Punknoodle's ST185

Punknoodle

New member
Hey all,

First of all, sorry but I haven't fixed all of the broken photos in this thread - they were broken when Photobucket decided to get greedy and so I'm now using Flickr. Posts with non broken photos start mid way down the 5th page of this thread.

Anyway, here is my Toyota Celica GT-Four, which has slowly made it's way from street car to dedicated track car.

Currently the list of modifications is as follows:

- N/A 3SGE head and cams, ARP head studs
- Cometic MLS 0.051" head gasket
- Arias forged pistons and rods, ARP rod bolts
- Walbro 460lph E85 motorsport fuel pump, Teflon braided fuel lines and fittings, top feed fuel rail, 1050cc injectors, Turbosmart fuel pressure regulator.
- Haltech Platinum Sport 1000 ECU, 1ZZ coil on plug ignition and extra sensors (air temp, coolant temp, oil temp, oil pressure, fuel pressure, ethanol content sensor, on board MAP)
- Innovate Wideband O2 sensor
- K&N Filter, custom intake pipe (AFM delete)
- Custom baffled Oil Catch Tank
- Gen III oil pump, sump, removal of factory water oil cooler and new larger air oil cooler with Greddy thermostatic valve
- Removal of T-VIS butterflies
- Disconnection of T-VSV, 3 port boost solenoid controlled by ECU to control boost to 18psi
- CT20B turbo, clocked with custom wastegate actuator bracket
- PWR front mounted intercooler with aluminum piping, Turbosmart Vee Port BOV
- Custom HPC coated 3" dump pipe, high flowed and HPC coated turbo exhaust housing (to eliminate boost creep from the wastegate not flowing enough)
- Custom 3" mandrel bent stainless exhaust from dump pipe back.
- Davies Craig EWP130 water pump with electronic controller, removal of thermostat, disabled mechanical water pump, custom coolant hardlines
- PWR aluminium radiator
- Custom water neck and custom swirl header tank
- Custom aluminium radiator pipework
- Custom ducting and vented bonnet for increased airflow through coolers
- Exedy clutch, lightened flywheel, ARP flywheel bolts
- Removal of air conditioning system with Fensport Air Con Removal pulley and v belt kit
- TWM Short Shift Kit
- TEIN Super Street coilover suspension
- Whiteline adjustable rear sway bar
- Road and Track heavy duty engine mounts
- xiii motorsports Solid diff mount kit with new stiffer rear sub frame and diff cradle bushes
- Whiteline Plus and Superpro chassis control bushes front and rear, new spherical bearings rear
- Whiteline rear camber adjustment bolts
- Custom rear toe control arms with on-car length adjustment and static attachment points
- Slotted and dimpled front rotors, Project Mu Type HC+ pads and stainless braided brake lines all round, Castrol SRF Racing brake fluid
- Enkei PF01 17x8 +35 wheels (on order)
- Nankang AR-1 235/40/17 Semi Slicks
- Group A / Carlos Sainz Front Bar
- Stripped interior including sound deadening, custom half cage
- Single Cobra Imola S racing seat with harness
- Hella H4 headlight conversion kit with Phillips Crystalview headlamps and parklamps
- 1kg Fire Extinguisher
- New leather shift boot with leather TRD shift knob
- Battery relocated to inside cabin

Normal maintenance things like new shift cables, new gearbox syncros, new fuse box, new clutch master and slave cylinders, rebuilt alternator, new starter motor. Lots of custom wiring.

I haven't had it retuned yet since doing the E85 conversion, front mount and rollcage but will be doing this soon so I can get it out again.

Here it was at my last track day before I parked it up to do more work on it - it was running SSR Professor SP1s at the time:





Next up on list:
- Larger front and rear brakes (Wilwood 4 piston with 2 piece rotor front, ST205 calipers and rotors rear.
 

Punknoodle

New member
C.O.P installation:

I decided when I chose to install a stand alone management system that I would go from a standard distributor to individual coils. I decided on 1ZZ coils, but due to me using a Gen 1 head and cam cover I needed to have little spacers machined.

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Because the Gen 1 cam cover has 2 gaskets, one for each side, the centre of it isn't sealed, so I was able to drill and tap the cover to bolt the coils down. I'll have to see how this goes, there is ZERO clearance on the coil sitting below the intake adapter which worries me a little. I may have to swap to LS1 style coils if these don't work too well, but I thought it was tidy.

