fkn grr.. for some reason I can't find my gear shift lever for the next round of photos.. time to get back into the garage and then pop off to the gym.

back laters

_________________
GT Four Adovansu

"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."

When I got my gearbox rebuilt, I got a couple of boxes of nuts and bolts and linkages etc.
The box sat around for, well, 2 years So in early december, i decided to sort it out one night.

Still don't know exactly what all the nuts and bolts are. I'm sure I'll figure it out





In one of the boxes, was the gear shifting linkage. Since I wanted to test out the malt vinegar trick, I thought I may as well try it on this.
So I took it apart and left it over night in the malt vinegar with some washers and other bits.






Hrmm.. rather weathered and dirty


Malt vinegar - acetic acid


And we'll come back to that later

------------

So onto the clutch pedal...
When I took apart the dash and ancillaries on the firewall, I found that the clutch pedal cage had been welded back together.
Obviously, it had broken to some vigourous leg action and had been welded up in situ as the repair. Subsquently the weld had rusted and they'd burnt through some of the foam/rubber sound deadening.
And there was a "bridge of weld" where they didn't contact metal.









Inititally I was just going to take it apart, remove rust and the repair welds and get one of the boys to weld up the cage better, but in the end, I ended up finding a rev2 manual st182 at Pick A Part and pulled the pedal out.
To do this, requires taking apart the dash, dropping the steering rack down and undoing the internal dash cross member to access and remove the pedal/cage.



There are differences between the rev1 and rev2. Overall they are the same, except rev2 has a diff spring and extra reinforcing / gussets.


Extra mounting tab to the side as well as a stop for pedal arm travel.


extra gusset at one mounting point


see - no gusset on the old one


So i'll clean up the new cage/pedal arm etc and that will be that - later of course.

-------------

Sometimes *bleep* happens. In this case, I some how munted the thread on the shifter mounting plate. When I checked today, there was one bad screw, so that was probably the reason.


But a replacement out of a rev1 st182 solved the problem Will clean up and protect later.


When I was looking at the rev2 st182, I remembered that the shifter was different and apparently with shorter throw (well at least in the RC and rev2 gt4). So I bagged myself the shifter and will look at differences later in the mix. Of note, the base is higher and uses 3 points for mounting instead of the original 4 as well as plastic.


Gotta have the good stuff aye TWM short shifter for rev1 st185. Should be interesting to see the difference in throw once this is in.

_________________
GT Four Adovansu

"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."

Oh oh.. a curren has hit the scrapyard. Fingers crossed it has the 3sge in it! need to get some bits and bobs which are related to things I have done but not talked about yet

edit - poo, 3sfe

_________________
GT Four Adovansu

"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."

Organised a welder and Jonno to come in on Saturday and do the welding on the firewall.

because i am looking at mounting a heater unit into the bay, I have consider mounting on the other side of the firewall. Brackets/nuts/bolts will have to be welded in place for the heater and the sub box. Once the engine bay is primed and ready to paint, I don't want to redo work due to weld heat marks or blow throughs if Jonno goes too hard.

Sometimes you just have to get stuck in no matter what and when.....

2.25am - cleaning the underside of the car and inside wells to prep for rhino liner and priming later on.
If i push through, i reckon i can get the high build primer down by sunday. Jonno's car got certed finally and now he's kicking my *bleep* to get the bay done espec. since he will have little time to help me out when his baby comes in around 4 weeks time.

Vodka and a lemon lime bitter to make the experience pass a little faster.


The mess that is the garage at the mo. I only cleaned the damn thing 2 weeks ago.






Gotta clean the damn thing as it was black under here and i want the rhino liner to have the best surface possible to adhere to.


My fun view for.. checks.. next couple of hours - i'll go till 4am or so i reckon.

_________________
GT Four Adovansu

"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."

AAAAAGGGGGHHHHHH
Put me out of my misery pleeease
How did the malt vinegar bracket work out?

I hope the welder is better than the last guy who "fixed" the clutch bracket. That's nearly bad enough for it to have been me with my infamous fugly but functional pidgeon poop style.
Might be worth adding a bit of extra bracing to the new version as it's a known weak spot through all the models

Cleaning stuff is so boring
Ask me how I know

hahaha
Yes, malt vinegar does work.
Need to leave it in for around 12-18 hours and then descale with a wire brush on heavy areas.

Depends on how much metal you are willing to sacrifice in order to remove the rust. I've read others that have left items in for 3-4 days to get the desired result.

Personally I'd rather get stuck in with the drill and the wire wheels using both directions to get more life out of the wheel. Then possibly use the malt vinegar to get rid of all the small rust?

