v8toy

acouple of poser pics after a wash from yesterday next to the aurion

stewy

took it out for its maiden offroad voyage on sunday

i had it tiltrayed there and back because of no rego and is cheap really.

i had my mate in his duallocked and front and rear winched 75 series as my helper/recovery vehicle.it normally runs a set of 34" simex's with staun internal beadlocks but took the rd tyres for the day haha

i had no front tailshaft so today was more of give the engine a good run and try tune it a fair bit more and also just a general test to make sure most things were working before it does go for rego.

also had no snorkel so deep water crossings were a no no

all in all i am 100% happy with the lux and the only troules i had was the crappy ac delco igniter/coil pack failing and arcing on its bracket a quick adjustment away from the bracket and its was running smooth again.knew i shoulda kept the ***** gm crap of it.

and the crappy exhaust system i had someone make up originally failed on the bracket side as they only used crappy rubber for the hangers and it melted of.

and a small power steering leak that developed during the day

oh and a staked front tyre

as for the engine man its fast i would put it up to being not the same but close to the power of my v6 aurion it would pull second gear power skids,

me and d1 also had it running really smooth the engine wasnt moving at all at idle if it wasnt for the exhaust note u wouldnt know it was running

took it down the long sand straight acouple of times for power runs and to load her up and my mate can vouch for this its friggin fast i had it 4th gear flatout across the sand and the suspension took it sweet

we went to get a video of this but had quite a recovery emergency to deal with and ran outa time before the tilttray rolled up.

just acouple of pics

mate dan settin up for a pose

dan gettin ready to snatch the transit van lol

and these fellas we recovered were the same young dudes from a mareeba 4wd fun run day that were stuck down the back of the property, again no recovery gear and no idea if i new it was them straight away we wouldve kept goin

so the things that need attention are the igniter pack, a bit more adjustment for the gearbox x-member, reroute the extended brake lines so they dont rub on tyres at full lock, power steering leak, and another small sump leak which i allready knew about, and try figure out something with the stupid exhaust dont know wether to build my own stainless one now or after rego.

all small things which dont stop me wheeling it

also shut down a fella in a 75 ute tryin a hill climb i did it in 2wd lol

cheers

stewy

lux has had a full wheel alignment during the week, it had 4 degree wedges put under the leaf packs to correct the caster and it had 1 degree shim in the passenger king pin to correct the camber of that wheel, plus the toe in/out and spoke position since the new steering arms have been fitted.

i had a fella machine me some shock bushes for it and then fitted up all the shocks last night

and he did a sweet job too and i also made a cardboard airbox and templates up and most probally if not tomorrow or sometime next week will cut/fold and weld that up

the airfilter its a unifilter and has a outerwear cover for it

sitting in the box itll obviously sit off the bottom and closer to the top incase i fill it with water and mud and also has room for a drain valve in the bottom

with the outerwear which will only be used for offroadin so it will prob be in there 99% of the time 8O

and in the car in the ome battery spot

so then i just took it for a run down the bottle shop to ummmm test the new shocks and they work a treat on both full soft and full hard settings

got a fair few looks not sure if it was cause of its shear awesomeness or the lack of no. plates lol

stewy

previously i had managed to remove the factory steering setup and fit the hi steer arms and also fit the track rod and drag link in.

****ty pic but front view of mockup of steering setup

view from passenger side its paramount that both the steering rods are paralell so they dont hit on suspension flex

and view from drivers side

today got the fish plates for the ifs steering box in place, drilled holes, cut the crush tubes to suit, and tacked everything up ready for welding.

pic from inside chassis rail

outside pic of everything mocked up ready to tack

during the week im gonna grind up the old shock mounts i cut off then tack new shock hoops on and then next weekend ill hire a gas mig and weld the steering box, front shock hoops and rear inverted setup all done

missus picked up the rest of my gauges on for me, been mucking around tryin to fit them in a 4 runner dash gauge pod its been a tight fit but got them in.

i got a oil temp, oil pressure, water temp(all in degrees celcius) and the wideband gauge.

ill get the whole lot re upholstered similiar to the factory grey interior.

then made a .6mm ally mount for the gauges also folded 3 edges on it to give it a bit of strength and somewhere to put some screws.

i shaped the pod to fit the dash better with just enough room to get the the first gauge in

all thats left is to drill a hole for the wiring and acouple to mount it to the dash once all upholstered.

basically just finished welding the fish plates in for the ifs box cleaned up the chassis rails with the flap disc and welded and gusseted the shock hoops.

