Diary of the build up of SW11

[Driftin_AW]

Well, I have always liked writing about what I've done for some reason, and so I am going to seek gratification by constantly posting my progress onto here. From what I can see it will be twobrutal's first live mk1.5 build. I must be so special. On a side note, anyone know who the youngest person to build a mk1.5 is? I know Carl C doesn't look all that old, think he may have me beat...
anyway, the diary:

Day 1
Wednesday 6th April

Got home from uni, a bit stuffed after the ride home, but I took the first step on my list of things to do. Started removing fuel tank. Worked on it for about an hour before it got too dark. Had to drain about 20L of petrol out of the tank which wasn?t fun. Somehow it seems every time I have to remove a fuel tank it just happens that it?s half-full! Tank is nearly out, looks like a couple of the pipes running to that evaporation chamber that runs up the firewall may still be connected, but couldn?t see anything as it was too dark. Oh well, atleast the first step has been made. Hopefully tomorrow I can get the pump swapped for the Mk3 Supra 7MGTE pump, and the tank back in.
Today I also had a chat to guy at uni that teaches us welding, he said I can come along to his advanced classes and practice for free whenever I want, what an excellent chap! Practice makes perfect and since I don't have any form of welder I don't get a whole lot of practice.

[Driftin_AW]

Day 2
Friday 8th April

Worked until 9:30 (14hr day! Knackered!) last night so no time to do anything when I got home. I had planned to finish taking the fuel tank out, but I need to get the engine out so I can sell it, the clutch, and the box to raise some funds! Not easy working only part time.
However, first big job out of the way today, pulled out the old 4agze. Took about 2 hours to get it out, into the garage and box+engine separated. There wasn?t much to do because I hadn?t finished putting it all back together since the last removal.
Unfortunately like Wednesday I didn?t start until late in the evening, it got dark quite quickly which made it tricky towards the end. Also my wicked engine trolley (24mm sheet of MDF with plastic castors on it) currently has a 1JZ on it, so I had to drag the engine out.
I had the front on jack stands and the driveway is on a slope. Bad idea, was very unstable and actually fell slightly. Fortunately we had foreseen the need for extra support and put some old wheels under the front so it didn?t fall far or do any damage. Next time I will make sure to just leave the front on it?s wheels. Also today I was lucky to be assisted by my girlfriend Heather and our flatmate Dan, which made life a lot easier.
Tomorrow someone should be coming to take away the GZE and all the parts I had gathered for the turbo swap, Also plan to swap some cars around in the driveway and get the AW11 into the garage for the rest of the swap. Will probably make up another trolley with some stronger castors (those plastic ones don?t move much once they have an engine and box on them), and with any luck I might even be picking up the sw20 donor car. If I have the engine out of the sw20 by the end of the weekend I will be very pleased. That will give me all of next week after uni/work to prepare the AW11 and the 3SGTE, with the goal to dive into the guts of the swap the following weekend, which coincidentally is the beginning of my 2 week break from university.

[Driftin_AW]

also I thought it would be interesting to keep a running total of how much money I spend on this. My goal is to actually make money out of this swap, by selling the left over parts from the sw20 and the old aw11 bits. May sound ridiculous, and I guess once I'm done we can look back in reflection and so how it went, but from what I've worked out so far it should just leave me with a few $$ in the pocket. I wont count certification csosts (approx. $350) as I would have to pay if I used either the 3SGTE or the 4AGTE, and same story with other unrelated repairs.

Anyway, cost so far:
+$200 - deposit on SW20 donor
-$350 - sold custom made tubular turbo exhaust manifold for 4AGZE

= -$150

[nik]

aarrghh words, lots of 'em...ive had a beer you know..words hurt the back of my eyes...
seriously though mate..this is a great idea.. :idea:
keep it coming..

[Paul Woods]

yes! absolutely superb,a live build! may i suggest we keep this thread clean and free from cluttered posts like people asking for the thread to be kept clutter free for example :lol:

What i mean is if someone else is reading malcolms diary last thing they want is to have to read crap posts like this one instead of the actual build!!! im as clear as mud! anyway i wont post again malcolm in the interests of keeping the thread pure,just know we are reading with baited breath!

[Driftin_AW]

encouragement on an internet forum! This is unheard of! Anyway, just got home from work and I have all afternoon to do some work. Think I will start moving cars and cleaning the garage. Will post up progress tonight (or maybe tomorrow actually, going out tonight)

[Driftin_AW]

Day 3
Saturday 9th April

Was hoping to make reasonable progress today but didn?t quite get everything done I had wanted to. What I did manage to do was to finish removing the fuel tank and swap the fuel pump for the 7MGTE one. Interestingly there is no size difference between the two, in fact the ONLY external difference was the different colours, 4AGZE one is bare metal, whereas the 7MGTE one is a dark greenish grey. They do have different part numbers, however. I also had a good clean up of the area around and inside the garage. I had planned to move all the cars around and put the AW11 into the garage, but we can?t find the key for the TA22 so we can?t move anything! Grr! Hopefully we will find it soon so I wont have to take any drastic measures. Aim for tomorrow is the get the AW into the garage and start work on removing the driver?s side engine mount and tidying things up, bashing firewalls etc. Will also try to get the fuel tank back in.

[Driftin_AW]

Day 4
Sunday 10th April

No turning back now! 2 things happened today to completely prevent me changing my mind and backing out on the creation of SW11. Firstly, at about 11am a young fellow came and took away the 4AGZE engine, loom, ecu etc and practically everything else needed to run it. He also took all the parts I had gathered for the turbo conversion. I believe it?s going to all go into an AE85? I forgot to ask but I presume it?s that, otherwise maybe an older rwd Corolla or something.
The other no-turning-back-event was that I removed the driver?s side engine mount (that?s the passenger side for all you crazy foreign LHD weirdos). Was relatively simple, at first I thought it was just spot welded but it?s also welded around the edges in a couple of spots, but that was no biggie. I used a spot weld cutter (if you didn?t know, a wicked little drill bit with a flat end for cutting spot welds, extremely useful!), a $15 angle grinder for the welds on the edges and tidying it up, a heat gun and scraper (actually a steel ruler) for removing the seam sealer, and an old Toyota factory flat head screwdriver (was discovered in the sound deadening tar in my old Corona when I dismantled it) for chiselling the mount off.
I also persuaded the front and rear firewalls to provide a bit more space in the tight areas where the turbo and intake manifold sit, with the assistance of a rubber mallet and a claw hammer. Although people have been known to get the 3SGTE in without any such alterations, I am quite specific about the position of the engine I?m aiming for, I would like to have as much room as possible to make it fit there, since I don?t really know how far forwards or backwards this is going to position it compared to other people?s swaps.
As you may recall, we couldn?t find the keys for Heather?s TA22 yesterday, well we remembered where they are. They are on the key ring with her company car?s key, at a panel beater as she was rear-ended last week. So we weren?t able to move the cars again, tomorrow she will go and get the key so we can shift the cars around. I wish someone would buy the Supra to free up some extra space!
Anyway, other goals for tomorrow are to go and talk to the local certifier to find out exactly what I?m going to have to do to keep it legal. There aren?t any emissions regulations in New Zealand yet, so it?s likely they will just want to see that the new mounts are constructed well, and that the suspension and brakes are up to the task. I?m pretty sure I will use the suspension that is on the car now, rather than using the SW20 set up in the rear like many people have. This is because the rear has KYB adjustable shock absorbers and Jamex lowered springs. The downside of this is that the current struts don?t have tabs for the rear anti-roll bar, so tabs will either have to be welded on, or clamps made to attach to the struts. I would however like to have adjustable platform suspension on SW11, so maybe I?ll look into getting the current struts converted, as such suspension modifications require certification, which would be cheaper to have done at the same time as the cert for the engine swap.
I will be putting some ST185 brakes on the front which should be sufficient to keep the certifier happy, as they are deemed good enough for a 1400+kg car with the same engine, so it should be fine on a sub 1100kg one! I would like to get some more grunt in the rear brakes too, but I might leave that until later as no plug & play option exists for them, as far as I know.
I also need to ask my mate Simon (of ESI fabrication) to get a CT26 downpipe flange cut for me, as I sure as f*ck wont be using the factor cat/downpipe.
As a final note, always use gloves when grinding! I was going to buy some leather gloves today but I left my wallet at home when I went to Mitre 10 (a hardware store) and didn?t have enough cash on me to get any! So now I have hundreds of tiny metal shavings in my hands and fingers, which is almost as bad as fibreglass.

