[ ZEROGÔKI : 零号機 ]

[steelsnake00]

T25 or T3? Perfect 350bhp turbo.

[boganbusman]

T25, but still no manifold yet.

[boganbusman]

I just finished reading an amazing thread over at the MR2OC forum. It explains the purpose of swaybars, spring rates, suspension geometry, etc. in relation to car handling in a motorsports situation.

So when the time comes to re-do my suspension setup (after the turbo and whatever else) I will be ditching my swaybars completely and fitting 600lb front / 350lb rear springs, or something close to that. It will make the ride uncomfortable, but it should give the car supreme mechanical grip and handling balance.

I can't wait to try it out

[Carcrazy]

Sounds interesting... to bad you have to be a member to view it.

What is the purpose of a sway bar pi[exactly[/i], I've always just figured to stiffen the car a bit to keep it from throwing it's weight in a corner. Like I said, it's just a guess...

[boganbusman]

Generally speaking, a sway bar is used to stop the car from . . . swaying. Sway can also be interpreted as roll, or the action of the car tipping over sideways in a corner.

If you want the car to ride comfortably then you run softer rates and a bar (which is what most cars have). The sway bar will prevent the rolling caused by softer springs, but you also lose mechanical grip and therefore you also lose consistency over different road surfaces.
Going by the discussion in that thread, you can eliminate the need for a sway bar if you run stiffer spring rates.

It's worth signing up to the forum just to read it

[boganbusman]

Wheee my new ECU arriv . . . wait, I HAVE TO BUILD IT MYSELF?? WHAT?!



heh j/k, this should be good fun

So in this kit I have:
- MegaSquirt II boards and components
- MegaSquirt Stimulator board and components (for testing the MSII board)
- Innovate LC-1 wideband controller w/ Bosch wideband O2 sensor
- MapDaddy 4bar MAP sensor w/ barometric correction
- GM IAT and CLT sensors
- Aluminium case
- 12' wiring harness
- Assorted threaded bungs for the sensors
- Data cable for connection to laptop

And just so everyone knows, I have zero experience in assembling circuit boards

[Zero260]

Ah, just put the shiny things through the holes in the green thing, then melt some metal on the tips. Easy.

That actually looks pretty fun... Good luck!

[boganbusman]

Quick shot of my makeshift workstation. This is the stimulator being assembled.




The white area is an anti-static mat, and I also have an anti-static wrist strap. The only problem is that I wasn't sure how to ground it. After a bit of fussing around I found an old power cord, cut it in half, stripped the earth wire and that is now my grounding point. The other two wires are taped up but is it safe/does it work? I have no idea!

[boganbusman]

Another piece of the puzzle arrived today. As you can see in the first pic it's a T3 manifold, so I will need to hack it up or use a T25 adapter. I bought it because it was cheap, but it does look pretty nice too.
It comes with a block-off plate for the wastegate port, which I will be using since my turbo is internally wastegated.

In other news, progress on the MegaSquirt is going well. It's actually not that hard to put together, but I'm just taking it nice and slow so I don't bugger anything up.

Also bought a second-hand (slightly used) clutch and a GZE starter motor. The clutch is a 4-puck and it comes with a flywheel too. The starter motor I needed because I want to relocate the starter to the intake side of the engine, and only the GZE starter will fit there. That will keep it away from the heat of the turbo and also give me more room to work with on the exhaust side.
Those two things are in the mail, should be here next week.

I uploaded the images here because tinypic is down

[Grez~Supra_RZ-S]

Any progress with this mate? I'm looking into a Megasquirt myself...

[boganbusman]

The MegaSquirt is pretty much completed. All that's left to do is clean the flux off the board and coat it with something. Then I need to load up the code I want to use (probably MS2-Extra) and create a basic map so the car will be able to run.
Oh and then there is the wiring harness to connect it with my stock wiring loom, but that will have to wait until I start ripping the car apart.

[Grez~Supra_RZ-S]

Ah well, keep me posted!

[boganbusman]

It's like Christmas all over again



Frozenboost.com water-to-air intercooler, heat exhanger, fans (only one in the pic but I got two), filler neck, silicon piping (except one of them is missing, grrr), couplers, t-bolt clamps, brass water fittings, a 20psi BOV and lastly a 3inch "high-flow" stainless steel "catalytic converter" *wink wink nudge nudge*

Still waiting on an electric water pump from EMSPowered . . . should have been here weeks ago. Frozenboost sells Bosch water pumps which would have made life easier, but they only flow about 20L per minute. The EMS pump flows 20 GALLONS !

[korge]

Wow, very nice!

How much was all this chrome steel?

[boganbusman]

About US$660, before shipping. I also plan to paint it all black because I don't like having bling in the engine bay (on a street car anyway)

[boganbusman]

Changed my mind about the seat (again). I was looking at fancy carbon and FRP buckets, but I've settled on a Kirkey aluminium seat. Just waiting on a quote from Rocket Ind.



