Diary of the build up of SW11

[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.