Well, its finally been a whole year since my car last ran. I think actually I just finished it right before my year mark. Its up and running great. I'm not running hardly any boost, I need to switch out my top mount so I dont have the bov anymore- although I do love the sound of it and the looks I receive not just because I am a girl driving a nice car.
Through the months its been hectic.
To start July 14th 2007, my birthday July 15th. My car finally desided to overheat. Before I bought the car (didnt even know that it was Toyota but knew I had to have it) there was a coolant hose that burst. That should have told me that it had a blown head gasket. I drove it for a couple months with no problems. On the night of the cruise it overheated, I filled it up with water and limped it 30 miles home. I put in a new koyo radiator, replaced the thermostat to a 170 degree instead of the 180 degree and filled it up with coolant. Still overheated. I think total it overheated on me 2 times if not 3. I finally got fed up, turned on my music and started to go to work taking it apart. It went to 3 different shops before I finally got the the 3rd shop where I could actually get it on a lift and use the right tools to take the engine out and turn my progress around to being productive.
The guy helping me use the shop would have to leave a couple months at a time so for the most part I was not able to even look at my car.
I enjoyed the whole process, filling down the rings just enough so they make clearance, cleaning the block, painting it satin black. I used Eagle rods and pistons (the pistons were so much fun to put in!!!), all we had to do was mill the head and hone out the block; cylinder 1 had a slight wear on it and I think I have one side over pistons. Got all new bearings, lubed those up really good! - 2 of the 4 were close to spinning. I am using ARP studs, a whole new gasket kit with a cosmetic head gasket, I didnt put in the high rev valve springs, but made sure to check all of the clearances with the plasti wax tape a few times and the shims (right?), cleaned out my oil squirters, left the cams and crank alone since those are pretty much bullet proof anyway. I rebuilt my Ct-26 turbo just so I can tune to stock and go from there. In the process I switched from the tubular manifold back to the oem cast exhaust manifold and got that ceramic coated along with my turbo housing to cut down on heat since I dont have the stock 'no no, hot hot' shield. I went and bought all of the stock hoses for coolant and vaccum from a Toyota dealership. Total I spent $225 on the hoses, and 3 of them are discontinued- so sorry in advance if you cant get some anymore.
I am running an ACT 2600 street disk, pretty yellow! Lol.
I also deleted those flappers on my throttle body, and the egr valve. If anything does come of it I have double of those parts that I can return it back exactly the way it was. For the most part I dont notice any difference, but it has been a year since I drove it last so my comparison isnt exact. It has plenty of zip, the only problem is that I'm not running much boost so getting started is pretty slow, also I'm still getting use to where the clutch engages. But the 2600 clutch doesnt seem that much different from the clutch that came off.
I know evos are much newer; but driving my friends evo- he has the same clutch that I do, only thing is that his is much stiffer than mine. With his you actually have to use more muscle, with mine, its not that hard to push.
I still need to repair a rim thats been cracked since I bought the car. My wheel bearings are making a lil noise so I need to replace those, I have all brand new brakes- returned to oem that way I can just tool around and save up money so I can switch it to a big brake kit to compliment the racing brake fluid that I already have running through the lines.
My goals for the car are to do more of the auto-x events, but in order to do that I will need my car to handle as good it not better than the evos and stis that are running around here. I have been interested in the under body brace from the gentleman here on the board, also looking to go with 3" or 2.5" exhaust, I already have the 3" down pipe but everything else is stock and before I bought it it already had the cat removed.
For now that's all that I remember; also I'm sitting at work typing this up otherwise I'd have pictures to go along with my story.
So there are still improvements to be made but atleast I got it running.
Through the months its been hectic.
To start July 14th 2007, my birthday July 15th. My car finally desided to overheat. Before I bought the car (didnt even know that it was Toyota but knew I had to have it) there was a coolant hose that burst. That should have told me that it had a blown head gasket. I drove it for a couple months with no problems. On the night of the cruise it overheated, I filled it up with water and limped it 30 miles home. I put in a new koyo radiator, replaced the thermostat to a 170 degree instead of the 180 degree and filled it up with coolant. Still overheated. I think total it overheated on me 2 times if not 3. I finally got fed up, turned on my music and started to go to work taking it apart. It went to 3 different shops before I finally got the the 3rd shop where I could actually get it on a lift and use the right tools to take the engine out and turn my progress around to being productive.
The guy helping me use the shop would have to leave a couple months at a time so for the most part I was not able to even look at my car.
I enjoyed the whole process, filling down the rings just enough so they make clearance, cleaning the block, painting it satin black. I used Eagle rods and pistons (the pistons were so much fun to put in!!!), all we had to do was mill the head and hone out the block; cylinder 1 had a slight wear on it and I think I have one side over pistons. Got all new bearings, lubed those up really good! - 2 of the 4 were close to spinning. I am using ARP studs, a whole new gasket kit with a cosmetic head gasket, I didnt put in the high rev valve springs, but made sure to check all of the clearances with the plasti wax tape a few times and the shims (right?), cleaned out my oil squirters, left the cams and crank alone since those are pretty much bullet proof anyway. I rebuilt my Ct-26 turbo just so I can tune to stock and go from there. In the process I switched from the tubular manifold back to the oem cast exhaust manifold and got that ceramic coated along with my turbo housing to cut down on heat since I dont have the stock 'no no, hot hot' shield. I went and bought all of the stock hoses for coolant and vaccum from a Toyota dealership. Total I spent $225 on the hoses, and 3 of them are discontinued- so sorry in advance if you cant get some anymore.
I am running an ACT 2600 street disk, pretty yellow! Lol.
I also deleted those flappers on my throttle body, and the egr valve. If anything does come of it I have double of those parts that I can return it back exactly the way it was. For the most part I dont notice any difference, but it has been a year since I drove it last so my comparison isnt exact. It has plenty of zip, the only problem is that I'm not running much boost so getting started is pretty slow, also I'm still getting use to where the clutch engages. But the 2600 clutch doesnt seem that much different from the clutch that came off.
I know evos are much newer; but driving my friends evo- he has the same clutch that I do, only thing is that his is much stiffer than mine. With his you actually have to use more muscle, with mine, its not that hard to push.
I still need to repair a rim thats been cracked since I bought the car. My wheel bearings are making a lil noise so I need to replace those, I have all brand new brakes- returned to oem that way I can just tool around and save up money so I can switch it to a big brake kit to compliment the racing brake fluid that I already have running through the lines.
My goals for the car are to do more of the auto-x events, but in order to do that I will need my car to handle as good it not better than the evos and stis that are running around here. I have been interested in the under body brace from the gentleman here on the board, also looking to go with 3" or 2.5" exhaust, I already have the 3" down pipe but everything else is stock and before I bought it it already had the cat removed.
For now that's all that I remember; also I'm sitting at work typing this up otherwise I'd have pictures to go along with my story.
So there are still improvements to be made but atleast I got it running.
