Track car project - Season 2 - Page 2

vix · 15-02-2009, 15:24

Well, it's in, but we need more bits before we can start and play

Zirax · 15-02-2009, 16:15

*dribbles* Was going to ask how you were getting on later

Is this the earlier or later engine?

vix · 25-02-2009, 22:03

Vroom!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AcGwjhxLRQ

Nutcase · 26-02-2009, 18:51

Good effort

vix · 26-02-2009, 21:09

26th Feb.

I must admit I’ve not been doing much helping, mainly due to the fact that the garage is too full for us both to work in it! A lot of it is due to the fact that Phil is trying to sort of find his way around the new engine too, and it makes it difficult if I start asking ‘what does this do?’

The main differences as far as I can see on the SC engine are the fact that it has a supercharger of course and a large intercooler, for which the engine cover is going to need modifying. Phil’s main concerns were getting the coolant pipework and wiring correct, if you see pics a few posts up, most of the engine came in bags and boxes so we did need to work out how this all goes together. In the end, regsrding the wiring, it was a case of ‘square peg, square hole’ just fitting plugs in holes they went in, and as you will see later, this technique worked! In order to get the coolant pipes and other confusing bits in the right place, we called upon other SC owners to take pics of their engines so we could copy it!

Once Phil had received some vital components from the supplier of the engine, he fitted most of it into the car in an afternoon. Cue me nagging for about 2 weeks .Can we start it yet?’ But I was told that plenty of things needed to be done before this important moment in history. Again, as the engine bay is a little tiny for two people to be working round, I didn’t have much to do with the prep work, but Phil had plenty to be going on with. So whilst I was making myself useful baking and hoovering or something, Phil did the following in one day:

Fitted torque mounts, with new Speedsource Poly Mounts.
Bolted up the driveshafts.
Extended brake booster pipe and connected up.
Fitted and connected coil.
Connected top and bottom coolant hoses.
Attached throttle cable.
Fitted clutch/ gear linkages.

A few days after this day of activity, my car, Sakura broke down for the first time ever! I was on my way to work and she just cut out after pulling out of a junction. Phil had to come get me and our original thought was the throttle cable as this is sometimes a bit dodgy! However, preliminary investigation proved this wasn’t the case, and we ended up towing Sakura with Phil’s car, which must have been a sight! Phil then booked a few days off work in case the problem was serious, however we fixed her that night, thanks to Nik (Cybershot) who lent us the use of his business premises in order to have some light to work under! Problem was a worn out rotor in the dizzy cap, so very easy to fit, and handy because we had about 3 spares. I also nabbed Phil’s red HT leads whilst we were at it. I’m so vain.

So this left Phil with a few days spare to get some work done on Humphrey, which was quite useful. The work to be done before the countdown to start was as follows:

Fit coolant sensor into thermostat housing and fit plug onto loom.
Find somewhere to bolt FSE power boost valve and finish plumbing in.
Make up oil cooler lines and fit.
Fit alternator belt – firstly buying one!
Fit exhaust (last year we forgot this at one point and tried to start the engine!!)
Check loom connections – engine and car.
Fit battery.
Fit intake system and intercooler.
Fill with fluids.

You can imagine the end looked nigh at this point and we were getting quite excited at the prospect of hearing Humphrey’s new engine roar into life. However, we hit a little hiccup after Phil had done the oil cooler lines, FSE valve and coolant sensor. He filled the coolant, and found a leak in one of the hoses. This was sorted fairly quickly, however he then noticed a slight drip from the cambelt end. The leak turned out to be where the water pump seals to the block, possibly the worst place to have a coolant leak as you have to remove most things to get to it!

The day that we should have been ready to attempt a start, Phil realised that the battery had not been put on charge! Doh. So we had a bit of a fiddling day, trying to mount the ECU, the problem with this is that the Mk1a and b variants mounted the ECU in different places, we have a Mk1a chassis and now a Mk1b engine, but in the end we mounted the ECU in a completely new place anyway!

We also removed the engine cover catch bracket in order for the intercooler to fit, and then fitted bonnet pins on the engine cover.

And the next day is the reason I didn’t update the Sprint diary last weekend, because we were pretty despondent. Bolted the exhaust on and turned the key. The engine turned over but just wouldn’t start. We spent most of the day trying to troubleshoot, checking for fuel and spark, charging batteries, going round in circles, very annoying. We lost the light in the end and went to fix a headlight on a friends Mk2, which went rather well! Whilst we had light and the weather was acceptable, I carried on cleaning some suspension parts and giving them a coat of Hammerite. We rigged up a washing line to paint and hang them from, consisting of string and ramps!

