build_jzx

Thank you mate! Yes, ive felt every bit of it too! haha. however it has been a year since ive updated this thread. Hows the camry going? I think I read something the other day about you putting the gearbox back together?

been a while since an update. Long story short, took it back to the tuner - gate wouldn't open. We couldn't get any boost control until 26psi. I had a suspicion that the actuator rod had not been adjusted since the new core was installed (as the new CHRA is longer). Tuner didn't believe so. He was pushing to go external gate now as the turbo is clearly making more air. Early signs at the tuner were good. Turbo was coming on a lot sooner and a lot stronger earlier. To be expected. Hard to put figures/numbers on it. He only did two half runs - up to 5500rpm and then wouldn't go any further as it was only on 98 and running too much boost. But, on 98 and at 5500rpm, it did manage to get to 345rwkw on the dyno. Potential looked good. Tuner said we have two things to tackle, firstly gate, secondly fuel. I already knew I was maxing the fuel setup as it was - but have never talked myself into doing a bigger setup. Hence the delay in updates... I sat on the idea of bigger fuel setup for weeks/months. Looking around, talking to a few people. Also didn't really know what to do about the gate situation. Finally convinced myself, if I can get a reasonably hidden small surge tank setup and externally mounted pump, ill do my fuel setup. The reason it took so long to decide - is I know pushing more air, more fuel is also going to require more spark eventually. Ill worry about that later. The good news... Hooked up a mechanical vacuum gauge up to the gate. It was not cracking until 20psi and wasn't open properly until around 25psi. I adjusted it so that it now cracks at 12-13psi and open around 15psi. The gauge was telling me the gate was fully open at 30psi... which I kind of don't believe for an internal gate. anyway, gate issue sorted for now. Although I did buy myself an external gate in the mean time - as ill make the switch eventually. Bought one of the second gen GFB EX50 gates. will probably run a 16psi spring setup. The hardest part of making it work is fitting it in the bay nicely now without too much effort to the exhaust manifold and returns into the new dump. Then it was onto the fuel setup. My goals - something relatively hidden and unobtrusive, single pump rather than twin pumps. So, I wanted to mount it externally on the rear passenger side on the other side of the wheel well. Talking with my tuner - needed to run -8 feed AND return. I decided on a holley dominator 1800 pump. Running an external fuel filter in the lines as well, and a new fuel rego - Aeromotive. The walbro 460 pump will stay in tank, but will be speed controlled by the ECU so fuel temps do not become an issue. Rail will stay as I already have a Sard rail installed. Surge tank is complete. Measures in at 4L. Just need to run lines and hook it all up. The only issues I had, where I wanted to mount it under the car, I had to make a flat plate section to bolt the surge tank to - as there was a section there where we couldn't get a thread into the chassis. Scraped it back, made the plate, reapplied stoneguard and then also installed sound deadening between chassis and tank. Im also taking the opportunity to re-locate the battery to the boot. two main reasons for this. Firstly, I no longer have a washer bottle as the oil cooler takes up the space of this. So I need to clear some space in the bay so I can put a washer bottle in there and keep all fluids in the bay. Secondly, in the boot will mean good length to fuel pump(s). I will get additional terminals installed to the engine bay so I don't have to unbolt the battery box to jump start all the time. thanks for the tip @ So with the battery going in the boot, I will mount the fuel reg in the bay right next to the (future) washer bottle. Pictures: So, after the HPI dump didn't work out, I decided to sell it and use the money to get a custom 3.5 inch dump made. Figured the money to modify the HPI + money to sell it would make up the difference for HPI Dump. So running custom dump now. Also, bought a bucket seat and bride rails to mount into the JZX. Install is not proving easy though... I don't have Asian hips. Also had battery and starter motor issues recently. The factory battery lasted many years! Went for a SSB dry cell replacement. Installed a bosch 1.4kw starter motor. Shout out to @JZXTV who helped out to get it in. Turns out, the feed from the battery is super tight as the terminal on the Bosch starter is on the other side. Either way, wont matter when I relocate battery. External Gate Modified a spare TRD strut brace I picked up for cheap to install a brake master cylinder stopper. Then had it stripped back and recoated. I didn't paint it, I matched the TRD paint in powdercoat instead. Then clear coated it to give it the same appearance. Came up rather nice! Fuel setup bits and pieces.

