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

TheNubkins

New member
Haha, so did I for the longest time. It appears the shop, Lightspeed Innovations, took on much more work than they could handle. They've had the car for quite some time, but I must say every thing they have done has been top notch. The motor is complete and ready to put back in the car. Right now they are waiting on the intercooler core to show up, then will fabricate the end tanks and piping and new intake. Quite excited to finally drive it again.

Should be complete in a few weeks, and I'll have pics and will update/refresh this project thread as a lot of the pictures are dead.
 

TheNubkins

New member
So FINALLY the car is done, break in on the motor went smoothly, and just had it tuned on 94 pump gas. Made 316 awhp at 23psi with a very conservative 11:1 tune.

The extra power, 55awhp, is courtesy of a fully built motor, cams, cam gears, new front mount intercooler, and a straight intake. Intake temps stayed nice and low, around 20*C even after three good pulls on the dyno, so the intercooler definitely did it's job. There was some power and torque lost before 4500rpm compared with the stock cams, but it more than made up for it in the top end. No extra power was being made past 6500 rpm so I opted to leave the rev limit at 7000rpm for the sake of reliability and piece of mind.

It appears we reached the limits of the Street Brawler T3/T4 46trim turbo with this motor/intercooler configuration. Definitely pleased with the turbo's range of operation across the powerband. I think it's going to make for an entertaining and decently quick street car. Unfortunately there is far too much snow and ice to even come close to enjoying the car, so it shall sit in the garage until the roads are better. I'll have new pictures and repair broken links/pics, and motor specifics in this thread as time allows.
 

abraxxa

Member
Sounds great!
Which intercooler and size are you using?
My ST205 gets a built Gen 4 this winter and I'd like to use its intake manifold and convert to a FMIC setup for easier maintainability and lower intake temps. Currently my top was 65°C when the outside air was about 30-35°C with the stock CT20b at 1.2bar.
 

TheNubkins

New member
Here are a few pictures to update with. With no other modifications planned for the future this is how the exterior will hopefully stay.
exterior2m.jpg


exterior3d.jpg


Here are some pictures of the engine bay, pipe routing, etc. Still made use of Darth Ripley/Just Joe's battery mount! Thanks again you two!
engine4i.jpg


engine3g.jpg


engine2du.jpg


enginebc.jpg


And here she is getting put on the AWD dyno.
dyno1t.jpg


Finally here is a comparison of the previous tune, before the motor was built, cams, intercooler, intake.
dynocomparison.jpg


I'll post specs of the motor build and intercooler when I have time to compile and track down all the info...it's been a year and a half long process and admittedly I've forgotten some of the specifics. The tuner did a few pulls after this to fine tune everything and smooth things out. Consistently the car put down between 315-319awhp on each and every pull with intake temps staying nice and low.

For those who are curious, a stock STI puts out 235awhp on this exact dyno. Assuming our cars see the same drivetrain loss it's estimated my motor is putting out approximately 411hp on pump gas.

My impressions so far, despite the snow covered roads, can be summed up like this: :D
Not the fastest ST185 out there, but it's going to be a fun car come spring and summer! I'm quite happy to have everything complete with the car, leaving me to just enjoy it and keep up with maintenance.
 

TheNubkins

New member
abraxxa":37y85i1h said:
Sounds great!
Which intercooler and size are you using?
My ST205 gets a built Gen 4 this winter and I'd like to use its intake manifold and convert to a FMIC setup for easier maintainability and lower intake temps. Currently my top was 65°C when the outside air was about 30-35°C with the stock CT20b at 1.2bar.

Sounds like you're going to have a fun spring as well! I don't recall the make and exact size of the intercooler. When I dig up the info and measurements I'll let you know. It's quite thick and barely fits, mind you everything in the car, even stock, barely fits into the engine bay. Hah.
 

TheNubkins

New member
CMS-GT4":3fn61fva said:
Looking good. Still loving the wheels. I like that you actually have brackets on the IC piping.

Thanks. I'm still liking them as well. Quick update time. Car started acting funny shortly after having it tuned. Was having issues with my vacuum. Turns out the cam gears slipped, and were even half out when the final tune was done. Everything was put right and was retuned. Peak HP stayed the same, but we found a lot of extra tq and hp down low through the revs. The car feels a LOT better and much nicer to drive on the street. Not much time lately for updates or pics, but the project is done. Just been enjoying seeing everyone else continuing to tinker with their cars. Keep up the good work all!