ECU:

For ECU I decided on a Haltech Platinum Sport 1000. I also installed a 3 port solenoid for boost control duties to be controlled by the Haltech, and removed the cold start injector and installed a Haltech Air Temp Sensor in its place, on a custom plate I made up.

To drive the factory tach I bought an MSD tach adapter which is driven from an output on the Haltech.

To wire the new components I made a sub harness - it will do the job nicely until I decide to go all out and make an entire new loom.

Fueling:

Because I had the fuel tank out to be able to drill through the floor of the boot to mount my plate which holds the battery box, I decided it was a good time to install a Walbro 255 fuel pump. I bypassed the fuel pump speed relay when doing this and decided on going with a Turbosmart FPR800 regulator and new braided lines with Speed Flow fittings. Because I have a Gen 1 head I already have a simple large top feed rail :)

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Other random bits and pieces:

Fire extinguisher mount in front of passenger seat

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Battery Relocation

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By the way if anyone wants a write up on using the wiring for the A/C condenser fan to power the pump for a water to air system let me know I came up with a really simple way of doing it, and making in run when the engine is running only.
 

Punknoodle

New member
You can use an adapter that you plug your factory harness in to and it just has tails you can wire to, to save cutting the factory harness. I didn't bother with this, though as I was changing so much from factory that it would just be a big pain in the ass to return to stock come time to ever sell the car any way, and cutting the factory harness and splicing on to the Haltech loom is the tidiest way for me. It's pretty easy to wire dude, I can help when it comes to trigger wiring etc when the time comes :) Are you going to keep it distributer based or go individual coils?
 

Sneaky184

New member
Punknoodle":6y9hbc6o said:
It's pretty easy to wire dude, I can help when it comes to trigger wiring etc when the time comes :) Are you going to keep it distributer based or go individual coils?

Not really comfortable yet with splicing wires/car electronics yet I've been doing some research into it and pro/cons/pitfalls etc.. defiantly something I'm going to upgrade when I'm ready to do it. I've got 2 local tuners happy to use Haltech or AEM but both charge quiet a bit. That adapter I posted earlier caught my attension just hoping it's not dodgy and doesn't ruin my ecu/cause a fire :doh:
 

Punknoodle

New member
Ahh, OK I had a better look at that little box. It's a good idea - saves you having to work out which wire is which - but you will end up needing to leave some things connected through the box, and for others you will need to run new wires and solder them directly anyway, for example on a Gen 2 the intake air temp sensor is in with the AFM, which is absurd, and most people remove the AFM anyway, seen as when you install your nice new ECU it will be running off the MAP sensor, and you want to remove that restriction in your intake. So you will need to install a new sensor and wire it back. Also, you may want to add a boost solenoid, which isn't allowed for in that box so you will need to connect it directly to the ECU loom. Does that make sense?

Personally, I don't like the idea of any wiring in a vehicle being done using screw terminals. Vibrations can make them come loose, etc. Soldering is a tidy and strong connection that, if done right, won't fail. I'm an industrial electrician so, hopefully without sounding like an arrogant prick, this sort of thing is pretty easy for me.

I have done connection diagrams of my ECU to factory harness connections, plus my new stuff I have added but I'm running COP, not distributor so its a little different. I have no problem if you aren't in a rush doing some diagrams for you to use so that you can wire it directly without the need of one of those boxes, and will add in the diagram any devices you want to add, for example a boost solenoid or new air intake sensor. Let me know if I can help :)

By the way the thought of it may be daunting but it really isn't that hard. As long as you know how to solder. I'd recommend using one of the adapter leads like I was talking about, or connecting straight to the harness.
 

underscore

Well-known member
Punknoodle":zp40cd7n said:
Ahh, OK I had a better look at that little box. It's a good idea - saves you having to work out which wire is which - but you will end up needing to leave some things connected through the box, and for others you will need to run new wires and solder them directly anyway, for example on a Gen 2 the intake air temp sensor is in with the AFM, which is absurd, and most people remove the AFM anyway, seen as when you install your nice new ECU it will be running off the MAP sensor, and you want to remove that restriction in your intake. So you will need to install a new sensor and wire it back. Also, you may want to add a boost solenoid, which isn't allowed for in that box so you will need to connect it directly to the ECU loom. Does that make sense?