Phil once again went to his sounrce of SC owners to ask for any advice, and we did get some good ideas, unfortunately the weather went off for a few days so we hadn’t got a chance to try any of them.

One of the pieces of masterful advice we received were ‘check the earths’. Wednesday night was fairly dry, so Phil went out, and a few minutes later I heard a new roar from the side of the house. He lives!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AcGw...e=channel_page

Still got a few issues that need sorting but we feel that the end is in sight! The engine sounds a little tight when cranking, the idle is quite high, and the pistons get wet. The worry is that we were doing so much cranking at the weekend when we were trying to get it to start, obviously oil wasn’t getting around and this may have affected the bearings. There may be the case that the head bolts are loose, and perhaps the head gasket isn’t sealing properly. Of course it may be a simple timing issue which we are going to check at the weekend.

Big thanks need to go to our Supercharger owning friends, for brilliant help and advice, and also to Nik for the use of his business premises.

Zirax · 26-02-2009, 22:08

Congrats, just got home where I can see the vid. Sounds like a lot of work ..... eeep

vix · 01-03-2009, 17:51

1st March.

On Friday, Phil sorted the timing which did help the engine sound a little healthier. So now he idles at a normal speed, which is great. However there was still oil around the pistons so on Saturday we toddled off to the Toyota dealer to order some new head bolts.

Head bolts on order, not much else to do until they get here except remove the head in ready ness. This is quite a drawn out job, but finally we got to where we needed to be.

The offending articles (hopefully!)

As I was taking this picture of Humphrey having a wee (dropping coolant!), I noticed this shiny new poly bush on the engine torque mounts.

Once the head was off, Phil set to work on the engine cover, removing some of the supporting metal from the inside in order to make room for the intercooler. We wont know yet if this is enough space, we might still have to cut a hole in the cover!

Today, Phil began to fir the refurbed clutch master cylinder he had bought, however the new one had been machined incorrectly where the hydraulic line enters it, and wouldn’t seal. He ended up rebuilding a new master cylinder from the new one and the old one! Once this had been done, we bled the clutch, but ran out of clutch fluid! Weather deteriorated whilst we were out buying more clutch fluid so we have stopped for the weekend.

I’ve still not been helping much! Finished Hammeriting the suspension parts today, and have a little project of my own that’s keeping me busy, which is the refurb of my cam covers.

Next weekend we hope to fit the new head bolts and find out that they were the problem! Once they are done we have the adjustable anti roll bars to fit and then we can start thinking about the MOT. That could open a whole new can of worms!

kaiowas · 01-03-2009, 19:07

Bit more detail on what's wrong and why the head is off:

When I got the SC engine it needed the HG doing. So I took everything apart and put a new gasket in, when doing up the headbolts the spec calls for 29Nm +90Deg +90Deg. After putting the 29mn on and trying to put the first 90deg onto that I felt that something wasn't quite right, the bolts were torquing up too soon and I could barely get 90deg onto them, a second 90deg simply wasn't going to happen without risking snapping bolts. Seeing as earlier engines only needed 60nm total I reckoned I'd give it 70 to be safe and that should be tight enough.

Now that the engine is in the car and running I was noticing that after a run if I pull the plugs out and shine a torch into the bores and the tops of all 4 pistons are pretty wet with oil, given my earlier problems my first thought is that the HG probably isn't sealing well enough possibly because the headbolts might have yielded preventing me from torquing them properly unfortunately Internet wisdom seems to give mixed advice on whether 4A-GE headbolts yield when torqued up or not.

Once I'd done the timing on Friday I started looking into the problem and decided that rather than pull the head off straightaway I'd try retorquing the bolts some more (which unfortunately involves taking the cams out so plenty of disasembly required but it's still less work than pulling the head off). Stripped everything down, cranked the headbolts to 100Nm and put it all back togwether again all to no avail as after running for 5-10 minutes for things to heat up the pistons are all still oily.

So anyway that's why the head is off and I'm waiting for new headbolts. In retrospect I should have just got new bolts in the first place but once I get out in the garage I'm too impatient and have a habit of improvising if I find I haven't got something I need

Of course if the new headbolts don't torque up properly or oil still gets into the bores I'm going to be properly at a loss as to what's going on and another week closer to needing the car to be running!

BBx · 01-03-2009, 20:02

I didn't realise you had THAT many cars!!!

I thought you had 2!

Lol!

BB x

Zirax · 01-03-2009, 21:25

Yes, I have started the habit of improvising on mine as well. Warped head? But I know you checked that. Hope its just the bolts, I know bugger all really but if you want a hand, shout.

