My previous car was a Nissan S15, built for track and street duties. Served me well but I sold so I could get an RX-7. Well instead of doing that, I've invested the money and bought an MX-5 instead. Should keep me entertained for the next 6 months or so, that's when I'll hopefully get my rotary fix.
I've been a slacker... I've had my ITB parts for months now and yet to install them. Well today I've started pulling the AE101 ITBs apart to clean and possibly paint. I also took the adapter plate to Chilton Engineering, can never recommend them enough, and had them check it over to make sure everything was flat. Unfortunately, the side that bolts to the head wasn't very flat at all. This was concerning because there are water outlet/inlets on that side of the head and I didn't want to risk water leaking into the intake.
Photos below of the amazing looking adapter and the re-surface that Chilton did for me.
OK so I bought myself a short shifter (short throw) a couple of months back with the intention of using a very tall shift knob. The idea is to reduce the throw enough so that using a tall shift knob will cancel each other out and the throw is close to standard. However, the shifter will be a lot closer to the steering wheel for faster gear changes. WIN-WIN!
If using the tall knob with factory shifter, the throw was stupidly long (just too ridiculous). And using the short shifter kit (short throw) with a standard shift knob made it very difficult to select gears because of how short the throw was.
Obviously the first step was to remove the center console and old shifter.
Also a little surprise... the new lower shifter boot I replaced not long ago is already ripped!
Removed the factory plastic bush (keep this for later) and installed the supplied aluminium spacer, slot side down. Should sit just below the top, enough room for the plastic bushing.
Then installed the supplied plastic bushing, the piece on top the supplied top spacer with the locator towards the front. Make sure the holes line up with the original.
Secure everything with supplied bolts and top plate, top part of the shifter is then installed.
Me and a few mates have been working hard on developing a new product for our Roadsters, it's been underway for over a month now but we're getting close to finishing our first batch. Testing was a tedious process but we wanted to make sure the fitment was dead on.
So my AE101 Toyota ITBs are filthy, full of grime and covered in weird corrosion stuff. I can't mentally install them without giving them a "refresh". I initially attempted to clean them by hand but to no avail, so I decided to get them professionally sand blasted.
The dirty yuk throttle bodies.
The screws holding the butterfly in are secured from factory by "mushrooming" the ends of the thread, this effectively prevents the screwd from backing out and getting into your engine. So I've had to drill out the screws to disassemble.
I then cleaned the butterflies as well as the insides of the throttle bodies, easily enough with some elbow grease a scotch-brite pad.
Because the throttle bodies use ball-bearings and seals for the main shaft, I had to tape off all openings before I take them to the sand blaster.
All the parts prepped and sorted out so I don't misplace anything, hopefully get a chance to drop it off to the sand blaster next week.
Decided I'm going to save up and get my head ported/machined as well as throwing in some billet cam shafts. So ITBs will be gathering more dust while I save up for the head work...
Most of the ITB bits... all billet aluminium and murdered out
I decided that since my car would be off the road for a month or two as I work on the engine, it would be a great chance to do a custom wiring harness for the car. This would mean the body and engine/ECU wiring harnesses would be separated and independent of each other. Try to keep it all as simple as possible, will be especially nice to have a dedicated harness for the Megasquirt =)
So I was lucky enough to pickup an entire wiring harness (body, main, power, dash) for a decent price and got started working on it.
I've stripped the following from the harness so far:
All engine wiring
Air Flow Meter
Ignitors & coils (going COPs for the Megasquirt)
IAC valve
Purge valve
O2 (going dedicated wideband)
AC stuff
Power-steering
Clutch switch
Neutral switch
Fan switch (Megasquirt will control fans)
probable more... can't remember
All engine/ECU related fuses and relays will be kept separate and located close to the ECU. The engine bay fuse/relay box will be made redundant and relocated under the dash as there will only be four fuses used at that location.
After a long day of peeling tape and cutting wires...
99% complete with the main harness, you can see the pile of tape and wires removed in this photo. Seems a bit excessive doesn't it?
This is the wiring kit from DIYAutoTune, pretty handy. Will be used for engine to ECU wiring.
I then spent the rest of the afternoon de-pinning the ECU terminals so I could salvage the pins to re-use. It sucks having a budget...