I remember someone on here simply cut off the plug for the MAF and then connected the plug for the MAP to a couple of the MAF wires, eliminating the need to run new wiring all the way back to the ECU.
 

Punknoodle

New member
I see what you are getting at and its a good thought, but that wasn't my point, as that wouldn't help in this situation as the wiring would still be in the AFM location on that little adapter, plus there is already factory wiring for the MAP sensor anyway on the 3SGTE, it's just called a Turbo Pressure Sensor. So that wouldn't really be a problem, besides most people on standard boost would run the on board map sensor on the ECU to save on calibration time anyway.

No my point is that as soon as you need to change or add something, regardless of if they are new wires or spare/redundant wires within the harness is that to do the connections you will need to do it external of that little adapter box, as in wire straight to the ECU loom, so why not just do them all that way? Solder > Screw Terminals.

Unless when you go to a stand alone management system you don't mind running the factory AFM and air temp sensor, distributer, no ECU boost control and so you will only need to do the connections on that terminal block.

Does that make sense?
 

underscore

Well-known member
Well yes solder is always best, but I absolutely hate seeing extra wires scattered around an engine bay. Especially when there are spare, now unused wires in the original harness. I wouldn't use an adapter box like that unless it was the only option, instead I'd use one of those adapter harnesses that allows you to repin things as needed.
 

Punknoodle

New member
I'm with you on the extra wires. For example when it came time to power my water to air pump I used the redundant feed for the air con condenser fan, and changed the wiring of the relay to suit it's function. Here is the diagram I made:

IntercoolerPumpWiring.jpg


Those connections are done within the relay box, as in, completely invisible.

I simply had to run new wires as I was doing individual coils, so I made a sub loom, which incorporates the wiring for the coils, plus the boost solenoid, air temp sensor and tachometer output. It's all in black wrap and tied to the original harness, with black ties, and is pretty near invisible, unless you are looking.

I do have spare plugs around, for the AFM, igniter (and that new tachometer output wire is spliced in to one of the wires at this plug), EGR crap, air con, cold start injector etc but they are just tied up under the harness to make them less obvious. It's not ideal but save for making a completely new engine harness up its the tidiest way, I think.
 

Punknoodle

New member
Thanks mate. Unfortunately I won't really be able to offer updates until Feb. I leave next Sunday and won't be home until the start of Feb, save for a couple of weeks at Christmas time, so there will be zero progress on the car until then, thankfully though it will be pretty big process after that - I'll do a thorough post about the wiring of the ECU with plenty of diagrams and photos, hopefully to help those who want to install stand alone management in to their ST185s, then it will be towed off to my tuner who will do the set up and tune.

I'm aiming for him to set the boost to 15psi, due to it being a stock turbo and see how much better if feels, it misfires and feels really flat down low currently so hopefully that's improved with more aggressive timing.

Quick question for people, do you think I should stick with the standard wastegate actuator, or will installing an adjustable one with an 11psi spring make boost control using a solenoid a little more stable? Just curious...

So last real update on the car for now - I bought an extra couple of stands and jacked the rear of the car up too, which is how it will sit until I get back. I also mounted the overflow for the charge cooler up properly, so the following photo is pretty much the finished look of the engine bay, with the current set up.

Oh and I ordered some new number plates too, slim for the front normal for the rear - white on black looks so much better than maroon on white!

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Punknoodle

New member
Small update, I stumbled upon a great condition CT20B for a good price so I decided that I'd better do it, it will be a good opportunity to install it before it gets tuned. I'm getting the wastegate ports enlarged before it goes in.

I also picked up some 750cc injectors (this leaves room for the future or a conversion to E85) and ordered new gaskets for fitting the turbo and a new oil return line due to it's age.
 

klue

New member
Really like the wheels, and your fab work. Nice beads on the intercooler, its a real pain to weld on that thing!

Cheers
Luke
 

Punknoodle

New member
My ECU arrived and so I got a chance to install it.

Took me a couple of nights just taking it easy. Went without a hitch, because since I've been looking forward to doing this for so long I'd already made diagrams and spreadsheets on the connections I needed to do.

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So I basically just did one wire at a time, cutting it off the factory ECU plug and splicing it on to the Haltech loom, remembering to slide heat shrink over first! I left the feeds and grounds till last because there are multiple wires the needed soldered together. Where there were unused wires I folded them back on to themselves and shrunk them too.

