Project Elephant: DeeCee's GT4A

deecee

New member
I take it from this perspective. There is no money to be made for me as the cost per unit is high enough that adding on any profit margin would work out to be a token payment at best. The only way to make money off it would be to do the work myself, but then it eats my time, which I want to use differently, rather than do low paying labour and would reduce the quality as I don't have the expertise nor material resources like the professionals do.

The investment I have made into getting the moulds made is for the various GT Four / Celica ST18x owners in NZ who want to have a little something special. To break even, I have to move 41 units of bonnets/bumpers and that is only if I charge a token admin fee for my time to organise and chase around the packaging and logistics.

If I wanted to do overseas sales, then it would not be for financial reasons. I would easily run a loss if I went down that road. For some smaller things I am looking at, I may provide for overseas buyers, but only as group buys (for others, don't bother asking what I'm doing as I don't know when I'll get around to doing it)

A number of people want parts, but when it comes to the money for bespoke items, they want the best for the cheapest price, and that doesn't work in the bespoke world. And the variations of the GT-Four are unique enough to be considered as bespoke from my view (unless various engine mechanical which is shared with the MR2), so filling a need from a production standpoint is not economically viable if someone wanted to turn a profit on items which are time and labour intensive to produce.

Anyway, that is just my world. Others will support the platform in small quantities as required, but I will only do things that benefit me as the priority and maybe there is something for others as a result.
 

deecee

New member
In a bid to catch up on all of the photos, I'm going to break down the work into months to break down the task of documenting the build into months. Sorry if some stuff gets repeated, but I can't be bothered going back to see what I have and haven't posted up. Last major update was up to the end of 2011 so..

January 2012

Cleaned up rocker cover and painted it.
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Kept disassembling the body, removed various clips and gave the panels a wipe down
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Started figuring out the brake lines and bias valve. I suspect at the time I also finished up the seam sealing in the engine bay.
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String to start aligning the prop shaft as the engine wasn't in so no real point of reference.
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Re-assembled the rear brake drum pads. Tip, use a small pair of pliers to help push in this washer as you twist the washer under the retention pin.
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Clamp also helps hold things in place if you are doing it by yourself.
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Rotate the hub so the access hole is over the pad retention pin, use the pliers to position the washer, push in then turn under the pin.
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After one pad is in, keep on reassembling. Use pliers to get the top springs over the centre post. Ensure your adjuster is in at the bottom.
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New swaybar links. Decided to go for factory standard with the whiteline adjustable swaybar before going to adjustable swaybar links. Would complicate the setup if I added too much too soon.
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Decent allen key set and spanners make life easier when installing the swaybar links. I also have a 1/2" hex socket set which I use for more torque as needed.
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Torque up various arms
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Rear setup complete except for mounting the brake caliper.
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Tip. Mount the caliper and use a screwdriver in the vent to stop the hub rotating when torquing the cv nut. Works with larger rotors, prob won't work for standard rotors. Hand brake generally won't put enough pressure on the inside of the rotor to stop the hub rotating.
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Nick came around and helped chuck the wheels on and cut down my extended studs for the front hubs.
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New bushes, links, ball joints and cleaned up the sway bar mounting brackets.
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A-arms with new bushes and cleaned up. Swaybar painted red.. like a fire engine..
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After cutting the studs, Nick cleaned up the threads with the die set.
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Extended studs pressed into the hub.
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New steering rack boots.
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Rack joints were very clean, showing little wear. Left them as they were.
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New tie rod ends
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Starting to assemble the front suspension.
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New steering rack bushes.
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Righto, end of January with progress in replacing worn items, refurbing brackets and test fitting various parts
 

deecee

New member
So February 2012 was a busy month. 121 images strong so lets get into it.

Talking with my friend Leigh and his father Tom some years back, the plan was to change the fuel and brake hardlines for copper nickel pipe.
Also known cupronickel pipe or bundy tube, the pipe comes in rolls and can be bend into various shapes to replace factory hardlines as long as you use the right fittings.

I decided to re-route the brake hardlines which go to the bias valve to clean up the aesthetics of the firewall as it looked a bit cluttered. hindsight says I shouldn't have bothered as you generally can't see lines behind the engine and manifold. Oh well...
Cool thing about copper nickel is that even if it is bent, you can generally bend it back into a straight and start again, as long as it isn't bent heavily on a 90 degree angle. Straightening a 90 is not easy to achieve.

