Damnation: The Cynos Project

Which loosely translates into me seizing, the nothingness. What I'm trying to insinuate here is that I have Seized the opportunity of doing absolutely nothing, rather than Seizing the day!

*Sigh*

Anyway, in the wake of the expectation of certain parts, and with little to do, I firstly set about doing a better job of cleaning the engine bay - and this time, I decided to utilise a little trick I observed during my time at F.A.S.T Autotechnic, as well as supporting the myth of the myriad of uses of such products. Applying a bit of PlusGas (a better WD40) onto a greasy cloth, I just started attacking the firewall and ouila! Dirt off, and a pleasant sheen left behind!



Mind you some areas were a bit labour intensive so I gave up quite quickly. I will return to this later, maybe. After this I decided to stop avoiding the primary issue at hand and return to the post-apocalyptic mess that is my wiring loom. After performing a Voodoo sermon to instil me with Divine-like bravery, and armed with electrical tape and a little prayer, I decided to confront the issue. Immediately, I issued myself a facepalm - with the wiring in its catatonic state, not even Mr. Toyota himself would've known what the hell was going on, but merely placing the dashboard cross-bar in place, and starting to shape the loom started to make a coherent mass of what used to be just a chaotic mess! See?!



In this new enlightened state, I then ventured forth and started rectifying some of my previous misdeeds, primarily that loom I chopped off by mistake:



And done. I also re-soldered a couple of other junctions where I removed wires from, or peculiar junctions done by Toyota themselves presumably, where sometimes wire was just looped together then insulation taped! And not to forget, I also soldered back on the oil pressure sensor connector, but to my horror, I found out another abomination:

One of the thermostat sensor connector wires had split, DAMNATION! Yes, the project name, living up to itself, BAH! Nevermind, as with most issues in life, I ignored it and moved on and progressed onto the driveshafts. So, I disassembled them, or rather, one, as the other was being recalcitrant, and swiftly started comparing up the CV
Joints to the "TRD" ones I had collected a while back.





I was slightly delighted to find that initial doubts regarding the authenticity of such an item as a "TRD" CV Joint, yet alone an uprated one were quickly dashed as can be inferred from the above comparisons - the ribbing on the base of the CV Joint is likely to increase strength, the internal webbing seems stronger and the actual ball-bearings seem larger. However, ofcourse Sainosu wasn't going to let me get away with this positive. Damnation, you strike again. To add emphasis, I'll list the observations:
- Spline counts on the "TRD" CV Joints different to those on Glanza CV Joints
- Spline counts on Glanza CV Joints different to those on Glanza hubs (TF??!)
- Spline count on Cynos hubs different
- CV Joint Shaft Diameter LARGER on Cynos hub (bugger)
- Cynos driveshaft inner spline count different to C56 Gearbox (goddamnit)
- Glanza driveshaft inner spline count correct for C56 Gearbox (ok, srsly, tf??)
- "TRD" CV Joints fit into Glanza hubs (err, whut!?)
- Only one nut received with "TRD" CV Joints, and threaded shaft is thinner than that of Glanza CV Joints. Great

And so ensued panicked investigating and inquiring for an answer to my dilemma. Before I sat myself down, realised I was being a girl - as is often the case - and that I just needed to find 23/23 spline driveshafts. Splendid, that'll be easy! So I go forth and request for some.

Erm

Driveshafts, pl0x? Anyone? OMG, does, ANYONE HAVE THEM!?! Oh yes, we have found some!!.....You want HOW MUCH?!! GTFO.

That was literally a condensed version of what had transpired. I recently managed to source some driveshafts, one pair for free (though the short driveshaft was damaged), and the other for not so free. However, it'll do! And these were sent straight out to my friendly garage, along with the Toyota CV Gaiter kit, "TRD" CV Joints, both sets of hubs (I had wheel bearings for the Cynos hubs, why not), new wheel bearings for the Glanza hubs (Ninety freaking pounds...and I had to order twice, as in a rather asinine move I didn't read the fact that only ONE wheel bearing was included for £45 >_<), where they are currently still being assembled. I also brought my Blitz downpipe with the severed stud, and my gearbox mount to the garage for them to disassemble the mount remove the stud. Yeah yeah, I don't have the necessary equipment to do it myself stfu.

Moving on, in the midst of this lull in progress I set about doing some tedious, menial jobs, and lots of buying to keep me elated. So, I swapped the fuel rails on the engine, as the one on there had the fuel pipe cut off. Woo, that was intensive.