Financial update.
Sold 4AGZE engine and parts -$800
Total cost so far -$950

[Driftin_AW]

Day 5
Monday 11th April

Did nothing on the car, but did make some progress in other areas. Went to the certifier and spoke to him about the swap. Looks like everything should be quite straightforward, he said using the original engine mounts shouldn?t be a problem if they fit, he also said that my planned brake upgrade (ST185 twin pots on the front) should be plenty, so I think things are looking promising. I also have been trying to get information of adjustable platform suspension. I would really love to be able to drop the MR2 way down so the wheels are tucked inside the guards, and then lift it up it the need arises, or to give clearance for drag radials on the odd occasion that I want to flex some SW11 muscle. I?m trying to find out whether I can use all four struts from the SW20, because then I can have them converted to adjustable platform, and sell the current set up (worth more than stock sw20 ones) to cover some of the cost.
I also finally got the keys for the TA22 and shifted the cars around. The AW11 is now sideways in my garage, which will be great once I start getting into the guts of the swap. At the moment I don?t have any particular aims for tomorrow, wont be home from uni until 4pm, then I have assignments to do and an indoor cricket game at night. If I have spare time I will put the fuel tank in, but that will probably have to wait until Wednesday. On Wednesday or Thursday I will be picking up the SW20, and that?s when the fun will really begin.

[Driftin_AW]

Day 6
Wednesday 13th April

Got the fuel tank back in today. Was definitely a lot easier than removal, and this time I didn?t get soaked in fuel! Still no SW20, the 1JZ-GTE is supposed to be going tonight which will give me the financial means to do a lot of the things I?ve been meaning to. I?ve also been contemplating using the 3SGTE and E150F (sans transfer case) to do the initial engine alignment. I don?t think it will be a very good idea though, the turbo setup is much larger than a ct26 and it wont give a true indication of how much space I have in the turbo area. Also I can only connect the passenger side driveshaft, so it won?t give a very good indication of relative shaft angles or positions.
Also had a bit of a look at the brakes today, it sure looks like the SC brake disks are the same size as the st185 ones I was planning to use, so I may in fact just put the ST185 twin pot calipers on and not worry about getting bigger disks. Maybe once I?m driving the thing, if I find that I?m out-driving the brakes then I will seriously begin looking for ST205 4 pots + big bad disks. It?s unlikely that I?ll need to though, this is going to be my (sort of) daily driver, and it?s likely I will only enter it in the occasional track day.
Anyway, hopefully I?ll be picking the SW20 up tomorrow?I really want to get cracking on this swap!

[Driftin_AW]

Day 7
Thursday 14th April

Well, haven?t touched the AW11 today, but I did do something important. I got the SW20! Woo! Now it?s time to start advertising parts from it to raise some cash. Gave the car a little bit of a thrash on the way home. Sticks to the road well with those 255?s on the back! Definitely choked in the high RPMs, as most factory 3SGTE?s are. When it?s in SW11 it will have a good downpipe, nice intake and what should be a reasonably good exhaust. I had been planning on using a factory ST185 rear muffler when I was going to run a 4AGTE, but I wonder if it might be a bit too restrictive. Will have to think about this. Maybe I?ll make my own muffler? The plan was to have the GT4 muffler pointed so it?s 2 tips protruded where the mud flap would be on the driver?s side, just behind the rear wheel. Would still love this design, but maybe I?ll make a straight through muffler with larger pipes instead.
I also noticed the blowoff valve has spewed a bit of oil over the cam cover. Not happy about this. I will probably run a catchcan or an oil/air separator in the PCV line, which will hopefully solve this problem (along with getting rid of the POS Racepro blowoff valve).
So, if all goes to plan then tomorrow when I get home from uni I will be pulling the engine! Ooo it?s getting so close I can feel it.

[MegatronUK]

Is there oil coming out of the dump valve? Eeek... jeck that turbo :(

[Driftin_AW]

Day 8
Friday 15th April

Drove the SW20 a little today, goes well, except there?s a problem. Remember that oil coming out of the blowoff valve? Well, someone suggested it might be the turbo, and after a bit of driving the car was pumping out a fair bit of smoke at idle. It appears the seals in the turbo are stuffed. I hope that?s what it is anyway, and not something related to the engine. Should also note there were large amounts of oil in the intercooler piping, so it?s either coming from the turbo or the PCV, and the PCV hose wasn?t dripping with oil like all the ic pipes were, so I figure it must be turbo. I?ve started considering my options. I have a ST165 CT26 turbo I could use, either by swapping the 165 exhaust manifold on, or by changing the turbine housings. Not sure if the SW20 turbine housing will fit on a 165 turbine, I think the 165 turbine may be a bit small, also I suspect this will produce less power than factory (don?t want to take steps backward). I would prefer to get a Supra CT26 and put the SW20 turbine housing on (which I know you can do). I have also been looking at factory turbos from other cars, like a TD05 from an Evo 4. This could be quite a good turbo, and an upgrade over stock, but if I?m going to put a different turbo on (and hence make a manifold and downpipe to suit), I would like it to be something I know will be a good upgrade, and something I will be happy with for quite some time. Don?t really want to go too big and have to get a new computer, injectors etc to handle it.
Anyway, I started pulling the SW20 apart, got about an hour into it and then it was too dark to do any more. Made some good progress though, just have to disconnect exhaust, driveshafts, and engine mounts and it will be ready to drop. Hopefully I will have time to do this tomorrow, but I have work in the morning and have to go do some research for an assignment in the afternoon.
I?m really a little gutted about the turbo. This is going to add time and money to the whole project, which I was hoping to be driving by the end of my uni holidays (Sunday 1st May)

[Driftin_AW]

quick financial update, forgot to do it before

Bought SW20 Turbo = $1500
Total cost to date $550

[Driftin_AW]

Day 9
Saturday 16th April

Another of the major operations out of the way today. Got the engine + gearbox out of the SW20. Started at just after 4pm and had the sucker in the garage by 7. Not too bad considering I?ve never done much on an SW20. Also the whole lowering engine and getting it out from under the car was done in complete darkness with one crappy little torch, which made life a bit more exciting. Also I don?t have a 32mm socket (never needed one until now!) so I couldn?t unbolt the driveshafts, which made life trickier. I was assisted for the final hour by my mate Alex, which was good because lowering and removing an engine really is a 2 person job.
Also discovered something that excited me quite a bit about the whole thing, the gearbox has a LSD! Wooo! Excellent news, will lend much assistance toward my quest for traction!
So sometime I need to get a 32mm socket (and maybe a pneumatic impact driver) so I can remove the driveshafts and get them sorted to go into SW11. Also have to remove the Jamex seat and see if I can make it fit into SW11, also take out the rear struts just in case I decide to use them, then just sell off the rest of the car.
I have already removed the rear anti roll bar with the intention of using it in SW11. Might also pillage the shifter cables. I was also eyeing up the strut brace. Looks as though it could be quite easily modified to fit into the AW11 engine bay, just need to lengthen one of the tubes, and then make a couple of mounts to attach it to on the front firewall. One could then add a tube running straight from left to right to give it a bit more rigidity and you would have one hell of a stiff rear end. Definitely something I will look into once I have the engine test fitted to see how much room there is, then if it?s going to happen I will weld the mounts in for it when the engine is back out again.
So, tomorrow I will might just test fit the engine and see if I can get some welds tacked up?hmmm will need to get a welder first!

[Driftin_AW]

Day 10
Sunday April 17th

Well, finally sold my 1JZ-GTE today, which liberated some funds. Bought some cheap as halogen floodlights and installed them in the garage, also got a cheap cheap impact driver. Probably would have been handy to have when I was pulling the cars apart, rather than now that I?m putting stuff back together! Oh well.
Removed a few things from the 3SGTE, namely the alternator and bracket, aircon compressor, and took the intake manifold off to allow me to raise the engine in. Also removed all the engine mounts and fitted the AW11 tranny end mount, and the AW11 tranny rear mount. Then took the rear mount off again because it was in the way.
So, we lifted the back AW11 nice and high (should have got a picture of it, was extremely angular!), slid the 3SGTE underneath, then the AW11 obligingly sat itself down over the 3SGTE. Hoisted the 3S up, spent a while using a trolley jack and the hoist to raise the engine on the right angle into the bay, attached the tranny end mount then spend over an hour moving the engine around and trying to decide where it would be best placed.
I think that because I?m using the stock tranny end and rear mounts the whole thing is situated further back than most people have positioned theirs. I?ve thought it through and I think that I will probably stick with the position it?s in. There is good clearance between turbo and firewall, around 6 or 7cm, but it does look certain that a hole will have to be cut in the rear firewall to accommodate the intake manifold. I was reluctant to do this, but seeing the available space first hand and being able to see where it?s tight etc, I think I would rather do this than have to fabricate 4 mounts and have a turbo sitting much closer to the firewall than I would like. This does mean the weight will be biased toward the rear more, however Deno Plumley who was the pioneer of this swap has his engine in this position and he is one of few M1.5 owners who races his car, and does pretty well from what I hear, so the handling can?t be too bad.
However, I have not yet made the driver?s side engine mount as I want to think about it overnight and at work tomorrow before I decide for sure that it?ll go where it currently sits. I also didn?t end up getting a welder today like I had planned to. Will do this on the way home from work tomorrow I hope.
So, definitely happy with what I?ve achieved today, as usual I didn?t end up starting anything until late in the afternoon, which somewhat limited the amount of work I could do. Tomorrow I hope to get a mount tacked in on the driver?s side, and possibly cut the access panel behind the intake manifold. However since I?m going to be working most of the day I might not have a lot of time or energy when I get home.

