My "Nothing Crazy" Project (Picture Dump Page 14)

TheNubkins

New member
It's been a bit since I've updated so here we go again. The remainder of the parts have been purchased and most have arrived. I'm still waiting on a few here and there and I'm hoping she'll be all ready to go for a tune in Jan-Feb.

So far I've ordered up:

Fuel system parts:  
-Walbro fuel pump
-Injectors(side feed) 800cc
-ATS Racing Side Feed Fuel Rail
 
Engine management:
-ViPEC V44

Boost Controller:
-Blitz DSBC Spec R

Intercooler:
-Spearco 2-247 core 3.5"x7.8"x20"

Air Intake:
-K&N 3" Cone Filter
-ATS Racing Throttle Body Inlet

Cooling System:
-One Spal Puller Fan
-170degree Thermostat

I've decided not to dump as much money into the car as originally planned. I want to make her more rounded and hopefully not worry about breaking things as easily under crazier boost levels. She's not going to end up as fast as I originally planned, but still quick enough to have fun with. I'm hoping for around 300awhp on pump fuel running 17psi out of the SB46.

Oh, I won't be taking her down to KO Racing. I only heard back from Kris once and he was quite busy. I e-mailed him again requesting some more info and I didn't end up getting a reply. I figured I'd stop bugging him and get the tune and some minor things done locally. Plus now that our Canadian dollar has hit the shitter compared to the USD it will cost me a bit less if I keep the work in Canada.

When everything is finished on the car I will post up the costs for everything completed on the car for anyone that is curious.
 

Corey

Active member
Looks great!

some time spent detailing with a buffer and some polishing compounds will completely remove those swirl marks.
 

TheNubkins

New member
ST185pinjo":3kmhkulf said:
She's a beauty m8.

Be carefull where you bring her to be tuned. You might end up the way they installed your SB-kit.

No worries there! AFI Performance can't even install a manual boost controller properly, I sure as hell wouldn''t trust them put fuel in the car let alone tune it! :lol: They won't be seeing any coins from me. The shop I'll be dealing with is about 150km south of me...a lot closer than the 1800km drive I would have been looking at with KO Racing. A shame though as I know 100% Kris would have done beautiful work. This new shop has worked on GT-Fours before so they actually know what's going on. Makes me a little less un-easy knowing I'm not the first ST185 guinea pig.
 
TheNubkins":ra2o7ceh said:
ST185pinjo":ra2o7ceh said:
She's a beauty m8.

Be carefull where you bring her to be tuned. You might end up the way they installed your SB-kit.

No worries there! AFI Performance can't even install a manual boost controller properly, I sure as hell wouldn''t trust them put fuel in the car let alone tune it! :lol: They won't be seeing any coins from me. The shop I'll be dealing with is about 150km south of me...a lot closer than the 1800km drive I would have been looking at with KO Racing. A shame though as I know 100% Kris would have done beautiful work. This new shop has worked on GT-Fours before so they actually know what's going on. Makes me a little less un-easy knowing I'm not the first ST185 guinea pig.

I assume your talking about that shop in Red Deer. My buddy had his turbos replaced in his Skyline GTR. He was quite happy with the work they did.
 

TheNubkins

New member
JamesDeane":25juq9s3 said:
I assume your talking about that shop in Red Deer. My buddy had his turbos replaced in his Skyline GTR. He was quite happy with the work they did.

Lightspeed Innovations in Red Deer. If that's where your buddy had his work done than it's nice to know they did good work on his ride. I've heard a few other things about the shop from various people in Alberta, all of which were good by the way. They were prompt in responding to my e-mails and the price for their Vi-PEC was about $700USD less than an AEM EMS but still had all the features I was interested in.
 