Clutch bracket welding was done in Japan in the car. Jonno can def do a better job when its in front of him on the table. I'll see if I can work in the clutch stuff with my time frame at the mo

edit - another curren at the Pick a Part!

My engine had some damage to the pan. Due to the nature of the beast, the currens and st202 celicas came with gen3 3sge's, and parts are interchangeable. Therefore my desire to get my hands on a curren or celica with 3sge is great. Already grabbed bits like cam covers etc to cut up and modifiy.

Original damage - didn't take pics of when I took the pan/sump/internal baffle off

_________________
GT Four Adovansu

"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."

Beware that not all bits are interchangable but I think you'll be fine with currens and 185 GTEs

Again ask me how I know

Yep - I use the EPC to cross reference a lot of parts that may or may not be interchangeable.

Scored some fans and controller out of a toyota previa/estima.. smoove! I have demisters now!

_________________
GT Four Adovansu

"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."

I haven't updated in ages but since I'm playing around in the garage on my birthday to let off some steam:

Original turbo...


New turbo:

_________________
GT Four Adovansu

"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."

Remember these rusty pictures?





Winter is finally over and I've actually finished the painting of the Tein's hahaha. Beautiful day for painting and doing work on the car

Etch primed


Starting with the red engine enamel (oh and this was in august haha)


Nearly there


Looking pretty good now!




Actually been doing quite a bit of work on the car lately. Slowly trying to remember how all the components of the engine go back on, cleaning ( a lot ), a little bit here a little bit there.

Work is pretty crazy at the mo, but I am more motivated recently, so that's always good.

Front suspension done for the most part, just need to do all the 100 other different things as well

More pics up later

_________________
GT Four Adovansu

"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."

8/11/10 - Super Update Time! Part I

So I haven't done a decent update for ages. Been very busy at work and I normally get home mentally fatigued and with no energy to focus my attentions on the elephant.
But I have slowly being doing work on the the silly car, so I know that counts for something
Plus I have been buying lots of stuff, and you all know how that can be very enjoyable as well!

In this update (which will most likely be multi-part due to the amount of photos) I'm going to cover all the little things that I have done, purchases and any misc. stuff.
Oh and if my boss is reading this, sorry boss. Need to do focus on work life balance

Engine

So I'd thought I'd just start from the start and get everything up.

Engine received (note: this was back in June 2008)


Putting onto the stand


Strip down



ST205 TB



More strip down


Initial clean up of all the grease and dirt build up on the engine.


W2A




#$%^&* I bent the water pipe (sigh) So obviously this was of great concern for me. Not too many st205 engines are broken down, so finding a replacement was going to be a *bleep*.
I actually found the gen3 3sge had a similar pipe according to the EPC, and luckily I found one up at pick a part and got it for $10.
But recently when putting the engine back together, I've found that there are issues. More on this later.


Bought a chinese special. 3" dump pipe with support bracket. This is obviously going to change with the holset, but I will still use temporarily while I run the CT20B/CT26R2


Ugh..


Okay, so after many months of waiting for a 3sge gen3 to come up to pick a part, the patience was rewarded with a 1996 celica and I was able to grab the oil pan, baffle and oil pick up to replace my dented baffle and lower pan.

If you remember, I posted this:


Well, after spending 8 hours up at the scrap yard, I finally got my replacement baffle and lower pan. I only took removing the ancillaries, engine from the bay, getting the auto box off, rounding an allen head bolt between the block and the box and rushing to the hardware store to get some vice grips and finally prising the oily parts away from the block, I had what I wanted.

Here is the comparison between the old bent baffle and the replacement. Some may say it wouldn't have affected performance or it could be bent back, but I'm too pedantic for that


As you can see, there is a slight deflection in the baffle. Enough for me to wait nearly a year for something to come up!


New oil pump to install


Engine gasket kit (thanks always to Mark @ Manawatu Toyota for the prompt parts delivery and great service )


Decided to clean all surfaces between cam cover and head of old gasket crap. Cam's came out for some reason as well


Replaced crank seals as well


All back together and sealed up


A little extra sealant was applied. No biggy though.


So this 3sge water pipe. Sigh. Good intentions, but as you can see, there are differences. Another difference was that the water pipe to oil cooler inlet/outlet (whatever) was shorter than the st205 one. Estimate for a new pipe was expensive to say the least. But I went to Howat engineering this past weekend, and the engineer said that since the pipe wasn't creased and no hole, then flow would be impeded minimally. Yay! No having to pay $$ for mistakes!


Decided to see what the differences between the throttle body diameters were.



Side by side comparison. The ST205 TB on the left doesn't have the inlet piece on it. St215 TB has the inlet piece as part of the TB body.


