ClanFevers's APEXED 1992 GT-Limited (Continued)

[ClanFever]

So, the car has passed a milestone on Friday

https://1drv.ms/v/s!ApGmWBLePPuUqniveBieA0shWNPa

A 15 second video showing the cars (2nd) start (very shortly after the 1st start)

We (Phil - GDII, and another mate Aaron) with my supervision got the fuel line attached correctly, the wiring sorted (mostly, the starter motor issue I suffered at Manfeild has come back, more on that later) and plugged in a couple relays. Made sure to crank it without the ECU to get oil around the motor. Go to start it, nothing for about 10 seconds. Left it for half a minute, started it again, bang! Into life! The video shows the 2nd start not long after.

Definitely a good motivational boost to getting this car road worthy and legal

It still has some things need doing, need to install the new intercooler, sort out intake piping, give it some coolants, the manifold needs a couple studs looking at, need to control the boost, and just in general need to go over all the bolts etc and make sure nothing is missed. The throttle cable also needs to be shortened by 20mm or so. There is of course going to be random teething issues, and the wiring still needs to be sorted out in full

And by that I mean tidy up loom and look into starter issue - we believe wires have become exposed between the engine and the passenger compartment, possibly when the alarm was installed. At Manfeild years ago now, the car overheated on track and the starter engaged itself without needing the key, I had to disconnect the battery to stop this. I had an auto sparky fix the issue, however it has now come back

I got the installer to put through a boost line and perhaps some cutting hit the wires, we don't know currently. The previous owner(s) to me have had an alarm installed previously and then removed + sounds installed and it looks like wiring is a complete cluster-f in some cases. This will get looked at in the shorter term as there is power being leaked into the ground circuit for the starter, or something like that

All in all, it's been a very slow process and that has been my fault, efforts have been put into other places however now I feel like I want to put that effort into the car as it's so close

[GDII]

Was great to get it started! Fuel hose swap around, tested for leaks. Was leaking at the filter but tightened that up. All safe now just need to shorten the return hose a bit to make it sit better.

The starter issue is an odd one but I think I've narrowed it down to one area. The solution to the problem before was to add an earth wire directly from the relay position to the chassis however the earth system for the starter works fine so have no idea how that extra wire worked. I have heard that bad Esther's elsewhere can cause issues with the starter just going randomly.

However I was getting 12V at the relay coil side wires without the key in the ignition meaning that 12V is being supplied to the starter wire somewhere between the key and the relay. We looked around for this and narrowed it down to the starter wire between the passenger seat and the engine bay fuse box. Even cutting the wire at the seat position wasn't enough to stop it feeding 12V. So I depinned it from the fuse box and ran a new wire from the key side at the seat to the fuse box and it now works as it should. I'll open up the body harness later on to find the actual issue and repair it and put it all back together properly.

Still plenty to do but at least it runs!!

[ClanFever]

Phil might put up a more detailed count of events

This kind man came and helped (re: did) get this car ready for a wof. Its basically there

The leaking coolant pipe has been replaced and fix. We put on a new alternator belt. The throttle cable is now fixed (thanks for Colin for the much needed end part). The axle nuts were attached. The Tacho's resistor was replaced. We also bled the system (needs a bit more, you know what MR2s are like). Also got the side feed fan attached both physically and with wires.

I'll continue to bleed the system and take it for a couple runs, I'll then take it for a WoF and get a few sheets worth of work to fix probably. Shes by no means "done" (for example, she has the top mount from a Caldina and isn't using the side mount yet). She will be running wastegate pressure (7PSI) for the foreseeable future until I'm happy to run it at the engines normal 14PSI or so

[lasersooby]

Phil might put up a more detailed count of events

This kind man came and helped (re: did) get this car ready for a wof. Its basically there

The leaking coolant pipe has been replaced and fix. We put on a new alternator belt. The throttle cable is now fixed (thanks for Colin for the much needed end part). The axle nuts were attached. The Tacho's resistor was replaced. We also bled the system (needs a bit more, you know what MR2s are like). Also got the side feed fan attached both physically and with wires.

I'll continue to bleed the system and take it for a couple runs, I'll then take it for a WoF and get a few sheets worth of work to fix probably. Shes by no means "done" (for example, she has the top mount from a Caldina and isn't using the side mount yet). She will be running wastegate pressure (7PSI) for the foreseeable future until I'm happy to run it at the engines normal 14PSI or so

Awesome work guys . Man, the first image gives you the impression that the car is sitting on the ground, the lip looks sooooo close to the garage floor

I am just surprised though that you guys managed to keep going after your big lunch

[GDII]

You covered it quite well. I'm just going to write a wall of text now.