its all cleaned up and painted now, im a bit worried about the drag link clearing the sump but with a acouple of quick runs with the tape and my eyes i think i might be safe, full compression will figure that out tho.

wheel her forward tomorrow and weld the inverted rear shocks in there all tacked there just need some more glue on them.

and as of saturday 9th oct

IT RUUUUUNS AND BETTER THAN BEFORE

even took her for a fang around the block and im hard lol

small oil leak to sort out and try and attach some shocks this week

ok so the engines all good i thought the small oil leak was from the sump not being sealed quite right, so after doing a whole 1 hrs work at work this morning i was sent home (as theres not a scareck of thing to do there), i pulled the sump of and resealed it only to notice it was leaking from the input shaft seal on the gearbox ( spose i gotta expect that its been sitting idle for 3 yrs).

not to worry tho i gotta take the gearbox x-member in to be powder coated so i might as well slip the box out and fix it all at the same time.

no.2 injector isnt doin its thing properly either, according to the lappy its intermittent checked it out and its getting full voltage all the time at the plug but the injector itself is prob toast so gonna rip them out tomorrow and and get them sorted atleast then ill know its got good injectors when it hits the dyno.

other than that the engine runs really smooth for a rich map thats loaded in the ecu and its has a really nice crackle when i snap the throttle. (ill get another vid tomorrow).

also parked her on the lawn this arvo and give her a bath and got really carried away and cut and polish the whole rig shes lookin all shiny again

cheers

stewy

just a few pics so far of the steering conversion

sump after i removed from broken engine remembering it was brand new

the sorta long bits u can see in the sludge are bits of the thrust washer there was a few.

thrust washer from 3rd maincap

front view of factory steering

side view of factory steering box

these are the brackets to remove for the x-over steering conversion and shock hoops

upper torque rod bracket

left and right factory shock towers

shock towers gone

factory steering box location cleaned up ready for marking,drilling and welding

hopefully tomorrow i can get into it and get the steering box fitted and also the shock hoops.

cheers

stewy

engine turned up late yesterday arvo seems all good on first appearances even though its been checked by the guys i bought it from ill check it myself before it goes in but should be in by sunday kids permitting lol

old engne will be used for ANOTHER PROJECT i have in mind lol

cheers

stewy

well i found the culprite

drivers side intake cam shaft seized causing passenger side to break

bearing journal driver side

drivers side intake cam

new engine may be on the way from ichiban in sydney soon and keep mine for spares

cheers

stewy

WELLLLLLLLL

it broke tonight

i loaded the other ecu map on it started her up she had oil pressure not 100% but it was up there not to really worry about.

started recording the vid for ****factor reasons and at 2000rpm it stop dead it about .1 of sec flat.

the pics following show what happened

i dont know how but the cam gear has sheared of leaving about 25mm of the cam still attached to the camgear

im not sure yet if the engine has more damage deeper as i really need to put another cam in set it all back up and rotate it by hand to see if it binds up or if the valves dont return

hmmmmmmmm cars

cheers

stewy

the cat convertor is as close as i can get it to the engine without it fowling on other items but if need be i will try and change it later if its a problem.

im thinking of redesigning the exhaust system because its not as tucked up as id like it and some of the bends are a bit **** looking.

again tho something i shoulve done myself.

i parked it on the lawn lastnite as it was running out of petrol, went down the servo and on the way back up the street it looked massive and just plain tough i am so hangin to get behind the wheel for a good drive, gotta hold back tho so i finish it of properly.

cheers

stewy

:D :D :D :D :D WELLLLLLLLLLL IT RUNS woohoo :D :D :D :D :D

turns out that it wouldnt start because of installer error, installer being me lol

turns out i had the 2 ignition outputs from the ecu around the wrong way so essentailly it was 180 degrees out with the timing (which was what i thought but didnt realise how) all it tok was a simple swap of the 2 wires and walla she ran.

as the wires are allready routed and cut to size im going to leave them how i had them and swap the setting in the ecu which does the same thing.

took it around the cul-de-sac acouple of times and well im hella excited, now im going full steam ahead to get this thing on the road.

all thats left is too

fix radiator leak

wrap all the wiring up

dyno tune etc

fit x-over steering setup

wheel alignment/caster adjustment

fit 2 more gauges

powdercoat gearbox x-member

and a bloody good wash and detail.

cheers

stewy

well tried to start the lux on saturday afternoon.

had fuel and fuel pressure, had a weak spark but had spark, had cam and crankshaft triggering but she wouldnt start, checked the cam timing just to make sure and that was cool too.