Fatigued by such a laboured affair, I took it upon myself to lavish myself with some purchases. So, from Toyota I bought a multitude of useless bits and bobs ranging from brand new track-rod ends, bolts for the brake calipers (as I rounded one years ago), a new distributor o-ring (as the old one was pretty nasty), a new drivers-side brake hard line (as I stripped the old one) and a couple of other menial items. Which cost quite a bit. I also put in a minimal purchase with the ever useful Camskill, primarily for parts I didn't want to pay full price for with Toyota, so this time round, wheel bearings (had to buy twice due to aforementioned oversight), some Pattern Ball-joints, some new Anti-roll bar drop-links, and some Polyurethane drop-link bushes (hooray, no more ghetto cut-up bush!). Whilst I was there I figured it'd be wise to replace the front 3G Discs, whose grooves had almost been worn out into a flat disc...on the one side at least, presumably due to the former sticking caliper. Long story short, I sourced some Brembo plain discs for a VERY reasonable price from quite a nondescript website, pleasantly surprising. I also bought myself this:




A Synapse Engineering Synchronic 40mm Wastegate, and as can be inferred:



No diaphragms. I'm pretty much sold on their entire philosophy of this diaphragm-less mantra, seems to have its solid basis. One fact that didn't impress me with the purchase however was the photocopied Setup manual, causing me to possibly believe I may have bought a fake. Hmm.

Anyway, moving on from that, I then cautiously approached the wiring again, for fear of it spontaneously creating a cosmic electric storm, and tidied it up further, starting to tie up the bundles of cable and shaping out the tee-off's and other junctions in the cabling.



That is all. I left it again.

With the newly retrieved brake hard line in situ', I attempted to fit the front braided brake lines again, and, I did. It's just brake lines, nothing to it. Though annoyingly the captive nut on the passenger-side coilover for the brake line bracket decided to detach itself thus leaving me with a twin-line setup. Much to my annoyance. So again, I'm ignoring it for now. Struggling to find things to do, I set along with whatever I could find/bother - so I removed the Cynos hubs, and loosely placed the new track-rod ends, ball-joints and anti-roll bar drop-links, installed the new distributor o-ring, and, sat down and took a few pictures:




Whilst down on the floor, I got bored again, and as any typical prehistoric man would do, decided to attack this inanimate object that is the POSeo, albeit, with a power tool! I took out the drill and started drilling out the spot-welds on the charcoal canister mounting bracket. Plenty of swearing, and doubt, and remorse ensued, trying to drill out and subsequently chisel out the mount - seemingly taking half of the firewall sheet metal with it - until finally it was removed, all 32.9g of its heft.



Yeah, no turning back now! So, next it was the turn of the rear seat mounts! Why can't I stop? Common sense obviously evades me. So more unsightly holes drilled into the chassis, this time in the cabin, more cursory comments and sweating and remorse for foolish actions, and the rear seat mounts were out, for a MASSIVE 174.7g of weight saving.



Yes, I know, drinking coffee in the morning yields a great mass reduction. But this saving was caffeine-free! Use THAT in your marketing, Coca-Cola. You can't, it's copyrighted kkthx. "He then obviously decided to stop", the vast majority of the 1-2 people that read this blog would think. And you would think wrong. Well, partly wrong, as the intention was there, but the dedication was postponed.



As I had previously presumed, the odd looking spot-welded sheets on the rear arches, after a bit of drilling and chiselling, had indeed turned out to be more sound deadening. Superfluous profanity, GTFO. However, they were so tedious to remove, I once again, ignored it for completion at a later date. Possibly when it's cold so they'll peel off like the other sound deadening sheets did, and when I have the correct drill-bit for the occasion. And if you thought that was the limit to these absolutely preposterous lengths I go to reduce weight (I could just drive naked? Less air in the tyres? Etc), I also removed:
- Boot Ajar sensor [17.7g]
- Some Miscellaneous Plate that locates the loom on the chassis rail [77.8g]
- Rear Sound Deadening I bothered to remove [5.0g]
- Rear Seat Mount Spot-weld shavings [5.4g]

Bringing the current total - exclusive of the wiring loom massacre - to 9.5398kg. And yes. I weighed, the shavings from drilling out the spot welds.

After which, in a move to restore some actual sanity to my increasingly neurotic and psychopathic ways, I was left with not much else to achieve, so I just cleaned the garage. I know, I live an edgy life. So edgy infact, that on a recent visit to my garage, which is obviously not written in a chronological manner in this post as I saw them the first time I went to the garage with regards to having my hub/driveshaft issues sorted out, I was instantly smitten by something I caught sight of. There was a Glanza there, which I didn't really care about, however, I did find a set of Racing Sparco Crimsons behind it - on a quick talk with one of the guys there I came to find out that the wheels were actually for sale. However, I didn't need any new wheels as obviously I have a car to fix, so:





I bought them. I have no need to defend my actions. They're pretty, they were cheap-ish, and had RUBBISH tyres, but now I own them. Previously to this, along with the wastegate - more evidence of my excellent organisation of timescales in this post - I had also received one my lovely packages from Shoe of the Hay. I.e. Shuhei, my contact in Japan.




However, I only had the Intake Manifold Insulator Gasket in this package that was for me, and the Cusco Paddle clutch, but I was excited nonetheless, as always, as I love gifts and presents and Japan and I got all three, it was a fabulous trifecta. Not long after, I also received another package from Shuhei, but none of the items were mine, so I wasn't as ecstatic. However, this gave me scope to go down to Hi-Spec in Dartford as the Blitz NurSpec Muffler was going to Simon, who lived in that area.

Fast-forward a week, and I returned with this:




Freshly grooved set of Brembo Brake discs for the front, and some milled down discs/nee' rear hubs for a future rear brake setup. More to follow from this immense backlog ^_^