Only weighs 13.9lbs / 6.3kg

[TheStig]

is it me or is that thing bloody small.... (I do hope you get it upholstered or else.... auch )

[boganbusman]

Well that is the smallest version of that particular seat, at 15 inches wide in the hip area. There are bigger sizes for fat people And you can get it with a padded cover, which I will be doing. Apparently they are quite comfortable! Best thing is, you can bend it slightly to make it fit your body perfectly (if need be).

[boganbusman]

It's almost time! I think I now have everything required to get started, just need to double-check my parts list and I can get this show on the road. I should get a photo of my parts collection too, it's quite an impressive haul

The sad thing is that my pile of turbo parts is worth more than the whole car! Anyway I'll post regular photo updates when I start building it, along with full details. Not that anyone here would really care, but for my personal record at least (and the MR2 club guys).

Also ordered that aluminium seat, but it's a special order and might take 3 months to get here.

More news/pics soon . . .

[boganbusman]

Here is the rest of the stuff that I haven't shown yet:


Timing belt kit, fuel pressure gauge, fuel pressure regulator, air filter, gauges, ARP studs and bolts, 550cc injectors, head gasket, various o-rings, boost controller, multi t-piece for vacuum plumbing.


A bunch of 3/4" copper pipe for the intercooler setup. This will carry coolant from the i/c core at the back to the heat exchanger in the front.


Genuine Toyota parts: full gasket set, water pump, 8.9:1 pistons and piston rings, oil pump. Also got some coolant hoses and a thermostat which is not in the pic.


And lastly a Quaife quick-ratio steering rack which just arrived today! Should give me 2.5 turns lock-to-lock.

Come to think of it, there are still more parts at work that I don't have pictures of oh well
I've officially penned in some annual leave starting Monday, so that is when the build will start. Moar pics and progress coming next week, I guess!

[Zero260]

That looks like so much fun...

Keep the updates and pictures coming!

[boganbusman]

lol not so much fun right now, I'm stressing out over the exaust manifold I bought off eBay. After a bit of research it seems I didn't really get what I thought I was buying. The steel is supposed to be 304 stainless but it sticks to magnets which means it must be something crappier like 409 stainless. And I hear more reports of these things cracking, warping, and even showing surface rust after a few heat cycles.

So the decision was made to fork out and buy a quality 304 stainless manifold from speed-source. It's tried and tested, not made in China and good for 400hp. Only problem is that it's freakin expensive!

/sadface

[boganbusman]

Alright, IT'S BUILDIN' TIEM

Got the car into work today and starting getting ready to drop the motor. I was just removing everything I could from the top of the engine bay, like the battery, intake, wiring and coolant hoses, etc.

Sorry for crappy phone pics. I'll try and find our camera, it should be lying around here somewhere . . .






Mah toolzbox and a trolley for storing parts.


Just about ready to drop. Not sure if I really needed to take the manifold off now, but it makes things easier.


The intake manifold and TVIS plate. I will be eliminating the TVIS system, which means removing the shaft and butterflies from the plate. This should help it flow a bit better.


Getting the front bumper off was a biatch. Millions of nuts and bolts holding that thing on. (The shop was kinda busy so I didn't get a chance to use the hoist and take the motor out. Will do tomorrow hopefully)


Sussing out how to fit a heat-exchanger for the water-to-air intercooler system.


The only way it will fit (without major body mutilation) is between the radiator and air-conditioning condensor. Not ideal. Plus there is no room for the two fans I bought.

So I've made the tough decision of ditching A/C completely. It sure becomes hot in summer, but realistically the A/C only gets used for maybe 20-30 days of the year. I'll live. It will also shed weight, give me more room for the dump pipe off the turbo, and more room under the car for water pipes. Pros easily outweigh the cons.

More tomorrow . . .

[RedCarDriver]

I'm sure I'll sound like an uber-n00b for saying this, but, with the intercooler, why not make it hood-mounted? Sure, you'll have to buy a hood with a scoop for it to work properly, but it may let you keep your AC. (Then again, ditching your AC probably isn't a problem if you want to save weight anyway, which you've said you do.)

[boganbusman]

Yeah I could make a huge vent in the hood, and/or do a V-mount type of setup, but that is what I would consider as "major body mutilation" Trying to keep it simple and sort of sleeper.

Anyway, we finally got the motor out in the late afternoon. During the day I was doing other random things, like removing the A/C, stripping the interior, stripping the rear boot, and playing around with gauge placement.


Muuuuuch better.


I also trimmed the blue piece that goes between the lights to give me a bit more room. Even got space for the fans, yay.


Interior plastics. About half will go back in, I just needed to get them all out so I can remove the carpet and do some wiring.


Carpets and roof lining. These are staying out.


Engine out! Hurrah. Required the help of my workmates to move it around, we also split the gearbox off and tomorrow I'll get it apart. Didn't take many pics of this step since we were kind of rushing it at the end of the day. Will snap more pics tomorrow . . .