Mike's White Widearch N/A Supra Project

[Mike2JZ]

Smoothing the mating surface of the lower block where oil pan #2 goes

 

 

Same again with oil pump + gasket. also put in new front crank seal

 

 

Torquing down to spec & removing excess gasket

 

 

Same process again with rear crank seal + housing

 

 

Oil pan #2 ready to go

 

 

 

Bottom end all re-assembled. only excess gasket left to scrap off

 

 

Final clean of the top block surface, followed by testing threads with quick head stud install. thankfully all went in by hand no problem

 

 

Headgasket on, and head studs re-installed with arp lube

 

 

ARP washers placed in head ready for head to be dropped on

 

[Mike2JZ]

Head on and rocker covers placed on for a quick photo, not to shabby

 

 

Then had an issue with all my 13mm deep sockets not reaching arp fasteners in the head, which is annoying. new socket ordered now that will fit hopefully. will start re-assembling other parts of the engine till then.

 

 

 

Decided to re-use waterpump as nothing wrong with it, aside from a small leak. Got new gaskets for it, if it still leaks after then I'll get a new one.

 

New thermo, might as well whilst I'm here

 

 

Water pump & piping all sorted

 

 

Also cleaned up the oil filter housing & pulley tensioner for some test fitting.

 

[Fitz]

Looking good Mike

[Mike2JZ]

Well I'm still waiting for the head stud tool to arrive so I can torque it down, hopefully here tomorrow or Thursday. Until then, I've been cleaning up some of the other components on the engine and giving them some test fitting.

 

So much dirt on this fuel rail, not that you can really see it when the GE intake is on, but nice to know it's clean and the rubber seal holes aren't corroded.

 

 

Couple more cleaned and painted bits on the front. Will be interesting to see if the wrinkle paint dulls at all with a few heat cycles, as it's quite shiny at the moment.

 

 

Engine mounts and intake runner cleaned. I did want to change my engine mounts to TRD ones, but I have a feeling the vibrations I was feeling in the car was from incorrect prop install from last garage, or the wobbly diff. Will see once car is back together.

 

 

Water pump & lines ready to go now, also got some new heater hoses so hopefully can route them in a more sneaky way compared to stock

 

 

Still undecided if I should keep the intake piping & throttle body silver, or go black with them. I feel the silver won't look great unless it's polished and I'm too impatient to do that

[Mike2JZ]

Still waiting on the bloody head tool!

 

In the meantime I've ordered a new set of wheels and tyres, with the aim of having these filling the arches properly as the old set never did.

 

Would of really liked some lighter forged wheels this time round, but the money for them is way out of my budget, so settled with JR10's again in hyper silver.

Had no issues with them last time and still like their look, only downside to them is being a little heavy but it's expected from a 1 piece cast wheel that is on the cheaper end of the wheel market

 

 

On the front I will be going from 18'' 8.5j +45 to 18'' 8.5j +25

Before I sold my last wheels, I test fitted my rear 9.5 + 40 on the front, but it stuck out a few MM past the arch, whereas the ones I've ordered now will stick out further, but less than the 9.5j's so hopefully close to the arch line.

 

Also ordered some 245/35/18 RSR 595 Semi Slicks for the front, so shouldn't have any issues with rubbing.

 

 

 

Previously I had 18'' 9.5j + 40 on the rear, and even with a 30mm spacer, they were still not sitting close to where the over arches were.

 

Since I bought my first set of JR10's, they now provide more offset sizes so decided to go with 18'' 10.5j + 12 on the rear.

 

 

The extra 10mm from the rim, compared to the last rim+ spacer setup should bring the wheel quite close to where the arches sit. Hopefully will look more suited to the arches this time round.

 

Ordered 285/30/18 RSR 595 semi slicks for the rear, really liked them for a summer tyre last year. Not great in the wet, but haven't driven another tyre with as much grip in the dry yet for my budget.

[supra_ufo]

Nice work mate

the JR range are awesome I have a set of JR11 in hyper black

 

Offset wise, your rear will stick out more than mine

Fronts are perfect as mine do stick out a little.

 

Mine are 9.5 ET22 on rears, and 9.5 ET35 (+10mm spacer to clear my UK brakes) on the front.

Edited May 4, 2016 by supra_ufo (see edit history)

[Mike2JZ]

Finally the head tool arrived and fitted perfectly, thank you 'Andy Blyth' for the recommendation.

My mates that I share the workshop with knew how bad I wanted that tool and switched it with a socket that wasn't even close to fitting just to mess with me.

How relieved I was when they told me they had the proper one revenge will be mine soon

 

It fits!

 

All done

 

 

Buckets and shims back in, glad I labelled them beforehand

 

 

Camshafts back in and clearances all checked out

 

 

Quick test fit of some bits to see what engine will look like

 

[Mike2JZ]

Sorting out the new timing service components.