Requirements are the correct size pipe, tube cutter and flaring tool.
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Cut pipe by rotating cutter around the pipe, scoring the pipe on a couple of rotations, then tighten, then rotate a couple of times again. Repeat until pipe is cut.
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Using a flaring tool, flare the end of the pipe (normally a double flare for a better fit and that is the factory spec). Fitting is placed on the pipe before flaring.
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And then you have a nicely flared pipe with the fitting.
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A hand held bender is normally used, and this one uses a wheel with different sized grooves for the different sized pipes. There are other pipe benders, but this ampro model seemed reasonably compact. You can also bend by hand.
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Straightening out the pipe as best as possible, I put fitting on, flared the pipe and gave it a slight bend.
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And slowly but surely bend a little, bend a little more, figure out the angle, bend some more. Diagram helps to figure out what goes where.
Note, I used the factory pipe brackets.
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And slowly getting there.
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Open head spanner is best for tightening up and unscrewing the fittings. It is quite a mission to straighted a pipe that comes in a coil. Length is determined by using a tape measure and tracing out the path of the pipe. If the pipe length is short, you can use a joiner or start again. I commonly started again and reused the old pipe for smaller length pieces.

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And lines to the bias valve complete.
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And they fit with the factory brackets.
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If you want to fit a brake booster bracket, you have to change or bend this pipe to the side. Challenge is to make sure there is no interference with the cam cover as the distance between the booster and cover is around 20-30mm? (can't remember exactly) There is a very narror space is what I can remember.
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And something new to allow a brake booster bracket to fit.
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When I was removing things out of the engine bay, I was very rough and bent the fuel and rear brake lines to get them out of the way when I was cleaning up the seam sealer. I didn't realise that once the steel lines are bent, they don't bend back easily. I also didn't realise there was another bracket on the underside of the car. Way to make more work for myself. Will get back to it in a moment.
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Just some general photos. Engine with caldina intake and CT26R2 (CT20B)
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Replaced rocker cover gasket ensuring to use goo in the corners as per BGB
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Comparison between st205 and 215 throttle bodys. This is why you can't just swap the TB position sensor over. Different mounting and locater dowel.
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ST215 TPS on left, ST205 on the right.
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ST215 TPS is 3 pin, ST205 TPS is 4 pin.
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ST215 TB on left, ST205 TB on right. Rear of TBs shown
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ST215 TB on left, ST205 TB on right. Front of TBs shown
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While I was disassembling the engine ancillaries, I bent the pipe from the water pipes to oil cooler. Thanks Hose from Hell.
I got a hardline pipe from a ST202 as a replacement but found that this pipe facing upwards interfered with the sensors on the water junction.
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Many pipes make light work. Got a replacement pipe and it came with a Gen3 3sgte block.
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Unfortunately my replacement pipe was rather pitted as they must have removed the pipe with a screwdriver and damaged the flange. They had a lot of goo between flange and water pump outlet to ensure no leaks.
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Changed the gasket on the oil cooler (warmer..)
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New HTH's installed. I polished the pipe a little as well.
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Broke one of the bolts on the oil cooler mounting flange. Too much torque with a 3/8, so tightened by hand. Later I bought a 1/4 drive torque wrench for these low torque jobs.
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Made a rolling frame for my engine and gearbox. Designed the frame so the engine sits just above the legs of the engine crane to allow the crane legs to be moved around easier as I'm pushing around the engine.
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New spark plugs. Did I mention I found an old spark plug below the brake booster? Must have been an old one which got left in the engine bay as they prob couldn't reach it.
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New thermostat
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Had to reuse the gasket. No significant wear or tear, so just cleaned it up and reinstalled.
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Engine brackets, 2x st202, 1x st205. Smaller brackets make things tidier in the engine bay. Will use them to install engine into car, then remove them once engine is in the car.
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The mighty crank pulley holder. Holder is bolted on to the pulley and then the crank pulley tightened through the hole while holding pulley in place. Built the tool to also do Subaru EJ crank pulleys as I had to change the cambelt on the Forester.
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Sandwich plate for an oil cooler. Changed this to a better design (you will see later). These plates still require thermostats as they commonly don't have thermostatic control built in.
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That will do for now and only gets me to the 4th of Feb..
 

