marks_2_sparks

Well as usual I have been slack updating this, I blame the fact that I got distracted and got another project car for a bit. I got a little carried away as usual so have a look and then I will carry on with the corolla project. I did have an MR2 years ago and felt like getting another so that's what I did. It was completely standard bar an air filter and loud exhaust. Then I got stuck into it and replaced all the suspension and bushes, new exhaust, link g4 plus, Rotrex super charger, Subaru water to air intercooler, TE37 wheels. Removed some rust from the windscreen . removed the motor Got the new shiney bits Put together the jigsaw puzzle And got this really smooth power curve So this is a really fun car to drive, not too much power and so linear you can throw it around without getting into too much trouble . I would say more but I will be selling this soon to further the corolla and I will be shipping the corolla across the ditch within a year, an expensive at the least so there won't be much more done to the MR2. So because the corolla will be coming over with me I have decided to convert it to be e85 ready, this should also help with the emission testing for compliance and gain a bit more power too... can't complain about that. One of the next things will to confirm what is legal in the way of modifications in VIC compared to NZ as there are a few differences and I want to try and minimize any work required once I get there because I will have enough stuff to worry about without car problems when all my tools are still packed away. Anyway there will be another update once I get some progress done.

Jeez at this rate I will only be doing 2 updates a year. Well to be honest I have not been doing too much to the corolla, more enjoying it and trying not to break it. I got the motor back in and running a treat. turns out the head gasket couldn't handle that much boost, no other damage apart from that but I put a new set of rings in and polished the skirts of the pistons as there were a few fine scuff marks. I also coughed up for a better intercooler and tidied up the engine bay a tad while things were apart It's looking pretty tidy now and the air temps have dropped noticeably. after a good drive it would be about 5 deg above ambient. Now it's reading ambient or even slightly below probably because I plumbed the idle control valve into the same port as the temp sensor so there is constant air flow past it. I plan to go back on the dyno to see what difference the intercooler has made but it's not high on the list because until I get bigger tires under the front I cant use the power it has even now.

Well I did have the car on the dyno before Christmas and it performed really well. I believe the intercooler may be a limiting factor now but I have reached my power goal for now so no more power mods other than smoothing the boost map out. green power line is the first tune with 2.5 inch exhaust and factory cams blue power line is Kelford cams 194TA and valve springs also 3 inch exhaust Red power line is above mods with new kinugawa "td05 20g" turbo That was great for all of an hour, I didn't even get to bring it on to full boost properly. I was trimming the boost map for the cooler air temp off the dyno and for some reason the boost cut chose to go on vacation and not work. So I would have hit some massive number, possibly even 50psi. So the car is currently looking like this It looks like I lifted the head pretty well as there was telltale marks right across the old gasket. I also had 0 compression on number 4 but that looks to have been caused by the gasket blowing through to the oil gallery and not re sealing like the rest of the gasket did. So the damage was not too big in the end, just checking the surfaces are flat still for a new gasket, a new set of rings just to be sure and I should be up and running by this weekend. I have also modified my old low boost controller which uses the BOV to now act as an overall safety valve to limit boost to under 22psi. That way even if the boost cut fails I will still be covered. It is also not required for low boost control anymore as the new turbo doesn't suffer boost creep like the old one. Anyway moral of the story.. poop happens, don't own a modified car if you cant afford to spend coin on one. though I could have purchased a pretty tidy non turbo supra for what I have spent this year. but then I wouldn't this awesome one of a kind corolla

Well good things take time apparently but that was a tad excessive. I finally have a new turbo sitting in my hands.... well I did have. I didn't mess around and it's already fitted. Upon first inspection it looked pretty much the same as what I had so I was almost disappointed until I opened it up and had a look. Here's some old V new pics Old compressor cover New compressor cover Old compressor wheel New compressor wheel Old turbine wheel New turbine wheel well enough of the pictures, how does it compare performance wise? I have taken it for a drive on one of my usual routes so I can have some form of comparison and so far it seems promising. the response seems very similar, threshold is maybe a little bit later but it's hard to tell. When it spools it comes on much faster and stronger than the old one. It also has the same amount of boost/power down low as there is a hill I walk it up in 5th at 70km/h and it still went up without slowing down, the old setup only just held the same speed up that hill Got the dyno booked for Wednesday so we will see what will happen then. It's been a year of tinkering and I have ended up spending a chunk of money but fingers crossed it should all come together deliver some good results

