Duke Racing Celica GT-Four Time Attack Racecar

[ITCC_Andrew]

Mazda made NA RX-7s.

Yes. Not the FD chassis, which is the one I was thinking of, (the one I thought speed junkie had.)


If I was right in saying that he has an RX-7, but it turns out to be an FC, I'll respect that. Not everyone leaves their FC N/A, and I like the N/A FCs.

 

[Punknoodle]

Well I'm back in Brisbane now, finally. I went for a quick visit to my friends place to pick up my parts. Pictured is all the gaskets for the turbo and manifold, oil pipe, fuel and oil filters and of course the actual turbo.

Ready to get stuck in and change it some time soon. Monday is a public holiday and I have Tuesday off so I'll be taking my fuel rail in then.

 

[GDII]

I love getting new TGP parts in the mail. But I have never got that many at one time. Looks like your project is heading forward quite well now.

 

[Punknoodle]

Yeah I like getting new genuine parts too The chaps down at Toyota know me fairly well now!

Thought I'd post up a couple of pictures of the porting done to the turbo wastegate, as I just went down and had a look before.

This first shot isn't my turbo, it's an image I found off the internet of a non modified wastegate:

And here is mine:

It's a little unclear, but it has been ported quite a fair bit right down inside the housing where it opens up, which should help a lot with the boost control. I will get a new dump pipe custom made eventually, which will have one large collector instead of the separated wastegate design the previous owner had made as apparently these turbos have better wastegate flow with one large collector. My current one is 2.75" for the main output with segregated wastegate, so a single 3" one should flow nicely. Plus they won't have to worry about mounting the narrowband O2 sensor in to it, which will tidy it up a little.

 

[Ibonibo]

Nice stock up on parts. So the next weekends are planned I suppose

 

[speed junkie]

I thought you had an RX-7? That's forced induction, if you do, isn't it?

I have a Miata.

But yeah I think, at least in my case without FI the only advantage I'd get would be less fluctuation. Just run a proper filter for the intake and you'll be fine.


Here's a photo showing where I used to have the MAP hose hooked up to. You can see it at the back for the manifold between the red AC plug and the brake booster vacuum hose. Now I extended it and plugged it right behind the throttle since I get less noise there.

Photo Bucket sucks!

 

[ITCC_Andrew]

I have a Miata.

I see. Very nice. So, I was only sorta right; you do have a Mazda.


Punknoodle, I have recently decided to really like ST185 Celicas. 👍

And, speed junkie:

White Japanese cars. Nice photo!

 

[speed junkie]

Yeah that 86 was awesome. where did you find that photo? I know I posted about that on GTP. Unless you found my FB haha.

 

[Punknoodle]

Whoh that little thing looks tough!

Today it has been absolutely atrocious weather wise, heavy rain, flooding, wind. My road is currently closed due to trees being down causing power problems. I took this video - link - of what kept on happening just down from my house - the tree would cause 2 11kv cables to touch and it would go Bang, and the power would go for a bit, then come back on and another few minutes would go by and it would happen again, for a couple of hours this went on until they killed the power completely. It is still out now a couple of hours later.

Anyway because it was such a terrible day my friend came over and we got stuck in to the turbo. What a mammoth task, the alternator and radiator had to come out, but we finally have it nearly ready to come off, we just need to remove the oil line which goes to the block but it's very tight so my friend is going to bring his Snap-On impact gun next week.

I have spotted a couple of water hoses in hard to reach places that will be easy to change while the turbo is off so I'll take a quick visit back to Toyota to see if they can get them quickly, to swap them now while its easy. I'm glad I got a new oil return hose, the one on there is rock solid.

 

[Thatman]

Have you seen this stuff?
http://www.duplicolor.com/products/shadow/
It seems to turn out MAD!

 

[Punknoodle]

This is how the engine bay looks now. What an effort it was to get the turbo out! The 27mm banjo bolt on the block for the turbo feed was too tight for my 1/2" breaker bar, so we tried my friends Snap On impact gun on it and it still didn't budge to I went old school and put a pipe on my breaker bar and it loosened easily.