deecee

New member
Fun thing about living close to a pick a part scrapyard, is the fun stuff that comes through the yard. I probably mentioned it before, but this is a 1998 5SFE short block I removed from a car (in the rain..) for ~$150. Idea was to look to do a stroker later. Job at the time was to attach the gearbox to the engine. I didn't want to re-use the flywheel cover from the old engine as it was damaged from transit and was looking a little worse from wear. Nick comparing the 3S cover to the 5S cover.
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3S cover over the 5S cover. 5S cover is slightly larger, so Nick scribbed a cut line to fit the cover for this application.
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On to the grinder to cut back
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And test fit against the gearbox
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Time to take the engine off the stand
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Place engine onto rolling frame, ready to attempt the gearbox to engine union (marriage, mating, partnership - insert adjective of your choice)
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Engine off the stand also allowed me to fix a bolt I broke off when changing the rear crank seal.
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Remove bolts, cut away sealant, remove crank seal housing, clean up sealant, reinstall with new sealant and new bolt
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3SGTE flywheel skimmed at a local engine rebuilders for $50 (about that price i think)
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Comparison with 5S flywheel.
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Mount flywheel and torque bolts using crank pulley tool to stop crank rotation - very handy tool this..
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Align clutch to flywheel. I remember this issue (sigh). Borrowed a flywheel alignment tool off a friend but it didn't have the correct size to align the clutch properly. Thickened the alignment tool using electrical tape, then measured with ruler to align, but it was a bit dodgy. Ended up buying a clutch alignment tool which worked better than that the first tool. Wasted hours trying to do a relatively straightforward job (cue recurring theme with any car project)
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Removed stickers on clutch plate then cleaned up residue
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Once clutch aligned, torqued bolts - job done
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next issue - release bearing and clutch fork. The gearbox shop previously lost my clutch fork. I got a replacement (on right), but the release bearing wouldn't fit on to the fork with the supplied retainer clip. So back up to the scrapyard and managed to get a fork from a standard 3S and it worked out :)
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Differences between cast iron and pressed forks.
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Release bearing in place
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grease the outer shaft for the release bearing and the pivot point of the fork
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And clutch fork installed. Test the bearing by pushing on fork and
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bearing moves as it should
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attach the grommet
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and sweet as..
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deecee

New member
The Union - suffice to say, anyone who has done this knows the challenge in achieving the engine to gearbox union. Helps that I have a crane and balancer for a start.
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Many many many attempts were undertaken to try and get the gearbox on to the engine. Engine on the balancer, gearbox on the balancer, rotate this way, that way etc etc. Was up to 4am trying to get this done
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You'd get to a point and the gearbox wouldn't go on any more. So close yet so far away.
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Start again
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Wake up, have a shower/food/coffee, dread the prospect of making this happen.
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Check alignment again. Attempts last night moved clutch plate :(
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Remove the clutch, time to re-align. Nick actually read the instructions for a tool..
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Time to attempt the missle silo method. Laid out some carpet on the garage floor, measured the difference between the crank pulley and cam cover then got a couple of blocks of wood to allow the engine to sit relatively vertical. Jonno, Nick and I carefully tipped the engine on to the cam/crank pulley end, ensuring that little pressure was put on the edges of the crank pulley for fear of breaking those edges. Wow, it sits on that end of the engine quite nicely.

Reorientate the straps on the gearbox, lift and rotate and move over the engine to mount.. (fingers crossed). Jonno and Nick were actually quite surprised about this method. First time I had done the Union, so it was all an experiment for me.
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We successfully got the box aligned and moving down, but we couldn't get the box on properly, there was always about 15mm left to go. Someone on a board had previous said that a mounting point stuck out, which was commonly ground off to allow the transfer case to slip on. Guess what, the transfer case was hitting the aforementioned mounting point.
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Bye bye mounting point..
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It is so little tolerance in there, mere milimetres between block/pan and transfer case. Anyone had luck rotating the gearbox while mating to the engine to rotate the transfer case into position? How do you get your gearbox on?
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removing the mounting point just made the job that much simplier!
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Success!
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And just in case, I had a spare cam cover from a gen3 3sge. Will put some holes in it later for the cam pulleys
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deecee

