Bringing a ST185 back from the dead one last time

awdmofo

Member
It's like xmas here everyday it seems!! Rebuilt CV's and i got all 4 injectors cleaned and flow tested at RC engineering here in LA. They were pretty dirty and some flowed only 257cc's, all 4 now flow at 449-450cc's and came with all new gaskets :D .

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awdmofo

Member
So after a long time coming I finally moved out of my moms basement 8) and i'm renting a house with a 2 car garage (that im only using to rebuild my car :D . I have to paint the RC replica bumper, parts of the front end and the engine bay and it will be ready to accept the engine that i've waited nearly 1.5 years to get back from my mechanic. Something I never noticed about the passenger side fender until I started cleaning up the engine bay was that the fender was an aftermarket piece. Apparently its not even a 2 piece fender like the OEM one, see below. Now I got to either buy carbon fiber ones for weight reduction, or locate another one from a GTS or all-trac :roll: .

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awdmofo

Member
Decided since there was a brand new set of TRD front brake pads in the trunk (I wonder if they're 15 or 30 years old?) when I bought this car 4.5 years ago I'd mate it with some nice slotted rotors from R1 Concepts. All 4 rotors are rusted to hello so I bought some OEM style rear rotors from R1 as well. Quality looks good, I won't know how well they work until I get my engine finished and installed this summer. I wonder what kind of performance pads I should run in the rear? EBC red or yellow stuff?

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Alikazam

Member
Just read this whole thread! Dedication for sure. Get that thing running around! :D Good job and keep up the updates :)
 

Tippo

Well-known member
Awesome job my man. I don't have the balls for a total gut like that, but kudos. I just did brakes as well lol.
 

awdmofo

Member
Alikazam":y2fguty1 said:
Just read this whole thread! Dedication for sure. Get that thing running around! :D Good job and keep up the updates :)

Thanks, I love this car, never going to part ways with it like I did my first one. Gonna have to bury in this sucka! fingers crossed my mechanic comes through this weekend like he's said a million time already, and delivers the engine/trans fully built. That way i can put the top half of the engine back together and slide this sucker into the car. I still need to drop the gas tank, replace the fuel pump with a Supra TT one, clean out the tank and replace the fuel filter. So much to do, so little time with my work :cry: :cry: :twisted:
 

awdmofo

Member
Tippo":2t8gqlgo said:
Awesome job my man. I don't have the balls for a total gut like that, but kudos. I just did brakes as well lol.

HAHA, I did this mostly with my first black 90 st-185 to put in a roll cage and 8" subs in these tube looking boxes that looked like nos bottles. I was so dumb with my stereo when I was a teenager :twisted: . This time though, im taking the headliner out, all the carpet, A/C parts, glove box, Every ounce of stuff I don't need is getting gutted :D
 

Alikazam

Member
I just redid the rear seat mounts for the gen 7 seats in my alltrac over here and I'm like... That was a lot of work! Lol keep going man!
 

Tippo

Well-known member
awdmofo":bfo9tgjf said:
Alikazam":bfo9tgjf said:
Just read this whole thread! Dedication for sure. Get that thing running around! :D Good job and keep up the updates :)

Thanks, I love this car, never going to part ways with it like I did my first one. Gonna have to bury in this sucka! fingers crossed my mechanic comes through this weekend like he's said a million time already, and delivers the engine/trans fully built. That way i can put the top half of the engine back together and slide this sucker into the car. I still need to drop the gas tank, replace the fuel pump with a Supra TT one, clean out the tank and replace the fuel filter. So much to do, so little time with my work :cry: :cry: :twisted:

Boy I know this feeling. I fully restored a 90 ST185 (it's in the project thread) and it was gorgeous. I wasn't in a good place in life, so I sold it wayyy under price ($5500) in 2013. I ended up with my recent car by sheer tenacity and luck. I'll be buried in my ST185 as well lol.

As for the gas tank drop and the supra TT install - it's pretty easy to do. Check my project Lazarus thread, I did the exact same thing with the exact same fuel pump. I have a step by step guide for the most part if you're interested lol.
 

Alikazam

Member
Tippo":vyl3vd64 said:
awdmofo":vyl3vd64 said:
Alikazam":vyl3vd64 said:
Just read this whole thread! Dedication for sure. Get that thing running around! :D Good job and keep up the updates :)

Thanks, I love this car, never going to part ways with it like I did my first one. Gonna have to bury in this sucka! fingers crossed my mechanic comes through this weekend like he's said a million time already, and delivers the engine/trans fully built. That way i can put the top half of the engine back together and slide this sucker into the car. I still need to drop the gas tank, replace the fuel pump with a Supra TT one, clean out the tank and replace the fuel filter. So much to do, so little time with my work :cry: :cry: :twisted:

Boy I know this feeling. I fully restored a 90 ST185 (it's in the project thread) and it was gorgeous. I wasn't in a good place in life, so I sold it wayyy under price ($5500) in 2013. I ended up with my recent car by sheer tenacity and luck. I'll be buried in my ST185 as well lol.