after giving the 2 dizzys a bit of a clean i got a stronger spark.

a bit more trouble shooting and i had a incling that the injectors may have been blocked etc (the engine has sat for 3 yrs ), so straight down to supercrap and got some "start ya *****" sprayed that down the inlet and she fired and half ran (so long as i kept spraying lol).

so on the order list is 2 new rotors and dizzy caps and to either clean the standard injectors or get some larger ones for the sc fitment later on,

decisions decisions.

but atleast i got to hear it a little so i know ive wired it right lol.

the other thing i have to ***** around with again is the radiator started filling it up and it came almost as quickly out the core in the lower passenger side, had a closer look and one of the tubes isnt even connected to the bottom plate for the lower tank. Hella ****** off im never buying a radiator from these guys again was wrong when i initially got it and after modifing it to fit and work right it bloody leaks.

cheers

stewy

some pics guys

ome drivers side coil setup

new coil setup

new coils mounted to ome brackets.

new bung for the o2 sensor but its 10mm to high damn it

pretty much wired up the wires heading to the bottom of pic arent needed

some engine and wires

more progress tomorrow

cheers

stewy

havent been on here for a while life is flying by really crazy lately

even the sites totally changed on me learning curve again lol

Well no pics worth taking yet just been doing alot of wiring.

In the last few days I've wired up fuel pump relay, thermo fan relay, wired injectors (u would not believe how hard it is to get Nippon denso injector plugs for a toyota), sourced a combined coil igniter setup that bolts into the ome postion, also been and rattled the brain of ray hall from ray hall turbochargers about the cam and crankshaft triggering he made quick sense of the correct wiring for the geniune sensors.

All that's left to make it run is to wire in the oxygen sensor wires ( only 2), oil warning light, check engine light, I need to buy a oil temp and water temp gauge and get a new tps plug cause I broke it LOL.

Once it's all wired in I'll take a few pics b4 I wrap it all up.

Next weekend all fingers and toes crossed it'll be fired up for the first time in over 3 yrs.

hey fellas

nah projects not finished yet i can only wish i was driving it around

i have since moved from darwin to cairns so cars on hold for now till it arrives but still doesnt havent got much to do to finsh it.

cheers corzza i cant wait to cape york and all the north qld spots with it

cheers

stewy

did a couple hrs work tonight on the big girl

fitted the 2'' dropped front x-member, refitted the radiator and hoses, refitted the centre console, fitted the last 2 lightforce 240's onto the roof so i can see at night lol and left the rig in the w/shop so i get enthuiseastic (?) tomorrow and do some work on it when i finished workin 4 the bossman.

bullbar and radiator removed

hehe front ome hangers kinda gone

hahahahaha (evil laugh)

of with the old

to fit the x-member in i had to notch the rear centre section out 62mm to clear the ally radiator due to were i placed it to clear the engine, no biggy though nothing a cutting disc and welder wont fix 8) 8) 8)

tacced up

and welded

finished item welded,primed and painted up

refitted the radiator and fitted the hoses up

hose is green stripe coolant hose from cbc bearings i used to use in the trucks and earthmoving gear i worked on definatley the good ***** but is 60 odd bucks for about 1000mm.

so tomorrow i will be motivated after downing 2 strong ice coffees and acouple of red bulls

plan is to fit front shock hoops and shocks, modify bullbar mounting plate and refit bullbar then finish off welding in the rear inverted shock setup then who knows.

cheers

stewy

so i have half of my wolf products i got all the wiring and the wideband sensor and gauge thingy i must say there is alot of wiring lol but its all cool.

ill add in too that i am 400% impressed with the service etc from robbie at wolf. if there was a problem such as the ecu being delayed he rang me and was more than willing to answer any noob questions i had definatley recommend this comapny to anyone.

wideband sensor and gauge

wideband gauge

ecu wiring all up around 50 wires some i need some i dont

package so far

cheers

stewy

so progress has been slow but we do have a little

first was i picked up my driveshafts and they fit and they work well and they are shiny and new looking

second was i changed one of the outlets on my radiator a bit to allow a straighter run to the thermostate housing.

and i burnt my arm in the process damn it for sme rreason aluminium gets hot when u weld it

third was old mate from wolf rang me and they are having problems with the production crew on the ecu unit but will be here in a week as well as he still going to send me the new engine harness and dash gauge etc to make a start on and should be here tomorrow sometime via express freight.

fourth is i got my tac approval back they didnt knock me back on anything and have approval for all suspension and steering mods i need for this project and also approval for the v8 and different gearbox AND i can go to 35'' tyres if i wish.