New member
Time to fix up those lines. Released the hardlines from the various brackets and covers and reviewed the position of the lines.
Note, this pic is to see if that utility hole was covered by the lines, and unfortunately it was. Original plan was to put quick release plug in that position, but with hardlines going over it, the use of that utlity hole for anything was a no go.
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Fuel line was pretty creased from over bending - oops on my part. Figured out what the factory routing of the line was relative to the fuel filter.
original plan was to change fuel filter to a smaller unit and tuck it out of the way, but after looking at options, it was easier to replace filter and reuse the factory bracket for mounting. I may still change the mounting as required.
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this is the oops - no good for fuel, need to fix
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using tube cutter, i cut back the pipe
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using a flexible hose will save me :) Also allows fuel filter to be located elsewhere as requried.
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cut line needs some flaring so pipe doesn't pop off.
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Jonno used to pop over regularly to help/laugh. His subaru legacy acting as a tripod coming off the driveway.
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You wondering why people roll their inner guards?
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So pretty..
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time to reinstall the steering rack. Mounted column internally and put a Nardi steering wheel on.
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Chucked the rack on to the crawler and mounted.
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time to test fit an engine. Engine sits on frame between crane legs. Rolling frame design works a treat. Mount old bumper bar to left car car over the engine.
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Start to slowly move engine under the car.
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Richard getting a bit of a workout pushing the engine into place.
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Check the location of engine relative to the body before lowering.
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Slowly lower car over the engine, adjust the engine location to ensure nothing snags or gets hung up. Engine needs to be slowly rolled forward to ensure the PS pump and gerbox position selector doesn't snag on the A-arms as the car is lowered down.
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Holding the car up mere centimetres off the ground while moving the engine around - so close..
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Engine relative to the side mounts wasn't right. Tilted the car up a little to be able install the drivers side mount
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You can see how close the mount is here. go a little this way, that way, shake it around a little..
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time to move the engine up a little to get the mount into position.
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And engine finally sitting in the engine bay, at least on the side mounts.
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Wheel studs again. Must have takent his picture for some reason. stud, 2nd from left was cut too short. ended up having to buy another stud to cut down btw
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And that was February 2012
 

deecee

New member
March 2012

So with the engine mounted, it was time to look at the front and rear engine inserts from SpeedSource.
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As you can see, the rear mount hole is offset.
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Front inserts have the hole in the centre so it was an easy decision to put them straight in to the front mount bracket. Smear with lube
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Lube the pin as well
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Also got these solid bushes from SpeedSource as well. Front comparison
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Rear comparison
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Replacement bolts supplied as well
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To mount the subframe, I had to get the car on stands. Easiest thing is to lift the car with the crane
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After some mucking about trying to get the subframe in, I figured that you have to tilt the engine forward. Easiest way I found with the engine hanging on the side mounts, was to push the driveshaft yoke up with my hand from underneath. The engine has to sit in a more upright position so I jury jigged a tie down to tilt the engine forward.
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Test fit the bracket in place. The mount is offset to centre of the gearbox bracket so the inserts only fit in one way.
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And a test fit of the insert lines up with the bracket.
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Insert in
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To orientate the rear offset insert with the bracket, I put half the insert with the centre pin in place. This allowed me to move the insert by hand to line up the mount and the rear bracket
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Subframe mounts in, rear bush bolted in.
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Slightly out of order, but I took the insert apart to demonstrate the technique
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Due to the tight fit of the pin inside the insert, you need to push the pin out. I used a large bolt and a hammer
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Subframe bushes are placed between the body and subframe. Generally a lot of mucking about to get it all lined up.
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deecee

New member
Sometimes I lose things in the garage, then find them again. Bearing accidently pushed off the bench
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There you are :)
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Hmm HKS
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Shiny HKS Silent Hi Power Exhaust
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Machine tig welding on the resonator
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Hangers mig welded on
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Pipe mig welded on
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Flange mig welded on
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Machine bender marks on the outside of the bend
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JASMA approved
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Wrapped some carpet around the resonator to protect while I installed. Tip, easier to drop the subframe slightly to help get the pipe over the subframe.
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Have to line up the resonator bracket with the bracket on the body
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And installed. What surprised me was how low the resonator hung down from the heatshield. If I build an exhaust system, I'll be mounting the resonator higher to prevent dragging the resonator on speed bumps
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Accessories provided with the exhaust system
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A bit of lube before putting the rubber hanger bushes on
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Build quality of the HKS system is okay. Pipe doesn't sit flush with the flange. Some peneration of the weld into the pipe
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The pipe sits very close to the subframe reinforcement bracket
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I help my friends out on occasion. Richard's engine mount on his honda was broken, time to replace.
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Picked up a 2nd hand manifold with gen 3S mounting flange. A HKS pod filter adapter came with the manifold.
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Design is a 4 into 1. You have probably seen this design on 4AGE or 4G63 applications. Driven Performance in NZ sell this unit in stainless. Schedule 40 black pipe so built strong.
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Pipes are not elongated to match the ports.
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Merge collector is not the greatest, but taking into account the age of the manifold, we have come along way in terms of our thinking regarding exhaust gas velocity and direction.
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Merge is pretty reasonable on the inside
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Time to remove the studs. Cleaned them up a bit before getting some nuts on them for removal
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Double nut trick works to remove the stud
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Manifold mounted. Some thoughts about this manifold.