So I separated the turbo from the manifold and dump pipe. I noted how much the wastegate flap opens with the current pipe and it is hitting it quite early in it's travel and so the flap is only just lifting off the ports by about 8mm. No wonder it boost creeps.. The other thing I've noticed is that the previous owner ported the housing of the turbo and extended the pipe in past the flange to properly separate the wastegate and output so my dump pipe won't fit the new turbo...

Old:

New:

This has forced my hand somewhat. I'm hoping my exhaust guy will be able to do a new one for me at short notice, off the car by making a jig to make sure it bolts up the same as my current one, with one large collector and 3 or 3.5". No O2 flange either which will tidy it up. And hopefully it can get HPC coated quickly too, or else I will have to delay my tuning..

Bit of a spanner in the works but to he honest I'm sort of happy to be doing it anyway as I've never been a fan of my current dump pipe and I should definitely have no boost creep issues with better made one.

 

[Punknoodle]

I picked up my fuel rail in the weekend and took one look at it and knew he'd completely stuffed it. He went too large with it and so for one thing the o-rings don't seal up properly, but not only that by doing so he has taken it too far and made a hole in one of them through the side of the hole so it leaks past the o-ring anyway.

Needless to say I was fairly pissed off, I told him no larger than 14mm, even go as small as 13.8mm and they are about 14.4mm.

So now I am sourcing a new rail and I'm going to get a proper injector hole drill bit, make a stand and set it up in my drill press and do it myself.

In other news I have dropped my old dump pipe and turbo off to my exhaust fabricator and he is making me up a new one. He is going to make it from a jig so it bolts up the same as the current one and he's got the turbo so is going to ensure the waste gate flap can open fully.

Then it is going to be getting a black ceramic coating.

Needless to say with these problems I have arranged to delay the tuning date. No point rushing. The pipe probably isn't going to be finished for 2 weeks and it'll take a week to get the right bit from wherever I order it from then I have to drill the rail etc so I estimate it will probably be towards the end of the month.

 

[oopssorryy]

A lot if decent dogs I know of will art least foot the bill for that kind of screw up. Did he cover the cost, and the replacement part you more have to find and buy? When a shop messed up my brother in law's CAI on his Supra, they made a new one for him (over that was a better quality than the one he had on out originaly).

 

[Punknoodle]

Because it was a custom job and he had no real way of knowing the material I can't really make him pay for a whole new rail etc.. I can source a second hand rail fairly easily so I'm gonna get one and buy my own specialised drill bit for doing 14mm o-ring injector holes that does the edges etc in one go and set it up in my press and do it myself

EDIT:
Change of plan. I've decided to order an aftermarket fuel rail. Unfortunately they don't make one to suit my head (as this generation already came with a top feed rail) so I've bought one for a different generation head but it has the same injector spacing as mine, and the same injector cups to go in to the head, so all I'll need to do is custom make the mounts that bolt it to the head, which should be easy enough..

The rail is from a company named Wolfkatz. It means I will need to change the fittings on my braided lines as the inlets and outlets are in a different location so instead of 90 deg bends I need a straight and a 180 deg but thats no big deal, the lines reach. That, and blocking off a couple of unused ports and making the new mounting tabs. Should be a much better solution.

 

[Punknoodle]

I'm still waiting for my fuel rail to arrive and my dump pipe to be ready, it is just getting coated now - on that note I asked the guy doing it do arrange the turbo exhaust housing to be ceramic coated in Black at the same time, as my old one was coated, and my exhaust manifold and new dump pipe are coated so a rusty looking exhaust housing just wouldn't have any looked good, even though its under a heat shield, plus it will help limit engine bay temperatures.

So nothing can be done under the hood until those parts arrive. I've already soldered on the new injector plugs and performed all of the connections, so today I finally got around to making a simple mount for the ECU to attach to, and the other day I got around to running the last 2 wires under the dash and terminating them in to my switch.

