Supra (2JZA61) daily project - Its alive... its ALIVE!

[Mr Ed]

Lookin good! Fucked if I know how you guys fgure out all these XXX model control arm goes with XXX model strut when used with XXX brake hat and XXXX disc. Fuckin freaks!!!

RE: ECU pin-outs....pop the cover off the ECU, the pin out codes are written on the circuit board next to each pin. Worked for my 1G when I couldnt figure out which pin out diagram to use.

[takai]

Nup, pinout fail that way Ed, this is a multilayer PCB. Figured it out though, just had to translate from Jap

[takai]

Did a bit of work on the car this weekend, after setting up the new computer in the garage, and dealing with guys coming to buy wheels i set about getting the rear subframe back in, so doing a fair bit of work fiddling with getting the rear handbrake shoes all setup correctly so that it all works nicely. I have decided that i completely hate handbrake shoes and especially the little ones which are setup for 167mm handbrakes under discs. Loads of nasty fiddling. Gav came aroudn as well to do his camber mod on the subframe.

Anyway i got all that setup and Gav and I popped it all back in, as so:



We mucked around a bit with testing wheel fitment (i forgot to take pictures) before calling it a morning for lunch and got out of the hot garage and went to pick up some lunch and a set of Simmons V4s for the race car

In the afternoon i ended up welding up Gav's subframe after he set it all up, and then replaced the MA61 rack ends with the MX83 ones:


After then having some issues finding stuff in the garage we called it a day.

Today i ended up having a couple of hours in the afternoon to do some work, and decided to get going on the interior. After sorting out where all the various bits were in the boxes i set to work at getting the new carpet in. After a couple of ours i had fit both the front and rear carpets, and cut most of the holes:



I also installed my two lower harness mounts for the harness when it comes:


In adddition we have a nice new to-do list, with some stuff already crossed off

[da9jeff]

to do list make everything sound easy

[takai]

Everything is pretty easy now, just a bit time consuming.

[takai]

Nothing got done on it today, but i had to upload some pics for wheels im selling so i thought i would jsut add what i have bought for the car recently.

I went past JB today to remedy the situation with the stereo, and now i feel like a freaking ricer. Bought a nice understated Alpine deck which was the cheapest one there with a USB input, and then had to sully myself with buying 6x9s as the holes in the car are ugly arse holes cut for 6x9s


Ohwell, i then felt even more like a ricer to find that my cheapo off NS catchcan had arrived at the post office:


At least its 2L and fulfils the requirement for CAMS for a 2L catchcan.
Thats about it for now, hope to get a few more little bits done on Wednesday evening.

[jzx83]

Black Spraycan paint may fix the riciness of the catchcan?

[takai]

Yeah, i was thinking that. The little semi-ricer inside of me was thinking about dropping it (and a few other bits) off to a mates dad who works as an adoniser and powdercoater, and having it adonised black.

[80DGY]

anodised black > *.*

[takai]

Got a bit more done tonight, notably i finished off the radiator mounts.

As some eagle eyes have noticed ive decided to use an S13 alloy radiator, courtesy of eBay for the job. It fits pretty much perfectly, and as a bit of a random bonus the MA61 has bolt on lower mounts, which means that i could very simply fabricate up bracketry for it. In addition the S13 came with both CA18 and SR20 so i could decide which side i wanted the top water outlet to be on for the task at hand. In this case ive gone with the SR20 variant which has the lower outlet on the drivers side and the upper on the passenger. All mounted up it looks like this:

Fairly simple alloy strapping with 3/8 wiring grommets for the top:

And there you can see the pretty much perfect width for the job.
On the bottom we can see the custom mounts made up to house the stock S13 rubbers:

And as an added bonus you can see how they bolt to the stock mounting locations. To make the new mounts and bracketry i ended up ducking out to bunnings to pick up my new friends:

A nice set of stepped drillbits which they had on sale for $25 (3 in the pack) and they cut through metal like butter. Made it all a breeze, from drilling out the spotwelds from the original rad bracketry, to drilling the 16mm hole for the rubber insert on the lowers, this ate through it like butter.

Next up i decided to pop a coat of paint on my calipers. I decided a while ago to use VHT caliper paint in black and that went on a charm. On the instructions it says to bake the item at 100deg for 1hr, which i dutifully did:

NEVER AGAIN, i should have remembered from painting my exhaust wrap that as the VHT cures it gives off this smoky fumes and indeed this one did the same, and the entire kitchen was covered in it. Thankfully with some fans and exhaust vents the kitchen cleared quickly and i roasted some garlic to get rid of the smell.
On the upside the calipers did come out quite nicely:



While that was happening i turned my attention to the rest of the car. First on the list was cleaning and replacing the steering rack, which was a complete doddle:

Its amazing what a can of degreaser and a little elbow grease followed by the high pressure hose will do.
I then popped on the brand new TRW tierod ends, and struck a slight problem:

While the balljoint itself seems to be the right taper, the castleated nut is just way too thin, and in addition the thread of these new balljoints is different to the shagged ones i removed and so i cant just reuse the old nuts. Hm, kind of a problem.