I have not been posting here for ages as I have been using another build thread I have elsewhere. so time to copy and paste from where I left off.... Well if you have been following this then you will be wondering what happened to my turbo. Well fear not..... so have I. eventually found that the supplier took payment but never generated a purchase. basically my name never got put to a turbo and I got fed a load of generic information about the batch of turbos of which one of should have been mine. Pity it took 8 months for the truth to come out. Anyway I have moved on and am now waiting for a Kinugawa TD05 20g with billet comp wheel and 9 blade? (not sure) turbine wheel and a ported internal waste gate (still persevering with internal due to lack of space). I have been thinking long and hard, doing as much homework as possible and this new turbo should be nearly as good as the FP68hta at a fraction of the cost. I have fitted my nice front seats and they are so much more comfortable than the 400,000k old ones, I no longer feel like I'm crippled after a road trip which has to be a plus. I have had a few people ask what car I took them from and I get a bit of a blank look when I say they are factory with a visit to the auto upholsterer. I also decided to do something about the suspension. Not that there was anything wrong with the stock stuff, it just wasn't really good enough for spirited driving. so I pulled the old stuff out . and replaced it with something that looks exactly the same but takes these little knobs... and for ease of adjustment in the rear . I went to the Koni workshop in Auckland and talked to Russell who sorted me out with inserts. I believe the rears are for MR2's (dunno if AW or SW) and the fronts are for a Celica (again dunno which model). They have plenty of adjustment and with the addition of some stiffer springs the corolla is now much flatter and more stable in the corners. I have also been messing around with the launch control and flat shift a bit more and now have it building 5psi on the line at 3000rpm and flying through the gears. that has made it more interesting to drive and has certainly kept me entertained while trying to sort out the turbo woes. well fingers crossed that I have a turbo in the next few weeks and hopefully it doesn't end up under the Christmas tree, I think I have waited long enough to finish that part of the project.

I have disabled the vsc on a st215 caldina. It was done by wiring a normally closed switch in line with the steering angle sensor. Push the button for 3 sec which put a fault in the ecu which disabled vsc until the next time you turn the engine off. Couldn't get the traction control to disable but the vsc trick could work on your car.

I'm pretty sure the speedo signal is only from the gear box sender so you can rule out the abs sensors. Capacitors can fail with temperature. I have seen circuits only work when they warm up because of faulty caps. The cluster should come out fairly easy. Start by removing the trim above the steering wheel. Then the shroud inside the dash around the cluster. Then screws out around the cluster, tilt it forward and reach behind to remove the plugs. The whole dash is a bit of a jig saw puzzle so you may have to pull a few other parts and look for hidden screws. If you really get stuck I may be able to put up some pictures from the Toyota service manual

I had this problem on my mx83. The odometer died completely and the speedo was intermittent. I replaced the capacitors on the speedo circuit board and the speedo started working again but I had to replace it in the end as the odometer issue was in one of the chips on it and I couldn't find a spare. Something to consider?

I had the engine rebuilt professionally after finding the block was warped and they did check the head displacement. It must have been all right as they didn't come back to me with any remedial work. The balancing was very noticeable. The new motor is much smoother and quieter so you don't feel the engine revs in the car anymore. The head work is definitely flowing more air as well. We had lean miss under light load and the wastage pressure has dropped to 8 psi from 12.

