Damnation: The Cynos Project

I got the second order from Japan in, and finally removed the Blitz Downpipe, which now needs a stud removing.

That is all

..and abundant Satisfactions! The first of my purchases from my contact in Japan has finally arrived, and I'm sufficiently contented - most of items aren't mine, but of the included, my shopping list comprises of:

- Full Trust Oil Cooler & Oil Filter Relocator kit
- 380cc/min Fuel Injectors - for the Blitz K1/4E-FTE setup
- 560cc/min Fuel Injectors - for the GReddy TD05H-18G/5E-FTE setup









I was surprised at the fact that the fuel injectors actually came with little Specification tags showing Flow rating, Impedance, Lag time and Working pressure, including some new o-rings with one set! The rest of the items are for an aquaintance, which comprises of a Full HRF Exhaust system (girthy thing!) and a Full "HRF" (Presumed) GReddy TD05H-18G Turbine kit (with SARD C2 Wastegate), all in good order - the manifold is a certain thing of beauty. And a group shot of Japanese Christmas #1:



That is all

I know I know! Anyway, as in the previous post, I picked up a little trinket from my darling Rick, namely a Master Cylinder unit from an AE1x1 Toyota Levin, and I was bored today so I figured I should install it.

Now, the main reason I obtained the new Master cylinder was primarily due to the current issue I was having with the braking system, i.e. an utter lack of braking power replete with a very soft pedal, so as a result, swapping the master cylinder would eliminate its probability of being one of the issue at fault. Saying that though, I noticed a slight weeping of moisture on the brake proportioning valve..

Anyway, another good reason to get the Levin master is revealed below:







The cylinder is far bigger than the Starlet unit, both in diameter and in length - what this means in isolation is that for a given displacement of the master cylinder piston, more fluid is displaced, equating to a greater braking force being available. Whilst this would be beyond requirements for stock braking, it would be an excellent preparatory modification for when I will eventually replace the calipers on the car. So far, that is all done today, too lazy to do anything else - I have the engine mounts to remove, and I figure I may as well get the Glanza hubs fitted (after I have the wheel bearings pressed in) and replace the CV joints too. I may get the engine bay cleaned shortly too, though I am now a bit dubious about painting it..

Decisions decisions..

Left with idle thumbs regarding what to do next, and wishing for the devil not to make play of them, I thought it was time to turn the attention to the interior of the car, in preparation for stripping the wiring loom down. This primarily involved the rather tedious task of removing the dashboard - in essence only held in with 4 bolts, but made all the more "intensive" by the wiring loom being attached at hundreds of different points of the dashboard...




Anyway, after much perseverance, I was eventually met with its removal, not without a few scrapes and cuts; the the A/C controls proving particularly troublesome, as well as endless mountings for the wiring loom and switches and whatnot. In its removal, I found a mysterious little device attached at the passenger-side of the dashboard:



It looks like an amplifier of sorts, with four 3.5mm jacks in the side, it wasn't plugged into anything though, and the wiring was tied up. I then set to removing the damned firewall matting, which I attempted to remove the first time I attacked the sound deadening in the car, 3 years ago - this necessitated the removal of the whole blower/condensor/heater assembly from the bulkhead, which in short, was a particular female species of dog. Whilst there, I decided to strip out the internals of the condensor, and to my surprise, there was a lot of mass in it (as you'll find out below) to remove - score. Getting that out of the way, I turned my attention to removing the pedal assemblies in order to remove the aforementioned matting; lost an accelerator pedal bolt, in the process. Alas though, it was easy enough, and the matting was out.