My ITBs were pretty dirty so I had them sent out to Chilton Engineering for some sand-blasting, got it all back today and they came out great! It was also recommended that I give the ITBs a coat of paint to keep them clean.
I picked up some VHT Primer Coat and Quick Coat in the aluminium finish, was considering painting them black but decided against it. Some clean silver aluminium will look spiffy in between the black adapter and velocity stacks.
Fresh from the sand blaster, so clean. Had to mask the ITBs again to get it ready for paint. VHT Primer Coat and Quick Coat in aluminium finish.
I was told a long time ago to always have spray cans dipped in hot water while you paint, apparently it gives a better spray or something. Don't know if it's true but it kind of makes sense.
Hanging out on the clothes line getting the primer coat sprayed on.
Primer coat all done!
Top aluminium coat lightly sprayed on, did a few "dusting" coats before I did a wet coat.
Top coats all done and left to dry.
All done!
Going to give it a week to completely dry before I start putting it all back together.
I was told a long time ago to always have spray cans dipped in hot water while you paint, apparently it gives a better spray or something. Don't know if it's true but it kind of makes sense.
It heats up the air inside the can; builds pressure so the paint comes out at a higher velocity. It also thins the paint so its easier to make light, consistant coats.
So I'm still waiting for the paint to dry on the ITBs, going to be a long 7- days... But I couldn't wait so I did a dummy fit of the trumpets (velocity stacks) on the ITBs.
Over the last couple of days I finished off the main body harness, it's basically just wiring for the exterior lights and all in-cabin stuff plus fuses. It started out as a big mess but I think I did a pretty decent job in cleaning it up, also was able to relocate the engine bay fuse box to under the dash.
Another thing I did was remove all the stupid tape Mazda used on "wire splits" and replaced it with heat-shrink, I HATE TAPE!
I used zip ties instead of tape to bundle the wiring harness, all engine bay wiring will have convoluted tubing to protect it from stuff.
Removing the stupid tape and replacing it with heat-shrink.
Main body harness completed, now to start on the power and engine harness...
I picked up a Synchrometer from a local Motorsport business, Dirt Devil Ind., just located 30mins from Brisbane. It's used to tune/sync ITBs or carburetors for a smoother idle and acceleration. It's not really necessary but why not hey?
It works by measuring air flow through the trumpet (velocity stacks). The synchrometer has a tapered rubber tip that inserts into the ITB opening, than using the bypass adjust screw to set each throttle body for the right amount of air flow at idle.
Mate dropped off some Toyota COPs (Coil Over Plugs) for me today, going to use them with the Megasquirt instead of the factory ignitor/coils. Should be killer
We also tried out the Synchrometer on his ITB'd Daihatsu Mira Van, it's a fucking beast!
It's a slightly tedious process because adjustments on one throttle body will affect the others, so it can take a few goes to get it right. Once the ITBs are synced though, the idle speed needs to be adjusted too, with Ian's car the idle ended up being higher.
Nice job,
regarding the "wire splits" did you know, which wire have splits , and used for?
I found a lot of wire splits on an english NA, and i don't know if it's for the car alarm (deleted) or for something else
Nice job,
regarding the "wire splits" did you know, which wire have splits , and used for?
I found a lot of wire splits on an english NA, and i don't know if it's for the car alarm (deleted) or for something else
A question on that window air vent : could someone get it off the window just by pulling it ?
Just like you I could use some more airflow in my car, but I park it on a public car park, doesn't want anyone to mess around with it.
Wondering if a big o-ring seal can be added to keep water out, and a spring split pin could be used to secure it closed.
Keep it up, your build and attention to detail is inspiring !
A question on that window air vent : could someone get it off the window just by pulling it ?
Just like you I could use some more airflow in my car, but I park it on a public car park, doesn't want anyone to mess around with it.
Wondering if a big o-ring seal can be added to keep water out, and a spring split pin could be used to secure it closed.
Keep it up, your build and attention to detail is inspiring !
If someone really wanted to they could break the bend the vent and pull it out. It's not too easy though, but one way to make it even harder would be to install a rod on the inside so that the vent cant be removed from the outside. It's a good upgrade because it flows so much more air.
I've seen those vents before, the one that can be secured, but wasn't sure how effective their flow would be.
Also regarding water sealing, mine does fine even through heavy rains or the car wash. No leaks at all.
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