[Driftin_AW]

just to prove I'm not making all of this up: http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2005/04/39.jpg

[MegatronUK]

Dammit man... you've got sun to do your swap! 8)

[Driftin_AW]

nah that's artificial sun created in my garage at 8pm with the magic of electricity

[Driftin_AW]

Day 11
Tuesday 19th April

Didn?t do anything yesterday, but I did get myself a small arc welder.
Today I made up the plates for the driver?s side engine mount. I spent quite a while looking at the alignment of the engine and came to a decision on the final position. I also changed the engine mount over to one from a ST185 Celica. This is because it is slightly more offset toward the front of the car, and the SW20 one was getting a bit too close to the strut tower to make a good mounting plate. So, I made up some cardboard templates, then when I was happy with them I cut them out of 6mm steel plate using an angle grinder. Wasn?t too difficult, I thought it would be a bit tricky but it was more time consuming than hard. I then marked where the holes wanted to be, then drilled them 1cm higher than that (this allows for the sag in the rubber when it has weight on it). Took them down the road to a mechanic to use a drill press the drill them, much easier than using an electric hand drill. I then tack welded the mounts and removed the engine. Once I had the engine out I took a better look at the mounts. Decided one of the plates wasn?t close enough to the inner guard to get a good weld, so I took it off and clean it up a bit and trimmed it in the necessary areas to allow it to sit further in. Will have to slot the hole slightly, but this shouldn?t be a problem as the mount mostly just supports the weight of the engine, unlike the front and rear torque mounts which make the wheels spin instead of the engine!
Tomorrow I will tack weld this plate back in, and clean up the welds ready to be fully MIG welded in. I will also make up some reinforcing plates, as the plate toward the rear of the car is quite tall and thin, so it?s only going to be held by about 3cm onto the chassis rail, and about 8cm up the strut tower, which is thinner material than the chassis rail (as I found out when tacking the plate on, I burned a hole through it!), and probably wont hold as strong.
I also had a look at the shifter cables while the engine was in position, they fit and it shifts into all gears, but I?m going to move the shifter assembly forward about 1.5cm to take some tension off the cables, and I will also shorten the end of the side-side cable as at the moment the shift pattern is offset to the left more than I?d like.
I also marked out the hole I will be cutting in the rear firewall, which I will cut out tomorrow, haven?t decided whether I should do this with my grinder or jigsaw.
Started to separate the engine and gearbox, but didn?t quite get it done before having to stop to go play indoor cricket (won again, this time against a previously unbeaten team). Also started removing unnecessary piping and such, still deciding whether to keep the T-VIS or not, and whether to run the T-VSV as a high/low boost switch like I did in the GT-Four. Will probably just ditch it, I?m trying to clean the engine up a bit, I don?t like all the mess of hoses, pipes, wires, brackets etc that are on a 3SGTE. Tomorrow I aim to have the engine mostly tidied up, although I still need to do the cambelt etc, have to source a new turbo, had my eyes on one on trademe but forgot about the auction and didn?t make my last minute high bid I had planned! Doh! Now I have to reassess my turbo options. Have quite a bit of room around the turbo area for alternative turbo set ups, external wastegates etc but I want to keep it CT26 for now, as I?m not really aiming for big HP like the GT-Four. I keep thinking about putting the GT-Four?s K3T turbo on there temporarily, but that?s naughty and I would have to downgrade when the GT-Four is ready. Will keep my eyes peeled on trademe anyway, hopefully something good will come up.
Tomorrow if I have time I?ll remove all the things I still need from the SW20 too, and maybe start looking at that strut brace to see if I can make it work. It has dawned on me that I will have to cut my wicked engine lid to fit around it, or maybe I will redesign it, but I spent ages making it so I don?t want to do that!

[Driftin_AW]

Day 12
Wednesday, 20th April

First thing I did today was to remove all the last bits from the SW20, just little stuff like the coil + igniter, map sensor, heat shields etc. I then started trying to see if I could fit them to the AW11. With a little bit of cutting it fits pretty well, not sure what?s going to be the easiest way to fit it yet, probably use some long thin bolts.
Then I started to have a play with the SW20 strut brace. After a couple of hours I it was pretty much all sorted. Just need to get some ?U? channel steel for brackets on the firewall and paint the sucker. All I had to do was to slightly bend the end tabs where the brace mounts to the firewall, and extend one of the other ends slightly. Did this by welding a piece of 3mm thick steel to it, cutting the end on an angle and drilling a hole in it. Worked out very well. First few welds were a bit average but I?m getting used to the new welder and settings as well as welding thick steel to thin without burning holes in it!
After looking at what the end I had just made, I wasn?t too happy with the bend on the end of the tab, looks as though it would be a weak point, so I braced it with another piece of 3mm steel. I then cleaned up all the welds and corners and such with a grinder, and I think it looks pretty good! Once it?s filled and painted it should be beautiful.

I then got stuck into the driver?s side engine mount again. Much happier with it now, didn?t add any extra bracing yet, still undecided as to whether it?s needed. Hopefully Simon will be coming around to weld it in properly in the next couple of days.

After that I got back to pulling apart and preparing the engine. Decided to ditch the T-VIS and T-VSV, so I removed the T-VIS plates (left the bar in there so I don?t have to block up the holes), pulled out the VSV?s behind the intake manifold, then cleaned up all the oily parts in some petrol/parts cleaner. I also pulled the gearbox off, clutch is reasonably new, I thought I might try to sell it on trademe. I also pulled off the turbo & catalytic converter. Very oily inside and outside the turbo, put it in the corner with the other CT26. I swapped the alternator over into the Celica mounting position. Turns out the SW20 alternator doesn?t fit the bracket (holy bejesus that is one big alternator! Might use it to make a homemade TIG welder), so I have used the one from the GT-Four for now. The engine is looking much tidier now that I?ve removed some of the clutter. I?m torn between redoing the wiring harness slightly to position as much of the auxiliary parts like map sensor, coil, igniter etc, or just not doing it so I can get the bloody thing running sooner. I would also like to clean up the engine by painting some parts and polishing some others. I would really like to do a few parts white, you don?t see it often in engine bays and I think it looks wicked, but I really don?t want this swap to take longer than it needs to.

I finally bit the bullet and got out the grinder again, then took to the rear firewall. Cut one hell of a big hole in it, feels weird to be hacking a perfectly good AW11 up like this! I also took out the part that the engine lid latch mounts on, don?t need it anymore and it?s in the way of the intake manifold.

All round I?m pretty happy with the progress I made today, unfortunately I probably wont be able to touch it again for a few days, have work tomorrow and then me and Heather are going away for a couple of days in Rotorua. Should be a nice break but I?m sure I?ll be eager to get back and finish it off.

I also think I have come across what should be a very good option for the turbo. Currently watching an auction for a TD05 16g off a Mitsi Evo III. This should be an excellent turbo and shouldn?t take a huge amount of work to fit, so hopefully this one will go according to plan and I will have it in my possession in a week or so.

[Driftin_AW]

no update for today, all I did was had a quick look at the wiring but didn't really touch anything.
Quick financial update though:

Bought SW20 KYB Gymkhana 4 way adjustable rear shocks - $80
Total cost to date: $630

I have also won an auction for some 550cc/min injectors which will probably just be put aside until I decide how I'm going to control the extra fuel. Also, the guy I bought the shocks off was building up an sw20 but ended up buying a very awesome 600hp one (T78, custom everything, TRD widebody kit, HUGE wheels, very fast and very beautiful!), and he has a t04b that he's trying to sell. He reckons it should come on boost around 3,500-4000rpm, which doesn't sound too bad, but possibly a bit laggier than I'd hoped for, we'll see what happens there, it could be a very wicked turbo set up and could make SW11 and absolute monster, so we'll see. And just out of complete coincidence, this guy lives just a few houses down the road from me! Small world I guess, but anyway, if the evo turbo falls through or gets too expensive (guy wants $750ish for the t04b) then maybe I'll go the t04b + external route.....mmm...wicked

[Driftin_AW]

Day 13
Monday, 25th April

Ok, after my short holiday break I got back to work on SW11 today. Simon came around and welded up my side engine mount, so I finally have something solid to hang the engine from!
After a lot of contemplation I finally decided to put a hybrid ST165/SW20 CT26 on. I had a good ST165 turbo, and onto this I put the twin entry exhaust housing from the SW20. It fits right on and the wheels are exactly the same size. Interestingly the compressor wheels and housings are both the same size too. I also swapped all the parts that attach to the turbo, that is the wastegate actuator (sh*t, just remembered I didn?t put the circlip on!), the oil lines and the water lines. Removing the exhaust housings from the turbo?s was quite an effort, they were very well and truly seized on, and took a fair bit of persuasion to come apart.
I also pulled the flywheel off the engine, tomorrow I will take this and the clutch pressure plate in to be stone ground. I?m going to use the kevlar clutch disk that was on my GT-Four. This is a very good clutch, with an upgraded pressure plate it handled a LOT of abuse, many big clutch dumps with lots of 4wd traction, and the clutch never slipped (although the transfer case blew!). The disk is still in good nick, and I think in a 2wd with less power than the GT-Four had, and a standard pressure plate, it should be an excellent clutch.
So, tomorrow I will get the grinding done, get a new cambelt and valve cover gasket (and some bolts to replace the standard screws), put all of that on the engine with a gutted cat and reinstall the engine. Then it?s just wiring and piping before I can fire it up. Also have to do some work on the torque mounts and make a driveshaft.