Wasn't heaps left to do but needed to make sure it was safe an not leaking before we went any further.

In this situation it turns out that you need to use a GEN2 3SGTE coolant bypass hose instead of a GEN4 as the pipe fitting on the GEN4 coolant tree is bigger than the GEN2 we are using. Maybe the GEN4 hose we had was too swollen to be used. Either way, we ordered a new GEN2 hose, forced it over the GEN4 bypass pipe and fits nicely on the GEN2 tree. Massive coolant be GONE!!

The throttle cable on this car was a bit too long so you had zero throttle until half pedal position and then only max half throttle. So Colin made us an cable end as we couldn't seem to find any that fit the cable and throttle crank. Chop off the old one, install the new one. Done.

Intercooler, we have pipe material but it's not setup for a GEN4 so we need to get it made. Caldina Intercooler with a special plastic BOV delete 'plate' for now.

I replaced a suspension bolt that was far too long and had no thread to tighten properly so that will make it safe. New one went in, lowered the car and tightened it up to 'reset' the OEM bush.

Axle studs had no nuts on them, so on went the nuts, castle caps and split pins. Check other bolts to make sure the bits we took off years ago we safe again.

Filled engine with coolant, bled radiator and heater core. These were pretty much already bled. Started the engine to do the coolant bleed, got up to temperature but then it got a little toasty. Let it cool off and poured in quite a bit more. Engine needed more coolant, that explains the needle going a little higher than I wanted. Filled up, started again, checked the radiator again for bubbles, nothing. Ran it up to temp, checked the coolant pipes and radiator were getting hot, sure enough, they did. Temp level stayed at the right level so I'm happy it's good to go for a drive once we get the final amount of coolant in and run it again.

Wired in the side mount intercooler fan just to bring in cool air to the bay. The fan runs full time as the temp sensor is unplugged for now.

I replaced the resistor in the tacho with a 10kOhm one. I think the OEM one is 43kOhm. The old setup uses the igniter to drive the tacho but it runs higher voltage than what the Caldina ECU outputs. So you drop the resistance level down to make it work. People use an MSD tach adapter but it's expensive, bulky and this mod is less than $1 and 20mins getting the gauges out.

It's good to have this at a point where it car drive again and go for a WoF. Lets see what that brings.

[ClanFever]

Chasing a shifter issue now
Had a short shift kit which goes straight up and was causing me to not have 1st and 2nd based on the fact the actual shifter was hitting the left hand gear linkage connector
Changed it out to a pre 92 shifter and proceeded to lose 4th and Reverse while also having no 1st and 2nd. Only have 3rd and 5th now. It looks like the left hand linkage has an issue. Hopefully it's not stretched but it basically does not have the movement to the gear selector that it should. Circled is where we think the bush itself on the gearbox end of the linkage could be damaged, but not sure. I can manually move the selector and hit it back and forth (sounds like when you move the gear shifter around in Neutral, can hear that selector hitting around) but I certainly cannot hear it when using the gear shifter with the linkages connected

[ClanFever]

Shifter issue... was the fact the bracket in the back end was not installed... lol
All fixed now, thanks to Cjay. The issue was hidden in a way I couldn't see it but Mr MR2 Mechanic was able to figure it out for me

Car developed a misfire, check the pictures for the oil situation... this is probably from when I was a bit excited when filling the car with oil. Did put in some new replacement coils as well and car is running well again, until the oil comes back (if it's not actually the overfill issue)

Phil has kindly made me a new battery bracket to hold the battery down

We've also soldered in new capacitors to the speedo but has not resolved the speedo issue. Apologies as I cannot find the photos we took of this job. My guess is the cable to electric sender/sensor is faulty. I need a pure electric E153 speed sender/sensor.

The car is now also running on ME VS U's Trispoke wheels. 17x8 and 17x9 +32 and +35

[Alsw20]

Could drive a bus through those spark plug gaps!

[GDII]

They are large but doesn't a BKR6EIX-11 have a 1.1mm gap? I don't actually know what plugs there are but there were new.
I'm using DENSO IK20 for mine. I guess a BKR6E should have a 0.8mm gap. The -11 is for NA?

[GlanzaAtHeart]

I'm running the BKR7EIX on my Gen 4 for reference. that spark plug gap does look quite large. 0.8mm is the OEM gap, which a BKR6 or 7E would do fine.

[GDII]

7 is for when you run more boost. 6 is sufficient for this setup.