15-02-2009, 15:24	#11
vix Penelope Pitstop Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 4,426	Well, it's in, but we need more bits before we can start and play __________________

25-02-2009, 22:03	#13
vix Penelope Pitstop Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 4,426	Vroom! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AcGwjhxLRQ __________________

26-02-2009, 21:09	#15
vix Penelope Pitstop Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 4,426	26th Feb. I must admit I’ve not been doing much helping, mainly due to the fact that the garage is too full for us both to work in it! A lot of it is due to the fact that Phil is trying to sort of find his way around the new engine too, and it makes it difficult if I start asking ‘what does this do?’ The main differences as far as I can see on the SC engine are the fact that it has a supercharger of course and a large intercooler, for which the engine cover is going to need modifying. Phil’s main concerns were getting the coolant pipework and wiring correct, if you see pics a few posts up, most of the engine came in bags and boxes so we did need to work out how this all goes together. In the end, regsrding the wiring, it was a case of ‘square peg, square hole’ just fitting plugs in holes they went in, and as you will see later, this technique worked! In order to get the coolant pipes and other confusing bits in the right place, we called upon other SC owners to take pics of their engines so we could copy it! Once Phil had received some vital components from the supplier of the engine, he fitted most of it into the car in an afternoon. Cue me nagging for about 2 weeks .Can we start it yet?’ But I was told that plenty of things needed to be done before this important moment in history. Again, as the engine bay is a little tiny for two people to be working round, I didn’t have much to do with the prep work, but Phil had plenty to be going on with. So whilst I was making myself useful baking and hoovering or something, Phil did the following in one day: Fitted torque mounts, with new Speedsource Poly Mounts. Bolted up the driveshafts. Extended brake booster pipe and connected up. Fitted and connected coil. Connected top and bottom coolant hoses. Attached throttle cable. Fitted clutch/ gear linkages. A few days after this day of activity, my car, Sakura broke down for the first time ever! I was on my way to work and she just cut out after pulling out of a junction. Phil had to come get me and our original thought was the throttle cable as this is sometimes a bit dodgy! However, preliminary investigation proved this wasn’t the case, and we ended up towing Sakura with Phil’s car, which must have been a sight! Phil then booked a few days off work in case the problem was serious, however we fixed her that night, thanks to Nik (Cybershot) who lent us the use of his business premises in order to have some light to work under! Problem was a worn out rotor in the dizzy cap, so very easy to fit, and handy because we had about 3 spares. I also nabbed Phil’s red HT leads whilst we were at it. I’m so vain. So this left Phil with a few days spare to get some work done on Humphrey, which was quite useful. The work to be done before the countdown to start was as follows: Fit coolant sensor into thermostat housing and fit plug onto loom. Find somewhere to bolt FSE power boost valve and finish plumbing in. Make up oil cooler lines and fit. Fit alternator belt – firstly buying one! Fit exhaust (last year we forgot this at one point and tried to start the engine!!) Check loom connections – engine and car. Fit battery. Fit intake system and intercooler. Fill with fluids. You can imagine the end looked nigh at this point and we were getting quite excited at the prospect of hearing Humphrey’s new engine roar into life. However, we hit a little hiccup after Phil had done the oil cooler lines, FSE valve and coolant sensor. He filled the coolant, and found a leak in one of the hoses. This was sorted fairly quickly, however he then noticed a slight drip from the cambelt end. The leak turned out to be where the water pump seals to the block, possibly the worst place to have a coolant leak as you have to remove most things to get to it! The day that we should have been ready to attempt a start, Phil realised that the battery had not been put on charge! Doh. So we had a bit of a fiddling day, trying to mount the ECU, the problem with this is that the Mk1a and b variants mounted the ECU in different places, we have a Mk1a chassis and now a Mk1b engine, but in the end we mounted the ECU in a completely new place anyway! We also removed the engine cover catch bracket in order for the intercooler to fit, and then fitted bonnet pins on the engine cover. And the next day is the reason I didn’t update the Sprint diary last weekend, because we were pretty despondent. Bolted the exhaust on and turned the key. The engine turned over but just wouldn’t start. We spent most of the day trying to troubleshoot, checking for fuel and spark, charging batteries, going round in circles, very annoying. We lost the light in the end and went to fix a headlight on a friends Mk2, which went rather well! Whilst we had light and the weather was acceptable, I carried on cleaning some suspension parts and giving them a coat of Hammerite. We rigged up a washing line to paint and hang them from, consisting of string and ramps! Phil once again went to his sounrce of SC owners to ask for any advice, and we did get some good ideas, unfortunately the weather went off for a few days so we hadn’t got a chance to try any of them. One of the pieces of masterful advice we received were ‘check the earths’. Wednesday night was fairly dry, so Phil went out, and a few minutes later I heard a new roar from the side of the house. He lives! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AcGw...e=channel_page Still got a few issues that need sorting but we feel that the end is in sight! The engine sounds a little tight when cranking, the idle is quite high, and the pistons get wet. The worry is that we were doing so much cranking at the weekend when we were trying to get it to start, obviously oil wasn’t getting around and this may have affected the bearings. There may be the case that the head bolts are loose, and perhaps the head gasket isn’t sealing properly. Of course it may be a simple timing issue which we are going to check at the weekend. Big thanks need to go to our Supercharger owning friends, for brilliant help and advice, and also to Nik for the use of his business premises. __________________