Location: Manifold locates turbo to centre of the engine. Factory position is offset to allow more room for the dump pipe relative to the AC pump. Have to also take into consideration the location of the water pump inlet from the radiator.
Wastegate outlet: the outlet being on the gearbox side of the engine is not optimal. It means either routing the WG piping between the block and turbo, or routing the pipe between radiator and turbo. In NZ, it is a requirement to have exhaust gases recirculated back into the exhaust sytem. This does means that the WG piping has to go either front or rear of the turbo. Front side routing may interfere with fans, rear side routing may interefere with oil feed to turbo and/or the oil return back to the sump.

So I have a manifold that doesn't provide optimal position of the turbo, at least for the Holset HX35 I plan to use. Hmm
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Next fun part. To mount a nut to this stuf is almost impossible. Also can't use a ratchet or torque wrench and can only use a spanner..
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Test fit of the Holset with an adapter on the factory manifold. Turbo position allows for better routing of the dump pipe.
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But problem with the adapter. Pushes the turbo out too far (or I have very large turbo..) and would interfere with the radiator. I did consider relocation of the radiator under the support panel, or in front of the panel (which may interfere with the radiator latch vertical support)
Main issue is that the factory twin scroll exhaust housing is rather large. Research showed that while the 12cm housing would be good for response, I'd still have to weld the WG flap shut and use an external wastegate for more optimal control as the factory wastegate actuator is between 17 and 23psi. A bit much for me at this stage.
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Second issue, compressor housing hits the gearbox and would prevent the clutch release actuator from being mounted. Repositioning the actuator still wouldn't prevent the compressor housing hitting the box
deecee_celica_2857.jpg

deecee_celica_2858.jpg


Friends use my garage. This time it is to fix an exhaust leak. Leigh scavanged some metal from my scrap pile and got to work
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clean up metal before welding
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Tig time!
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While Leigh fixed his exhaust, I installed the bearing that I found. Trick: tap the seal in with the handle side of a screwdriver, moving slowly around the seal to gradually put it in. Works a treat every time.
deecee_celica_2862.jpg


Leigh still at work..
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Using the aftermarket manifold, the holset didn't fit on to the head. as it interfered with the oil cooler. I borrowed Nick's exhaust housing from his HX40. Firstly, test fit to ensure no intereference with the oil cooler - check
deecee_celica_2864.jpg


checking the position of the turbo and if it would interfere with the gearbox and clutch fork actuator - seems like it would fit
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And plenty of room for the compressor housing.
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Side trip - got to visit a local industrial park and what used to be our national industrial research labs. Interesting note, they had a wind tunnel which I was curious about as Jonno was exploring downforce for his car due to our interest in Time Attack. Little did I know that the wind tunnel was for scale models.
Here are some of the models they used to test wind effects in city scenarios.
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To get the correct velocity of the wind, the tunnel is a long straight which feeds air into a little control room where they setup the models for testing. Testing costs were $1200 a day.
deecee_celica_2868.jpg
 

deecee

New member
An emotionally charged day to say the least.

To start off with, I caught up with the panel beater I had been dealing with and he's all casual about borrowing a trailer so I can go pick up my car.
The trailer being borrowed, he hadn't even arranged with the owner, so that wasn't a very good scenario if issues had arisen out of that.

Drive up to the panel shop where the car is being held and the shop owner says he won't release my car unless I pay $1600 for work done on the car. I'm like WTF, excuse me? My panel beater hasn't informed me of any of this. It seems like my panel beater has sub-contracted out the work to this panel shop and not informed me.

Suffice to say I'm am fucked off with the guy I have been dealing with from the start. I was up front about constant communication and I set expectations. Granted, there have been delays in providing parts or doing some slight things different, but it has been 8 long months from the start of this and it has been a constant chase to get shit done. I've offered money and assistance to push things along and all I got was excuses and the push off. Seriously, when someone is offering money, why not fucking take it and get the work done.. I don't get it?!