Adding to the previously removed items from the engine bay, the final weight losses are as tallied below:
- Sound deadening strips; 178.1g
- ABS ECU; 381.7g
- Mysterious Amp device; 223.7g
- Condensor internals; 2022.8g

Combined with:
- Crash beam supports & hardware; 1920.0g
- Charcoal canister; 475.7g
- Front ABS Sensors; 384.2g
- Miscellaneous metal bracket at Radiator opening; 48.6g

That totals a grand weight saving of 5634.8g/5.6348kg - not exemplary by any means, but that's 5.6kg on menial no-effort objects, and doesn't include the Firewall heat/sound matting I removed as well, a good 6kg on its own, will confirm **turns out it was 2.8kg**, for a new total of 8.4348kg, or just under 1% reduction. Another plus, the nifty NST Adjustable camshaft pulley? A full 3.0g lighter than stock! I cannot wait to reap the benefits of that intense reduction in rotational intetia! [/nauseating sarcasm]. Combining the above reductions, with the stripping down of the wiring loom should hopefully make a worthwhile difference (numerically at least) to the mass of the car, as well as bringing some much needed order and re-organisation of the interior ambience. I am also tempted to cut-off the passenger side of the dashboard, but in a rare fit of sensitivity, I considered the effect this could have on any potential passengers...but in the end, its not their car, and they'll get more leg space.

The day before I also installed this - a purdy Moonface Magnetic Gearbox Drain bolt:


I also went and picked up this little item yesterday:


That's a master cylinder from an AE1x1 Levin, and is at least twice the size of the Starlet/Paseo unit! I should hopefully be installing that today, and re-assembling the brake pedal assembly with it. So with that, I have nothing much else to do currently, other than having the wiring loom stripped down, cleaning/painting the engine bay, perhaps indulge in some processes like lightening the flywheel, then its off to finishing the assembly on the engine, assembling it to the gearbox, and finally putting it in its rightful place in the car!

Oh the days go by..

Don't ask me about the title, it just popped in my head for some obscure reason! Anyway, these last couple of days were spent on two main jobs - on Saturday I too apart the old 4E, hopning in doing so to find the reasoning as to why it consumed so much oil, and today I mostly tidied up the garage, but I managed to do a couple of other things too.

Saturday firstly started out with a purdy collection from the local post office (and returning with a resultant violated posterior after the excise fees were paid):



After gawking and drooling at the pulley, I started on the engine - this is the 4th engine I pull apart, so no need for details, other than the crankshaft pulley was rather recalcitrant so I was cohorsed into using prehistoric methods of persuasion to remove it (gave it hell with a hammer). To my suprise/disappointment, after degreasing and wiping up the pistons and connecting rods, I could find no sign that would explain the hideous oil consumption this engine demonstrated. All of the bearings looked fine, no broken ring lands, the piston rings look ok too. However, the engine block was absolutely encrusted in a layer of oily grunge - closer inspection of the oil pump revealed a lot of said gunk, as well as around the oil dipstick and rear crank seal..hmm...



I know I know, a dismantled engine on a garage floor is all a bit "Bangla Banger". Come Sunday, I mostly attempted to clean up the mess left over from the previous day - I cleaned up the old 4E components to a limited degree, and cleared a space to store them, cleared away some leaves and detritus, and laid down sand on the oil that was spilt when dismantling the old 4E. In the mean time, I also decided to remove/install a couple of things, so I replaced the fuel filter, removed the crash bumper mounts (will weigh for weight saving tomorrow), charcoal canister, and front ABS Sensors.



I also installed the Zep Racing Braided clutch hose.



Then came the graceful moment - it was time to remove the driveshafts.



Well, yeah, that tells you some of the story! Long story short, with the mother in the car applying the brakes, and me putting all my weight onto the breaker bar to undo the driveshaft nut, I think the suspension gave a little (I only had one of the strut bolts on), and my hand catapulted into the side of my noise - I heard a crack, blood poured out instantly, and I felt faint. I think I may have broken my nose! Anyway, when I decided to stop being a noob, I re-attempted this and managed to gut the nuts off. I was ecstatic to find that the driveshafts were surprisingly easy to remove as well! So, I brought out the spare driveshaft I bought aeons ago and...oh dear...the spline count is different. Oh crap, what about those TRD CV Joints?? As it turns out, they followed the spline count of the spare driveshaft. Frack. Then, A-ha I mused, I have a spare set of Glanza hubs I bought to test fit the Levin brakes! Result, correct spline count for the CV Joints. This does however mean I need a new driveshaft! Oh well, little things! Oh, and the driveshafts:



Sooo...