At the moment I have decided to get the car running with the crappy CT26, take it in for certification, then after a bit of driving I will make up my mind as to what direction I want to take with the turbo. Once my mind is made up the engine will come out again and I will tidy the engine up a bit, paint the engine bay and accessories, then either install my choice of turbo, or if I decide to stick with the CT26 I will make a decent downpipe for it.

I?ve also decided I?d like to make a one piece engine/boot lid. Possibly a fibreglass one, although aluminium would also be a good option. I?m thinking of making a wide, short rearward facing vent for the engine lid, that runs through a ?tunnel? to the back edge of the boot lid. I think this will be very cool and effective, and I will start looking at exactly how I?d like to do it shortly.

So the goal for tomorrow will be to get the parts I need, get the engine ready and put it in. I?m still yet to decide what?s going to happen with the suspension, but hopefully I?ll have the cash available to do the height adjustable struts. Also I think the completion of the strut brace might have to wait until after it?s certified. This is because I don?t have the steel to make the brackets for it yet, and when I do have it the engine will be in the way and I wont be able to weld them in. This is not a major problem, I don?t think it will need to be listen on the cert plate so can wait.

I also need to swap the GT-Four brakes on at some point. I?m pretty sure these will fit with the stock rotors, as they?re the same size as the GT-Four ones (well, within 3mm I think).

It?s getting closer now, I can feel it! Really hoping to be able to start it by the end of the week, maybe test drive on the weekend!

Financial Update (was $630):
Paid for engine mount to be welded in - $50
Sold E51 gearbox (old 4AGZE one) - $260
Sold Racepro blowoff valve (from 3SGTE) - $70
Sold SW20 turbo engine lid - $200
Cost to date: $150 (mmm I?m still hoping to see this cost end up as a negative value!)

[Driftin_AW]

Day 14
Tuesday, 26th April

So, first thing I did today was to go around some parts stores trying to organise some stuff. Took my flywheel and pressure plate in to be stone ground, went to get a valve cover gasket, cambelt, and some replacement bolts for the valve cover. Ended up doing a hell of a lot of stuffing around, making a couple of different trips, having to count the teeth on my cambelt, and I still don?t have the flywheel and pressure plate back yet!

However, I did make some progress. I took the turbo off again and put the circlip on the actuator, gutted the cat, and put the whole lot back on. Replaced the cambelt, the valve cover gasket and bolts and oil filter. The engine is ready to go in, just need the clutch parts back, and need to put the engine and tranny back together.

I also made myself a 32mm tube socket. The cheapest I could find was $40, which is too much for something I?ll use probably 5 times in my life, so I bought a normal 32mm socket, cut it in half, and welded 3 pieces of 3mm steel in the middle to make it longer! Excellent! And my welds didn?t break when I went to use it, which is a good sign. So I finally got the driveshafts out of the SW20. Tomorrow I will take one of these in with the long SC shaft and get the outer CV?s swapped. I had to put half the rear suspension/subframe back together on the SW20 so that the hub would be held securely enough for me to unbolt the driveshafts. This was a bit of a pain, but at least now there?s a few less pieces of SW20 lying around.

I also cut down the engine mount bracket on the cambelt end of the motor. It has a big ?arm? that extends from the bracket up to the SW20 engine hook bracket, but since I?ve gone to a Celica alternator bracket it was just getting in the way. I think I did a good job and you can?t tell that it?s been cut down. Shouldn?t cause any problems with strength, as this is how it is on a GT-Four.

I?m also trying to design a new engine lid. I?ve got an idea that I really like, it?s quite unique, reasonably subtle, should be very effective, lightweight, and should look wicked too. I?m trying to decide whether it would be best made from sheet metal/alloy or fibreglass. It?s going to be a one piece engine lid/boot lid so I will need to incorporate a surface to seal against the boot rubber, which could be a little tricky if I don?t use the original boot lid. I want it to be lightweight though, so I guess I?ll just see what I come up with.

Tomorrow I really hope to get the engine in, and get cracking on the wiring! Wiring should be a piece of cake, although since I?m re-routing some of it, it may take longer than I?m expecting.

Financial update

Bought stainless steel bolts to replace stock valve cover bolts - $14
Bought valve cover gasket and cambelt - $110

Cost to date = $264

[Driftin_AW]

Day 15
Wednesday, 27th April

So, another day, and more progress. Got up this morning reasonably early (10am, most other days it?s been more like noon), hoping to get all the parts sorted early so I would have all day to work on the car. Well, I picked up the flywheel, which was all nicely machined (freebie!), but they couldn?t do the pressure plate so they sent me somewhere else. Got there and it was going to be at least $120, which is quite a bit to reuse a stock pressure plate, so I decided to use the one from the GT-Four, I will get this one upgraded later on when the GT-Four needs it. Then I took the supercharged long driveshaft and one sw20 driveshaft in to have the CV?s swapped. Or so I thought. I had picked up the bloody short SC shaft instead of the SW20 one, so I had to go back home to get it, and it?s about a 50 minute round trip to ADL who were doing it. So, I finally got the right shafts out there and then after about 5 minutes of stuffing about the guy claimed the CV couldn?t be hit off, and so he I was going to have to buy a new SC outer and they would gas the SW20 outer off. So, I went to see the manager at the front desk to get a price on the CV ($100), I agreed to it and explained to him what I was doing and why I needed the hybrid shaft made. I then told him that I know they can definitely be hit off, so he had a go, and succeeded. Yay. So he swapped them over and it cost me the grand sum of $20, but by the time I got home it was 1:30pm, and I still had much to do!
So I got home and did the final assembly of the engine, flywheel and clutch on, gearbox on, then I got into the engine bay and installed the SW20 heatshield and a few other bits I had taken out.
Finally I raised the car, slid the engine under and squatted the AW down on top of it. I have found a better way of raising the engine. Instead of using the crane on the two engine hooks, which lifts the engine slanted left to right and tilted forward, I lift by the cambelt end engine hook, then use a large trolley jack under the end of the tranny. Works very well, especially on SW11 as there is very little room around the engine as it goes in, and it has to be raised at the angle which it sits when installed.
So, got the engine in, supported by both end mounts and the rear tranny mount. It?s a great thing to see. I then tried fitting the intake manifold. Didn?t quite fit so I had to cut the hole a bit higher. It?s very snug, but it fits, and doesn?t look like it will hit under engine torque twisting. I then had a quick look at all the coolant, fuel etc connections that need to be made. All looks like it should be very simple, and I?ll start on them once the wiring is done.

So, with the engine settled into it?s new home, I started to tackle the wiring. I started at the alternator and worked my way back to the ECU, removing unneeded wiring, moving all the stuff I wanted to move, and generally trying to get my head around what I needed to wire up to what. After a couple of hours, and a few trips back inside to check the wiring diagrams on the computer, I finally had it all figured out. The wiring in the engine bay is now all completed (just have to do the couple of connections to m2), and all the wiring in the boot is labelled where it needs to be connected. I?ve moved the check connector, map sensor, coil, ignitor, injector resistor, that funny thing that connects between the black/red wire and earth (noise suppresser?) all into the boot. I will probably try and get an alloy plate to mount all the pieces to, maybe even try to make it flush with the cover for the intake manifold, so it looks like one tidy bulkhead.

The only minor things I haven?t solved yet is where to connect the reverse light sensor, and exactly where the power should come for the fuel pump. I was also thrown off by the fact that the SW20 circuit opening relay is in the fusebox, so I initially had it confused with the starter relay, but I have that sorted now. I also need to find a plug for the COR. Also I haven?t worked out what I need to connect to get the fan working, although I think I might just have it running full time, as I don?t see any real downside to this.

I have work tomorrow, Friday, and Saturday, not to mention I?m back to uni on Monday and I have several assignments I haven?t even touched, that need to be completed in the first couple of weeks back. I feel that I?m so close to having this baby running, and I really don?t want to go to work tomorrow, but apparently they?re very busy and need my help, and I can?t just dessert them to finish this. Hopefully I will have enough time after work tomorrow to finish the wiring and start on all the necessary piping and such.
I still need to make the front torque mount too, which I will probably do once the wiring is done.
So, it?s a big pain to have so many interruptions in this project, but I will continue on at it whenever I have time and hopefully will be able to fire it up within the next week!