Ive managed to piece the car back together over the last week. It was a giant pain in the ***** getting the oil drain to work. Essentially the GTX cartridge is clearly bigger than the tomei in diameter. So the oil drain that comes off the bottom now sits lower. In my case, so low that it was resting on the engine mount itself and preventing the exhaust manifold from being bolted flat to the block. So i had to come up with an alternative. The existing tomei one wouldnt work. So ive run a -12 90 degree speedflow straight off the turbo into -12 gates racing hose. This then runs into a -12 speedflow 60 degree piece that connects to a speedflow sump flange. Reason why i changed sump flange is that -12 hose will not fit over the factory sump inlet. Its not pretty at the moment and i would like to do a custom metal one piece oil drain, but it is fine for the tune and general duties at the moment. Must say, the re-install is relief to be complete. Pre-lubed the turbo with Liqui Moly turbo pre-lube. Then after connecting everything, disconnected the igniter so that oil pressure built up in the oil feed line right away. Also fitted a restrictor to the oil feed as all ball bearing turbo's will need one according to GCG otherwise you can have excess oil and blow a lot of dark smoke out of the exhaust. There was a few minor issues. I will eventually replace the coolant lines to braided but the hosing ive got has fire sleeve over it for the time being. Coolant flush done. The exhaust flange didnt bolt up to the HPI dump as it is made to fit a 100 not a 110. need to sort that before tune. Started it up - initial whine in the turbo at the very beginning but fine once warm and no problems now! Took it for a spin around the block. No boosting as such - avoiding boosting until the tune. But this is by far a massive massive improvement. you can hear in the below video it is whistling loudly before 2000rpm. Im barely pressing the throttle in this video. mainly to take it for a drive and make sure it was getting boost and no leaks from anything. Hard to say when it comes on and when it comes on hard, but it is much much earlier than the tomei core. I havent yet planted my foot to the floor to find out. Pics: Short Video

and here it is. How the tomei should have been built. Full GTX3582r core assembly, wheels and the works. Tomei exhaust housing machined to suit. I decided to also get the exhaust housing ceramic coated - it was a good time for that to be done. Photos during maching: Went to throw it in the car on the weekend. New oil drain off the bottom of the gtx core is now an aeroflow flange and has an extension. So i decided to go get a 45 degree bend to match similar to the factory oil drain so i didnt have to change to much into the sump. Turns out the 45 degree isnt enough bend and it is hitting hard on the engine mount. So ill need to go back and get a 60 degree perhaps. Or im also thinking maybe a braided hose into the sump. Also pulled off the POS aeroflow coolant fittings into the turbo and replaced with Speedflow. Was given some new coolant lines from GCG - but these are just rubber hoses. Ill use them for now and change to braided later on when i change the radiator setup. meanwhile, saturday night someone decided to flip a car directly out the front of my house. on a straight bit of road. no licence, no insurance, drunk and did the runner. Turns out he lives 15 houses down the street - he could have made some better decisions that night for sure.

also, emptied the catch can again. and this is why catch cans are good.

alrighty update. started to dissect the car apart to pull the turbo out. all went well. Turbo shaft play looked okayyyyy but not 100%. I am told journal bearing do have a little sideways movement. Anywho continued pulling everything apart. I also noticed that my hi flow cat was obviously melted from excessive temps at the track day. heres a little sounding of it and a video of the turbo... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FhXf4eGcV8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qLftmeM52M So, decision is clear. Car is past the point of being able to run efficiently at the track with a cat. So decat it is. Picked up a HPI decat second hand. This will do just nicely. I will get the car permanently tuned on this and run the tomei dump with hiflow cat for the street only. No more restriction in the exhaust, hopefully I can pickup a little more boost with the decat. After pulling the turbo off - no oil residue in exhaust housing. hmmm not a turbo seal it would seem. Best to send away to get checked. Can confirm - tomei Gone. RIP. Cause was 'oil starvation' which seems to be a pretty common reason for failure on these tomeis. I think mine had a lifespan of approx. 22,000kms. It was inevitable it would seem. So I did some research and had some discussions. It has been settled, I will be hiflowing the tomei and throwing in a ball bearing core. The internal core and wheels will be from a GTX3582r turbo. It will be fitted with a new oil feed on the other side of the turbo. otherwise, everything should suit fine. Backpressure shouldn't be an issue after some quick calcs from the techs. They are also happy with the internal gate flange size and boost control should be okay. Ideally id like an external gate, but rather than be changing all the fabrication now - im saving some coin. Im happy enough with my current power, I just want a bit more of a reliable turbo setup. This should help. If I was going to change turbo setups completely, id be going EFR7670 t4 twinscroll with twin wastegates. So I didn't really want to spend another $6K plus getting this done. Started pulling all the aluminium pipes off for hot side intercooler pipe, air intake box etc etc. Figured now would be an ideal time to finally powdercoat everything else in my bay that I needed to and finish off the rest of the orange silicone hoses. A couple of pipes had been fouling so I got that welded up and smoothed out before powercoating. Decided to powdercoat the air filter box in wrinkle black in an attempt to sort of match the texture of the factory plastics. All pipes in gloss black and the intake box lid hydrodipped carbon to make the engine cover. Just waiting on the final orange hoses to show up and ill be fitting t-bar clamps to these pipes now. Once the turbo is ready again, and all the bits and pieces have arrived, ill throw it all back together with a coolant flush and engine oil change and the it will be ready for a tune early February. Keen to see any difference in results and how it turns out. Also keen to see what effect the decat has on sound and performance.