I will be taking the dashboard out soon, perhaps tonight if I can be bothered, but that's unlikely; I will soak the old 4E components shortly as well to inspect more accurately in order to determine the previous oil consumption. Again, I'll aim to finalise assembly of the new engine, and I really do want to clean and pain the engine bay as well. Hopefully the forthcoming weekend should see me enlisting the help of my dear Mark to help me strip down the wiring loom and work out a plan to relocate the battery. Oh what a feeling!

Yes...its happened...

After endless turmoil, I just could not persist with the masochistic treachery that is maintaining my POS, so I did it...





















HAH! I know what you were thinking, I'm not that much of a defeatist! No, I have decided that with the Easter Holiday looming, now would be as good a time as any to swap the "heart" of this arthiritic wannabeast, and, why not, do it myself! With the scenario set, now to describe the not-so-treacherous 3 days leading upto finally dropping the engine out.

I cannot remember what day it started, but I had decided to initiate the engine swap to save on any further lost time, and went on a short - and painfully slow due to a surfeit of idiotic drivers - drive in order to warm up the oil, perfect for draining on return, and made sure a before picture was taken.



Shortly after..







..the front bumper and radiator were off, and by the evening the turbocharger assembly was off, along with the bonnet, apart from the bloody downpipe..I've always had issues with the nuts/studs holding the exhaust onto the downpipe, and one of them decided to round off, and rather than struggling too long (a lack of cutting discs for my Dremel has left me wanting for solutions), I just moved along and left it in situ. The next morning saw the removal of the intake manifold as well as swapping some parts onto the new engine, such as the TPS, IACV valve and...that's about it, I'll have to install some parts soon ish. In preparation for dropping out the engine, I also went about unplugging the loom and labelling all relevant connectors...a surprise is that there are so many idle connectors doing nothing, so the loom stripping would be an ideal thing to do.





The head assembly was also removed, as I figured it'd make things SO much easier for me when dropping out the engine. I further noticed a strange white residue on the piston tops, but I am inclined to think that it would be normal, as it follows the similar colouration of a healthy spark plug.

The next annoyance followed shortly - since I intended on dropping out the engine myself, I figured it would be wise to move the exhaust sytem out of the way. Little did I know, that the system was actually a seamless system, so unfortunately I couldn't just unbolt the muffler and be done with it. No, I removed the front section hangers, then concentrated on the rear, where the muffler hanger was held in place by the most annoying set up - little inacessible hose clips tightened around the standard mount prongs. I eventually got those off, but then there was another annoying mount, on the mounting arm for the petrol tank/panhard rod. I loosened the bolt, but on further unscrewing, I noticed that the mount, and the nut on the other side were just spinning freely, and no amount of dual wrench wielding could solve this dilemma.

OH WELL, to hell with that. Off with the driveshafts! Right, big hammer? Not-checked, a piddly one will do. Big heavy brass drift to hit driveshaft out with? No, just some copper piping I could find, it will do. Except they didn't. A few enquiries around suggested I used a pry bar of sorts, but on finding one, I couldn't figure a good enough levarage area to finangle the driveshafts out - I found my heavy steel, err, drift, and presumed with banging the holy hell out of the driveshafts, nothing. I then tried again with the prybar and, what's this? Gearbox oil?! Woohoo! Soon got the driveshafts out, and went about disconnecting the last few components to ready dropping the engine out; the gearbox connectors proved a minor annoyance.







Now was the time to drop the engine out, and with the exhaust system and downpipe still in situ, I was a bit precarious about how to go about this - I then settled with placing a wooden pallet over them, and having a jack under the sump, which would help spread some weight over the contact area with the exhaust. Anyway, from there it was pretty simple, remove the through-bolt on the rear mount, unbolt the gearbox side-mount (silly me also decided to store one of the bolts in the front chassis channel, hah!), and then nervously undo the engine-side mount, and upon doing so, slowly lowered the engine down. I has accomplished half the swaps nao!