Purchase time. A powerful gt4 was being broken/sold on as the owner had decided to move in a different direction.
I was able to purchase a pile of things off him. Intercooler setup, including inlet pipe with tial bov mount, bar/tube intercooler, other intercooler piping; 3" dump pipe with WG pipe; 3" mid pipe with flexi; Carlos Sainz/RC bonnet - the bonnet was the most important thing for me. Rare as hen's teeth in NZ.




This is the engine as it stands at the mo. I won't lie. It's been over 2 years since the engine was stripped back and I've been trying to figure out how to put it all back together. I'm just glad Ii bagged and tagged all the stuff that came off! Getting there though


So ends this part of the update.

Oh - there is also an Audi A3 turbo block/head in my garage that my sister broke a cam on. I should either dump it or strip it down and see what can be salvaged. Prob just get rid of it tbh. Taking up too much room!

_________________
GT Four Adovansu

"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."

8/11/10 - Super Update Time! Part II

Before anyone says anything, yes I do start have a lot of little mini projects going on at the same time. If I didn't then just doing the same thing would be quite boring

Body:

Carlos Sainz/RC bonnet
I'll take a mould before painting. Gotta go lightweight or at least have a replacement in those times of need!
I did plan on asking someone if I could take a mould of their bonnet, but that would have meant flying around NZ, shipping the mould back to Wellington and that was if I absolutely couldn't find a bonnet. Glad Ii have something local I can work off now haha.


Driveline: June 2010

Drive shaft doesn't look in too bad condition


Bottom of the car is also in good condition. Minimal signs of any rust or corrosion. Lucky me


Sometimes my friends give me a hand every now and again. Scoob came over in the STI and was poking around under the rear of the car helping me remove the rear driveline.
Bit of plumbers crack there hahahaha


So after unbolting the rear subframe and lowering on the jack, the elephant is coming apart slowly.



Bit rusty, though I've seen worse. I like the small collection of stones on top of the diff. Found similar on the subframe itself which I'm currently cleaning.


Overall, rubbers aren't in bad condition. Undecided whether I'll replace. I'm sure it's going to cost me in parts from Japan. Won't be going solid bushings. I like some comfort.


Diff cushion is cracked. Will have to cut out and re-poly.


So one of the long suspension arms is bent (no pic yet). I saw a trace of rust under the paint. Better inspect.


Err.. will clean up that mess


New front and rear bearings for hub conversions for brake upgrade


New ball joints from Mark @ Manawatu Toyota again ( I see a trend here )


Electrics: April 2010

Starter motor was begging attention - looks so dirty! So I decided to take it apart and inspect and start cleaning.




Brushes are fine


Cleaned up the crap on the armature


More inspection - this time the solenoid.




Hmmm... new toy Link G3 LEM with 55psi MAP sensor internal Thanks Matt D

_________________
GT Four Adovansu

"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."

8/11/10 - Super Update Time! Part III

My AC removal: Found these pics from 2006

So the AC was shot. I already had plans to mount a sub in the dash based on my experiments:


Let's get this #$%^ out! AC gas was already gone, and I didn't really want the extra crap in the bay. Also, at the time, I needed to fit larger batteries for my audio.



Was an interesting experience finding out how the lines snaked through the bay. This was before I had the BGB's and EPC to guide me.


Wow- garage was kind of empty hahaha


Hmm.. that was it? Oh well.. in the bin in went


Engine Bay February - October:

So this is where I left a previous update..


So the aim here was to clean up all the road grime and built up crap around the bay and in the guard areas. Seriously, it was the worst job cleaning up all this.
Ideally, it would have been easier media blasting, but hey, it's me and there is always a reason why I do things the way I do.

February
In this case, I didn't want to remove the old underseal in the guards. a) it's a messy job b) what do I gain from something that I won't see? c) i won't have to reapply underseal, though I am going over with a plastic liner material to ensure that there is more than adequate protection.


Found a little bit of rust where the suspension was in contact with the body. Will clean up before liner application.


The build up, while under flash, was actually quite bad. I initially thought that some areas were painted black. How wrong I was. The black on the tow hook is actually dirt!


Cleaned up.


Amazingly white under here.



One of the things I wanted to do was delete holes and major depressions in the bay.
Commonly, hotrodders will delete the firewall and smooth out the bay. For me, this was not a focus.

The main reason is that I've been to many car shows and I smoothed out engine bay is actually rather boring.
Who wants to see an engine sitting in a shiny box? Not I! The contours and shapes within a bay give more character and actually interesting.