It has been a long time since my last post here, probably because I have been busy working on the car. I will update with a bit of copy paste action from my other build thread so its possible I may have a little bit of double up, enjoy. I have had it on the dyno 5 times in the last few months. It turns out I was running right on the limit of the 2.5 inch exhaust. First run on the dyno after I had changed the injectors and bits around was 180kw down from the original 205. That was no surprise as I was playing it safe until it was checked on the dyno. After tuning it we got it back to 200kw before the power curve flat lined. I put this 5kw loss down to the 2nd resonator I fitted to keep the noise down. Even though it didn't make any noticeable difference and the horrible drone was still there. So a trip to the exhaust shop and I got the single chamber high flow muffler replaced with a true straight through muffler which not only took 5db off the total noise it also completely got rid of the drone. The next run on the dyno also got the power up to nearly 205kw again with no power gains past 6000ish rpm and no difference from 16 psi to 20 psi except a small amount of low to mid range torque. This graph is prior to the rear muffler replacement but shows the nature of the power curve. So after playing around with all that I decided the best solution to get more power is to get a bigger exhaust. So I have organized a welder friend to assist with making a custom 3 inch stainless system from turbo back and we will see what the difference is. The new car parts are arriving already. It took a while to get it back on the dyno as the tuner was chasing a faulty circuit in the dyno but after a re tune I'm only getting an extra 10kw on high boost and the power is almost a flat line from 6000 to red line. We spent some time tweaking and experimenting and the likely culprit is the valve springs are too soft for the boost. At the moment I'm making 210kw on 20psi and 165kw on 12 psi. Current tune low and high boost A bonus is the internal waste gate is controlling boost on high boost and I made a "boost controller" which uses the bov to assist with control on low boost by venting the excess pressure. Take a look at the low boost and how well it holds. The extra plot on this one is before we added more tension to the waste gate.(just before I put new cams in as per later in the post) it felt horrible, no grunt behind the revs and was very sluggish (compaired to current tune) now that I look at it the low boost run was before we added more tension as well so low boost is probably a bit higher power than shown I spent a few hours making a spring compressor which will let me change them without pulling the head off and will save a lot of time provided I don't drop a valve into the cylinder. I'm going to rely on compressed air to hold the valves shut so we will see how that works out. Tested it out on the spare head when I was making it to be sure it will work, it is so much easier than the expensive one I have that clamps right around onto the other side of the valve. Only problem was trying to take a picture and operate the compressor while holding the head down, should be even easier with the head on the block and the other hand free from the camera. I managed to get the valve springs in with minimal fuss which was nice but once I had it all back together there was a concerning tap/knock/rattle coming from somewhere up top. Being the only thing I had touched was the valves I figured I must have mixed up some of the shims and buckets. So only wanting to pull it apart one more time (none really). I decided to cough up and get some new cams for it just to help it sing that little bit better. So I will see how it goes on the dyno next time round. I put the new cams in and adjusted the clearances as required, none were very far out so it all looks good. I did figure out what the rattle was though.... waste gate chatter. I fixed up the actuator on it and only just remembered. Turns out there was just enough tension and play for it to bounce around which explains why I could hear it out the exhaust and why it stopped once the motor started to make boost. I not taking the cams out though. So after taking it for a drive I can say the Kelford 194TA cams have given it a right kick in the pants. I have run them in and after a quick blast, Wow! it feels like the first time I drove it home from the dyno. Boost comes on so much sooner and on low boost it will just power into wheel spin in second gear which it never did even with the less grippy old tires. Skip foward a few weeks and.. Well I had a bad feeling just before it was on the dyno last that the head gasket was leaking again. based on the slightly oily carbon floating in the radiator and the decided lack of coolant in the top tank it was pretty obvious....but what caused it? The general population agreed it was likely the head was warped. But, we were wrong and it was the block. 2thou out across the width with various high and low spots. So the motor had to come out to get machined. the machine shop said it was likely the motor was cooked at some point I'm guessing the fact it came out of an AW11 that was an ex demo car that it could have happened early in it's life . So I have a nice alloy radiator to help keep temperatures in check for those times that I decide to have some fun and throw it around the track or down the quarter and to ensure I'm not the cause of another un-nessecary rebuild in the process. Now given that I don't want to pull the motor down again anytime soon and there was evidence of the valves touching the pistons (going to say valve float otherwise the motor wouldn't have still been running) I decided to get a few other bits done. Out with the old.... some of the new, bumpity bump stripping the block for machining and honing Balancing of the rotating assembly in preparation of new shiny bits The crank was out by 3 grams, the pully was only 1 gram and the flywheel even after it had been setup and lightened in the lathe was out by 50 grams. while everything is in pieces I also went and got the head cleaned up some what. intake before and after exhaust before and after It looks pretty good and should help the engine go just that bit better when it's all back together. So The engine build list is now looking like this Head- port, polished and blueprinted 20v head Kelford 194TA cams Kelford springs Custom intake manifold, quad throttle bodies block- CP 20 valve pistons 9.0 compression CP rods fully balanced rotating assembly ARP main and rod bolts lightened flywheel (nothing excessive but have yet to confirm the difference, possibly 1-1.5kg less) I also ordered a new turbo from forced performance, their FP68HTA. Long story short, it looks like a TD05 16g, bolts in where a TD05 does but flows more like a TD06 20g. Just the ticket as I don't want to change my manifolds and exhaust around if I can help it. and after all of this is done we will see how much power it makes and just what kind of beast it drives like. I know that just changing the cams out gave me the same power for 3psi less boost and made it spool close to 1000rpm sooner. Jump foward another 2 weeks and... I got a call today saying my parts were on the counter and the guys had started putting things together. So I shot around and had a look. ARP 2000 series main studs Mmmmm, Tasty brand new pistons. Rods all weighed up and ready to go, (everything was within 1 gram out of the box but they got them closer by mixing and matching rods and pistons) I actually saved a tad over 800 grams from the old rods and pistons to the new ones So at the moment the car is sitting on a hoist halfway back together, the aim is to have it finished and checked on the dyno by the end of tomorrow. then it's a case of running the new motor in on low boost and waiting for the new turbo to arrive which should work in with the end of my tuners 2 week holiday and the fact the dyno is out of action getting the rollers balanced (they had them re knurled to improve grip but it's put the balance out somehow). So I will give an update once I get a power run with the new turbo on and tuned

