GDII's 1990 G-Limited

[tomnomnom]

I put gen 4 Infront of life and no regrets

[GDII]

Haha that's awesome.

Just creating a new space to do the swap. Watch this space.

[GDII]

After doing some more driving post swapping out my O2 sensor, fuel economy has improved significantly. I'm now getting 10.4km per litre or 9.5 litres per 100km. I have been doing more highway driving but its still a lot better than it used to be. That's over 100km more per tank.

These numbers are based on what the trip meter reads. If I calculate it using the correction of 4.17% for my larger rolling diameter of the 245/40R17 tyres over the factory 205/60R14 then I get 10.8km per litre or 9.19 litres per 100km. That seems a lot better than the 8.08km per litre or 12.36 litres per 100km.

I have also noticed a lot less black soot spots on the rear bumper and the smell of fuel after driving has gone. I'm glad I kept my old O2 sensor.

[GDII]

Another fix and some more additions to the car.

I had a corroded pin in the plug that powers the door card light on the drivers side. I needed to either find a new wire or a full door loom. Olaf kindly let me take one from his black MR2. Turns out this wire had already broken in the rubber boot on his car so once I had unpinned it it just came out. Someone had been searching for the reason for the broken wire in the black car but obviously didn't find it.

So I re-pinned the plug on my car and connected the wire up to the door loom. I looked at the light and it wasn't working, got out my multimeter and tested the wires. They were working fine and the LED seemed to be OK. I thought the LED was broken so I grabbed the old standard bulb out of my parts bin and it instantly worked. So I put the LED back in, turns out I must have turned the LED over when trying to figure out why it wasn't working a while back and forgot I had done that.

I didn't realise it has been well over a year since I found the issue.
http://mr2.org.nz/phpbb3/viewtopic.php? ... 15#p131749

Some new parts that I didn't even realise I was missing until I saw them on another car. These are some steel plates that cover the front caster arm adjustment nuts and bushes from getting damaged from any rocks or stones. The plates are quite substantial in thickness so could take quite a hit. They only just fit with the caster set to 4.5º which is max on the OEM threads. The arm thread hits the inside of the plates but only just.

Cleaned them up for painting.

Painted the bolts too just because.

They should eventually match the dirt on the rest of the car. More parts to add to the missing things on the car. Just add more weight to the car like I have been doing for the last 10 years. Why stop now right?

[rocco26]

I'm glad ,I'm not the only one adding weight to my car and not reducing it.

[GDII]

I'm glad ,I'm not the only one adding weight to my car and not reducing it.

What you adding? For you, you can just turn up the boost to compensate. Me, just gotta deal with it.

[ClanFever]

And here's me asking if I really need the drivers seat or the steering wheel

[GDII]

And here's me asking if I really need the drivers seat or the steering wheel

[nightz]

And here's me asking if I really need the drivers seat or the steering wheel

How much does your brake pedal weight?

[GDII]

Well that didn't quite work as planned. Due to my 4.5º of caster angle the plates hit the arms so make horrible rubbing noises. I've had to remove them until I get a more factory spec wheel alignment.

[GDII]

Ok, so these plates were not the actual issue. Turns out my swaybar link mounting bracket on the strut has been ripped off. Welds completely torn off. Looks to have started recently and completely gone last night.

I'll swallow my pride and admit, Jim was right. They do break and they do need reinforced by welding a vertical tab to the bottom of the spring perch to help distribute the higher loads with stiffer suspension and stiffer swaybars. These are the OEM 99 GT Bilstien struts too that I purchased in 2013. I'll swap these out for my other set and get these made stronger.

[tw2]

That's annoying. I will make sure I get that done when i change my struts.

[GDII]

I was going to do this mod when I did major suspension upgrades but then didn't end up doing it.

Beef up one part of the suspension like the swaybar links and swaybars and you will find the next weakest link. These are that part. Rears can also fail as they can be quite thin.

[GDII]

All fixed. It seems to drive better now as I also swapped out the swaybar links for OEM spec ones. Good results.

[GDII]

Well over a year ago I made a purchase through Yahoo Auctions Japan and Moonlight racing. A used but extremely tidy 3SGTE TRD Muffler. Part number 17400-SW240. It was in Sapporo in the north of Japan but very little rust on it. Just a quick clean up with a cloth and some special touches to finish it off nicely, it came up really well.

I finally got around to installing it today with the help of Colin and his welder. Due to the way the 3SGE and 3SGTE exhausts are setup you can't just bolt one to the other. I had to design up an adapter pipe to allow the 3SGE B pipe to bolt to the 3SGTE muffler. I got it half built by my brother in Dunedin then got Colin to weld the second flange on to the pipe once I had cut it to length and test fit it in.

This shows the flanges being plasma cut to my design. They are 2 different sizes as the 3SGE has a larger flange and bolt spacing where the 3SGTE is smaller.

As it came with the second flange slipped over the pipe.

Colin welding the flange on for me. Epic work and much appreciated. A skill I would love to have.

Painted with VHT to make it not rust and look a little bit more like the muffler. The muffler has a grey metallic paint that would be really hard to find or even replicate.

This is the hardware I needed to install the pipe. 2 OEM crush washers from Toyota and some nuts and bolts with a flange on them. I really don't like engineers bolts for this stuff.

The muffler itself after the clean up.

The all important part number.

Built by SANGO who also make the standard OEM mufflers too.

This tips are very very tidy. Only a few minor scratches on the bottom and I hope to keep it that way.

This is how the 3SGE setup looks under the car. The 3SGTE muffler has a longer pipe that goes into the muffler therefor you need a pipe instead of using the CAT.

This is the factory 3SGTE B pipe. Just bolts up to the TRD muffler. Unfortunately the OEM B pipe necks down to 2" as it goes into the muffler. This is why replacing the OEM pipe with at least a 2.5" is the best thing to do.

I gave the tips and proper polish first with a decent paint compound that breaks done to a polish as you use it more then used a fine metal polish from Autosol to finish it off. Then I cleaned it with a solvent to remove the Autosol protection it leaves behind then added 2 coats of my favourite product, CarPro DLUX. It doesn't show up in the photos but it beads so well when water is pours or sprayed onto it. It will keep the tips looking good for longer and far easier to clean.

Also coated the inside of the tips as that is where the worst of dirt comes from.

Testing the muffler fitment then took off the pipe to weld up.

Pipe installed.

Removed the old system. Damn thing would never stop leaking no mater what I did.

How the tips looked before. They are now almost 4" in diameter.

I'll have to test if this muffler is still bearable when driving. Starting it up, it sure is a bit louder than the stock system but not sure how it will behave at road speeds.

I'm extremely happy with the look of it. This will go perfect for the 3SGTE swap that I will eventually get around to doing.