Took me two tries to get the timing bang on

 

 

Also cleaned up the injectors and put new seals on them.

 

 

Cleaned up fuel rail & injectors installed

 

 

Next up was the painted intake manifold, intake braces & the start of test fitting the loom. 98% of the cables on the loom went to where they needed to go with no issue, but for some reason the igniter coil & noise filter were miles off from being able to reach the stock location. Must have tied them down without realizing. So will need to extend them or run the igniter coil on the right hand side of the engine bay.

 

 

Rear crank seal area cleaned up a bit in preparation for flywheel to go on.

 

 

Edited December 22, 2016 by Mike2JZ (see edit history)

[Mike2JZ]

When you can't find a chain for the engine lift, get a used aux belt and start praying it dosen't snap

 

Engine install went ok, managed to install the driverside engine mount slightly forward, so had to move them back one set of bolt holes at the last second to get the engine to sit perfectly.

 

 

Back where she belongs

 

 

 

Then started loosely putting the pipework back in place so I could finalize the locations & cable management for the engine loom.

 

 

Still need to plump up the fuel lines, finish cable management, give her some oil, bolt the starter on then see if she will fire up without going bang or losing fluid

[Annabella]

Wow lots of good work, good luck with first churn!

[Chris Bailey]

Great work Mike, never knew you were so clever

[Mike2JZ]

Great work Mike, never knew you were so clever

 

It's all a facade, deep down I'm a dumb blond

[PZH]

This is just Wonderful. You're very good Mike. Keep up the the work and keep us updated. Getting to learn a lot of stuff here. Specially for someone like me who's new to this scene.

Well done [emoji106]

 

 

 

[The Raven]

Nice work mate.

 

I'm still to scared to even do my hose changes.

[martincoupe]

we all need a friend like mike cars looking great in person and cant wait to see it back on the road as im getting lonely with only supra about

[Mike2JZ]

Got the engine ready for it's first start up. Just to see if it was able to fire up with the bare minimum.

 

First two times I tried to start it, there was a fuel leak at the fuel filter from me not being able to find the correct copper washers for the banjo bolts. Luckily found them soon after and had the fuel system leak free.

 

Third time round, Was missing a bit from incorrect ignition timing which was expected but she fired

 

[video=youtube;qz2p6Ln-OhQ]

 

Put the car up on the ramp afterwards to get started bolting on the rest of the engine bay/radiators/interior/gearbox etc.

 

 

 

Came back in the next morning and noticed this under the floor directly beneath my engine

 

 

Fresh engine oil that I traced back to the lower sump.

 

 

I thought about leaving it as it was quite a small leak, but given the effort I've given to the rest of the engine I don't think I could of slept at night knowing I left it, and at the end of the day thankfully it was just the lower sump.

 

So engine was lifted slightly on crane and sump was removed, cleaned, and new gasket used with slightly more around the areas where I normally pry the sump from.

 

Sump is no longer leaking now.

 

After that delay it was back to the rest of the rebuild. Removed the inner front arches from both sides and routed,tied the looms as high as possible just to reduce chances of wheels scrubbing through them.

 

 

The exedy friction plate I have is still in good nick, but I got a new release bearing & pressure plate as my last ones were in a bad state thanks to a dodgy garage.

 

 

clutch went in with no hassle, followed by the gearbox & prop.

 

 

Then the new wheels and tyres arrived and they look so tasty, going to fit a lot nicer than my last set.

 

 

Then before I could do more, we had a modern inline 6 twin turbo "supra" join us in the garage for a meth kit install. At 18psi of boost is definately feels similar to a BPU supra

 

[Mike2JZ]

 

Engine is now running and car is driving finally.

 

 

After getting the ignition timing she now purrs away at 900rpm at idle, and no more misfiring. She pulls just as nicely as before.

 

 

Coolant temperature has also been very good, not overheated once and no coolant leaks from water pump that I can see.

 

 

However not everything is perfect.

 

 

a) Have got a powersteering leak from the high pressure hose connector that goes to rack. The mating surface on the hose was

nicked when I pulled the engine out, so even with a new copper crash washer, the surface isn't perfectly flat and allows for fluid to escape.

Have tried sanding surface back to get it smooth as possible & using gasket maker, which has helped the situation but is still

allowing for fluid to leak. I'm out of funds for the moment, but will get a new hose line at the start of next month.

 

 

b) Had a fuel leak out of injector #1. I remember losing one of the new o-rings that came with the gasket set, and had to reuse an old one, so put it on injector #1 for ease of access

just in case. I can't remember the o-ring I put in being this munted, but explains why it was leaking. Replaced it with a new one and leak was gone.

 

 

 

 

 

So this is how the bay looks at the moment. Haven't finished tidying it up completely whilst I'm still testing the car.