so ive been under the pump at work recently. have not really found much to any time to come on here for updates or to work on the car a lot. I got the car back from the tuner on Friday 11th December. The task was then to get ready by 22nd December for track day. I basically only had a couple of major things I wanted to get done before the track day on top of the usual fluid changes and checks. I finally decided to install an oil cooler. Ive gone with a Setrab STD625 - in black... Speedflow fittings and hoses. This gave me the perfect opportunity to re-install the oil filter re-location mount after the kit I got had ****ty fittings. Good to say it is all re-installed without leaks. No more oil filter mess! I also wanted to re-inforce the rear boot after installing the wing. the two front supports were literally sitting on the top alloy and nothing else. So my fabricator cut the supports to the boot, welded in a solid bar with two big flat plates to spread the load and then re-inforced as needed. It is as solid as a rock now. Wing is a bit flimsy on the ends though. Crappy plastic. The other major thing I wanted to achieve was to find myself a second hand complete diff but change ratios. This way I could simply swap the new one straight in and keep a spare on hand if needed later on. I managed to get a jzx110 complete Torsen LSD. I then got myself a 4:1 ratio crown and pinion. Diff shop installed this with new bearings. Decided to take a visit up to @ who helped me take the old diff out and new one in. Oil change, new diff oil (obviously), empty catch can, top up fluids, change brake pads, change wheels. There were a couple of other little things I wanted to achieve but that can go on the list for next time. I decided to tow the car down this time as I lost confidence since the TPS fail, plus I had new hoses connected for the oil cooler and a new diff (just incase anything went wrong). Overall I was happy with the car at the track. Managed to beat my P.B. by 2.3 seconds. There certainly is a lot more in it too. Im just chipping away, getting that confidence in the car - and well, ive got a lot to improve in terms of corners and braking/throttle points. Car performed really well. Later in the afternoon my coolant was boiling so I did let the car cool a fair bit and didn't go back out for a time. I did then go out for a few more passenger laps. As I was under hard boost at the entry of turn 3, the exhaust let out a small puff of greyish/blue smoke. No loss of power or drive, no mechanical noises. No smoke on idle or under light throttle - only wide open throttle. So I am jumping to the conclusion it is a turbo seal at this stage. Butttt as its a tomei, who knows. Ill pull the turbo off over the Christmas break and have a good inspection. I am already looking into other options though and weighing it all up. As im pulling it all out, im just thinking im at that point now where I might need to make an improvement there for reliability. It was the one thing that could let me down with my build - and also cooling system. I need to upgrade the cooling system sooner rather than later also. I also took an action camera. but the battery was homo - so I barely got any usable footage. didn't take my proper camera down either so no good photos, but hopefully some of the other guys managed to get some good snaps! Ill try and get some new shots in its current state in the coming weeks as ive got a new lens I want to play around with anyway!

long time no update. well not really much to report in on really. Car is heading to insight in about a month or so... I have a track day planned late December, but not looking like ill make it in time. I have a fair amount of work ahead of me on the car. I am planning on doing some cooling upgrades before the summer track day. So looking into a few different things at the moment. will hopefully have some progress on this over the coming weeks. Meanwhile, found a nice fortuna boot on yahoo japan for cheap. Bought it. Figured Id make a boot just to use at track days and find myself a good wing. I didn't want to fork out $$$$$ for a voltex wing - and I don't really know what im doing when it comes to aero or any of that. Found a nice generic copy of the voltex GT wing for around $350 shipped. I have to say the build quality is better than expected. Aluminium brackets and stainless bolts everywhere. The only thing im going to do is probably install some plates underneath the boot to help distribute the bolt load points out to a greater surface area, as they feel a bit crappy. Got the factory spoiler holes welded up and resprayed and mounted the wing. Shout out to @ for his help with the bodyworks :-) Have to say, it turned out better than I thought but it is going to look a bit ridiculous on the car. If the car was lower, and perhaps a little wider, it might look okay!

Summerized reply on TPS - tuner basically re-wrote the entire Toyota coding for the DBW throttle. He did say that it was actually not setup like most late model Toyotas and similar to late model fords. Anyway, it sorted that out. Thank god for his smart mind.

