St215 motor + st205 gearbox into St165 JDM build

bmt

New member
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So I finally fell victim to the blown headgasket on my stock St 165 Vin number 0000097 and so decided to increase performance. Whilst motor is out. I use the car for street and track days so whatever happens it is always gonna be a compromise some where. I have already put a full set of Tein coil overs on it and changed to Mintex Brake pads. Eventually I will probably upgrade the brakes to something better but at the moment they work ok.

So here we go!

Purchased a Gen 4 3sgte motor and a St205 box from Wreckers. AFTER purchase I found out that a gen 3 would have been a better choice, as Gen 4s have substantially weaker rods. Even though they put out more power. Since an upgrade of turbo was on the cards I bit the bullet and ordered some forged rods and pistons from Import performance parts. (http://www.importperformanceparts.net/). Excellent service and price. But still Budget = blown!

The block is currently off being bored, honed, decked and cleaned. Head is stripped and about to go to be skimmed.

Have bought a Garrett 2871 turbo.After looking at a lot of different options and learning how to read compressor maps etc. I did look at buying 2nd hand but the "What ifs" came into play and the fear took over and next thing a BIG hole in the bank account!

I made my own steampipe manifold with equal length primaries for it. It is away being ceramic coated.

I bought a 600mm x 300mm x 76mm air to air intercooler and luckily it fits. Now I have seen a bit of talk about FMIC being difficult to fit without chopping the crap out of your front bumper, moving your fog lights etc but I honestly didnt have that much of a problem. The AC had been mostly pulled from the car before I got it. I removed the Water to Air stuff, (Intercooler,pump hoses etc). There are a couple of metal tags on your fog lights that hold the plugs. Chop them off. I removed the bonnet catch assembly and the single strut that supports it. Disconnected the brackets that hold the power steering cooling loop. I could then fit the intercooler in place. Once I have it fully fitted. I will rebuild a bracket that braces to the top the intercooler AND the car to support the bonnet catch.

I am planning to use a Link G4 motor management computer. Of course getting everything to work together is always gonna be painful tedious work but I will pay someone to help sort this out. I am going to try and streamline as much as possible to try and cut down on issues later on.

As my donor motor was from an auto I didnt have a flywheel so I bought a custom one that came up. I have bought a Sprung centre puck clutch.

I still need to sort the fuelling side of things. Bigger injectors, fuel pumps. As I am a metal fabricator by trade I will make up a surge tank hopefully an underfloor one. Bit of a compromise between a usable boot and functionality but we will see how it goes!

I will run the intercooler piping once I have done the swap.

I also will make a larger pcv catch tank as the regulations for track use require a 2 litre volume!

I decided when I bought this car that I am buying an education NOT a car for investment, resale, etc. That way I wouldnt cry too much about how much stuff costs. The bottom line is that whatever YOU think it is gonna cost multiply that by 2 to 3 times and you will be closer. I could do this build for half the cost and PROBABLY be happy with the results but I am trying to do it once and do it "Right". I am lucky that I work for a Car related business and have access to a wealth of car knowledge and experience as my own knowledge is pretty limited.
 

bmt

New member
Thanks Brad. Yeah those wheels came with the car when I bought it. I might try some 16"s in the future...
 

bmt

New member
So I finally got the intercooler install finished and here (hopefully) are some photos.

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This is the top view of the finished bracketry and installation. The cardboard is just to protect the cooler till it's a goer.

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Close up of the modified central bracket, the bottom leg mounts on to the bumper. Means I keep my bonnet catch standard.

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This is the typical top bracket. I used the original 8mm threaded inserts and made up a bucket bush for the top and a bit of flat bar for the rest of it. More to come...
 

bmt

New member
Three attachments only!

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These are the bottom mounts. I was able to use the rubber isolating mounts from the previously discarded AC.

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Close up better view.

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You can see my power steering cooling loop that I remounted using one of the old brackets re bent to fit.