Financial update

Driveshaft CV swapping - $20

Cost to date $284

[Driftin_AW]

Day 16
Thursday, 28th April

Well not a lot to report, I spent a couple of hours after work doing some more wiring. I made some brackets for the ECU, coil and ignitor, I sorted out where all the wiring needs to go, and just about finished the wiring. Just need to get a plug for the circuit opening relay (will go to pick-a-part tomorrow after work and hopefully will get one), and then it?s all done! Just tidying up of the harness and then onto the last bits of engine related piping, installing the driveshafts, making the front torque mount, and a few other bits and pieces. Still haven?t decided about the suspension

here's a picture from yesterday
http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2005/04/51.jpg

[Driftin_AW]

Day 17
Saturday, 30th April

So, I was hoping I?d get to start the car today, but didn?t get everything completed. Didn?t get the COR plug, but I?ll do that tomorrow. I did manage to get all the coolant piping done, connected up the fuel lines, shifter cables, throttle cable, speedometer cable etc.
The coolant piping was relatively simple, but a bit more time consuming than I would have liked. I cut some hard pipes off the SW20 donor which were useful. Also tried my hand at brazing for the first time ever. I have never done it before, have no idea how it?s done, all I know is that it?s kind of like soldering. So I heated up my big bad 80W soldering iron, got a big thick reel of solder, and it was bloody easy! I just put the 2 copper pipes in a vice, brazed together about 1cm, turned it over and did about 1cm on the other side, then went round and finished it off. I then made up a wicked little series of hoses to downsize to one that was small enough to fit tightly over my air gun, put the joint under water and blew some compressed air into it, and no leaks! Yay! Then I realised I had joined them on the wrong angle and had to redo it, but oh well, brazed parts come apart a hell of a lot easier than welded ones.

Also the throttle cable was more work than I expected. When I attached it, there wasn?t enough cable extending out the end to allow the throttle to close, even with the adjustment nut right at the end of the thread. So, I had to cut 20mm out of the bracket that holds the cable, to give it enough slack to properly close. I connected the clutch line too, but it?s quite tight so I will get a longer one made next week.

I also put the Legacy water to air intercooler in, for the first time since the 3S was installed. Still fits fine, but I think the inlet will need to be cut off and moved toward the front of the car to allow the piping to fit around everything. As it is right now the inlet and outlet pipes will need to cross over each other, and there?s just not the 5 inches of space above the engine that would be needed to fit them without rubbing/banging each other and the engine. I might use my st165 intercooler in the mean time, as it will fit on top of the engine without any hassles. Ideally I?d love to get a GT-Four RC or ST205 intercooler on there, as they?re bigger than the Subaru one I have, and designed to fit right on top of a 3SGTE, whereas the legacy one is positioned in the back corner of the engine bay above the tranny. I?ve also won an auction for a cheap pod filter and afm adapter, which will be positioned down in front of the tranny, where some people put their intercoolers.

In the last couple of days I have been fixated with trying to get it started. Once this is accomplished I will move onto making it driveable. I will also need to move the SW20 out of the way so that I can get this out of the garage once it?s ready.
At some point I also need to turn my attention to the interior, which is a bit dismantled as I started doing some more work on the stereo over Christmas when I was working on the 4AGTE conversion and had some spare time.

Today I also went to Repco and spoke to my good friend Andrew there. He showed me a catalogue of non-shiny/bling mufflers, in sizes up to 4?! I?m tossing up between a couple of different straight through 3? designs, a 3? in and 2x2.5? out, and a 3? in and 2x2.25? out. I really think twin tips out the side will look absolutely excellent, but the twin tip designs are more expensive (albeit still cheap, between $150 and $200, although straight through 3? ones are as cheap as $60).

So, much to consider still, I have a few different ideas for brakes going through my mind, and am anxiously watching the auction for parts to build coilovers, hoping to get them for less than $500

Financial update:
Sold 4AGZE fuel pump - $50
Bought hose clamps, distribution blocks and terminals ~$20

Cost to date $254

[Driftin_AW]

Day 18
Sunday, 1st May

I was hoping to get the car started today, but that didn?t happen. I found myself rushing through things and not doing them properly, so I ended up deciding to just call it quits at about 6pm to reassess the situation. I have decided that I?m not starting it until the engine is pretty much in it?s ready to drive state.
It is just about ready to start now, but a lot of the piping has just been thrown on in an attempt to make it run, which is really not what I want to be doing, so I?ll be pulling it all off and making everything properly, and doing it once. This means waiting for the air filter and adapter to arrive, possibly waiting until the legacy intercooler has been modified, getting the clutch line made up, and probably securing some of the pipes I?ve made up to prevent them rubbing on nearby parts. Generally wasn?t in a good mood today, not really sure why but I certainly wasn?t feeling positive about the impending start up.

I filled the coolant system, and discovered about 4 water leaks! Damn! All of these were fixed just by putting new hose clamps on, rather than using the Toyota ones I had used.

I finally got a COR plug too! And while I was at the wreckers I stumbled upon a S-W bellhousing (this will be most useful when it comes to putting a 3SGTE into Heather?s TA22!). And it was a bargain at $15! No gearbox attached unfortunately, my mate got that the day before for his AE85.

I also had a quick look at the rear brakes, to see if the SW20 ones could be easily swapped. Apparently the calipers will swap, the disks will need a spacer ring to go between the spigot on the hub and the disk center hole, as they?re about 6mm larger. The problem, however, is that the disks on the SW20 have 2 sets of holes drilled in them already, they are both 5x114.3, and I really have no idea why they?re there. But it means I can?t drill them for 4x100 without coming into strength problems. So, I don?t know if it?s going to be worth it, as the only difference appears to be that the disks are thicker and vented, I think they?re both the same diameter, will check piston sizes when I remove the current calipers.

I?m also looking some Mitsi GTO brakes on trademe. They?re 4 pots front and rear, with the rear being only slightly smaller than the front. I think I might use one pair on SW11 and the larger pair on the GT-Four. Only if the price is right though.

So, back to uni tomorrow, there?s a good chance I wont have time to work on the car again until the weekend, but we?ll see. Quite a few assignments due in the next couple of weeks that I really should have done over my holidays, but oh well! Fingers crossed that completion wont drag out due to lack of time.

Financial update
Bought miscellaneous bits and pieces, vacuum lines, oil etc, $60
$314

[Driftin_AW]

Day 19
Monday, 2nd May

Well, did I say I was going to take a bit of a break? I must have been high or something! I realised today that I?ve done most of the work for my assignment that?s due on Wednesday (so I can attempt to cram the rest in tomorrow night sometime), so I spend a bit of time out in the garage. Last night I started to feel the onset of the flu, and today I felt (and still do) like absolute shite. My head feels like it has had compressed air blown into it, and all my airways plugged up. Except apparently my nose hasn?t been blocked up as plenty of snot is managing to make it?s way out! Yum!

Anyway, so today I began cleaning up some bits and pieces, went to get a new clutch line but apparently shops have to be certified to make brake and clutch lines. So I have to take the hose somewhere across town, which will have to wait until Thursday when I go to work, except I have other things to do and don?t know if I?ll have time, so we?ll see, maybe I will be able to find a workable one at a wreckers?

I finished the very last of the wiring too, although I have left it untaped so that if something doesn?t work I can check it without pulling it all apart. I also did all the vacuum piping, connected up the boost gauge, gave the 165 intercooler a thorough wash out , filled the gearbox (except I forgot to put the supported shaft in! Didn?t leak too much though). I had a small leak on my brazed joint (tiny little pinhole) so I removed that and redid it, I still haven?t secured the coolant pipes, undecided as to whether it?s needed. Will be pretty tricky if it does need to be done, as there?s nothing nearby to attach them to.

I also had a better look at the sw20 turbo (1989) rear brakes vs the current ones, and here?s my findings:
Disks are identical in diameter, the sw20 ones are 16mm and vented whereas the aw11 ones are 9mm and solid. Centre hole on sw20 disks is about 8mm large in diameter.
Pistons are the same bore, calipers look identical except that the sw20 ones have a larger gap to fit the wider disk.
Caliper brackets are identical, except that the sw20 ones have a larger gap to fit the wider disk.
Pads are identical

So, I *may* see if there are disks available the same dimensions as the aw11 rears, but vented. Maybe the fronts? If I can find some then I will fit them along with the sw20 calipers and brackets. Otherwise, it?s not worth getting sw20 disks and drilling them, then getting spigot spacer/adapters just for the sake of having vented rather than solid rears. This is also something that can be done after certification as it will not be apparent that they have been changed.

So, waiting for the air filter and adapter to show up, don?t know if there?s much I can do on it tomorrow really, besides I will be busy with my assignment (maybe). I might at some point check to see if I can fit the front rotors on the back. Maybe it?s time I started putting things back together? Maybe I should try the SW20 seats to see if I can make them fit? Hmm I?m sure that if I go out there I will have no trouble finding something to do.

I should start looking at what I?m going to do on the exhaust front as well. I think I might just got for a straight through 3 inch exiting out the side, as previously planned. It might not look as wicked as twin pipes, but it will give much better performance.