Setting that aside i pulled out the next thing on the agenda, fitting up the high pressure fuel filter. This unit which you see here is an AE92 unit which ive had sitting around since 2003 when i built my GZEd AE92, and ive kept tryign to find uses for it and then misplacing it once ive found them etc etc. This time no more, its bolted in the car now:

That stepped drillbit above came in handy again too, popping 6mm holes in the chassis almost faster than you could say boo, this time i used it with my air drill rather than the electric and it ate it like butter. My new favourite toy.

Lastly while waiting for the calipers to dry and then for the kitchen to destink i put the dash back in, and finished off the heater controls:

The black vinyl dye came out quite nicely i think.
And one gratuitious interior shot:


The to-do list is shortening up quite nicely now:


From now i wont get much time to work on it until Saturday when Rob is coming down from Sydney with both my new Poo engine and another set of AVS Model 6s which will fit better on the front (more on that later).

[Norbie]

Nice job with the radiator, I definitely need an upgrade in this department so I think I'll be shamelessly copying your work.

[takai]

Yeah, its such a piece of cake. Now i just hope that the rad cap fits under the bonnet Otherwise ill have to refab the lower mounts to put the rad lower down. By refab i mean just rebend the brackets so they sit the other way up.

[rob_2JZA61]

Yeah, its such a piece of cake. Now i just hope that the rad cap fits under the bonnet Otherwise ill have to refab the lower mounts to put the rad lower down. By refab i mean just rebend the brackets so they sit the other way up.

it will clear no worries Miick and my other mate Nathan who you'll meet both have been running these rads in their ma61's for ages now and they just mounted them onto the existing ma61 bottom mounts and it clears fine

[takai]

Noice, good to know that. Ive tried to mount it as low as possible but its always a worry in the back of the mind

[takai]

Well between buying huge amounts of meat and salad materials, i had a bit of time in the afternoon to get stuck into the car. First up was filling the diff full of LSD oil, a nice boring and slow task.
After that came putting the fuel tank in, pretty easy and straight forward, excpet that i realised now that its in i cant get to the fuel feed fitting to connect the pump to the filter. EPIC fail for whoever designed it in that way.

Anyway, shortly after that Gav came around and procrastinated a bit, and then we got slightly worried about radiator to bonnet clearance (despite Rob's assurances). A quick testfit of the bonnet revealed that Rob was indeed correct:

And nothing will foul there.

Then Rob, Miick and Nath arrived down from Sydney, after getting a little bit loose in Mildura.

With them they brought a poo-engine.

Hand delivered all the way from Sydney, for pretty much the cost of fuel. Thanks guys, you are champs.

And a set of wheels, which i didnt take any photos of.

After hanging around, drinking Asahi, and eating snags on the BBQ they headed off to find their caravan park for the night, and i set about trying to figure out where to store the Poo. In the end as it was already on the crane i decided to put it in the car.
About half an hour later, with much changing of engine mounts, and generally getting annoyed at the Poo, Gav and i had it looking like this:



One Poo engine securely in the engine bay. Hopefully not there for any longer than it needs to be too. Over the next couple of weeks ill refit the interior and hopefully get all the fueling sorted out from the pump and filter, and then have it ready for going through Regency.
I also have to wait for a guy in Adelaide to swap over a set of stock MX83 struts for his new coilovers so i can buy them off him and take the Supra through with completely stock suspension.
Thats about it for now.

[Cplus]

my misses would fucking kill me if i did that in our oven - nice work!!

[Ben Wilson]

I've got one of those triple stets of step drills, they are great but they don't last long. Bunnings sell a bigger one which seems to work a lot better in my experience.

[da9jeff]

a $20 toaster oven from cashies works a treat for baking paint.

[thechuckster]

gas bbq with hood ideal for curing hi-temp paint.

[takai]

my misses would fucking kill me if i did that in our oven - nice work!!

Yeah, Gill wasnt too happy with it, and the amount of smoke in the kitchen.

gas bbq with hood ideal for curing hi-temp paint.

I did that for the rear calipers on Saturday

I've got one of those triple stets of step drills, they are great but they don't last long. Bunnings sell a bigger one which seems to work a lot better in my experience.

These ones dont seem to be too bad, already noticed the tip is a bit slower than previously, but still not that bad. I still do the majority of stuff on the drillpress, but these are really handy when doing stuff not near the press.

