March 2013 and time to bite the bullet…I need to find out what this mystery noise is, and whether it’s killing my engine. I manage a week off work, and scrounge a pass from my better half to spend it in Dad’s workshop, and then get permission from Dad to use his new car lift…let’s do this thing.
I manage suspension, hubs, rear sub frame and driveshafts pretty easily, then realise that the engine loom no longer comes out with the engine since the new kit was patched in…so out with the wire cutters, fuel disconnected, coolant disconnected, etc...time to drop the engine…
…or not, there’s no way this is coming out with the exhaust manifold and turbo on it…OK, disconnect this as a single piece and….nope, that won’t come out as a single piece! This car is basically the same as the track car, but I am slowly realising that all the additional kit involved in turbo charging does make it that much more complicated to work on!
I give up for the day when the snow starts blowing in the garage door…
The next day sees me back with my keen hat on, and shortly we have the engine and box on the floor, and the car lifted off the engine mounts…success!
Time to get investigating, first on the list is the strip the timing belt and check the idlers, water pump and oil pump. So clutch inspection plate removed, and flywheel locked…time for a real breaker bar, and without even leaning on it the crankshaft pulley bolt is undone.
I make sure the engine is a top dead centre, then set about removing the crank pulley with me old trusty tool I made up for the track car engine. Pretty soon we have the belt off, and the only thing I can see is some very slight wear on the tensioner pulley, which I guess could make some noise at higher speeds, but really didn’t seem too bad at all.
The water pump was absolutely fine, solid and smooth with minimal play…likewise I removed the oil pump and confirmed it was all within spec and good to go, in fact it was very clean…
No obvious explanation for our mystery noise.
I replaced both idlers anyway seeing as I was there and had new ones ready, then belt back on again. As I bolted the timing covers back on I did notice one mounting point that didn’t have a bolt through it (3S cover on a 5S block, so the holes didn’t really align)…could this rattle? Unlikely, but I filed the hole and bolted it up anyway- leave no stone unturned!
I elected not to pull the oil sump at this stage, I could always do this with the engine in the car if it came to it.
While the crank pulley was off I had Dad start to show me how to use the lathe, and we (he) cleaned the face of the pulley in anticipation of bolting a crank timing wheel to it in the future (more on that later).
I also changed the thermostatic control in the oil cooler pipework to one that opens at a higher temperature as I had been struggling to get my oil temperatures over 100c, which I was keen to achieve to help evaporate any moisture out of the system.
I continued modifying the engine bay, I wanted to create more room between the turbo/ exhaust and the bulkhead- the main obstruction being the tube Toyota use to avoid liquid fuel running up the fuel tank breather lines. I didn’t want to remove it completely (as I’m sure Toyota put it there for a good reason), so I cut and shut it, then relocated it.
This meant I could then make a new heatshield to sit almost flush with the bulkhead…so in the bin with the old heatshield, I also ditched all the soundproofing fabric from the bulkhead (let the weight savings begin)!
Just as I was finishing lunch and contemplating putting the engine back in a delivery arrived, my new light weight alternator bracket…this saves a huge chunk of weight as the stock bracket is a huge chunk of iron! Excellent…
Engine and box back in (I’ll spare you the details), and one final modification- new CV joints for the driveshafts. The stock Toyota CV joints apparently start to break when you hard launch these cars at anything over 400bhp…so a pair off after market, beefed up joints all ready to go in.
I’ll spare the full details of this swap in this post and add a full “how to” guide separately for anyone interested.
A week or so later and I was back at the workshop, time to get the exhaust manifold and turbo back in- a bit easier with the stock heatshield gone…a quick refill of gearbox oil and we’re ready to start her up…I literally cross my fingers and turn the key…it fires straight up and we seem to be good…
…but the mystery noise is still there…