I?m pretty sure that I?m going to get those coilovers on trademe too, fingers tightly crossed :)

Financial update
Bought rubber hoses, lug terminals, 8gauge cable for earths ~ $20
Cost to date: $334 (hmm, time to sell more stuff!)

[Driftin_AW]

Day 20
Friday, 6th May

Finally did some more work. I have actually done a tiny bit of work in the last couple of days, but it?s been like less than an hour, and haven?t achieved much, so didn?t bother writing them up.

So today I worked on mounting the battery. I actually pretty much stole the method entirely from Paul Woods. Basically it mounts in the frunk, on the passenger side of the spare tyre. I can fit a space saver tyre in there no problems, may even be able to get a factory mag into it.

The exact location is where the aircon pipes normally come through, there?s a flat part there, which supports one corner of the battery, then I made a bracket to support the rest with 3 pieces of angle iron. It actually worked out quite well, and was reasonably easy. I did manage to burn a couple of holes in the 1mm steel that I was welding to. I clearly need more practice, maybe even smaller welding rods with lower current to reduce the heat. I fixed the holes though, and it?s very well secured in there, can actually move the whole car buy tugging on it. I then sprayed some body sealer on to all the exposed steel, although I forgot to do the underside, will do this tomorrow. I also need to get a bracket to go over the top of the battery, will go into pick-a-part tomorrow for this and to look for the clutch line. With this done the battery should be solid as hell.

There is one small problem that I just realised. I made the bracket to suit the sealed battery out of the GT-Four. When it is ready, the GT-Four will need this back and I will have to get another one for SW11, which means I will have to look around to be sure I find one that?s the same shape! Doh! Oh well, not a major problem, if I have to I can get a smaller one and fit it, but I wont be able to go bigger. I could just get another sealed one, but they are NOT cheap, around 5 times the price of a large lead acid battery, although it?s very grunty (750CCA, or about 980CA), and is much better in general.

I have also come to an almost final decision on the suspension! I bought the necessary parts to convert the struts to coilovers, I have KYB adjustable shocks for the SW20 rear struts I?m going to use, and just need to make a decision on what front shocks to use. I know I can get some Tokico Illumina?s for a reasonable price, so I might go for those. I also need to get some new springs for the front, as the ones that come with the kit I?m getting have a spring rate about twice what I need.

I also sold the ST165 intercooler to a guy who just put a 3sgte into his ST191 Corona. Coincidentally, I sold a 3sgte to some guy wanting to do this about a year ago, he got nearly finished and then gave up and sold his car to the guy who bought my intercooler, who then took the engine out of the older Corona it was in and put it into his. Small world huh? This means I have to get off my ass and get the Subaru intercooler modified. I still haven?t heard from the guy I bought the air filter off, not since he gave me his bank account details and I paid him. Will be very pissed off if he rips me off. Will email him again tomorrow if he doesn?t contact me.

Speaking of being stuffed around, some guy won my auction for the wheels from the SW20, and he has arranged to pick them up an then been a no show 3 times now. He better have a good excuse for not coming tonight otherwise I?m relisting. I hate it when people stuff you around when they?re meant to be buying something off you. It seems to happen a lot with the more expensive stuff, like wheels, engines etc, I imagine it?s normally a case of them not having the money to buy what they?ve committed to. Very frustrating, especially when they just keep saying ?I?ll come on Saturday? and then you don?t hear from them until Monday when they say ?oh sorry I was really busy and wont be able to come until this Saturday?. And it continues. GGRRR!

Well, this weekend I will try and get the intercooler modified and plumbed in. I also need to make or find an overflow bottle, move the coolant filler neck somewhere a bit better, maybe start on the exhaust, and many more things, so I should be pretty busy over the weekend, provided I don?t get into the ?I can?t do any of the stuff I need to so I wont do anything? attitude, or the ?my future is more important than this car and so I should do some homework? mood.

So, finger?s crossed for a productive weekend!

[MegatronUK]

Good to see you're keeping up the effort! You seem to be steamrolling ahead!

I'm pretty much at the stage where I'm waiting for the last few mechanical bits and pieces to come together (new radiator, couple of hoses, rebuild front struts and fit new gt4 braking system).

[Driftin_AW]

that's good to hear, what's the reason for the new radiator? I'm a bit gutted about missing out on some gt4 single pots, am going to have to stick to the twin pots on small rotors unfortunately, and I'll just have to keep hoping to find some big disks and brackets later on. I'm hoping these coil overs don't turn out to be too difficult to build, and that they work well. It does occur to me that I'll pretty much have to decide on a height and leave it there most of the time, as I would have to get a wheel alignment every time I changed height otherwise!

[MegatronUK]

Simple reason really... the old one is ker-knackered :lol:

It was leaking rather badly from the bottom of one corner and its generally rusty and in poor condition. Had a quote of ?70 + vat for a reconditioned item.. or just over 100 + vat for a new one!

I'm going to try and swap the carriers over tonight, to prove once and for all whether the twin/single combo works... I'm sure it will though.

[Driftin_AW]

Day 21
Saturday, 7th May

Didn?t do anywhere near as much today as I had hoped. I didn?t start doing anything until about 4pm when me and my mate Alex went to pick-a-part looking for a clutch line and a battery bracket. Didn?t find any suitable ones, so it looks like I will just have to get one made.

When we got back we started work on a few things. I got Alex to cut up the front torque mounts from the AW11 and SW20 so we could make the hybrid one needed for the front. He did a pretty good job, it?s nice to just be able to tell someone to do something and then get on with what you need to do.

So while Alex was making a sh*tload of noise with the grinder, I was soldering up the check connector, that I had until now neglected to do. The only thing that isn?t wired now is the reverse light, just not sure which wire it?s supposed to connect to on the AW chassis loom, which I should be able to work out if I ever have a look at a wiring diagram.

I?m sure I did more, but I don?t remember. The driveshafts are also installed now, I did that a couple of days ago.

Now, I have come across something that has made me quite excited. A good friend of mine, Tim, has a GT-Four RC that he imported from Japan last year. Also, the incredibly intelligent an insightful government here in NZ created a law a couple of years ago, basically meaning that no cars built before 1996 can be imported and registered for use on the road. The idea was that Tim was going to swap all the parts from the RC into a normal widebody GT-Four that is already registered, but he has since decided he can?t be bothered, and is now selling the car. SO, there if all goes according to plan, Alex will buy the car, he will keep all the body panels on the front of the car for his GT-Four, some guy down south wants to buy the shell, the engine will be sold to whoever wants it, and *I* will get the water to air intercooler, and hopefully the brakes as well. This would be absolutely ideal. I have for a very long time believed that a good water to air is the best intercooler system for an MR2, which is why I had planned on using the Legacy intercooler, but the RC one is larger, known to support more power, and it fits right between the turbo and throttle body, with less piping than needed for the Legacy unit, and hence less lag. I will be extremely happy if I can get this sucker for SW11.

So, watch this space

[Driftin_AW]

Day 22
Sunday, 8th May

Another day, another late start leading to not enough progress.

I got the front torque mount cut out and tacked up, all ready to be fully welded. I might see if I can find somewhere to press the rubber out while it?s welded to prevent any damage to it. The mount was pretty simple to make, I just did the same as on the others, cut the shape out of cardboard, traced it onto some 6mm steel plate and cut it with an angle grinder. I didn?t much enjoy all the splatter that got me while lying under the car, tacking the mount together.

That?s pretty much all I did, took me a couple of hours to do, but was pretty easy.

I also ordered my muffler today. It?s a 3? straight through with a small expansion chamber in the middle. Price is a grand total of $52! It?s nothing flash, but that suits me fine. I would quite like a twin side exit muffler, as the GT-Four one that I had planned to use with the 4AGTE looked very cool, but unfortunately is just too restrictive for me. I might look into making one, or getting one made later, as there aren?t really any available off the shelf. Anyway I will be picking that muffler up sometime next week, I think it should make for a nice sounding, very free flowing exhaust.

Financial update
Sold stock SW20 exhaust, $80
Cost to date, $254

[Driftin_AW]

Day 23
Friday, 13th May (Black Friday!)

So, it?s been a while since I?ve done anything, most of this week was spent on assignments, and a little bit on buying/selling parts, but I finally did some more tonight.

I picked up my coilover parts on Monday. They are so sweet. I need to buy some new front springs for them as the ones that came with the kit are far too high (450lb/in and I want 200lb/in). I may also need the front springs to be taller too, which is no big deal. Need to get a pipe wrench so I can remove the big nuts on the top of the strut casing, I also need to pick up some stock front struts to slightly massacre. I sold the old suspension quickly too, which was nice.

I also managed to get that RC water to air intercooler I had my eye on, and installed it today. I had to cut one of the mounting tabs off it because it hit the coolant elbow where it goes to the filler neck. Had the same problem with one of the water pipes, so I?ve cut it off and will have it rewelded on pointing to the front of the car, rather than the side.

