Garage Takai

Here we go here we go here we go go. Since its April the 2JZ conversion is full speed ahead.

Firstly though, i assembled all the adaptors onto the oil filter bracket:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30001-1/IMG_1115_s.jpg[/IMG]
And popped it on the engine:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30005-1/IMG_1116_s.jpg[/IMG]

Fits nicely there

Next up was all the boring bits of getting stuff ready to be removed, which only took a couple of hours:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30011-1/IMG_1118_s.jpg[/IMG]
Only problem is that with the nosecone still on the car i dont have the reach to be able to take the bonnet off on my own, so i had to wait for my wife to come home from a friends.
That means engine out tomorow, which should be quite easy.

Oh and this is where it will live for the next few weeks.
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30008-1/IMG_1117_s.jpg[/IMG]

Welcome to Phase 3….

Picking up from where we left off yesterday, my wife helped me take the bonnet off last night and so this morning i pulled the engine out. Under 30mins later it looked like this:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30020-1/IMG_1121_s.jpg[/IMG]

I was originally going to put a brass bushing into the gearbox to replace the shifter bushes, but after seeing this i decided not to:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30017-1/IMG_1120_s.jpg[/IMG]
Thats pretty much as it is brand new.
I tested the slop in the factory bush and the brass bush and in my case there was actually more slop in the brass bush. Saved a heap of work.

After that, the new bellhousing on:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30026-1/IMG_1123_s.jpg[/IMG]

5M left to sit in the naughty corner and cry:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30023-1/IMG_1122_s.jpg[/IMG]

And after a bit of trouble with forgetting to buy more M12 bolts to attach the gearbox, and a few issues lining up the splines with a sore back and then adjusting angles on my engine crane, it now looks like this:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30029-1/IMG_1124_s.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/30032-1/IMG_1125_s.jpg[/IMG]

All went in nicely after a bit of adjusting of the crane.

Not too many more pics as i only had 5hrs to work on it today as we have friends coming around for dinner and i should be cleaning the house a bit right now.

More to come soon…

So i finally got them out, and it was actually really clean behind there. But a crapload of thread sealant gunk holding it in place
Looks roughly like this:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29991-1/IMG_1112_s.jpg[/IMG]
And those gallery plugs:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29996-2/IMG_1113_s.jpg[/IMG]

There really isnt much meat behind the capscrew socket so what im going to do is get new bolts in those sizes and turn them down to size on the lathe before putting a fitting into it. Should be pretty good imho.

Also got a chance to start fitting up the gauges into the replacement cluster. Just have to enlarge the speedo hole to suit and she is all apples:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29976-1/IMG_1107_s.jpg[/IMG]

Also almost finished off the engine ready to put into the car. Popped the blingy flywheel on, and a new spigot bearing:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29979-1/IMG_1108_s.jpg[/IMG]
Full organic clutch plate:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29982-1/IMG_1109_s.jpg[/IMG]
And then quite possibly the most terrible clutch cover ive ever seen, so horrible that i dont even have a photo of the blinding .

Finally im almost finished making the flange for the exhaust secondaries, and after the F1 Qualifying is over ill be back out in the garage finishing that off and then maybe tacking together some pipework for it 🙂

Yeah, i probably should. But ive already heatshrunk those, so im not overly concerned about it. Probably sort out some better stuff when i do the 2JZ conversion.

Speaking of which, i seem to be alternating my time between the Spoonter and the upcoming Supra conversion atm. Last night i spent a bit of time getting the Supra stuff sorted out.

First thing last night was getting the engine mounts sorted out:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29946-1/IMG_1097_s.jpg[/IMG]
Thats the fourth pair ive made, and hopefully the last, getting sick of cutting steel into smaller bits of steel and welding it together like some modern art piece.

Next up was getting all the engine back together, which went quite smoothly:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29952-1/IMG_1099_s.jpg[/IMG]
Ancillaries are all on, just need a belt for them, but that can wait for a bit, as i want to run it without the PS hooked up at first to make sure all is ok. Plus the PS there is attached by only two bolts, one to a thin tab on the engine and the other to a bar which leads back across to the intake mani reinforcement. To say im a bit sus about that is an undestatement, so ill be adding a third attachment point where the aircon compressor used to sit. Probably do it out of 10×25 bar Alu as i have some around.
I also repaired the wiring on the injector rail, and cleaned up the cam covers and painted them wrinkle black, replaced the cam cover seals, spark plugs and a few other bits.

Started work on the exhaust manifold too:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29955-1/IMG_1100_s.jpg[/IMG]
I havnt drilled the holes yet as my holesaw arbor snapped, and ill need to get a new one before i can drill them out.

Plus i built a simple merge collector:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29961-1/IMG_1102_s.jpg[/IMG]
Not the best welding in the world, as i kept blowing through, so i was moving quite quickly. Should have switched to 0.6mm wire, but i dont have any handy. Wish i had a TIG….

