'98 Celica GT: The Continuation...., Dun dun duuuunnnnnn..... Options

[cheela]

what's a budget?? lol

you knew exactly what you were doing when you bought your poopra AND this celi. lol
besides you's a baller anyways. let's hurry up and get this thing driving again.

[NgoFcukinWay]

what's a budget?? lol

you knew exactly what you were doing when you bought your poopra AND this celi. lol
besides you's a baller anyways. let's hurry up and get this thing driving again.

the clutch was a definite plan cuz I hate the Spec as do many people I know.

I did the usual thought process with everything else thus far:

"It's down and just needs a reseal and a basic turbo rebuild. Ngo biggie. I'll send the turbo off for a basic rebuild."

*turbo while en route to rebuilder*

"Uh.....let's go ahead, send it, and go balls out with a billet upgrade."

(phuc...)

and theeennnn....

"Valve stems should be replaced as part of maintenance. Should I go ahead and upgrade the cams? naaaahhhhhh..."

*A WILD 15% OFF EBAY COUPON APPEARS*

*orders cams*

(phuc...)

"cams need friends....."

*orders valve springs*

(double phuc...)

Now I'm looking at fuel options for that corn go-go juice. -_- I already have some -6AN PTFE lines & fittings along with a Continental flex fuel sensor sitting at home that I was planning to use on the Supra. Only things I'm short on is a flex fuel gauge, fuel pressure regulator, fuel pump, fuel filter, injectors, and maybe a rail. Smol stuff. lol


Would probably need an LSD for that poor S54.


.....Shoot me......

This post has been edited by NgoFcukinWay: Oct 4, 2018 - 3:29 PM

[cheela]

LOL yup. since the trans is off for the clutch, might as well put LSD in there. since all engine bits are new, better powdercoat everything so it lasts. all that power needs to get to the ground so new wheels and tires and brakes. gotta be safe, so racing seat, harness and roll cage.

just helping you along there.

[Box]

started looking at adjustable cam gears as well to pair up with the cams per this thread over at SupraForums. I always thought adjustable cam gears were a gimmick, but I guess having the right parts to work with them actually bring out the benefits of them. From reading the first page of the thread, looks like pairing them up and degreeing them properly gives you the full benefits of the higher lift cams, but you don't get that lope you typically get with a bigger cam, so you get a smooth, stock-like idle.

Do I send it and get the adjustable cam gears and shimless buckets, too? Buckets would require a bit of extra work to sit there and measure all 16 buckets, but the 2J guys have recorded a savings of about 12 ounces in weight when changing to shimless buckets, so I'd assume I'd save about 9 ounces of weight or so going shimless. In theory, that should allow me to rev a little faster and bump up redline a little further up as well.... I think... Seems like a reasonable exchange...

Yup adjustable cam gears are great for fine tuning your engine performance and response, depending on how you phase them you can increase where your powerband gains are as well as how "streetable" it is to an extent.

As far as the shimless buckets it's always best to remove points of failure, that and you do remove some of the reciprocating mass. Generally the higher the rpm ranges the more you'll see a benefit.

Really it all comes down to how you want to use the engine, if you're just going to putter around then a stock rebuild would've sufficed but if you plan on beating on it like the wife of a guy that only wears sleeveless shirts and has a mullet then your needs will vary. If you have to choose one over the other it's a lot easier to do the cam gears at a later point.

[richee3]

You can’t let me out-stop you either. You need Wilwoods and ST205 rear brakes.

[Box]

Cheela is right, you'll need a LSD to put down all this new found power properly. Spinning isn't winning.

[NgoFcukinWay]

FUUUUUUU......ARRRGGHHHH.....

lol. I thought about powdercoating the valve cover and maybe the heat shield to match the purple of the TiAL BOV. I'm probably gonna spray the intake manifold with wrinkle black paint. Gonna repaint the engine bay as much as i can with the motor out. Probably rattle can that sumbitch and then clear coat it.