Here's a comparison of the tune with the cam gears out vs. the new one with them in the correct position. Amazing the difference it made.
photoumd.jpg
 

TheNubkins

New member
Time for my yearly appearance on the forums. lol. Near the end of last summer I was pretty pissed with the car. Started having severe detonation issues under moderate boost and load. Then I couldn't build boost past 15 psi, or so I thought. My mechanical boost gauge, electronic boost controller, and ECU were all getting vacuum/boost readings from the same source line, and this line had a bad leak that was found when Lightspeed Innovations had the car to diagnose the issue. Originally it was thought to be a tuning problem. So, long story short, according to their explanation, the car was actually overboosting at 35psi, but the controller and electronics were only seeing 15psi because it was bleeding off so quickly at the leak. It was running fueling and timing for 15psi. Not good. I had personally done a leakdown test and compression test and things were very grim.

So, over the winter the motor came out again, another rebuild and repair job, and in she went. Got the car back a few weeks ago and I've been putting some break in miles on the freshly built motor...again. While I was waiting for some of the snow to melt I found some time to do some things I've been neglecting.

1-Removed the aftermarket boost gauge I had installed. I'll be going off my electronic boost controller's built in gauge function for this info.
2-Extended the wiring for my wideband O2 sensor gauge and placed it next to the steering column where the previous boost gauge was.
3-Removed the decrepit aftermarket alarm system and all related splices and wires.
4-Replaced the shifter-base bushings with nice solid units from Speed Source.
5-Replaced the front and rear engine mounts with poly inserts, again from Speed Source.
6-Replaced the front subframe bushings with solid aluminum ones...yes, again from Speed Source.

I've had those Speed Source parts sitting for a few years and it was nice to finally get them in. All in all the car feels a lot tighter and I didn't notice any excessive vibration or harshness. Another problem that I'm hoping to deal with is my faulty factory tach. When the car is cold and the weather is cold the reading is either nonexistent, or it reads VERY low. Highway speeds around 120km/h display an engine speed of usually 1500-2000RPM. As the car warms up, the gauge becomes more accurate. Here's a quick cel-phone shot of the wideband gauge in it's new home. The car is idling, cold, and as such the tach is reading 0RPM. Such a love-hate relationship I have with this car...

4fba.jpg
 

TheNubkins

New member
CSAlltrac":klc2xqgn said:
I dig it, simple and clean. Are you running an evo IC?

Sorry about the VERY late reply. The core dimensions are 3-1/2" thick x 20" wide x 12" tall, not including the end tanks. I do not believe it is an Evo core.
 

ALLensTRAC

New member
Hey man first let me say I love the look of this car!!! You've done a great job with it!
Now on to your tach problem. This is caused by leaking capacitors on the tach board inside the cluster. If you take it apart you will see corrosion on the soldered leads at the board. Just get new ones for the entire cluster. There is a thread somewhere that has the resistance values and you can get them all at radio shack. My car did the same exact thing!!! GL with it!!!!!
 

TheNubkins

New member
Thanks...I think the car looks pretty good considering her age.
In regards to the tach issue: that's awesome. I hope that's all it is! A simple fix.
 

CSAlltrac

New member
You never posted up specs. Did you stay with the same turbo setup and fueling in this rebuild? I know the love hate relationship all to well, I'm glad you made it through to another rebuild. Ive always just looked at the fact of an Alltrac being the exact car I want. No other car will do.
 

TheNubkins

New member
I just realized you're right - I never did post the specs of the build. Life over the last three to four years has been a roller coaster ride for me, 90% of it bad, so the drive to keep up with the car and many other projects in my life sort of fell to the sidelines. I'm mostly done picking up the pieces, and as such my interests and hobbies are once again being met with genuine interest. I'll track down all the build info and put together a complete list of everything that's been done.

For a quick answer to your question, it's still using the same fueling(800cc injectors) and turbo(T3/T4 KO kit). I debated going the route of a stroker, but to me that is changing too much of the 3S-GTE. I sort of wanted to keep it "pure" if that makes sense. lol.
 

CSAlltrac

New member
Totally makes sense. My last motor was a stroker with a 35R. It was fun but the issues and headaches of that build took a lot away from it. I went back to the basics with my current setup and couldn't be happier. I stayed away from changing what Toyota did with the 3S like you said.
Sorry to hear you were dealing with life's issues that pop up, I know that feeling all to well. It's a good thing you have that genuine interest in the car again, it can keep a man sane.
 
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