Anyhow, once I'd done it and double checked it I switched the battery on and turned on the ignition (I unplugged my coils and injectors first) and made sure the ECU powered up. Connected the laptop and checked the I/O, my temp sensors were reading fine and so was my throttle position sensor so that was a good sign.

Took out my spark plugs and cranked the engine, looking at the trigger count but it didn't look right, my triggers since last home was all over the place, did some more research and found there was conflicting information regarding which G wire to use in the distributer for trigger. I changed the one I used and then tried it again and it was fixed.

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So I'm pretty confident now with the wiring so I tidied it up as best I could - I still need to make the mount for the ECU to go in the factory location and the MSD tach adapter. Due to the connections that needed done being on seperate parts of the factory harness it didn't come out as nice as I would have liked.. But it's hidden anyway I suppose.

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So the 2 wires by the centre console are for the data log enable switch by the steering wheel, just have to run them through and connect them. The 3 small wires in front of the MSD adapter are for the wideband, to connect the lap top or the calibration lead I made that has an LED and push button on it for when I want to calibrate it.
 

Punknoodle

New member
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This is how the engine bay looks now. What an effort it was to get the turbo out! The 27mm banjo bolt on the block for the turbo feed was too tight for my 1/2" breaker bar, so we tried my friends Snap On impact gun on it and it still didn't budge to I went old school and put a pipe on my breaker bar and it loosened easily.

So I separated the turbo from the manifold and dump pipe. I noted how much the wastegate flap opens with the current pipe and it is hitting it quite early in it's travel and so the flap is only just lifting off the ports by about 8mm. No wonder it boost creeps.. The pipe around it is small too so there is just no area for it to flow much. The other thing I've noticed is that the previous owner ported the housing of the turbo and extended the pipe in past the flange to properly separate the wastegate and output so my dump pipe won't fit the new turbo...

Old:
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New:
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This has forced my hand somewhat. I'm hoping my exhaust guy Brian from Exhaust Innovations will be able to do a new one for me at short notice, off the car by making a jig to make sure it bolts up the same as my current one, with one large collector and 3 or 3.5". No O2 flange either which will tidy it up. And hopefully it can get HPC coated quickly too, or else I will have to delay my tuning..

Bit of a spanner in the works but to he honest I'm sort of happy to be doing it anyway as I've never been a fan of my current dump pipe and I should definitely have no boost creep issues with better made one coupled with my ported housing. I need to go custom because I have a different flange at the bottom, as the exhaust was all custom made when I got it and so when I had my dump pipe - back sections made they aren't the same as factory.

In in other news I have the fuel rail all machined now so I'll be picking that up tomorrow and installing the injectors and fuel rail when I get a chance, then draining the fuel I have in there now, filling it up with fresh 98 and changing the filter ready for tuning.

Then after I get the new dump made its just a matter of reassembling everything. Shouldn't take long with all the new gaskets etc I have. Crank it over, set base timing then put in new coolant, do an oil change, load my base map in and try to start it before it goes in for tuning. On the 11th. It's a tight schedule and I fear I may have to delay my appointment with Mercury if this dump pipe can't be done quickly...
 

Punknoodle

New member
So quite a bit has happened since I last updated this.. I got a new dump pipe made and coated, and had the exhaust housing of the CT20b coated as well (my manifold had already been coated at some point).

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I also picked up a 162 fuel rail as the machinist damaged my 165 rail, and had it bored to suit the 750cc injectors. Fits perfectly.

Here is the turbo, mounted to the manifold. I also painted the clamp of the turbo, it was looking quite rusty.

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And here is a shot of it all back together again.

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Firstly, I cranked the engine over with no spark plugs to build oil pressure and get oil flowing through the turbo. I then installed the plugs and coils, put a short lead between coil one and the plug for my timing light to go on, locked the timing in the haltech and adjusted it until the timing was right. I then enabled my injectors, and cranked it over and if fired up, but very rough. Good enough for me though, so I washed it and got it ready to pick up on a tow truck to head off to get tuned.

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And it got put on the dyno and tuned..
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Feels so much better than last time I drove it. Sure, 160 odd awkw isn't a hell of a lot, but the low down urgency it has compared to before is fantastic, the aggressive ignition timing and CT20b really make it quite responsive!
 
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