New wheels are on the list since I'm not a huge fan of the current tC wheels + spacers. I think one of the wheels has a leak somewhere, too, cuz it's dead flat and I've checked it for punctures.

Car is probably gonna get coilovers....or bags.... Haven't decided yet.

I sold the Recaros I had.

Also updating all of the audio stuff, too.

There's a lot of crap I wanna change out/upgrade/repair/replace.

You can’t let me out-stop you either. You need Wilwoods and ST205 rear brakes.

I wanna be like you when I get older.

That xiet's on my list, too. g'damnit....

Cheela is right, you'll need a LSD to put down all this new found power properly. Spinning isn't winning.

ONE TIRE FIRE!!

[NgoFcukinWay]

Slight little detour, but I'm super excited to have these valve covers painted.





debating now if I wanna get the spark plug hydrodipped or get a carbon fiber replacement. I'm leaning towards the carbon fiber option though.

[Box]

2JZ swap? I'm feeling it.

[NgoFcukinWay]

2JZ swap? I'm feeling it.

Seemed like a pretty solid idea, so I figured why not.


More stuff has been ordered. Should be coming up to the finish line as far as major parts to order. After this, it's all the little stuff.

[NgoFcukinWay]

So progress was made over the weekend.








Headed down to my buddy's shop right after work to get started on pulling the motor out. We limited ourselves to 2 hours to get whatever we could get done since we had a meet to attend to that night. During our rummage and removal, we saw a bunch of random **** that didn't make sense or just looked appalling.

Few things to note were:
-Cam cover held on with 1 zip tie. (eh?)
-alternator ground grounded at the fender underneath the balljoint for the hood strut. (wat?)
-Intercooler core chilling on a rusted plate and held in place with just in the pipes. (wert?)
-front motor mount was bolted to the crossmember (cradle?) thing, but not to the engine. (wut?)
-the ****-asaurus rex of a wiring ****-fest at the ECU along with the gobs of tees for the vacuum lines. (nani dafuq?)
-slew of wires running about the engine bay, both in use and not in use. (h'wat?)

A lot of this will be taken care of in the next coming months. I have some good, OCD people working with me. It's gonna be a fun couple of months as Sundays and possibly Friday evenings are about the only times I'll have available to work on this and possibly Turkey week.

The journey shall continue after I get back from Sema.

[Box]

For me the wiring is the most disturbing, makes me want to rip it all out and just start over.

[cheela]

yeah the wiring is gonna be not fun. the rest should be simple fixes but just annoying.

Lots of NANI going on there. I guess I'll gladly take my issues instead of those, just a water pump YA KNOW...

[NgoFcukinWay]

*56K WARNING* Pictures are gonna be huge for whatever reason.

Oh, hey, look! Pretty adjustable cam gears!



Had some time after work yesterday to do a bit more work on the motor.



Didn't really take a whole lot of photos due to having a short window to work on the motor, so I took pics of the interesting stuff I came across while pulling the harness off and to get the transmission separated.

Item #1: A switch wired into the harness that's apparently used to put the car into diagnostic mode when on the factory ECU. (Why?)


Item #B: What the Flying Dutchman is this?! This **** is straight up unacceptable regardless of the reason. I don't even wanna know why it's all over the IACV. Inlet gasket is $10 and throttle body gasket is $6. peep the non-OEM 13mm bolt. I'll be ordering a 2.5" throttle body inlet from KO Racing later to replace this one and either retap it for the meth injection or find another place to plumb it.





After all that mess, finally got the harness off along with a bunch of vacuum lines.



Once cleared, I proceeded with unbolting the transmission. Got to the starter and noticed something kind of odd....




Starter lost an ear, so I guess I'm ordering a new one after Turkey Day.