so good news allround.

i was ment to be working on it for the last 2 nights but our washing machine crapped itself so ive been fixing that so now the missus owes me a favour

tomorrow night will be the night to do a few little things on the engine etc and then on the weekend ive got saturday only to do all the suspenson stuff because im goin fishin on sunday

what ive got left to do and in just over 3 months.

front shock hoops

dropped front x-member

ifs steering box fitup and steering rods etc

rear inverted shock kit

traction bar

get of my but and fit sump (just gotta buy bolts)

engine oil

tranny and transfer oils

replace diff oils

fit dual battery in

airbox and snorkel fab

fill radiator up

then final tac inspection and swerve testing etc etc

mvr rego inspection and

then drive it lol

tonight i did a bit on the rear end i fitted the anti wrap bar and also tacked in the rear inverted shock kit

gonna change the shock setup a tiny bit on the top shock mounting plate according to the snake racing site it should be welded on facing down but with it like this its only about 40mm between it and the anti wrap bar, first speed hump i drive over could possibly give it a good wack so im going to turn the plate around and face it upwards towards the tray.

i also couldnt help myself and flexed her up again :roll: :roll: :roll: i have pics they are really really really ****ty but u can still see ill reshoot them on the missus new camera later.

anti wrap bar and inverted rear shock kit

here u can see how close the shock mount is to the wrap bar tomorrow i will turn it 180 degrees

front flex shot

mmmm it'll get better yet steering is binding it up a little x-over steering here we come.

nicely tucked up

rear view

thats a 1m steel rule there hehe.

flexing the front wheel

so as u can see i got kinda carried away lol but hey who wouldnt tomorrow night ill finish of the rear shock setup then get into fitting up the front shock hoops and if time permits i'll get into the front hangers with the oxy and fit the dropped front spring hangers.

cheers

stewy

only acouple of minor updates ordered the ecu a wolf v500 unit and indash gauge and adjuster thingy

the driveshafts are also ready to be picked up, front had to be lengthened 155mm of standard working length and rear had to be shortened 37mm

other than that just been doin family stuff the last 2 weeks (missus is nearly ready to pop 4 weeks to go) and my 5 yr olds daily stuff lol

updates will come after the weekend gotta fix the missus camera first kinda took it barra fishing the other day and it got wet and now it doesnt work lol

haha frankensump ill name it that lol its made from 5083 ally sheet same stuff we use on the hulls of the boats we build so yeah i think itll hold dont want ayres rock to puncture it now

update

dropped the sump of to a mate to mill the flange and mill a section out to clear my oil pickup brackets at lunch will be back monday :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

tonight i got a little crazy and wired in the thermo fan relay etc to run via the ecu at a temp i can adjust thru the laptop.

bridged her out and by ***** does it push some air over the engine gonna fab a little air deflector doober under the radiator between the sump and bottom tank as theres a fair bit of air escaping down there. Tomorrow nights job though.

also got totally wild and made a new thermostate housing up and manged to suprise myself on how well it turned out 8) 8)

10mm flange, also in there is a small peice of 50x3mm pipe and the hose tail is 40x3mm after being welded and sanded then polished lol its looks a million dollars and full **** factor.

didnt get any picks of construction

sanded and orbied

note the slight bit more offset the outlet has

original fitted to car

newy fiitted to car

and all buffed up next to old one

so do u like the **** lol

the reason for the bit more offset was to allow the radiator hose to run dead straight and be only about 200mm long the other hose which i will get a pic of tomorrow is exactly the same length and straight too so all i need to carry in the toolbox is a length of 38mm universal hose and not 2 different types of hoses from 2 different cars :roll: :roll:

ill drop the thermostate housing of to be milled tomorrow aswell.

tomorrow nights effort will be finish of radiator, fit hoses and fab air doober underneath then go thru my big list tick a few things and maybe do something else :o :o :o

allrighty well it official i ned to buy me one of those profile cutters lol im sure id make some money of it haha

got the sump flange and i can safely say i got aroused haha

10mm flange

next to ome sump

holes drilled

half tacced together the chamfered edge is to clear the pinion on full compression

all tacced up

all tigged up i gotta buy me one of those too

not bad for a bike mechanic

lower section filled with water holds about 3.5l's to the top of the lower section

total volumne is around the 7.5l mark right to the flange

it seems to only have distorted about 1mm thru the centre so im hapy i expected it to be more.

