Season 2003 Preparations

Target 150+, March 10-14, 2003

Current activities

The meeting has been and gone now. The engine conversion, and the adaption of the gearbox and clutch performed faultlessly, which was a bonus, as I had not done a conversion like this before. We had a few difficulties on the way, which I will now mention. On the Wednesday before the meeting, we took the car to MK Automotive in Cheltenham to tune the Wolf3D computer I had bought on Marty's shiny new chassis dyno. If you are thinking of using a Wolf3D on a 1JZ-GTE, here is a starting map and an engine wiring diagram. It should get the engine running using the stock sensors. Getting this far on my car took two weeks. Going through the tuning process, we had done load points at 4200, about 130 rw kilowatts, and had moved to 4500, when the engine developed a miss, and started blowing enough oil smoke to hide the Iraqi army. Remove the plugs and do a compression test, and the two middle cylinders had lost compression, one being 25 pounds, the other about 80. Drag the car home, put it in the shed again, lie on the floor in the foetal position pounding head on the floor for a couple of hours. Get up the next morning, ring up the wreckers looking for a cheap long motor, eventually get one for $550 at Toyospares in Bayswater. Get it home just after lunch on Thursday, start pulling the old motor out. Bolt the flywheel, clutch and gearbox on the new motor, run a compression test, not bad, down on one cylinder, but too late to care now. Get the motor in on Friday morning, which was our planned day to leave. Fire the motor, it runs. Rear turbo oil seals leaking oil into the compressor side, too late to care now. Start packing all the stuff you need for a week in the outback with a race (??) car, all packed at about 11 pm. Get up at 6.00 am Saturday, leave. Get to the lake about 3pm Sunday.

Unpack the car, set up scrutineering tent, start scrutineering, track opens about midday Monday 10th of March. The car is running about 130 Mph, which is the same as last year with the 4 cyl. It will not rev over 5400 rpm. After this, the engine hits a flat spot, that feels like the key has been turned off. Change to our bigger tyres and run 136 Mph. We spent a lot of time changing the computer mapping, thinking that it was because we hadn't mapped the computer on the dyno over 4500. All this made no difference, and we were starting to get depressed. It seems that at 5400, the turbo's are just going into boost. This was very high rpm for no boost, as on the dyno, at 4500, we were running about 15 PSI of boost.

Coming back from another run on the tune up track on Wednesday afternoon, I was rolling into the pits with the car in neutral, and the engine idling, when I hear tapping sounds from the engine. Uh Oh, thats not good. Grab Paul, have a look at things, and find that the cam pully bolts are loose, and one has been slipping. Immediate thoughts are for bent springs, piston damage etc. Turn the cams over, they don't hit anything, Maybe the low comp turbo motor does not have valve interference. Paul found a drill the same size of the pin that had fallen out, and we refitted them. We couldn't find anyone with a comp tester, so we started the motor, and it ran fine, so out we went. It was now revving freely, pulling over 7000 in third gear, but not really pulling in top. We ran 136 Mph, which was our fastest time so far. On Thursday morning, which was the final session of the meeting this year, we borrowed a taller set of tyres, and ran 145 Mph. This was our fastest time so far. The boost was just coming on at about 5500 rpm, although you could hear the whistle well below this. As well, the intake air temp was very high, above 100 degrees C. We ran three more times that morning, each one a bit slower than the last. The last run had a very high engine temp, as the water storage system does not dissipate much heat. When we got back to civilisation, and had mobile phone coverage again, I had a message to say that Marty had found bits if turbo in his workshop, which means that they are no longer where they should be. From this, I assume that one turbo was not doing much. It also seems that my cold air intakes and intercooler ducts were not very effective. I suspected that they may be in a low pressure area on the body, but had no way of telling if this was the case or not. What I think is required is a scoop at least 6 inches above the body in the clean air, sort of like what the open wheel race cars run. One of the other things that will be looked at is some way of dropping hot water from the coolant storage tank, and letting somecold water in, to let us run more often. At the moment, I think I will use self sealing air fittings.

At least we are going up in speed. I will pull the two motors down over the next 4 weeks or so, and have a look at what is bringing the compression down. I hope it will not be something too serious, and look towards next year with a fresher motor, and a single turbo.