Got the transmission off and set it next to the motor on one of those wooden dolly cart things. Went ahead and pulled the spark plug boots out for the sake of curiosity. Cylinders 1, 2, and 3 are absolutely filled with oil while cylinder 4 was dry. O-rings and essentially the valve cover gasket itself are done.

If time permits tomorrow, I need to go pick up an engine stand from Harbor Freight so I can set this sumbitch on it and get crackin' on whatever odd things I find. There's gonna be a lot of rust that needs to be cleaned off and probably gonna order a bunch of OEM replacement bolts while I'm at it. Already have 5 or 6 on my list that needs to be replaced due to rust or they're bolts from the local hardware store.

[Box]

Maybe they were always losing paper clips so wired in a switch instead?

$3 of silicone>$16 of gaskets, clearly.

If the starter is still good otherwise you could epoxy the ear back on with metal epoxy, or if you're a welding savant just fix it that way. Hard to tell but it looks like you could reinforce the topside with a washer if you were to epoxy it. Or if you're rich just buy a new one, either way.

[NgoFcukinWay]

I keep a paperclip in the ashtray in the Supra and my last Celica at all times for that reason.

Yeah, still not a good enough reason for half ass work. Maybe on a POS Honda or something, but not for this. But then again, seeing the other mess I've seen through the car, I shouldn't be that surprised. I thought I did sloppy work, but naaawwwwwwwww.

The starter's a wear part with the potential to eventually go out. I might as well replace it while it's out. I thought they were gonna be balls expensive, but the Denso unit is $100 from Rock Auto.

This post has been edited by NgoFcukinWay: Nov 10, 2018 - 11:40 PM

[Box]

I did the same, lol.

You know how it is, people want to spend as little as possible for as much as possible. In fairness I reused the throttle body and upper intake manifold gaskets when I replaced the injector o-ring seals, but they're metal and I didn't have the $30 or so to spare at the time. Plus it was a 7A, those only deserve the most basic of maintenance.

Ahhh ok, that's not bad at all then. I was figuring $250 or so overnight from Japan and all that.

[njccmd2002]

I keep a paperclip in the ashtray in the Supra and my last Celica at all times for that reason.

Yeah, still not a good enough reason for half ass work. Maybe on a POS Honda or something, but not for this. But then again, seeing the other mess I've seen through the car, I shouldn't be that surprised. I thought I did sloppy work, but naaawwwwwwwww.

The starter's a wear part with the potential to eventually go out. I might as well replace it while it's out. I thought they were gonna be balls expensive, but the Denso unit is $100 from Rock Auto.

put a clapper switch, should be no problem

[Box]

INGENIOUS, now you can just clap your hands for diagnostic codes!

[NgoFcukinWay]

I was looking at those when I was at Harbor Freight picking up another engine stand. Would fit well.

Some small progress today.

Picked up an engine stand since all the ones at my friend's shop are currently occupied with some sort of engine on it. Forgot to grab my free item, but I did use the 20% off coupon for it.


Had the stand all assembled and my friend was like, "Did you get the bolts to mount the engine to the stand?"

So I ran to Lowe's to grab said bolts....

Got back and we were ready to get the engine on the stand... until we realized that the hoist was buried somewhere in the back of his shop and we didn't feel like digging it out, so we did the next best thing. My friend's '89 4Runner was occupying the hoist and it was sitting right behind where I was working, so why not?


And it's up in the air!


...only for us to have to fight one dumb ass flywheel bolt that refused to let go so we can mate the hentai arms to the engine.

No pictures of the fight, but we did manage to get it off along with the flywheel and got the stand mounted to the engine.



Engine is caked in oil from top to bottom, so cleaned the mating surfaces on the head and taped off the openings along with the fuel lines and oil feed/return for the turbo in preparation for pressure washing.



After that, wrapped it up for the night, but before I did that, I pulled the the spark plug wire boot things to check my oil level.






Hopefully by Friday, I'll have the oil pan off and the front of the engine stripped down.