I will endeavour to keep up some kind of build thread but sometimes you get busy and forget to take the photos!
 

bmt

New member
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So here is my bare block with a fresh coat of paint after coming back from the machine shop.

I had it bored out 1mm extra to 87mm bore. It needed a line bore as well. So it's all clean and ready for some goodies.

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Eagle rods, Wiseco pistons,ARP Head studs and Main studs, as well as new toyota gaskets and a new Oil pump.

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Ohh so pretty.

More to come
 

bmt

New member
Finally got round to updating,

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Front on of my motor nearly fully assembled. Cams dialed in to a base of 112deg. After Dyno run in I will dial them in for more power.

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Exhaust side. Featuring my exhaust manifold that I made. I have yet to finally orientate the turbo as I need to check once the gearbox is on for clearance.

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Intake side. Reused some braces from my old set up.

More coming...
 

bmt

New member
Cheers. I assembled my bottom end. First time I have ever done it, (GULP), but I had lots of helpful advice from work colleagues. It is progressing well.

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Motor in!

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Whole bay

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This is my bumper skin with my modded holes. I already cut the bumper hole and wanted something that was not just another "Cut the whole bumper out look"

Hopefully with more air comes better cooling for everything. I am putting an oil cooler and a trans cooler behind my intercooler in front of the radiator. I will close off some of the larger gaps around the sides to make it more efficient.
 

bmt

New member
Sorry for the lack of updates, but I have been busy trying to keep this project going.

So onto progress. I ended up ditching the stock radiator due to clearance issues and because I wanted to upgrade to an Aluminium one.
To alleviate the clearance issue I decided to move the radiator forward under the slam panel to give me about 50mm extra room. Obviously a stock radiator doesn't fit under there! After measuring the hole I decided the best option was to buy a aftermarket V8 alloy radiator and modify it to fit.

Why a V8 rad?
First,they are cheap! Have you seen the price of hot rodders stuff? You can get a full set of forged rods and pistons and a crank for the price we pay for forged rods and pistons! Remember they get 8 vs our 4! Anyway I digress.
Second, V8 rads also have side tanks not top and bottom tanks, so it easy to cut them down for height and they are available in a variety of widths so you can pick the one that suits your hole best.
Third, you can get them with outlets where they best suit. Not that important but it does help.

What I did was chopped the bottom off to the height I wanted making sure to cut through the fins next to the tube that I am going to discard.

Blank off the tanks, put in an outlet and test it. If you want to pretty up the cut side, fold up a channel and put it across the bottom and weld it to the bottom of your tested tanks.

I will have a photo update soon.....promise.
 

bmt

New member
As promised...

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Rear view of the radiator

I decided not to run the trans and oil coolers in front of the intercooler and radiator and instead to mount them in the front guards.

This of course means I have to get air to them so more holes and some ducting will be required!!

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This is the ducting that I made to attach to the oil cooler.

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Attached. The idea is to duct air from the bumper to this and then that will force air through the cooler.
 

bmt

New member
This the bumper end of my oil cooler ducting.

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It just needs a short piece of flexible ducting to join the cooler duct and this together. you can see i have cut the tow hook hole a bit bigger as well as adding another hole to the side.

I made an airbox and a pcv catch can.

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Cheers for looking!!
 

GT4times2

Moderator
I'm loving the work. Glad to see an ST165 getting some attention. Why don't you post this build in the "Projects" section instead? More views on that end. Really nice project you have going there. I love ST165s, ST205 and ST185 (in that particular order).
 

bmt

New member
Good idea. How do you move the entire thread to a different forum? Is it something only a moderator can do? Help?
 

bmt

New member
So on with the plan. I have been working on my cooler ducting.

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These are the pieces that I made to duct the air from the bumper to the air box and the transmission cooler.

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This is them in place. Except the base piece for clarity shown from underneath. You can see my trans cooler mounted in front of the wheel.

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With base piece fitted.
 
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