Oh yeah, this is the exhaust manifold im using:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29958-1/IMG_1101_s.jpg[/IMG]
The stock 2JZGE VVTi manifold is really quite a nice piece of kit.

Now while i had the oil adaptor out to put the engine mounts on i noticed these couple of plugs in the casing:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29964-1/IMG_1103_s.jpg[/IMG]
Im guessing from their location that they go straight into the gallery behind it. Im currently wondering whether i should simply tap a 1/8NPT hole into one of them for the oil temp sender, and tap the other for a fitting to attach the oil pressure sender.
Thoughts? It will be certainly much easier than welding a plug to the sump. I guess the real question is do those plugs actually lead to the gallery behind?

And finally:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29967-1/IMG_1104_s.jpg[/IMG]
Thats the 2JZ inlet manifold compared to the RB26 one. Dave of the Tomato has suggested that you can simply swap the runners in a 1/6 and 2/5 fashion and it will simply work. If i do that itll be a matter of figuring out how far down to swap them. Ideas?

Thats about it for now. Just gotta clean up the wiring on the engine, and sort out what will be plugged into the body loom, and terminate them into a plug for the body. All looking quite on track for an April start to the actual conversion.

Not much done over the last little while. Alarm installed, but no pics of that for obvious reasons, just driving it around a bit.

However ive started workign on the 2JZ to get it ready to go into the bay soon. Now that my timing belt and bits have showed up i got them installed:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29904-2/IMG_1085_s.jpg[/IMG]

Plus while i was cleaning things up i popped the cam covers off to put new gaskets on, and wrinkle coated them:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29922-2/IMG_1091_s.jpg[/IMG]

Plus i picked up the bits for my new exhaust, thanks to Drew at AAA Exhausts and PLAYA for the ECV:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29925-2/IMG_1092_s.jpg[/IMG]

Oh and a cheapo set of spanners to leave in the car 🙂

Once the wrinkle coat dries ill be able to pop the cam covers back on and put it all back together again, but that can wait for a bit. The weekend has pretty much been spent on the AE86 anyway. Ill probably start the 2JZ conversion in April as thats when my wife changes rotations to a more single car friendly roster.

One thing i do have to do before then is figure out how to cut this:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29901-2/IMG_1084_s.jpg[/IMG]
Basically i have to cut it down to just before the injector mounting bosses. Ive given an abrasion cutting disc a go, but it just tends to cake up. Ive heard that using soap on the disc helps though. Maybe ill try that, anyone have other suggestions?

Finally got around to sorting out the knocking, was a combinaiton of a few things.

Anyway looks like this now:

[img]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29875-1/IMG_3345_s.jpg[/img]

[img]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29878-1/IMG_3346_s.jpg[/img]

[img]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29881-1/IMG_3347_s.jpg[/img]

Looks quite high at the front, so i think ill need to sort out a lip there. But it handles like its on rails, although ill need to figure out the dampening as its a bit over damped at the moment.

Currently im patching up the aerial hole and waiting for the coat of bog to dry over the patch. After that it needs a wheel alignment and ill drive it around for a while as it is to let stuff settle in.

So speaking of the 2JZ, i got started on pulling it down last night. After an hour or so it looks like this:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29866-1/IMG_1080_s.jpg[/IMG]

Nothing too drastic found. Couple of leaking cam seals which have spilled oil down the entire block, and worse in the spark plug valley.

Found that at some point in the past a wire had been crimped between the manifold and the plenum:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29863-1/IMG_1079_s.jpg[/IMG]
So ill have to solder that up before i get it going.

Oh and the one bit i already knew:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29860-1/IMG_1078_s.jpg[/IMG]

Plug is broken off the VVTi solenoid, so that will need to be replaced.
I have a new timing belt, exhaust cam gear and water pump coming for the engine, and soon ill pull the sump off to weld in an oil temp sensor bung.

All in all it needs a tidy up, but nothing drastic.

Also i ducked out and picked this little guy up:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29872-1/IMG_1083_s.jpg[/IMG]

Ill shelve that for a bit later, about when it gets some 272deg cams and an aftermarket ECU… 🙂

Tonight i got a bit bored and couldnt sleep so i went out and did some machining for an hour or so. Turned up two things, first was a pair of steel spacers for the tierod ends which i was having troubles with before:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29781-1/IMG_1052_s.jpg[/IMG]
Pretty simple, just need to find my split pins now.

The other is a boss kit spacer:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29784-1/IMG_1054_s.jpg[/IMG]
First time i had used the autofeed on the lathe, and boy does it make chips, and fast. The only problem is that being aluminum they fly quickly and are bloody hot. I now have 4 decent burns on my neck and one on my upper lip which are going to cane for a while 🙁

Not much news on the Supra as ive been working on the Spoonter. Just finished the steering spacer though:

[img]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29812-2/IMG_1062_s.jpg[/img]

Pretty simple.
Gotta pull the whole rear brakes apart though because i forgot to adjust the handbrake before i started… DOH.