Since then, I have also split the gearbox from the engine (and the guy that bought the gearbox more than two years ago can finally collect it!!), and will commence to dismantle and examine it. So, where does this leave me now? Well, the engine bay is atrocious, and vile - I will...*shivvers*...clean and degrease it thorougly, and maybe even cover it in a durable coat of Hammerite. Other jobs I see fit to do as well:

- Replace Brake Master Cylinder assembly with Levin unit
- Perhaps replace proportioning valve
- Get some Polyurethane engine mounts whilst they're accessible
- Strip the wiring loom down
- Remove the coolant bypass
- Remove the charcoal canister
- Remove the bumper brace mounts
- Perhaps upgrade the alternator/starter motor wiring
- Perhaps relocate the battery

Plus whatever else I deem plausible/useful to do - I actually recorded a few thoughts on my phone which I will pen down shortly. Oh, and ofcourse, I will have to complete assembling the new 4E-FTE sharpish and ready for installation ;)

Tomorrow, I hope to disassemble the old 4E, remove the driveshafts, and being removing the dashboard...onwards Me!

In the words of Lil' Wayne, "Can we talk about Hoooooossssseee Hoooooosssssseee!"

I actually had to think and search for this connotation! Anyway, I have been and now returned from Pirtek with some newly fabricated hosing for the turbocharger oil feed/drain, however, its not as fancy as I had hope, infact, its rather rudimentary, but I guess its there to perform its job. In short, the hoses from the original kit were refabricated in a much more flexible, and stronger hose by Pirtek, which maintains the same geometry, but at least the hose can withstand it this time.




As you can see, the oil drain is far, far longer than necessary, and I may address this in future with a 90 degree elbow from the sump. Beyond that, I also collected some Toyota Coolant, Distilled water, Radiator Flush and some Redline Water Wetter, so the cooling system will be ready and refreshed once the new engine is in. And I also got the new fuel filter.



So..on that basis, I await only the cambelt covers and gearbox bolts, and the transplant is ready to occur!

Anxiety, push forth!

Not a very exciting day, but I still managed/bothered to get up off of my ass to sort out a few issues that needed rectifying! So:

- Attempted to install the Zep Racing floor brace; attempt failed
- The turbocharger is no clocked in the correct position
- The engine timing is now spot-on (turns out, I should ignore timing marks left be previous assemblers, as they're idiots)
- Installed the NGK IX Iridium Spark plugs
- Installed the new clutch release bearing on the C56 gearbox

So at this point, I'm literally waiting for cambelt covers and gearbox bolts to arrive, once these do, I will enlist the help of a friend to assemble the engine to the gearbox, then all that will be left, other than getting some coolant, and shortening the braided hoses for the oil feed, is to swap the engines!

So very nearly there..

Yeah, I modified a Limp Bizkit song for my latest title, why? Cause they're awesome....yes....I said it, the band named after a bodily fluid soaked biscuit are awesome. And I instantly retract it too, cause they really aren't.

Anyway, the POS is back in my possession! However, only one exclamation mark to that event, for there is an issue; be it through improper brake bleeding, a malfunctioning new Master Cylinder/Servo unit, the brakes are severely lacking, in all senses of the word. Having just done a quick drive on some of the country roads around here, I've noted that the pedal barely opposes the foot in its travel, with little resistance, and easily reaches the end of its travel. Bite is severely lacking, however, I can manage it for now. It's a dampener to receiving the car, but I am hoping it is easily rectified.

Anyway, the garage replaced the old brake piping with some nifty copper piping, and I also took the oppurtunity to remove the ABS pump as well! Not as much of a weight loss as I had hoped, but every little helps regardless!





At least now the lack of ABS pump has also cleared way for a decent air filter arrangement, especially for the larger turbines when they'll be used! So, that is now, what of to be? Ok, that makes sense in my head. Anyway, I will now concentrate on getting the new 4E-FTE ready for installation, and hopefully get that installed. Ummm, that's about it.