[takai]

It was good to meet you again Rob, and Mick and Nath too, hope you guys had a good trip back to Sydney, and thanks again for coming all this way to bring stuff down for me, still kinda cant believe you guys hadnt had Asahi before.

Anyway, today i had some fun with a Rivnut gun. Thanks to Joel (Bigpermage) for lending me the rivnut gun. Ive had a few comments on various places asking what a Rivnut gun is, and how to use it. So here goes:

This is the Rivnut gun in question:

Basically you screw a little threaded doovie onto the end of it, and the lever action of the pliers pull the thread twoards the flat plate at the end and compress it, basically locking it onto the plate you want the nut to be secured to.

So first order of teh day is to figure out how big a hole to drill:

9mm in this case, so out comes the trusty airdrill with the stepper bit:

Note the 9mm step marked in in black texta, this allows for nice and easy differentiation of the step you want to stop on.
With the hole drilled an M6 rivnut is screwed onto the gun/pliers:

Jammed into the hole, and then clamped close:

Pretty damn simple, and you are hopefully left with a rivnut that looks like this:



With both of them drilled out, i popped the rad back in:

All fitted up quite nicely, and looks like ill only have to replace the upper rad hose,

A few other shots from the other day too:

Fuel tank in.

Filter sqeezed in there nicely.

And a whole stack of AVS Model 6s brought down with the 5M by Rob, Miick and Nath.

Thanks again guys.

Thats about it. But in Ed baller style, this thread update brought to you by Asahi:

[takai]

Got some more bling bling for the car yesterday, my Techno Toy Tuning MX83 RCAs arrived:


What are RCAs? Do i hear some people ask. Well thats a good question young Jimmy.
Basically when you design the suspension layout of a car you take into account the angles of certain components relative to each other at the usual ride height.
One of these is the angle between the steering arm and the tierod end, and this is quite important, as the tierod/rack end will travel in an arc with the rackend at the center of that arc. However, the steering arm while also travelling in an arc uses the LCA inner bush as the center of the arc. At various points on these differing arcs the difference in angle isnt overly great, and the car is designed to be operated within that range. However when you lower a car you take the operating range out of that designed area. We commonly hear the term "bump steer" thrown around, and this is exactly what it is. On a lowered car the steering arm is commonly in a different section of the arc to the tierod/rack end, and therefore during suspension travel the tierod/rack end and hence your steering is pushed around, and changes angle. You can commonly feel this as a jerk in the steering wheel as you go over rough ground.

So how to RCAs help this? Well the idea with an RCA is to help to push the steering arm down and back closer to the original arc of travel for both the steering arm and the lower control arm. "Hey what", you say, "that sounds suspiciously like raising a car again, i want my car to be hektic and lowahed bruv". Yes little Jimmy, it is like raising a car, only now you are basically pushing the axle upwards on the essentially lengthened strut. As this diagram helps to show:


Pretty spiffy huh.

And one gratuitous shot of one sitting in place:


I got these RCAs, and indeed a whole bunch of other stuff that i get regularly from Techno Toy Tuning (free plug there Gabe), a company in the US which manufactures top quality gear, and are really nice people to boot.

Ive bought a fair swathe of gear from them in the past, and never had any issues with any of it. Top notch.

[Norbie]

I got these RCAs, and indeed a whole bunch of other stuff that i get regularly from Techno Toy Tuning

Only $80 for RCA's? Once again I'm going to shamelessly copy you. Nice work.

[takai]

Yeah, completely dirt cheap.
What i always wanted to ask you about your build is why you didnt just go the entire MX83 front end, and rather stayed with the MA61 stuff? Especially with the effort of fabricating rack ends etc.... unless the suspension shop just bolted MX83 ones on.

[Norbie]

Entire front end as in crossmember, steering rack and everything? I guess it never occurred to me that would be easier. Anyway the suspension shop did the fabrication work so it was pretty easy to do it my way, just cost a bit of money.

[takai]

Nah, not the steering rack and xmember, just the LCAs and rack ends.

LCAs are a bolt in proposition, and the rack ends are bolt in too. See my pics above and on the previous page. The longer LCAs fix all the camber problems too.

[Norbie]

Ah OK, I didn't get the LCA's when I bought the MX83 struts so I didn't get a chance to play with them. What effect did this have on track width?

[takai]

Overall track width isnt that bad, it shifts you into the GTR range of offset, which is a great bonus for cheap 16" 5stud jap wheels.

[Shifty]

Hahahaha I remember how much of aheadache Norbie had finding wheels

[takai]

Yeah, in this case its not overly ideal, as i only get about 8-10mm of rear track (i.e. offset) with the disc over handbrake setup at the back, but im getting about 20-30mm at the front.

That said, i had a brilliant bit of luck finding a set of +20 AVS Model 6s and a set of +35s, both for $200 the set. Now i have two full sets of staggered offset wheels for the car.