Other little things I did tonight was to reinstall the exhaust manifold heat shield, and the alternator. Also crimped on some lugs on the ends of the power cables to connect up the battery. Need to make up an earth for the battery too, and grab another terminal because I?ve lost the old one.

Oh yeah, I also started the car tonight :) That?s right, the damn thing ran! So much for unlucky Friday 13th! There were a couple of issues initially. First the coil wasn?t plugged in, then the fuel pump wasn?t working. So I connected FP on the check connector to the battery and suddenly there was a whirring sound, got Alex to crank the engine and it came to life! No funny noises, appeared to idle fine but I only ran it for a couple of seconds before shutting off as I have no exhaust attached or air filter, as I?m still waiting for the f*cking thing to arrive!

So, need to look back over the wiring diagrams to see what?s not happening with the fuel pump circuit, and obviously I need to finish all those other bits and pieces, but it appears that everything is going to work out good! Can?t wait to get this baby finished! Unfortunately I wont be able to work on it much tomorrow, and will probably be quite busy on Sunday with an assignment, but at least I have reached one very important milestone!

Financial update:
Bought adjustable platform spring set up $405
Sold old spoiler from AW11 $80
Sold old upgraded suspension $500
Bought GT-Four RC water to air intercooler set up $500

Cost to date, $579

[MegatronUK]

Budget is certainly looking good!

http://www.target-earth.net/builddiary.html

I'm running at around ?2500 at the moment including the car... but theres a lot of options and new bits in there that are not strictly mk1.5 related.

[Paul Woods]

she runs!!! yes! a great moment,really happy for you malcolm....makes it all worthwhile when they fire up for the first time.....sounds like you might have to wire up your fuel pump wire in the N1 to the correct pin on the COR,nothing more than that i wouldnt have thought.

[Driftin_AW]

thanks guys
John if I had included all the stuff I'd spent on the car it would definitely be more, maybe about $2-3K but I'm trying to keep a record strictly for the 3sgte conversion, rather than an overall cost of the car. Last time I did that was on the GT-Four and I stopped when it reached $25K! :shock:

Paul, I was sure I wired the COR properly, but I'll check it tomorrow (if I get time). You said that the blue/black wire wasn't used right? I can't remember what I connected the fuel pump wire on N1 to, but I think it should probably connect to that blue/black wire, as I actually have a COR from a completely different car (st171 3sfe corona) and it still had the blue/black connected, so I think it is supposed to power up the fuel pump, rather than just for the high/low switching relay one mr2 turbos etc

[Paul Woods]

er i think im getting a bit muddled in my old age mal..from memory the blue wire in the N1 needs to go to the COR output to power up the fuel pump,i think i was referring to the blue wire that goes to the check connector before.....still its only the fuel pump circuit thats stopping things running,should be a piece of cake mate.

[Driftin_AW]

sweet, thought it seemed a bit odd, but to be honest I did the entire wiring of the N1 and COR connectors without even looking at a wiring diagram, just went straight off your helpful bits & pieces, although I did already have a pretty good knowledge of gen 2 3sgte wiring.
anyway, haven't so much as touched the car since last night, probably wont get to until monday or so

[Paul Woods]

yeah i keep telling people,having a good knowledge of both mk1 and mk2 wiring diagrams gets you 99% of the way there....theres not a lot to it really,i spent a few weeks studying diagrams until i was dreaming about COR's and ecu pin outs and in the end 30 minutes wired it all up,the v6 was even easier,15 minutes for that! .Nice one malcolm,good to see her running!

[Driftin_AW]

Day 24
Monday, 16th May

Hmm progress seems to really be slowing up! I haven?t touched the AW all weekend, although I am pretty sure I have worked out the reason for the fuel pump not working.

Anyway, on the weekend I picked up my muffler. It?s 3? straight through, 36cm (about 14.5?), with a small expansion chamber in the middle. It actually appears to muffle quite well, if you yell in one end it?s really quite quiet out the other. This is good, as it's going to be the only muffler in the system. If it turns out to be too loud, I will put a small resonator in there aswell. The system is basically going to be straight off the downpipe, a couple of very small bends (>20 degrees) to line everything up, and it will exit right in the middle of the rear bumper. This afternoon after uni I went round and collected the rest of the parts I needed to make the system. Originally I was going to do it in 2.5? for now, as I have a sh*tload of 2.5? mandrel bends, but the place I went to get the pipe and cat flange from didn?t have either in 2.5?, so I got 3? pipe, flange, and I bought a 3? 90 degree mandrel as well. I was hoping I would get it all pretty much cut and tacked together this afternoon, but it took me ages to hang the muffler, in fact I?m still not done. I had to make new mounts for the hangers, as none of the old ones are anywhere near the muffler, and I can?t find the third mount so I might have to try find one from a wrecker, as the muffler doesn?t hang very well on only 2 mounts.

I only spent about one and a half hours working on it before I had to come in an finish an assignment. I had the damn thing just about finished last night, when MS Word froze when I tried to paste a picture, and I lost about 5 hours of work (pretty much the whole report write up). I was extremely pissed off, and annoyed that I hadn?t saved and that the auto recovery and auto save features were turned off. So, I had the finish it tonight, which I have finally done, so I will now be able to put more time into SW11 as I don?t really have any assignments at present.

Also, over the weekend I won an auction for a Mitsubishi Evo 3 TD05h. I am pretty certain that after getting SW11 certed, when I pull the engine to paint the bay and tidy it up, I will install this. I might in fact make up some jigs of the manifold adapter and downpipe, and get extra oil/water lines made up so I can sell them as a 3sgte upgrade kit. The TD05?s are quite readily available in NZ, and should be a decent improvement over the CT26. I will try to do some before and after dyno runs too. If I can make around $200 a week (around bare minimum of what I need to earn to give me and Heather enough to pay the rent and live a reasonable lifestyle) on selling a kit like this (and maybe some mk1.5 related kits? Who knows), then I can leave my job, which would be awesome. I have often thought about various ideas like this, but they hardly ever come to fruition, so we?ll see :)

Financial update:
Bought 3? straight through muffler $50
Bought 3? pipe, mandrel bend, flange and gasket $80

Cost to date:
$709 (crikey! I wish that dude would sort his sh*t out and buy those mags off me!)

[Driftin_AW]

Day 25 & 26
Friday, 20th and Saturday, 21st May

Decided to combine 2 entries because I was a bit slack and didn?t do one for yesterday, and can?t be bothered splitting it up.

So, yesterday I spent about 3 hours tidying the garage up! It was getting ridiculous, tools, bolts, rubbish, steel, car parts etc everywhere. I actually gave it a big clean up before starting the swap and have done a pretty good job of messing it up over the last month and a bit.

Having his usual impeccable timing, Alex showed up just as I finished the hard task of cleaning, and after we drilled out a stubborn crank bolt on a bicycle belonging to a customer of his, we got to work on making the intake.

I had planned to use the old intake pipe from the GT-Four, cut down a little to position the air filter where I wanted it. Well, by the time I?d finished shortening it, the length had gone from around 70cm to about 20cm. It?s now just a bit of a bend, and that?s it! I was a bit pissed off to find that the airflow meter adapter I had waited 3 weeks for wasn?t even the right one, but since it?s a cheap plastic one it didn?t take much to redrill it. So, by the end of the evening?s work we had located the intake parts, and that?s about it.

Today after work I went and picked some bits up. First was my new clutch line, courtesy of an old mate and fellow AW11 owner (his is 20valve 4age powered) who works for ADL, remember them from earlier? They did my driveshaft, except that was a different branch. Anyway, the hose is beautiful, and works like a charm, cost me the princely sum of $15, which I was plenty pleased about.

After that I went and picked up the bits and pieces that were being welded by Simon. As usual, everything was beautiful. The engine mount was very meatily welded up, strong enough for 2 3SGTEs! The exhaust was nicely TIG welded, as was the little water pipe alteration on the RC w/a intercooler. Had a bit of a chat while I was over there, he had a mate wiring up his FD RX7 (Batmobile), and had a 1UZ-FE sitting on the ground waiting to go into his Nissan Navara ute. He was asking me about how much you can buy 3SGTE?s for, I wonder if he is contemplating another swap? He has a KE30 (? Maybe it?s a KE20) outside that belongs to his flatmate, currently has a 4AGTE in it but would go quite nicely with a 3SGTE I think :)

So, I was supposed to head south to pick up some struts today, but that didn?t happen, so instead I got cracking on installing the new bits. I put the clutch line in, bled clutch with help from Heather, adjusted pedal (never done that before, but sh*t it was simple!), installed intake, cleaned up, etch primed and installed front engine mount, finally wired the fuel pump to the unused wire on the COR (oops! More on this soon), put a negative battery terminal on, installed exhaust, which sits very well on just the 2 hangers, I might leave it as it is, installed intercooler, and had another go at starting it.