Annnnnd Sunday the car officially had to be towed home from the cruise. TPS failed. I know it was the TPS as it was playing up savagely during the week and I went to the tuners on Friday to get them to plug in their computer and suss it all out. On the way to the tuners the car completely bogged out on me. When the TPS fails it is tuned to go into limp mode to protect the motor in the event the throttle sticks. So I had to wait it out halfway there to the tuners and try and reset the ecu and go again. Luckily I made it - just. When I got to the tuners, the voltage in the TPS sensor was changing constantly by itself on idle - this is not supposed to happen. Even when I put my foot down on the throttle - the butterfly was not opening. The butterfly was reading to be open at 105% but this isn't possible apparently. So the tuner cleared the errors, reset the throttle to 100% and worked some magic. Drove it home and it drove smooth and back to normal... Saturday I drove it to get fuel and it started to get a little jittery again. Finally on sunday on the way to the cruise meet, the TPS failed again but I turned the engine off as I was rolling and clutch started it which got me to the meet okay. I was not confident. Sure enough about 15 mins into the royal national park the car decided to ruin the day for me and in the worst possible area of the natio park. Shout out to JZXGG guys who helped try and reset the ecu enough to get me around the corner onto a flat spot where I waited for the towie. Videos of TPS issues at various stages before National Park. http://youtu.be/7SHWCVPtVuk - this video was shot on the way to the tuner last Friday when it shut down on the way. That's my foot you can hear pressing the throttle to the floor. http://youtu.be/fa0qUc9drR8 - this video was shot on Thursday night before the tuners reversing into my garage. It stalled - but not by me, it just dropped revs entirely and shut down. http://youtu.be/rn1Pwm1s63M - this video was shot at the cruise on Sunday. As you can see, my foot is all the way to the floor and it just wont rev. Nothing cleared this. What made it worse was about 30 mins later there was an accident down the road. So police blocked the national park off in both directions. So I sat there waiting for the tow truck in utter silence for about an hour... Certainly made it easier for the towie to pick my car up though. Anyway ive been having conversations with the tuner and we have a couple of ideas to proceed and remove this issue. I just have some research to do and it will be interesting to see how it turns out and hopefully may benefit other 110/jzs171 users in the future. Also there are quite a few firmware updates ready for my ECU now so it will go back in to get some stuff tweaked. The motorsport traction control feature is now active. They have seen good results in Europe where a BMW was racing endurance and finished 2nd in his class and 6th overall against GT supercars. In the rain with traction control, the BMW was literally pulling a couple of seconds on the GT cars per lap. So ill be interested to see how that all works out. More pics

been a while since an update. Not a hell of a lot to report in on. Except below... first major issue since the build. TPS... good old TPS. Anyway heres a few photos from the last track day about a month or so ago now. Was a great weekend with the guys and car was flawless although im still learning how big my balls can be through the corners. The only issue I had all weekend was trying to start the car in -1 temperature in wakefield on e85. (Only) took about 25 minutes of cranking before she finally gurgled over... Before next track day I have a few things lined up. Would like to change diff ratio to a 4:1 as with the tomei I definitely need more pull out of the corners. No dramas in a straight line for power that's for sure. Ive also picked up a second hand boot in the same colour and a cheap copy GT wing that im going to mount on it and use this boot just for track days. Ive picked up another TRD strut brace for cheapies and will fabricate a brake master cylinder stopper on the back of it. Didn't want to ruin my good condition one considering they cost an arm and a leg these days. It seems I also have a bit more work ahead of me with fabrication now thanks to the TPS. Ideally I would also like to install a bigger radiator and oil cooler before the next track day but ill see how I go for time and funds. Track day and spares for mods:

okay... I think I haven't updated my thread in long enough. over a year lol. ill update

alright small update. just mainly getting it ready for some more track work since the brakes have been on. my track wheels showed up - so just going to get some rubber on those and need to change fluids all round this weekend and im good to go. Had a little fabrication done. I wanted to get some tow-hooks for trackwork. As there is nothing available for 110 or is200/300 that is any good (mostly universal ****) - I got some fabbed up. Mounting blocks bolted to chasses. Front passenger side only has 3 mounting bolts so that is second preference for front tow as the drivers side has 4 mounting bolts. and yeah one on the rear which was pretty easy. The idea was to get these tow hooks obviously mounted to the chassis, but also not hack up the front bar and slot them through OR obstruct the hole in the front bar on passenger side which will eventually have an oil cooler in there. Turned out pretty neat. They are over-engineered for what they are, but that's just how I roll. powdercoated for goodness also. Also finally mounted my fire extinguisher. I just wanted something that wasn't bolted through the carpet so it was easily removable if need be. So its mounted directly under the passenger seat bolts and then I got it hydrodipped in carbon because it was cheaper than painting it believe it or not. And it kind blends in a bit better with the floor matts anyway. turned out sweet. Wheels: Tow-hooks: Fire Extinguisher:

Always worth going turbo ;)

haha... hell no. meanwhile I didn't upload these but a few pics from a couple of weeks back. tried to get some better shots of the brakes all installed.