006 3:13 pm
Posts: 3679
Location: Bournemouth
Car Model: None
Beware ducting from low down towards the engine air intake. I'm speaking from painful experience of destorying a peugeot diesel in less than 6 inches of water. I did manage to limp it home on 3 cylinders and 2 holes in the block though :)

If possible, angle it so that it doesn't point directly into the airbox inlet so that any water coming up the pipe doesn't go straight in

_________________
If at first you don't suck seed, try drier grain.

Image


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Fri Jan 24, 2014 12:50 am 
Offline
Club Staff
User avatar

Joined: Wed Jul 13, 2005 12:14 am
Posts: 3265
Location: Camberley, Surrey
Car Model: ST205
Thanks for the pointer, I have heard of that happening before.

The final placement of the other end of the duct isn't decided yet.

The car is now only going to be a weekend/fair weather drive so I don't think I have too much to worry about, I will make a mental note not to drive through any fords however :)

_________________
GT4DC Events Co-ordinator
1996 ST205 UK


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Fri Jan 24, 2014 1:30 am 
Offline
Club Staff
User avatar

Joined: Wed Jul 13, 2005 12:06 am
Posts: 4743
Location: Perth, Western Australia
Car Model: ST205
Nice to see some TLC being applied to a Four :D

What happened to the resonator/intake, did you remove it for some reason?

_________________
Don
GT4DC Chairman
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205WRC JDM 269bhp @ 0.9bar
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four Special GT 590bhp @ 1.8bar
1989 Van Diemen RF88/89 Formula Ford 1600
2008 Nissan Patrol GU 3.0L ZD30DDTi 154bhp


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Fri Jan 24, 2014 9:56 am 
Offline
Club Staff
User avatar

Joined: Wed Jul 13, 2005 12:14 am
Posts: 3265
Location: Camberley, Surrey
Car Model: ST205
It was removed when I fitted an earlier duct to send air to my apexi intake. I still have it.

_________________
GT4DC Events Co-ordinator
1996 ST205 UK


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Fri Jan 24, 2014 11:04 pm 
Offline
Group N

Joined: Tue May 01, 2007 9:21 pm
Posts: 212
Location: lancashire
Car Model: None
Nice work mike good to see the old girl improving all the time :-)

Martin

_________________
We now have a new website

https://www.mkautorepairsandtuning.uk/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mk-Auto-R ... 7894641634

Image


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Sun Jan 26, 2014 11:54 pm 
Offline
Club Staff
User avatar

Joined: Wed Jul 13, 2005 12:14 am
Posts: 3265
Location: Camberley, Surrey
Car Model: ST205
Managed to get a fair bit done this weekend. Started on Saturday morning with fitting of the new chargecooler radiator, the refurbished power steering cooler and the bracket to support the gearbox oil cooler. Looking pretty tidy now I think:

Image

Replacement PS cooler is in much better shape than the old one:

Image

The fog lights were then refitted to the bumper support bar with new bolts - yes I know the lights are the wrong way round!

Image

The bumper bar was then bolted in place - again with new fasteners:

Image

I then started the installation of the projector headlights starting with the main beam units as these are a straight swap using the same electrical connectors as the earlier loom:

Image
Image

The dip/outer units are a little more complicated as the electrical fittings are not the same, I really did not want to cut the loom on the car so utilising some spare sidelight bulb holders (thanks to Robsy and MK Autos for sorting these out) I created an adapter loom for the side lights and using an adapter from eBay for the dipped lights the same, these are not perfect but I haven't had to damage anything on my car, or on the projectors so I am pleased with the outcome:

Image

Another difference with the projectors is the placement of the sidelight, the projectors have them right tucked on the outer of the light unit closest to the wing, the access looks quite tight and it might not be possible to change the sidelight bulb with the unit in the car just in case I decided to replace the standard sidelight bulbs with some LED versions that will hopefully last a lot longer:

Image

Then came to fitting the dip units, by this time it was getting dark so apologies for the poor image quality:

Image

I also did some measuring up of the available space to fit the small oil cooler I have planned:

Image

I called it a night for Saturday at that point, on Sunday Don was coming over to help me refit the bumper, not a complicated job but I do find that its easy to scratch the wings with the studs protruding on the edges of the bumper if you do it alone. The car wasn't quite ready to accept the bumper so working quite quickly I didn't take any pictures but the replacement passenger wing was refitted and then the passenger side projector light unit.

The wing was rust protected on the inside before fitting using Dinitrol products, I plan to do the same to the drivers side wing at some point maybe over the summer. Before fitting both the bumper and the wing were given a wipe down with autoglym tar remover and then washed before applying the Meguiars 3 step clean/polish/wax system this gives a nice finish, its amazing how easy a job it is to clean the bumper when its face up on trestles at waist height!