And the last post for now, I would have done less but for some reason the picture links stop working after 2-4 in each post. I have included some of the other parts I have managed to put together for the corolla. my dashboard with boost and AFR to replace the battery and oil pressure. I will be fitting a digital EGT above the red warning LED which is where the TEMS display would have gone. I also managed to find a factory Toyota badge for the steering wheel. I even managed to use the factory AC buttons to control the high boost and launch control features, I thought it was a good idea to add a safety key switch hidden away so if I have to let someone else drive it I can turn the fun factor down and prevent them using these features by accident. That is pretty much where I have gotten to with my car at this point in time. hope you like it.

The last pic my be a bit dusty but it shows pretty well how I fitted things in there. And here is some proof that it actually works. I was back on the dyno and we wound the boost up to 20psi but all it did was lose 7kw as the exhaust is too restrictive. I have already organized parts and a time to have that delt with so before christmas I should have another 20-30kw to play with. That dip in power was an incorrectly set up vvt setpoint which has been fixed. The small spikes in the boost was also a setup issue with the solenoid frequency set to 50hz (25hz is much better)

Here is a selection of parts awaiting installation Excluding the back end of my cat I have changed those injectors out already for larger 800cc units and not included in that picture is the following. link g4 storm Td05 16G turbo charger Rebuilt E51 mr2 gearbox with new synchros and TRD LSD All New engine mounts Greddy blow off valve AE111 shocks and brakes (twin pot) Nolathane bushes for suspension (where OEM not available) I know I'm missing bits but that is the bulk of the go faster bits. I have fitted and all sorts of little things to bring the whole package together over the years.

Now to the stealthy part. I have put together a 4agte for this little car. I have a gze bottom from the early aw11 mr2 with a ported and lightly polished silvertop 20 valve head. That is held together with a cometic headgasket and ARP studs. To that I have attached custom made intake and exhaust manifolds which I can thank the fitter welders at work for their input. The exhaust is all steam pipe and has been tig welded together. The intake is 316 stainless and the runners to the throttle bodies have been flared out inside the manifold to help with the air flow, so it's not quite a simple log manifold.

This is what it was looking like at the start of the year. We got fairly stuck in and the only thing we didn't do ourselves was the actual top coats of paint as we wanted to do it in a proper paint booth to get the best result possible. I think it turned out really good.

Well I have been working on this for a few years and I think it is only fair that I show everyone what I think is worth all that effort. it is a 1991 AE92 FXGT corolla. i have owned it for the past 5 years over which I have been working on slowly cleaning it up and making it into a clean and very stealthy car. This year I have been working with a panel beater friend and we cleaned it right back to not quite bare metal and spent almost 6 months getting the panels straight and clean enough for a fresh coat of factory black.

thanks, it's always nice to get compliments from fellow car enthusiasts. It will be an ongoing project for as long as I own it so I may start a build thread on here once I have time.

A big Hello to everyone on this forum. My name is Mark and I am currently hiding away in New Zealand but that may change. My Car of choice is an AE92 FXGT corolla which I have spent many hours over that last 5 years working on. From the outside I have tidied it up and given it a fresh coat of factory black. Quick spec engine wise it is running a 20valve head, 4agze bottom end, Td05 turbo, custom manifolds, Water to air intercooler, sard 800cc injectors and link g4 engine management with an e51 gearbox and trd lsd putting the power to the ground. Power wise it is currently 205kw atw on 16psi. That should be increasing shortly. I Hope to be able to bring this car with me if/ when I move to Australia. I am well aware it wont be cheap and there is alot of things to sort through so I will be asking a few questions around this in the hope to get as much sorted as possible before shipping it over. some of the stuff on modifications you are allowed on cars in Austraila has me concerned/ confused. It would be nice to have minimal hassles getting it back on the road and I would hate to get it in the country only to find I have no hope of legally driving it other than on a race track.