As for the gas tank drop and the supra TT install - it's pretty easy to do. Check my project Lazarus thread, I did the exact same thing with the exact same fuel pump. I have a step by step guide for the most part if you're interested lol.

With EMS and plans for flex fuel with e85, i put a walbro 450 in my tank, ran ½" stainless hard line back to the tank and used original feed as the return. Didn't want to run out of fuel lol. That's my vote for fuel system anyway haha
 

awdmofo

Member
Boy I know this feeling. I fully restored a 90 ST185 (it's in the project thread) and it was gorgeous. I wasn't in a good place in life, so I sold it wayyy under price ($5500) in 2013. I ended up with my recent car by sheer tenacity and luck. I'll be buried in my ST185 as well lol.

As for the gas tank drop and the supra TT install - it's pretty easy to do. Check my project Lazarus thread, I did the exact same thing with the exact same fuel pump. I have a step by step guide for the most part if you're interested lol.[/quote]

You sound like me, I sold my first 1990 all-trac when I was like 21 and it was a nice Black car in good shape. I regretted it so bad my friends saw it and one friend bough a MR2 turbo about 6 years ago. Same guy found me this Gem and he told me if I didn't buy it he was going to :p . Naturally I did!

Good looking out, I think I might start this weekend buying the pump and anything else I need and start removing the gas tank. I'll read up on your thread so I know what to prep for.
 

awdmofo

Member
Alikazam I might get to that point with the next engine, But i'd like to see how far I can take this stock rebuilt engine with a slightly used CT-20B, W2AIC, bolt ons, boost and a good tune. I ran E85 in my V6 camaro, I liked the smell and the extra 10RWHP the dyno showed was fun. I know it's going to be more hp than that with a turbo but outside of a SC or turbo the camaro couldn't get much past 300RWHP even with every bolt on there was unless you spent WAY too much for it.
 

Alikazam

Member
awdmofo":2xmg9kmc said:
Alikazam I might get to that point with the next engine, But i'd like to see how far I can take this stock rebuilt engine with a slightly used CT-20B, W2AIC, bolt ons, boost and a good tune. I ran E85 in my V6 camaro, I liked the smell and the extra 10RWHP the dyno showed was fun. I know it's going to be more hp than that with a turbo but outside of a SC or turbo the camaro couldn't get much past 300RWHP even with every bolt on there was unless you spent WAY too much for it.

Yeah, some engines just don't have the support to do what we want with them. And I get what you're saying, just try to plan for doing things once I say. Overkill on a fuel system now will remove a headache for future upgrade. It's just not as sexy lol
 

awdmofo

Member
So, I went to install the new rebuilt steering rack with polly bushings and started to notice on the driver side bolt wasn't getting tight. Here is why...
 

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awdmofo

Member
After a year of sitting and waiting while I saved up for parts and repairs, I paid a local traveling welder to fix the firewall where the steering rack mounted. I painted it and installed the rack finally. After I installed it I don't know how I didn't pay attention to the driver side steering rack mount, its split open and bent. Unfortunately they are discontinued from Toyota. So now I need to hunt one down!
 

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awdmofo

Member
underscore":1kdgirn7 said:
Worst case you should be able to get a welder to repair that one.

Very true, but I'm a fan of replacing it with a working part if possible. I checked one toyota website and it says that bracket fits 90-92 all tracs only, doesn't say it'll fit a GTS model which shocks me. I guess i'll look through the part section of the forum and see if anyone has one. If anyone could take a pic of their driverside bracket it would help me a lot to make sure i'm getting the right part.

Looking to drop my gas tank asap, replace the factory pump with a Supra TT or similar for more fuel delivery, drain and clean the tank, maybe replace the straps if I can find replacements and clean the rear of the alltrac up a little. I decided I should start from the rear of the vehicle and work my way forward out of no where :twisted: .
 

awdmofo

Member
Hey Underscore, I finally found some used steering rack mounts!!! took months but found a guy parting his old stuff out. Currently in between jobs and got 5 weeks off!! Trying to paint the engine bay, replace the engine/trans mounts, put the fuel system back together and see if I can get the engine finally back in this thing after 6 years of not running. Fuel tank needs to come down and get cleaned out, and I need to figure out what fuel pump I'm going to run. This engine setup will be on 91 pump gas, hope to do an E85 conversion on my next engine setup.
 
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