As we say in Empty Pockets racing, There's always next year (2004)

The car is at home and has been dismanteled. I have cut the frame and added another 2 feet in length. The engine has been adapted to the gearbox, less clutch. The rear radius rods have been re attached to the frame in their new position. As the engine sits higher than before, the diff has been lifted by half an inch to suit. I reversed the old transmission mount and found that it suits the new engine position. Some new engine mount brackets have been added to the frame.

Things done.

Cut the tank and add 2 feet behind the drivers capsule. Done

Mount the engine and adapt it to the gearbox. (Done)

New fuel tank with a high pressure efi pump. I hav one from a Volvo as a main pump, and a Toyota that I could use as a pre pump if required. The fuel system is very compact, so I am hoping that the lack of restriction in the lines will help as well.

Make new manifold to move the turbos up.

Make a remote oil filter adapter. The oil filter wants the same spot as the frame rail.
(No longer required. By rotating the oil filter adapter the filter fits between the rails.
I do have to make a retainer for it now)

Find some way to get airflow through the intercooler.

Built a water storage system to replace the radiator, which was inadequate with the 4 cyl.

Upgrade the steering, I think it could be a bit marginal at high speed.

I will also need to put in some instrumentation. Exhaust gas temp, Oil pres, Water temp, Intercooler temp, fuel pressure. I have no idea where they will go. My intention now is to use the hand controller form the Wolf3D to supply most of these. I am not yet quite sure how the computer works out when No. 1 is at top dead centre.
The ignition will run in 3 pairs with a wasted spark. The injectors will also run in 3 pairs.

Well here is the new engine. 1JZ-GTE Specs: 2491cc EFI DOHC 24-valve 6cyl twin turbo Power: 208kW @6200rpm Torque: 362Nm @4800rpm Gearboxes: RWD 5-speed and 4 speed auto Vehicles: Supra 2.5GT 91-93. Toyota Soarer The engine needs to mount a lot lower than this, so the turbos have to be moved

For the 1JZ, some more power can be obtained by removing the exhaust restictions (no problem here) which will up the boost a bit. More than this and a bigger single turbo and intercooler is required. The injectors, intercooler and turbo seem to be well matched, and max out at about the same output. The factory intercooler is a perfect size for the lakester, being about 10 inches square, and about 4 inches thick. It is constructed like a radiator, with cast aluminium ends. Two of these in parallel would probably be ideal from a size point of view, and OK for the amount of power to be extracted from this model.