im thinkin 3.5l in the lower section will be enough with the addition of a bolt in windage tray at the same level to make sure that 3.5l stays at the pickup and if i fill it with about 5.5 - 6l of oil allowing about 1.5l to be pumped into the engine on start up the volumne left in the sump while running should be about 4.5l's fingers crossed.

feel free to add ya thoughts on this as this is my first sump ive built and am playing it by ear.

tomorrow night ill add a small peice of 10mm plate into the bottom corner and drill and tap this for the sump plug and im not sure yet if im going to add a temp sender in it yet ill bolt it on first and check.

cheers

stewy

cheers mate i like a tidy engine bay its even cleaner now i give it a wash yesterday arvo with an alkaline based detergant looks real clean now lol.

to be honest i only took out what i didnt need in the engine bay the only hilux wiring left in it is the main fuse box and the starter relay system and the alternator wiring aprt from the obivious headlight wiring etc.

i thought it only seemed logical to use the factory starting system it already had the relay mounted i just needed to run a longer wire from that to the starter motor trigger wire and all sweet, same with the alternator bought the adaptor plug and plugged it in all sweet again.

then i only needed to relays to run it fuel pump relay and master relay easy as that if ya electrically minded u can wire a relay easily enough 1 power, 1 earth, 1 output and 1 trigger wire.

im going to draw my wiring diagram in autocad and if someone can help ill post it on here same with the sump flange and engine mount drawings and the gearbox x-member drawing too.

have a look n this site mate for more info if u dont allready now about it this is were i did all my reasearch collect info and asked millions of questions

http://lextreme.com/forums/index.php

cheers

stewy

today i got motivated after downing 2 double shot iced coffees and half a bottle of coke lol.

i went to ashdown ingrams and sorced the adaptor for the alternator plugs $15 and on the shelf (P/N 44-76440) also got a 5 bank of relay bases with a heap of crimp terminals.

adaptor plug

adaptor plug and relay block

plugged in the adaptor and instantly had all my dash warnings lights and the gauges all worked cant beat that no soldering needed.

after that decided to wire in what i could without the ecu, layed out my harness that i had prepared earlier and labeled everything.

harness layed out

mounted the fuses and relay block i only need 2 relays for the engine to run the third is for my bullbar mounted lights and i have the 180amp relay on the guard for the roof lights.

relay block

fuses

then got into wiring it after laying it into the engine bay the plan is for all the wiring to be done in the engine bay nothing going into the cab besides the ecu and the 8 wires to operate it lesson learnt after the other hilux conversion i did the dash harness cant take the extra load :roll: :roll: :roll:

fuses soldered on

fuses heatshrunk

soldered and crimped

the blue/white colour wire runs from the fuel pump relay down the the fuel pump.

ive used colours that are mostly trace wire colours to try and match the existing hilux wiring the best i can, reasons for doing this is mainly for fault finding later cause i dont have 10 red wires all going to different things and trying to follow them.

the other reason is it looks factory lol

tomorrow im going to finish what i can with the wiring and then i might even give her a wash and aluminium acid the engine and box.

cheers

stewy.

ok so ive decided to change change my mind on the airbox it jsut to big and looks way gay lol ive decided to run a unifilter pod filter instead measuring 76mm inlet, 100mm od and about 140mm length this way i can make the airbox smaller to suit the engine bay etc and also have more room left on the drivers guard for the battery etc.

i forgot the camera today but i got my uhf and stereo all crankin again (somehow i think the 10"" sub will have to go the new born wont like it lol) and did some small touchs to the gearbox x-member.

all the things i have left to do are things i need reasonable amount of coin for things like driveshafts and the purchase of the ecu and ive been hassling my ex employer for my group certificate so i can do my tax and fingers crossed put that money towards these items but as per usall he is giving me every excuse under the sun and im starting to get ****** now.

i have the wiring harness made up for the car too run just need the ecu to finalize it b4 i seal it off and feed it into the car

also checked all my lights tonight made sure indicators worked etc etc all good.

Tomorrow night i will make a small bolt on bash plate for the transfer case and and muck around with the springs to get it too flex to the max and then measure front drive shaft length compressed and extended.

cheers

stewy

k got a little bit slack this weekend had planned to get craploads done but my laziness got the better of me and only manged a half day on saturday but still mangaged to sort half the airbox out.

tacked together with inlet and outlets holesawed in it.

the lid exciting hey lol

test fit of filter, filter is outa my aurion and the angled edge suits what i need to get around the brake master cylinder.

with lid

all tigged together

test fitted to engine bay its quite big but im tryin to think of how to make it smaller

hopefully ill get of my sphincter during the week and finish the whole lot of bar the ecu.

cheers

stewy