Everything wiring related is finished and the interior is all finished too.

Here are some pics of it all finished, when you pull back the carpets in the footwell. Obviously this is all hidden normally. For tuning, you just have to pull a little corner of carpet back in the drivers footwell and attach the USB lead in to the port you can see in the photos:

 

[Punknoodle]

Well, my exhaust guy has done it again, what a champion!

Here is a picture of my new dump pipe, sitting with the turbo exhaust housing that I also had coated:

It is 3", utilizing mandrel bends. I'm really impressed with the quality of it, and that he was able to make it only by having the old pipe. The collector is really well made, here you can see a better picture of it, side by side with the old pipe:

Flow should be amazing, and as for the flow of the wastegate, the flap opens fully now and the area around it is completely open unlike the old one where the flap was obstructed by the pipe, and the exit was surrounded by a small diameter pipe. I am confident my boost control issues will be eliminated. I also like that the new one cleans up the engine bay by removing the redundant narrowband O2 sensor.

So I just have to reassemble the turbo, fit a new water pipe that I have ordered from Toyota (the old one is fine but it is in a real pain of a position so I'd rather change it now while the turbo is off rather than it fail later) and fit it all up. After that I'll take to the compressor with some Autosol to try and bring that up a little to try and look as good as the exhaust side!

I was really hoping my fuel rail would arrive this week so I could design mounts for it this weekend, but it didn't.. Ah well. Stoked with the turbo side of things its going to look great mounted up

 

[Punknoodle]

Sorry I still haven't got anything really cool to update with, just more problems, really..

So, I reassembled the turbo after painting the clamp, it looks so much better now, the turbo looked quite rusty before:

I fitted the new dump pipe, and then proceeded to fit the entire assembly to the engine. Shortly after I made the decision to do this, I started swearing.. The pipe didn't fit, it was hitting the oil filter assembly:

So, I had to draw on it and take mulitple pictures of it, and take it back to Brian who is going to reshape it. This time, he is going to give it to me to test fit before getting it coated. My bad.

Anyway, that is getting done at the moment, and my fuel rail arrived, so I thought I'd start working out how I'm going to fit it up. The more I looked however, the more I realized how much of a massive pain it is going to be to fit it. It requires making room by trimming the wiring loom plastic, adjusting the power steering hose to clear the side entry outlet, putting new ends on the hoses for the new infeed and outfeed locations and making new brackets. I decided it wasn't the best and cleanest option, so I made a new plan..

The fuel rail for the same gen N/A 3SGE is pretty much the same, and I was able to source on locally. It still has the top entry inlet and outlet, so I don't need to change my hoses. The outlet is moved along slightly but that doesn't matter, and the small hole for the cold start injector is in a different place but I just have it blocked off anyway.

I am going to rebore this one, although this one I know won't get damaged. For starters, the holes in my old one were nearly 1mm larger than the holes that are in the Wolfkatz rail I bought, so when I get this one done I will be giving them the Wolfkatz one and telling them to bore it out exactly the same size. The other reason I know this one will work, is because the ends are of a different design. My original one had been machined along the centre bore to allow the end caps to be inserted inside the rail, this went too deep and came right up to the injector hole, so when it was enlarged, it broke through. The new rail I have doesn't have this machining, the caps are on the outside and must seal up to the original bore, so the thickness of the side wall goes all the way to the end of the rail, meaning there is no chance of it blowing through the side wall again.

I'm happy this way as it requires no work to bolt up, so I know it will be secure. I'm sure I'll be able to sell the expensive Wolfkatz rail as they are a pretty desirable item for anyone with a Gen 2 3SGTE that wants to fit top feed injectors.

So yeah. More hold ups. I felt very frustrated and fed up when faced with the 2 problems together, I just had enough of mucking around with it and I thought it was never going to be finished and I felt stressed about it, but now I have solutions to both problems that won't cost me a fortune (the pipe needing modified and recoated is going to sting but that's my fault)

 

[Thatman]

Ah, good old fashioned setbacks.