	The frame was mounted to a table normally used for A Model frames. The front half is welded in place, and the rear half is mounted by brackets that I can move and clamp in a new position. I put in some bracing to keep everything lined up when the cuts were made.
	The frame was cut at an angle to give more weld on the join. I had a lot of trouble finding something suitable to use as a sleeve for the joins. In the end I had to buy some thickwall seamless tube, and then turn it down to the right size. As the bottom frame rails are not quite parallel to the top rails, there was a bit of stuffing around to get the tubes lined up with each other.
	Once the tubes were connected, I used an endless chain and a large hammer to draw the two sections together. Some heavy tack welds were applied, and the frame was then returned home. Nothing further has happened, as it was at this pont that I injured my fingers, and nothing can happen now until I get the use of them back.
	The engine I have is out of a Soarer. 95% of these were auto. Therefore, I need to adapt the manual that the car is setup for, to the engine. Looking at the two bellhousings side by side, the Soarer auto one is about an inch shorter. I think an adapter plate can be made to mate the gearbox to the auto bellhousing. The clutch will be a problem to solve.
	The adapter needs to be almost an inch thick. I was going to get it made from a piece of thick plate, but then I thought that I mught have a go myself. I modified my lathe (a 1930's flat belt Colchester) with some stepdown pulleys, and using the back gear, I can get it down to about 45 RPM. This is what I need to get the cutting speed down to something that won't melt the tools. I cut a bit of 6 mm plate that was left over from when the car was built, and bolted it to the backing plate that normally holds the chuck. I then turned a hole that would hold the input shaft retainer from the gear box. The blue dots are where the bellhousing bolts, and need to be threaded. The red crosses are where the adapter mounts to the gearbox. It all looks like it will work so far
	The next step was to bend some 10 mm square in an approximatly circular shape of about 9 inch diameter. This ring will be between the rear 6mm plate, and the front 10 mm one. I then cut a ring with two ears on it from a piece of 10 mm plate, and welded the ring to it. This was then placed on the piece of 6mm plate, and welded to it.
	The assembly was mounted in the lathe again, and the face was turned true, with a lip to hold the bellhousing. This took a while, as the lathe can't take much of a cut, and has some teeth missing on the cross slide feeder, and needs to be prompted by hand after about half an inch.
	Once I was happy with that, I removed it from the lathe, trimmed the excess, and smoothed the sharp edges with a sander. I then clamped the bellhousing to it, and used it as a jig to locate the holes. The six holes have been drilled and tapped. I then faced the other side in the lathe, and bolted the gearbox to the motor. There is no provision for a clutch yet. One step at a time.
	The manifolds for the turbos are being made out of 42 mm steam bends and tube. I used a hole saw in the lathe to fit the tubes together. There is a bit too much movement in the bed of the lathe to do it properly, so now 2 hole saws have joined their maker.
	The coolant storage tank is about 90 per cent complete, with inlets/outlets and the area under the intercooler to be finished. This will wait until the intercooler is complete, to make sure that it mounts ok, and doesn't foul anything.
	The intercooler fits nicely. Fellow DLRA member Graeme Holden has welded two stock Soarer units together. He works at AVO Turboworld just down the road here, and has done a magnificant job.
	I also have to make a new clutch fork, as my gearbox adapter fouls the existing one.
	This is the start of the new dump pipes. Seperate pipes for each turbo and waste gate.
	I have made a roller and rolled the extension needed for the bottom of the tank. No work on the upper body work yet
	I have made a clutch fork out of a piece of 100 by 20 mm bar. I looked at bending the old one to suit, but I thought the risk of it breaking under load was too high.
	A lot of machining, grinding, filing, drilling, sanding, heating and bending went on here to get this.
	The finished item. Seems to act OK, but I wont really know until I get the finished items installed.
	I redid the turbo end of the manifolds to pull them within the body. Once I had rotated the compressor housings, there was plenty of room to tuck everything in.
	I have made up some sheet metal to extend the body. There needs to be a bulge towards the rear of this to fit the intercooler, and some way of pulling air into the intercoolers. I have made a seperate pipe for each turbo outlet, and each wastegate output as well.
	When the rack was turned to full right, the end of the rack was loose in the housing because the gear part of the rack was now in the end housings. I welded some metal that I had roughly shaped with a grinder to the end of the gear part.
	Once welded, and turned on the lathe, the problem was fixed. It removed about 40mm of travel, but I wasn't using that part of the rack anyway. The rack did slightly pull in the welding, but because the housing is so short, it has made no difference to the operation.
	I shortened the rack severely. I tried a Mazda 323 rack, but when it was shortened, it was very hard to hold in position, and the pinion angle was poorly placed. The Morris Minor rack (the top one) was much more suitable, but I didn't want to shorten it because it is the spare for my roadster. Too late now as it has been cut down so severly to fit in, the two end housings virtually touch.
	The finished (almost) steering. I need to obtain a bearing to support the bottom of the column. I hope for a large improvement in steering feel, and a lot faster reaction to wind gusts now. Last year, the car had moved about 20 or 30 feet before the play in the box was taken up.
	I have my new flywheel and clutch. 19 kilograms. Throttle response is not going to be much to brag about, but I am hoping that it may smooth out the top end (not that a Toyota would need that), and add that extra MPH. The clutch is a 5 puck solid center item. Doesn't seem too grabby.
	I have made some bulges to cover the intercoolers. Next on the list is some way of getting the air into the intercoolers.
	I wanted to install a fuel pressure guage, but I couldn't get a banjo bolt with a double hole in it with the right thread. I bought a standard high tensile bolt, drilled two holes across it, then chucked it in the lathe and centre drilled it. I then silver soldered a bit of pipe to a standard banjo fitting, and used an oil pressure sensor from a VK Commodore. I also used one of these as the oil pressure sender, as the Toyota only has a light. These VDO items are ridiculously cheap at the wreckers, much cheaper than new items. I used a toggle switch to switch between oil and fuel pressure.
	This is the turbo pipe work. Mandrel bends, and step ups were used here. Tacked together with a MIG, and fusion welded with an oxy.
	I have added the air intakes for the intake and the intercooler. As it turned out, they are not really in the air flow

Updated 17/Mar/03

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