Good News!

Well, this has been a good few days and a really bad one too today! I made lots of progress in the past week. Going from assembling the head to putting the engine back together, putting the transmission on, and getting it all back on the car!

The good news is that the manual conversion worked!! No manual harness needed, just a few wiring modifications to the starting circuit. Also, the shifter fork needs to be slightly modified somewhat so that the slave cylinder has got something on the end of the fork to push against (I welded a nut onto the end of the fork, cut the end bit of a stud off, and screwed the stud into the nut. The rod of the slave cylinder then pushes against the small bit of stud inside the nut. Works like a charm!

Anyway, on with the show!

These things are called shims. They are like upside down cups that fit over the valve / spring / retainer assembley. The cam lobes then push on the shims to open the valves. The problem is, all the shims are different thicknesses!!!!!! Absolute pain in the arse to get the clearance right. All exhaust side clearances need to be 0.25-0.35mm, and all intake side need to be 0.15-0.25mm.
So here is one of the shims. The are all 5.XXmm, so this particular one is 5.36mm thick.

Superfically, it looked like only the oil pan was damaged. So I went to Mr T, and got another one, and made the same oil return fitting for the turbo. No dramas! Well! Read on...
So I happily went about putting the transmission back on... fine... looked okay.
Got the engine back in the car... lining up the engine mounts was a ABSOLUTE bitch! Took almost 5 hours to get the first bolt in. Once it was in, I hooked up the accelerator cable... needed to adjust the length of it as can be seen here. Otherwise, the throttle will only open 40% when the accelerator is fully depressed.
Hooked up the shifter control cables... one of the cables proved to be TOO long... and as a result, the shifter ran out of room on the left to be able to shift into reverse... after fiddling around with the control cables for a long time, I realised that you just cant adjust the length of these things... so, I "shortened" it like so!

This is just a picture from underneath the car, showing the slave cylinder and the shifter fork.
Well, an EXCITING moment for me! The car stands on its own four wheels again!! Alas, when I tried to crank the engine up, it didnt want to! After much research, I found the wiring diagram for the starter circuit.
This is the starter circuit diagram. Because I am still using the SMT wiring loom, the ST relay was not getting any power when I turned the key. So what I did was I added two additional electrical connections. These are shown in red on the diagram.
This picture shows where the harness "IC1" is located. Connect the 7th pin with terminal 1 of the ST relay in the engine compartment fuse box.
The connect terminal 2 of the ST relay to the grounding spot shown here (near the ECUs).

Once these connections are made, the starter motor should start without any problems! Just remember to be on neutral when you start, as there are no fail safes here!

Well, I managed to get the car started and idling... but I noticed a rather rapid coolant leak, and it looked like it was dripping out of the oil pan... so I crawled underneath the car, but failed to see where the coolant was coming from.

What I did notice was consistent white smoke coming out of the exhuast, and also the coolant that had leaked to the ground appears to be somewhat oily!! Also, there were coolant dripping out of the exhuast pipe! All signs of a very unhealthy engine... looks like the engine "drop" will cost me more time and money after all!

However, lets look on the bright side, the SMT --> manual conversion worked!! I managed to roll the car fowards and backwards when the engine was running. It proved that the conversion did its job!

Update!

Well, have been on holidays, and since I got back, I havent gotten around to posting my progress. In short, the car is in the reassembly process. The engine block is done, only waiting for one of the valve shims (the clearance between one of the intake valve shims and the intake cam lobe is out of spec).. the factory specification requires 0.15-0.25mm of clearance... this one is 0.05mm... getting the clearance of the shims right is a bit of a pain in the arse... but if you are planning on changing your valves and springs, expect that you will need to buy new shims. Unfortunately, there is no better way of finding out what depth shims you'll need until you start the reassembly process.

Ok, so on with the picture show! :-)

First, the head was disassembled... See the springs and retainers in the head? Well, over that assembley sits a shiney upside down metallic cup, called a shim. Note that the shims are ALL different thicknesses, so if you are planning on using the same springs and valves, then remember where each shim go!!

Picture of the springs and retainers.... MWR sent me the wrong ones! However, the mistake was quickly rectified.. a happy customer once again. This delayed the process by around a week.



So in the mean time, I started working on the manual conversion. I had gotten all my manual bits and bobs (except the big long clutch flexible hose.. long long long story! I eventually got one custom made and it costed me $57 dollars! Should have done that in the first place, instead of waiting almost 3 months to get one.) Anyway, the shifter cable brackets fit perfectly, except my SMT tranny is missing two holes for bolts.

Also, I had to block up the hole at the back where the SMT assembley used to screw onto.
So a plate (made of aluminium) was made, and I drilled some holes my self and grinded away for a while on it...
I got a plate made up which bolts onto to existing holes on the transmission, then drilled two additional holes to that the bracket has somewhere to secure onto.
End result of the custom fabricated aluminium plate to block out the hole at the front of the transmission. Used some sealant to ensure that it is completely sealed and I wont get transmission fluids leaking!


The next job was to drill an oval hole in the firewall... man, was this a b!tch of a job! Took me a whole day to get the holes there. I ended up using the side of a large drill bit to 'chip' away at the firewall, after I made the initial pilot holes. Those drill bits which are hollow on the inside, but has teeth on the outside just dont work! The teeths just keep getting rounded off!
Ahh... a preview of whats to come! My manual shifter! The electrical plugs are for the SMT shifter, but obviously I dont have one now, so will just leave those hanging there!
The block bored by 0.5mm, rehoned, and new pistons are in place! Looks great! Nice and shiney. :-)
Side view of the short block and the bottom end assembled.
Dont so what I did and overtorque the stud that holds the oil pickup in place. Its only 9lbs! I ended up snapping one, and having to get a new one.

Now, onto upgrading the fuel pump to a higher rated one. Wasnt too bad a task... just need to be careful as it is a bit fiddley.
Separate the top and bottom end of the fuel pump assembley. The fuel pump sits in the bottom half of the assembley and connected directly to that L shaped 'pouch'.. thats a filter to keep all the crap out of your injectors.
The fuel pump assembley can be found directly behind the driver (left hand drive!) seat.
Side view of the block with the top end assembled as well. I will need to disassemble the camshaft again early next week when my new shim comes in. Oh, and the oil pump (the thing that the crank shaft goes through, is also a higher flow TOGA one.

So, the project has stalled a little in the last month due to me waiting for the clutch line to come from Japan. Just a hint for anybody else doing this... dont bother ordering the clutch line from Toyota! I initially ordered it from the US (this was back in December last year, just before xmas!)... Toyota parts in the US finally contacted me in Feb saying that they were shipping all my parts out, but because the clutch line was so long, it would have changed the shipping cost significantly. So, I told them not to worry about sending the clutch line through, instead, I ordered the clutch line locally from our local Toyota dealership. The clutch line was ordered around the 14th March. They said it was going to be 4 weeks before it arrived here. Well, 8 weeks later, I got a call from Toyota, telling me that it was going to be another 4 more weeks because something went wrong at their warehouse and they stuffed up the order... So, I gave up at that point, told them to refund my deposit, and went to ABS breaks and clutch (in Osborne Park), who made up the line I needed in... oh.. 2 hours, and $57 AUD!

As a dear friend of mine told me, the solution is sometimes a lot closer to you than you think! Live and learn! :-)

Ok, will get back to my more regular updates. Keep your eye out for a video of the engine running! :-)

Signing out!