 

[speed junkie]

I know your feel bro. I'm actually going today to pick up an engine after spinning a rod bearing on the old one (and blowing rimgs on the same engine before that.)

 

[Punknoodle]

Ah well that's good you are getting an engine, are you going to do any work to it before it goes in? Be great to see an update on your build thread.

 

[speed junkie]

Yeah, I'm ordering a twin plate clutch (7.25" dia.) Which also comes with a new flywheel. 14lbs for the complete assembly plus a lower MoI with the smaller clutch will make an astounding impression.

I've ordered the adapter manifold for the ITBs so when I get that I'll take it to a machine shop to have them matched to the throttle bodies as well a have the vvt calve cover machined to fit toyota coil on plugs. Once the engine is in and running I'll start working on getting the vvt to work which evidently isn't too much of a hassle.

Still need to see whether or not I'll be able to have my stacks machined at school. If not I'll have to look around for shops who would do it.

 

[Punknoodle]

Oh awesome stuff! I've seen a few of those engines with plates made up for COP, they look really good. A lot better than how I did mine, I wanted to go with a plate but my cam cover design didn't suit.

Clutch should feel amazing, too and your response will be great.

 

[speed junkie]

Yeah I'm currently using a Toda 1.6 flywheel which is like 7.5 lbs. It's the lightest available for the Miata that still uses the factory style clutch and this setup will be even quicker than that. I can't wait!

 

[Punknoodle]

I picked up my pipe today to test it out, still didn't fit so I took to it with a grinder and enlarged the hole. It is shaped so that it doesn't protrude in to the actual pipe section of the down pipe at all, and in a way that shouldn't create disturbance of airflow in the collector, once the hole is patched with a bit of flat plate, which will need curved to match the profile of the hole. This is happening on the wastegate side of the collector, the turbine outlet still has a nice straight run out through the pipe. Anyway, mounted it, and it fits!

That is the clearance to the oil filter. As you can see, its tight. Why Toyota put an oil filter right beside the turbo outlet is beyond me..

Anyway, any body with a bit of experience with this please chime in, can you see a problem with the dump pipe being so close to the filter? The pipe is HPC coated, and the old one came mighty close too, but not this close. I can get Brian to shave even more off for more clearance but I don't want to cut in to the collector too much, I want the best flow possible for the wastegate to avoid boost creep. The way I figure, if Toyota thought there would be a problem with too much heat on the filter they wouldn't have put it right beside the (much larger) stock cat/down pipe..

 

[Thatman]

Im sure you will be fine the way it is, as long as you have a nice high quality filter. Course you could shield your filter in the reflective stuff that you used on the intercooler.

 

[Punknoodle]

I always use genuine Toyota filters. Dropped the pipe off just before so Brian can make a patch. I'm gonna get it back again though before it gets coated, better to be safe than sorry to make sure it fits. I asked him about it, he said he doesn't think it will be a problem as whatever set up gets installed there will be close to the filter, and the pipe is HPC coated so it should be ok.

 

[TheBook]

I can't see that being much of an issue. Just watch your hand when you do oil changes on it; I have a feeling that might singe a bit if you accidentally touch it when it's still warm.

 

[Punknoodle]

Ha! Even just checking the oil is going to be a gloves on exercise I think, the pipe will be around 10mm from the dipstick, heating it up nicely

With the car being so close now I'm starting to talk with Mercury again about tuning slots, I don't want to get ahead of myself and book a time I can't meet if something were to come up again, but I don't want to wait 3 weeks after the car is ready for a tuning slot...

 

[speed junkie]

What about relocating the filter? If not then what about gold foil around the filter?

Maybe it's ok while driving it around and short pulls but I'd keep a very close eye on oil temps if you ever do any sort of hard driving.

 

[Sly Guy]

And I thought my Berk downpipe was close to my oil filter!

Any particular reason why you went full custom?