The bumper was then refitted (thanks Don!) and then a couple of pictures taken, the projectors do really make a world of difference in my opinion:

Image

Shiny radiator peeking through:

Image
Image

That's it for now, another update next weekend! :)

_________________
GT4DC Events Co-ordinator
1996 ST205 UK


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Tue Jan 28, 2014 1:10 am 
Offline
Club Staff
User avatar

Joined: Wed Jul 13, 2005 12:06 am
Posts: 4743
Location: Perth, Western Australia
Car Model: ST205
Having seen the car in the flesh last weekend I can vouch for the quality of the work Mike has put in with lots of attention to detail. Top effort! :D

_________________
Don
GT4DC Chairman
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205WRC JDM 269bhp @ 0.9bar
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four Special GT 590bhp @ 1.8bar
1989 Van Diemen RF88/89 Formula Ford 1600
2008 Nissan Patrol GU 3.0L ZD30DDTi 154bhp


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Wed Jan 29, 2014 1:14 am 
Offline
Group N

Joined: Tue May 01, 2007 9:21 pm
Posts: 212
Location: lancashire
Car Model: None
Looking good mike have you sorted the oil cooler you mentioned as ive got a source for spurious sized coolers now if needed ?

Martin

_________________
We now have a new website

https://www.mkautorepairsandtuning.uk/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mk-Auto-R ... 7894641634

Image


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Wed Jan 29, 2014 9:25 am 
Offline
Club Staff
User avatar

Joined: Wed Jul 13, 2005 12:14 am
Posts: 3265
Location: Camberley, Surrey
Car Model: ST205
Hi Martin,

No I haven't sorted it yet, when you say spurious sizes are they custom made? I was going to get a small mocal one off the shelf.

_________________
GT4DC Events Co-ordinator
1996 ST205 UK


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Sun Feb 09, 2014 5:47 pm 
Offline
Group N

Joined: Tue May 01, 2007 9:21 pm
Posts: 212
Location: lancashire
Car Model: None
I will get the sizes mike and let you know, theres an option on a really small cooler which ive started using recently

Martin

_________________
We now have a new website

https://www.mkautorepairsandtuning.uk/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mk-Auto-R ... 7894641634

Image


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Tue Feb 18, 2014 3:00 pm 
Offline
Club Staff
User avatar

Joined: Wed Jul 13, 2005 12:14 am
Posts: 3265
Location: Camberley, Surrey
Car Model: ST205
Another small update, the car is all back together now.

I've decided to put the oil cooler on hold for a little while at least as the plumbing fittings and space is tight for where I want to put it and its quite complicated. I am considering using hard lines for part of the run to gain some clearance. For now the oil temperatures are fine so no great rush.

The cold air feed has been finished:

Image
Image

As has been pointed out I will now have to be very careful to avoid deep puddles and flooding!

I had some issues when starting the car - I had a persistant code54, this seems to have been air trapped in the IC system, lots of running the pump with the relay bridged has now solved this as the level is finally stable in the top box. I also had a problem with the idle being very low, this has been traced to the plumbing for the charcoal canister being incorrect, I must have moved something when plumbing in my boost controller and gauge, again all sorted now. Very glad as it was causing an intermittent stall when coming off the gas, very annoying on the approach to roundabouts!

Finally for now I have spent a while setting up the datalogger and configuring it correctly, two of the aspects I wanted to get sorted were the external alarm to warn of problems with temperatures or pressures and the actual installation of the dash display. I am trying to go for a 'cleaner' look for the whole car and having the bright display sat on the centre console was interfering with this, after toying around with several options I bought a DIN sized cubbie / pocket thing and modified it to fit the display.

This way during normal driving I can have the display hidden from view and not distracting and then when I want to be a geek or during trackdays or enthusiastic driving I can simply open the pocket to reveal the display. It's not perfect but it suits my needs.

Image
Image

When the display is hidden I still have the additional warning light and buzzer to alert me to any problems, for the moment this has been cobbled together from bits purchased from RS and Maplin. It's nowhere near as smart as I want it but it will do for now.

Image

The light is very bright and the buzzer very loud - An omission I have already found is that I need a button to acknowledge / cancel the alarm once its been set off as it really is very loud and distracting, you wouldn't want that for 5 minutes until the temperatures dropped! Need to get Nibbles to work me out a little circuit with a momentary switch or similar to do that.

So that brings the car up to date. :)

_________________
GT4DC Events Co-ordinator
1996 ST205 UK


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Wed Feb 19, 2014 12:07 am 
Offline
Club Staff
User avatar

Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2005 12:44 pm
Posts: 4067
Location: drinking devil fuel
Car Model: ST205
That cubbyhole thing is brilliant Mike


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 379 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1 ... 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 ... 26  Next


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 34 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
cron
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group