01-03-2009, 17:51	#17
vix Penelope Pitstop Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 4,426	1st March. On Friday, Phil sorted the timing which did help the engine sound a little healthier. So now he idles at a normal speed, which is great. However there was still oil around the pistons so on Saturday we toddled off to the Toyota dealer to order some new head bolts. Head bolts on order, not much else to do until they get here except remove the head in ready ness. This is quite a drawn out job, but finally we got to where we needed to be. The offending articles (hopefully!) As I was taking this picture of Humphrey having a wee (dropping coolant!), I noticed this shiny new poly bush on the engine torque mounts. Once the head was off, Phil set to work on the engine cover, removing some of the supporting metal from the inside in order to make room for the intercooler. We wont know yet if this is enough space, we might still have to cut a hole in the cover! Today, Phil began to fir the refurbed clutch master cylinder he had bought, however the new one had been machined incorrectly where the hydraulic line enters it, and wouldn’t seal. He ended up rebuilding a new master cylinder from the new one and the old one! Once this had been done, we bled the clutch, but ran out of clutch fluid! Weather deteriorated whilst we were out buying more clutch fluid so we have stopped for the weekend. I’ve still not been helping much! Finished Hammeriting the suspension parts today, and have a little project of my own that’s keeping me busy, which is the refurb of my cam covers. Next weekend we hope to fit the new head bolts and find out that they were the problem! Once they are done we have the adjustable anti roll bars to fit and then we can start thinking about the MOT. That could open a whole new can of worms! __________________

01-03-2009, 19:07	#18
kaiowas The Stig Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Fightertown USA Posts: 1,458	Bit more detail on what's wrong and why the head is off: When I got the SC engine it needed the HG doing. So I took everything apart and put a new gasket in, when doing up the headbolts the spec calls for 29Nm +90Deg +90Deg. After putting the 29mn on and trying to put the first 90deg onto that I felt that something wasn't quite right, the bolts were torquing up too soon and I could barely get 90deg onto them, a second 90deg simply wasn't going to happen without risking snapping bolts. Seeing as earlier engines only needed 60nm total I reckoned I'd give it 70 to be safe and that should be tight enough. Now that the engine is in the car and running I was noticing that after a run if I pull the plugs out and shine a torch into the bores and the tops of all 4 pistons are pretty wet with oil, given my earlier problems my first thought is that the HG probably isn't sealing well enough possibly because the headbolts might have yielded preventing me from torquing them properly unfortunately Internet wisdom seems to give mixed advice on whether 4A-GE headbolts yield when torqued up or not. Once I'd done the timing on Friday I started looking into the problem and decided that rather than pull the head off straightaway I'd try retorquing the bolts some more (which unfortunately involves taking the cams out so plenty of disasembly required but it's still less work than pulling the head off). Stripped everything down, cranked the headbolts to 100Nm and put it all back togwether again all to no avail as after running for 5-10 minutes for things to heat up the pistons are all still oily. So anyway that's why the head is off and I'm waiting for new headbolts. In retrospect I should have just got new bolts in the first place but once I get out in the garage I'm too impatient and have a habit of improvising if I find I haven't got something I need Of course if the new headbolts don't torque up properly or oil still gets into the bores I'm going to be properly at a loss as to what's going on and another week closer to needing the car to be running! __________________ Anal Fish Porn

15-02-2009, 16:15	#12
Zirax Goes up to 11! Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 4,577	dribbles Was going to ask how you were getting on later Is this the earlier or later engine?

26-02-2009, 18:51	#14
Nutcase Moonshine Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Chelmsford, innit! Posts: 3,979	Good effort

26-02-2009, 22:08	#16
Zirax Goes up to 11! Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 4,577	Congrats, just got home where I can see the vid. Sounds like a lot of work ..... eeep

01-03-2009, 20:02	#19
BBx Reverse SuBo Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: London Posts: 8,673	I didn't realise you had THAT many cars!!! I thought you had 2! Lol! BB x

01-03-2009, 21:25	#20
Zirax Goes up to 11! Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 4,577	Yes, I have started the habit of improvising on mine as well. Warped head? But I know you checked that. Hope its just the bolts, I know bugger all really but if you want a hand, shout.

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