Hi folks,
I’ve ben busy beavering away on the car on the last few weekends and evenings so I thought I would post another update:
I got to the stage where the subframe was ready to go back in the car but it occurred to me that the exhaust would be much easier to fit with the subframe out as you don’t have to manouver it over the frame.
When I bought my car it came with a HKS exhaust already fitted, I’ve been quite pleased with the sound and performance of the exhaust so my intention was to remove the exhaust, tidy it up and reinstall it back into the car. My well laid plans were scuppered however when on inspection I found that the exhaust was in really very poor shape with severe rust (HKS is mild steel) around the welds to the silencer and other areas.
This was a shame as I hadn’t planned on replacing the exhaust and the time taken to source a new one was going to hold up the build. After various research and discussions with TrackToyFour I agreed the purchase of a second hand Hayward and Scott exhaust system from him.
Hayward and Scott have a great reputation and as you can see from the picture the system whilst 2nd hand is in fine fettle:
Its also a full system including a new flexi section so I will have to find a new home for my Aussie flexi when that comes off the car.
I thought I would get some new exhaust hanger rubbers, I had a little difficulty in locating appropriately sized ones online so I asked at Toyota and found that the OEM ones are quite reasonably priced:
I also took the opertunity whilst I was ordering the exhaust mounts to buy another load of random nuts and bolts etc – where does it end??!
With the rear section of the exhaust fitted it was time to turn my attention to the reinstallation of the subframe. New ARB bushes and clamps were sourced:
A couple of weekends back before Johnny’s BBQ, Clive, Dan and Phil were kind enough to lend me a hand putting the subframe back in the car, it was mostly already assembled so weighed quite a bit, with their help it only took about 15 minutes to get it fitted in place. I don’t have a great picture due to the car only being on axle stands but here is a random short of the underside. I am quite pleased with how the powdercoating and undersealing has gone.
I also did some work to freshen up the fuel tank guard, it was cracked in a couple of places so I applied some quick fix fibre glass to repair and washed it then went to town with the Autoglym Bumper Care to restore the black colour to it. I’m really pleased with the result, as this has been bugging me for a few years.
With that back in the car it now looks like its really coming together:
The Toyota chassis manual says that before torquing the suspension arm bolts to their final setting the car should be put back on its wheels and allowed to settle before jacking the car back up and doing the final tighten, so I have just torqued the subframe to chassis fixings and the strut to hub fixings as stated in the manual.
After all that I decided to turn my attention to the engine, I want to get it built up as much as possible so that when I swap them over there isn’t too long with two engines sat around as I have relatively limited space.
I started by doing a couple of jobs on the cylinder head to make sure it was ready for installation:
Small amount of sealant on the end camcaps as stated in the 3S-GTE engine manual:
I then dry installed the camgears to ensure the camshafts were set to zero:
Once that was complete I turned my attention to the block, the oil pump has been installed and a few other bits dry installed for checking, a few of the bolts from the engine were in a quite poor state so some have been replaced:
I also thought I would have a go at doing the sealant on the sump pan to connect it to the upper sump, I think I managed a really neat job with not too much extraneous material but enough to see some on all edges all the way round:
For the observant amoungst you you may notice that in doing this I made a bad rookie error, some of the bolts that attach the upper sump to the block are only accessible with the lower sump off….so the upper sump has to be installed onto the block first. The result – a whole day spend splitting the two parts and thoroughly cleaning both parts to remove all the RTV sealant – doh!
Before assembling the block onto the head I gave the bores a wipe with some assembly lube and the head a coating with some appropriate lube:
I then installed the ARP headstuds that I got from TB developments and after making sure the engine was at top dead centre and the head gasket the right way round I installed the cylinder head and capped most of the entryways into the engine:
If anyone notes anything wrong with any of this please do let me know, I think I have done things right but this is the first time in building an engine up. None of the cambelt is installed yet so I don’t think anything too drastic can go wrong yet!
Lastly I finished off last night by temporarily installing the rear brake discs and wheels so I could lower the car back onto its own wheels to settle before torquing the suspension arm bolts up.
It is really satisfying to see it back on its wheels after all this time up in the air – it seems a lot lower than I remember!
Cheers, Mike
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