 

 

 

 

 

By this weekend however I expect that:

 

 

- Fan & Fan Shroud will be repainted black and installed

- Exhaust heat shield to be painted and installed

- Finalize & wrap the ignition coil wires

- Hide the audio system power wire through right wing

- Mount the air filter properly with metal brace

- create a mounting system for the HID's

- Rebleed brakes now that ABS has been used a few times

- Weather has been a bit shit recently, so waiting for some sunny days to finally give the car a clean and take some photos

[The Raven]

Gutted i had already cut my old system up to fix my PS issues.

[Supra.SZ-R]

Took me a while to read threw it all, seen I'd been here before, its a really quality bit of work you put into her, reading this is making home sick of all the renching I'm missing out on, my Supra lays collecting dust :/

Let me know if your here, I would love to see one again!

[Mike2JZ]

Recently I've fixed the powersteering issues with a new high pressure hose, and have bled a few times to make sure there is no air in ABS pump and they feel great again.

 

Had an oil leak at the front of the engine since I rebuilt the engine. Nothing major, but enough to annoy me as it was making a mess, so it had to go.

 

The leak was in an annoying spot behind the lower engine cover, so it couldn't be changed/fixed without taking the front part of the engine off, or even the whole engine out all together.

 

Thought that maybe the new seal I put in on the rebuilt was done incorrectly, so changed that as it's the easiest to get to but turned out to be dry. The only other thing in that area was the oil pump/upper sump which requires engine out job.

 

 

Had the car in on the ramps saturday morning, pulled the engine out and stripped the bottom sumps & oil pump off.

 

 

 

On the off chance the leak/seal failure was being caused by the oil pump, I ordered a new oem one just to be safe knowing it was new. Also modified the relief valve on the oil pump by porting it out slightly, allowing for more oil and less pressure build up around the front crank seal (not that I have to worry to much with an NA about this, but good future proofing)

 

 

 

 

Turns out the leak was coming from a failure in the RTV sealant I used previously where the oil pump connects with the upper sump. So "upgraded" my choice of RTV this time to loctite copper and put the engine back together.

 

Ready to go back in

 

 

 

 

Had everything back in by sunday evening, put it through it's passes on the way home and no leaks.

 

Got a trip into europe coming up soon, so I just need to sort out suspension alignment, new crank pulley & new rad hoses and I should be ready to go

[Supra.SZ-R]

Your quick pulling the engine!

Nice one, europe trip!!

I think I have Insurance for my Supra sorted now, so I can drive properly when I'm home

[Mike2JZ]

Your quick pulling the engine!

Nice one, europe trip!!

I think I have Insurance for my Supra sorted now, so I can drive properly when I'm home

 

Thanks practicing makes it quicker every time for sure. Sounds good, hopefully see you soon

[Mike2JZ]

Before heading out to Europe I treated the interior to a small update with gauges so I could monitor the engine on the fly. Installed the following:

 

 

3 Way T piece off the stock oil pressure sender location on block. Can run the stack sender, stock low oil pressure sensor & blank cap, which I might put an oil temp sensor on.

 

 

NA version of a boost gauge

 

 

Trip around Europe went well, no leaks from engine anymore and performance feels bang on. No more rear swaying/tramlining whilst on motorways, and felt solid ripping through the french motorways at silly speeds during the early hours of the morning.

 

Also managed to meet a fellow MKIV supra member out in Switzerland, and had a good day together blasting through the swiss countryside. He was on the fence about importing his TT6 to switzerland, but after a day out in mine I think his mind has been made on that decision!

 

 

Once back in the UK went for a track day at lydden hill to see how the car felt post subframe/suspension rebuild.

 

 

Supra felt amazing around the track. RSR semi slicks really stuck to the track no matter how hard I went into the corner. Obviously not the fastest down the straight, but being able to minimize braking and throw the car round corners with no fear of understeer/oversteer was a great experience.

 

But as every track day goes, something has to break.

 

Fan shroud clips weren't great to begin with and after some punishment round the track, the shroud managed to dislodge itself and the fan chewed itself to pieces and ripped itself off the viscous pulley.

 

Luckily no other damage, and managed to get a new fan on within an hour and was back on the track to finish off the other sessions. Other then that only real complaint was that my ride height on the rear was a little low and had some scraping under sharp turns, but easy enough to alter and change for future sessions.

 

Got a small powersteering leak from the powersteering cooler return line, so planning on getting an a new auto rad as mine needs replacing then I can route powersteering into the trans cooler on the rad.

 

Also picked up a used HKS Hi Power exhaust from SRD, which I will restore then put on. Other than those two things no major plans on the horizon other than saving for turbo / ridox bodykit / respray.

Edited August 4, 2016 by Mike2JZ (see edit history)

[marbleapple]

Great pic of the supra in the swiss countryside. love it.

[Kendo11]

Fantastic track picture Mike.