Then again.. deletion of the engine loom hole, AC pipe and heater pipe holes time hehe

3 holes to delete


studs sticking out.. need to get rid of those! Angle grinder time..


goneburgers


not too bad. Reasonably clean job.


so i had to get to the firewall. I store a bunch of shite in the cabin most of the time.. whats that down the back?


Why there are some cusco front and rear strut braces. Brand new, but will be stripped of the blue. I have my colour codes firmly in mind with white as the primary colour and red/black accents.


Great.. a bit of room to work in now.


First things first.. clean up the replacement metal. Jonno had already used this panel for his widebody kit.


I cleaned up the glue and other crap then grabbed the paint stripping disc to get some clean metal.


Voila


Double skinned firewll. Plan is to weld from the interior side so that nothing is protruding on the engine bay side.


Time to make some templates.



3 templates made.


Added a weld buffer for me to push the metal up against the back of engine bay metal of the firewall.


Cut and traced.


Interior shot, fit's like a charm


Some gear that was borrowed. Mask for Jonno, mask for me. I really need to learn how to weld. This is a TIG welder I can borrow after all lol.


Welded up. Jonno used rods, but ideally we would have got the auto feed mig, but that was in use building a garage haha.


Oops.. drop plastic got burnt up with all the sparks haha.


Little mess under the plastic. Not too bad and the concrete pad is still protected to this day after a couple of years living under plastic.


Grabbed some new plastic and duct tape and did the fix it job - easy peasy


Oh - Speed Source solid engine brace mounts. Fancy! Decided that I would play and see how they fit.


Not bad.. but oh no.. what do I see? A dent in the metal member running across More on this later..


Considering I didn't remove the gearbox and engine orginially, I actually had no idea how the brace fitted. Oh well, worked it out


fibrglass infused filler. Strong, but a *bleep* to sand. Note, the left hand side of the pic. The weld areas for the centre brace on the interior side had depressions. They were filled up and smoothed out.
That was the extent of the smoothing on the firewall.


after all the seam sealer was removed, smoothing done with filler (not on any seams mind you..) and some spray putty to check smoothness, this is a high shot of the bay - 12 March 2010


Thought I'd get fancy with the merge function in photoshop. Saved me from manually merging the photos in Adobe Fireworks. Yes, ASI radiator on the back.


Etch primed ready for seam sealing.


Another fun photo merge


This is an example of how I did the seam sealing. I carefully taped and cut around the seams and then applied the sealer. Then I removed the tape and smoothed out with my fingers before the sealer skinned.
I used wax and grease remover to keep the sealer flexible while smoothing out.


Nish came around and watched me for a couple of hours. I made him tape up some bits..


And this is the bay as it currently stands. Due to the method I used, it took quite a while to get the seam sealer done. Tape, seal, remove tape, smooth. Repeat over and over and over.. many hours and cramped fingers, but its all worth it

_________________
GT Four Adovansu

"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."

8/11/10 - Super Update Time! Part III

Transmission stuff

Rermember the gear leaver mechanism?



And no, I didn't leave them in the vinegar for 3 months

Come February 2010..
After a couple of days, the levers were removed from the vinegar. I then cleaned them up, started sanding and polishing. Probably one of the few things I'll polish myself as it took bloody ages!


Main mounting plate was quite rusted if you remember.


Just some other bits and bobs that went into the vinegar. A-arm washers, starter motor bolts, metal washer mount thingys


rusted vs vinegar dipped.


As you can see, the vinegar left a film from the zinc coating on the metal.


both gen1 and gen 2 mounting plates were dipped.


The rust build up.. no one likes rust.


small amount of rust on the gen 1 mounting plate.


I put under some water and the film wiped away I still went over with a plastic scrubbing pad to get rid of the deep rust that was still present.



Etch primed - April 2010


7 November 2010. Actually got around to finishing these up. Etch priming protected them so no issues there. Some zinc paint tarts them up some


Thought I better take some pictures today. This the gear lever mechanism. Sugar cube had minimal wear on it.



Ii had my clutch plate machined by Hutt City Engine Reconditioners. Cheap and its machined, not lathed


RPM HD clutch..



Couldn't be bothered to open the box, but the HD plate is in there


Speed Source stainless braided clutch hose



Right - midnight.. and i need to get up in 6 hours for work.
I'll update another little bit tomorrow, radiator fitment fun

Hope you all enjoy

Cheers
Dave

_________________
GT Four Adovansu

"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."

Hi,

does i ask you for some measurements of the caldina throttle body, especially the four mounting holes and the outer diameter where the intercooler hose fit?

greetz

_________________
KEEP COOL UNDER PRESSURE

street legal?.....perhaps in tschibuti