TheNubkins

New member
While waiting for the last of my parts to arrive I noticed my car had an exhaust leak. I could actually smell exhaust inside the car while driving. Turns out that AFI Performance botched another thing up. When they did my KO Racing Street Brawler kit install they removed my exhaust manifold to do so. They didn't replace the gasket with a new one, and on top of that they buggered up at least one stud that I can see. They welded the nut onto it. The manifold has worked itself loose and I cannot re-torque it due to the way they "fixed" things. I ordered up a new gasket, three studs and three nuts(only need one that I can see but I'd rather be prepared so I have two extras). NEVER EVER take your vehicle to AFI Performance if you're in the Edmonton area.
:x :shoots:

Today all of my parts arrived with the exception of the intercooler and K&N air filter which was ordered two months ago from 935 Motorsports. I've been in contact with Robert and he's been helpful but I get the feeling this is all out of his hands, and if it is delayed any longer I may soon cancel the intercooler part of the order and source it from someplace else.

Now the only thing holding me back from getting everything set up is the core for the front mount intercooler and the air filter. It would be nice to get this all done by the start of spring so I can have a bit of fun and start worrying about the small details I'd like to finish up with the car.

EDIT: I realized I still haven't posted any pictures of the engine bay with the KO Racing SB kit installed. I'll get around to it soon. :D
 

Terracar

New member
Nice parts indeed. So did you get the fuel rail used or is that how ATS returns it after they bore it out?

-Terracar
 

TheNubkins

New member
Terracar":2uennllc said:
Nice parts indeed. So did you get the fuel rail used or is that how ATS returns it after they bore it out?

-Terracar

I didn't end up sending my stock rail to them so this must have been someone else's rail that they sent in to avoid a core charge. Definately needs a cleaning. :shoots:
 

TheNubkins

New member
Time for another fast update with a few pics. I cleaned up the fuel rail so it doesn't look as bad. The front mount intercooler I ordered from 935 Motorsports...well...it sorta fell through. Robert had issues with his supplier and will be refunding my money. I looked around for another core and have now changed my mind. I found an ST185 RC water to air intercooler core and pump for sale and purchased them. To compliment it nicely I ordered up an AFCO 03-04 Cobra PRO SERIES Heat Exchanger from Lethal Performance. This should fill up the front RC/CS bumper nicely. I will also be ceramic coating the exhaust manifold and the exterior of the intercooler core to help prevent heatsoak. This should be done the first week of March. Over the next few weeks I will be getting some things done with the car to prepare for the EMS install and dyno tune.

-Clutch/Thermostat will be done this weekend.
Over the next few weekends I'll be attempting to get the following completed:
-Fuel pump install
-Radiator fan swap
-Remove exhaust manifold and get it and the intercooler ceramic coated.
-Reinstall exhaust manifold and setup the intercooler core, heat exchanger, pump, coolant hoses.

After all this is done I'll book her in with Lightspeed Innovations in Red Deer. They will handle the following installs/setups:
~ViPEC system
~Injectors/fuel rail
~Boost controller
~Tune at approx 18psi (1.25Bar) of boost if found to be safe(no knock and within A/F specs)

From the looks of it everything will be completed by early spring(end of March or early April). My project will be put on hold for a year or two as my wife and I will be building a new house. When I can resume things I plan on addressing mostly cosmetic things. I need to fix my cupholder, one of the vents is loose/broken, fix the radio antenna, redo the leather seats and finish it off with one hell of an exterior detailing.

I still need to pick up a "T" coupler so I can use my blowoff valve, as well as the coolant hoses and clamps.
 

TheNubkins

New member
Yesterday(Saturday), before going out and doing Valentine's Day stuff with the wife, my mechanic and I started on the clutch. What a nightmare. We had her out in about 5 hours and during the process noticed some more things AFI Performance screwed up when they did the SB46 install. The clutch was done about two years ago by the previous owner and is in great shape. The flywheel though was a different story. The previous shop who did the clutch didn't even bother to machine the flywheel. They used what looked like a handheld grinder/sander to do it. As well the ring-gear was not square to the flywheel surface. This was all corrected. Toyota quoted me $150 to surface/machine the flywheel. I had it done for $52.50 after tax, and it's beautiful...as well the shop squared up the ring-gear to the flywheel. They also threw in a free gasket for the 3inch exhaust as I required one...turns out AFI Performance didn't even use the gasket I supplied for the downpipe/midpipe connection so I needed a new one. AFI Performance just used some red silicone crap in place of the gasket and that didn't work at all.