Problems. First one was that I had forgotten to plug the airflow meter in. Oops! Next was that the fuel pump still wasn?t running. So, I did what I did last time and ran a wire from a power supply to the FP terminal on the check connector. Now the starter cranks as soon as I put the key in the on position. This is because whatever wire I connected the fuel pump to on the COR is also connected to the starter I guess. Weird, tomorrow I will bin the COR I got from the wrecker?s and cut the sw20 one out of the fuse box and use that, since I actually know what the wires on it are supposed to do. So I fixed that minor problem, but something is still wrong. It doesn?t want to idle and dies whenever you try to rev it. Very peculiar. I also noticed that the check engine light doesn?t work, so I can?t check error codes yet.

So, tomorrow I will get the check engine light working, then I will check for error codes and see what the problem is. It?s very strange because everything seemed to be fine when I started it last time. It?s possible that I?ve disconnected something and forgotten about it, or even damaged something. Hopefully it?s nothing major and I can solve the problem quickly.

I really need to get moving on the suspension too, this is definitely going to be the thing that holds me up I suspect.

Financial update:
Bought new clutch hose $15
Part payment to Simon for welding $40
Cost to date $764 (!!!)

[Driftin_AW]

Day 28
Sunday, 22nd May

I spent a couple of hours stuffing about with the wiring today. First thing I did was to try and get the check engine light working. In the process I happened to discover that the ECU was only receiving 4 volts. I was trying to work out where it was losing voltage, as the battery was around 12 volts. I discovered that when I unplugged the N1 connector, the voltage on the thick black wire that powers the ECU would jump to 12 volts, then when plugged in it would go back to 4 volts. The only things connected to this wire are the +B and +B1 pins on the ECU, and the power terminal on the COR. I also noticed a bit of oxidation on a couple of connectors, so I sprayed them with some CRC 556. Eventually I got the voltage at the ECU up to 12v, and the check engine light started working. So I checked the codes. 14 and 35.

14 is an ignitor error, (no signal from ignitor to ECU), which appears to have been from a damaged plug on the ECU not allowing proper connection on the IGT wire. I think I have fixed this, the code has gone.

35 is map sensor related (open or short in PIM). I have checked all the wires on this for continuity and shorts and can?t find any problems. Also tried another map sensor. I think maybe the ECU isn?t resetting, because I can really see no reason for it to still be getting an error. The wires were damaged and may have been shorting, but I wrapped them and still no fix. I will leave the battery disconnected for a few hours to make extra sure it?s reset, and if it still has a code I will run new wires. Bit of a PITA as I have no need for the MAP sensor, but it reportedly puts the car into limp mode if it isn?t connected.

Anyway, the engine is now running quite well, still not quite perfect due to the code 35, but I?m pretty sure now that nothing major is wrong. The exhaust is quite loud, not absurdly so, but I think I will need another resonator, we?ll see how it is when I?m driving it around anyway. I would definitely like it to have a slightly deeper tone than it does at the moment, but we?ll see.

I ran the car for a good minute or two, and no problems presented themselves (ie no turbo smoke etc). Need to get an alternator belt before I run it for much longer so I don?t drain the battery too much.

[Paul Woods]

nice work sourcing the electrical faults mate,never easy!

The exhaust is loud....now theres a surprise!! :lol: yep another box should keep it sensible.....you're making great progress,shouldnt be long before this ones finished!

[Driftin_AW]

haha, well that muffler has a big expansion chamber in the middle and I thought it would shut it up quite a bit, and it certainly did (compared to no exhaust at all), but not quite enough I suspect.
The suspension is going to hold me up from driving it...I just know it! Lots of little stuff to do aswell, such as overflow bottle, catchcan and other little random stuff

[Driftin_AW]

Day 29
Friday, 27th May

Tonight I spent some time beefing up the stock rear tranny mount. The SC one that I used is only held to the gearbox by 2 bolts, whereas on the SW20 it uses these 2, one on the left hand side, and 3 on the right hand side, so I added some steel plate and angle iron to the old mount, which I will take to get welded up tomorrow.

I also did a small bit of work on the gearbox oil cooler. I don?t think I?ve really mentioned this at all in the past, but when I was building the 4AGTE I planned to install a gearbox oil cooler, which I am still going to do. It?s located in the little panel next to the engine lid. The cooler is a standard engine oil cooler from a 7MGTE MK3 Supra. I am modifying the pipes on the cooler slightly to make the piping fit in better to the aw11.

In other news, I also put a lot of the interior back in, and reinstalled the back window, it?s kinda strange not having access to the cabin from the back of the car though.

I?ve also been looking ahead a little into SW11?s future. As I?ve mentioned before, I plan to pull the engine out and do some more modifications after getting the cert. I?ve been thinking that I might rebuild a spare 3sgte head I have, and install this with a metal head gasket and some ARP head studs. I?m trying not to give this all too much thought yet, as I still have plenty to do before I can be driving this thing on the street. It would definitely be nice though, but it will all depend on how I feel after driving it a bit, and what my horsepower goals become. I have been thinking of aiming around 350hp, with a mhg, highflowed TD05, 550cc injectors, and a Jaycar Digital Fuel Adjuster, but I may just find this to be unnecessary when I finally get to drive it.

I have started parting out the SW20, and have made some good returns (see financial update at the bottom of the page :D ). I have also recently become more and more excited about the minor project I intend to begin once SW11 is on the road. The experience of building this car has showed me that engine conversions are quite simple, and the main reason this has taken me so long is that, as I often do, I have kept on deciding to do more and more to it. But anyway, I am dead set on putting a 20 valve 4AGE into the Corsa! It currently has a 5EFE, which is only 100hp, but because it is quite light (it?s essentially a 4 door starlet) it?s acceleration is on a par with a stock AE101 20v. The 4A should go in reasonably easily, in a similar fashion to SW11 where I?ve been able to reuse 2 of the gearbox mounts, and the idea will be to make it look 100% stock so I don?t need a cert. The 50% extra power, and hugely improved midrange torque should make the car a whole lot better to drive.

I?ve also been giving serious thought to another idea that?s been sitting in the back of my mind for several months (due to comments from a certain Mr. P Woods), which is to install a 3L V6 (either 3VZ-FE or 1MZ-FE), into the GT-Four, along with a nice and massive turbo. I?ve been trying to convince my mate Alex to let me try it on one of his ST185?s beforehand, so I can see how it will turn out. This would give me more power and torque without having to do serious (expensive!) internal work than if I retain the 3sgte. I?m hoping that I will be able to continue to use the Microtech LTX8 if I take this route, by grouping injectors and spark plugs (running wasted spark instead of direct fire). We?ll see, it has certainly got me interested and wishing I had more time and money to pursue it sooner.

Financial Update:
Sold, SW20 wheels + miscellaneous other parts - $810
Cost to date: -$46 (YAY! Back into profit!)

[djdna2000]

Interesting you are thinking gb oil cooler. I have got a 10-row unit and a 13-row (for the engine oil), they were for the GT4 but then my plans changed so I'm gonna use em for the mk1.5. I thought about mounting them where the current fan is that draws air in.

Does the e153 have a cooler as stock? The GT4 does, but if there isn't one on my rev3 clip then I'll just use oil fill and drain points I suppose.

[Driftin_AW]

all E series boxes had the fittings for an oil cooler, AFAIK, but only ST185 and ST205 GT-Fours actually had them connected up, all the rest just had a loop.
The cooler I'm using is the same dimensions as a GT-Four gearbox oil cooler, just has different fittings and brackets. For my GT-Four I got a few coolers from miscellaneous early 90's mitsi's, heaps of them had coolers very similar to the stock gt4 ones, only they're atleast twice the width, plug and play with stock lines too, just have to do custom brackets.

how would you utilise the drain + fill plugs if it didn't have fittings? Since there's no pressure differential (or not enough to promote flow anyway). Would you run a small pump? Are there actually pumps available for this purpose? I have always wondered how one would put a gearbox cooler on a box not already equipped...

[djdna2000]

There are quite a few motorsport type places that do electric oil pumps, I was going to fit one of these (or perhaps even a fuel pump) possibly with an inline thermostat and bypass loop. So are you saying that the e153 has a pump in there already, or was the pump left off too?

What car is your cooler off? I just found out after 4 years of ST205 ownership that my JDM gearbox oil cooler is about half the size of a UK spec one, the Uk one looks positively huge compared to it (I feel quite inadequate :lol: ). No chance of that with the new ones, the GB one is 10 row by 235mm, the engine one 13 row by 235mm, both MOCAL type things off eBay.

For the engine oil I have a sandwich plate with a thermostat built in.

[adamh]

In other news, I also put a lot of the interior back in, and reinstalled the back window, it?s kinda strange not having access to the cabin from the back of the car though..



dont worry malc, back window in is best... :D

[Driftin_AW]

the cooler is the engine oil cooler from a 7MGTE MA70 Supra. Like I said it's the same size as ST185 GT-Fours. From memory, a JDM ST205 one is the same size as an ST185 RC one, which for some reason is about 2/3rds the size of a normal ST185.

I'm about 95% percent sure that the oil pump is still inside and connected on E series boxes without coolers