So now I'm left with a bill for what knows has been done. I don't even know if my panel beater or some apprentice did the bloody car painting or not!

Much to sort out including what has (or hasn't) been paid to the panel shop, what deal my panel beater had with the panel shop and what I need to do to get my car finished.

Today is not a good day. From here on in, I'm only dealing with the panel shop to get the car done as fast as possible. The panel beater isn't getting another damn cent out of me as I've already ponied up $2500..

SO FUCKING OVER MODIFYING CARS - should never have got to the point of me trying to sort shit out. Worst decision ever to do a cash job and I only went this way because of the verbal guarentees and my thinking at the time that I was helping someone who needed the money.. obviously they need money, but aren't willing to work get the money.. and I'm not stingy when I want shit done to a good quality level..

*angry, frustrated, disappointed and emotional drained Dave..

why fucking bother anymore................... gah!
 

deecee

New member
On a lighter note, I have started into the guard moulding process. The gelcoat and first layers of fibreglass have been applied. Now it is building up the layers to gain strength in the mould, a long with some well placed mdf to minimise flex in the mould, then build out the split mould pieces. From there, repair the moulds as necessary, then start on the guards themselves. Plenty of photos, no time or want to upload due to sorting paint shit out and the fact that I need to spend time building the moulds and getting the guards made so I can send them to be cleaned up and painted.
 

deecee

New member
I'm not concerned about the cash. He has done the repair and prep work which is always a decent proportion of the job.
$900 materials, $1600 labour for prep and repair I feel is reasonable, but I have no idea what the other $1600 is for.
 

bmt

New member
I dont know what i can say to make you feel better about the situation. It's a shitty deal all round. I know there are times when i was so over my car i just wanted to burn it to the ground and be done with it. Has the painting been done to your satisfaction? Is it worth your time and frustration to pursue it through legal channels?

It's good that you vent on this as too many people can look at modifying cars as easy when they look at the final product. They don't see the trials and expense that goes into it. I think I've spent roughly 20 grand on my car so far and I still have paint to go and I work in the industry so did my own fabrication work. I think if I sold my finished car I would be lucky to get 10 grand out of it. Why bother? Because ultimately you'll get a car that NO ONE else in the world has and YOU built it.

Kia kaha brother and you shall prevail!!
 

deecee

New member
Thanks Bruce. No use going through legal channels. Not worth the time wasted IMO. Work has been done on prep and repair, it's just taken a hell of a long time to get the car where it is now.

I will be talking with the panel shop to go in and inspect the car to ensure it is to my satisfaction before taking it out. I will talking with the shop directly to work out a direct relationship, cutting out the useless panel beater. Off to work, may email you later if I'm not to busy chasing car shit and sorting out clients
 

CSAlltrac

New member
To me it sounds like the bodyman used the shop facility without owners or managers knowing. Now the shop wants their portion due to the car taking up real estate. Ive seen that happen before and its ultimately the fault of a shady body guy. Tell the shop you want a copy of your signed authorization form, tell him if he cant provide it that you will be by to pick up your car. He cant legally hold your car at his facility unless you signed a document (Auth. form) giving him permission to perform the work as well as your acknowledgement that he can hold the car if the financials are not paid in full.
 

CMS-GT4

Active member
Sorry to hear about your panel beater mess. That reminds me of the problem I had with my painter. Its made me want to handle more contracts and work with, what turns out to be more expensive people, because of fearing the risks. Just sulk a bit and soon your passion for the car can fire up again. Hopefully your not in the same boat as me with a spouse looking at every hardship the car gives and trying to get you to sell the project. I get bribed with Evos and Sti's at least a couple times a month to give up.
 

deecee

New member
I believe the panel beater has hired the shop facilities to complete the work. I did query with the panel beater about additional costs, but I need an itemised breakdown of the $1600 to know what I am paying for. I'll be pissed if I've had to pay storage fees for the last two months for nothing. Understanding where all parties stand and what work has been done by who is the key thing here.

Not worried about the signed authorisation form tbh. I will work with the shop to get the outcome I want. Money talks in this situation. I could have taken the car if I paid the money up front, so I don't see it as an issue.

Josh - yes I had the choice to work with actual businesses instead of a cash job. It is just unfortunate that all the assurances amounted to nothing at the end of the day and I'm left with the clean up.

And I don't sulk. I sort shit and keep moving forward. Whats the use of spiraling into a state of unknown? I don't operate like that.
 
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