Another thing AFI Performance screwed up is the air intake system. I had a tear in the stock 45degree intake pipe located right before the turbo so I had ordered a brand new from Toyota. I had this installed and fixed before bringing it to AFI Performance back in the summer. Anyways, they pocketed the coupler that was supposed to be used to join the SB46 turbo to the stock intake hose...as well as took off the new hose I just purchased and used some weirdass silicone 45degree bent coupler that was too large for the turbo opening. The way it was clamped to the turbo showed a secure fit...from the topside looking down. But from under the car it was wide open sucking unfiltered air into my turbo/engine. AFI Performance is such a crock of shit performance shop. So anyways I ordered up another 45degree intake hose from Toyota.

The ST185RC water to air intercooler core's outlet pipe is too large for the stock A/A throttle body inlet. I'm going to cut down the ATS Racing throttle body inlet, which is the same diameter as outlet pipe from the intercooler core and use a coupler to connect the two. I still need to pick up a few silicone couplers and the coolant hose for the intercooler setup.

Monday we'll get the tranny and everything all back into the car and put most of it back together. We will be taking off the exhaust manifold and blasting it at the shop. She'll be getting ceramic coated a nice "Black Satin" to match the SB46 turbo kit's piping. I'm also doing the intercooler the same color/coating type, and will have the lettering and Toyota logo painted silver. I was quoted around $125 for the manifold, and $125 to coat the intercooler core. Quite a bit more than using heat reflective tape but I want that core to be as efficient as possible. This is scheduled to be done March the 2nd, so it should all be back together and set up the Saturday following. I'll update again as things progress. Sorry, no pics this time as we were in a rush to get things done(the shop that did the flywheel was only open between 11-2 that day and we had a small window to get her in there).
 

TheNubkins

New member
Sal":1j8c1dge said:
The WTA Intercooler looks brand new.
What products did you use to make it look like that?

It looks better in the pictures than it does in person. Must be the lighting or something. I sprayed the intercooler down with engine cleaner and let it soak for about 10 minutes and then rinsed it off with water. Then I used some old rags to clean it up better. I could have spent more time around the top coolant ports as there is still a bit of "gunk" around them, but oh well. She'll get cleaned up a bit better before it gets coated. I'll post pictures after that gets completed.
 

TheNubkins

New member
Another progress update:

Last Monday we struggled to get the exhaust manifold off due to more screwups by AFI Performance. A few of the studs were cross-threaded into the head, and some of the aluminum threads were already piled up thanks to the AFI Performance tech. We got it all sorted out though, retapped the threads, drilled out the heat shield bolts that broke off into the manifold(AFI Performance just left them in there). At the end of the day we managed to get the Walbro pump installed, took the exhaust manifold off, exhaust-side studs in the head were all fixed up, clutch/tranny and everything all back together.

Today we changed thermostats, swapped over to colder plugs, and installed most of the electronic boost controller components. We still need to mount the solenoid unit in the engine bay, and the control unit inside the car. Hopefully on the 7th of March everything will get put all back together and we'll have the intercooler assembly all done...then I can book my appointment with Lightspeed Innovations in Red Deer.
 

TheNubkins

New member
Well...she'll be back on the road tomorrow sometime. Unfortunately I'm still waiting on the Samco T-hose/coupler to use my blowoff valve, so until it shows up I'll be using the stock air/air intercooler(which is useless anyways due to the RC/CS hood). I plan on mounting the heat exchanger and pump and getting all the lines placed so that I only have to add the RC/CS intercooler core and coolant when the Samco hose/coupler comes in.

Next update(with more pictures) will be in a few weeks when I get the intercooler setup finished. Then she's off to get the ECU swapped and do some good awd dyno tuning. I've decided to try and run 18psi on pump fuel with this setup assuming the A/F ratio is good and no knock is detected.

CMS-GT4 you posted just as I was writing this update. :) Thanks for the compliments.
 
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