SirThomas's Twincharged 3.1L build thread

[Bostonlara]

Hey josh, ever think about a tranny swap???? Eb60 6 speed from a scion. Read on TN that it bolts right up but im not 100% positive on it

[ToyoSolV6]

Car is now being disassembled and all parts have been purchased, except for the gauges I'll need. Prolly going to go with an expensive PLX Devices gauge package including their DM-100 digital multi-gauge and a bunch of their sensor modules for intake temp, fluid temp, and others.

Awesome man! Looking forward to seeing your build come along!

Thanks dude!

I miss my car!!! I want to cry...

i feel ya dude, its been almost a year since ive last driven mine.

[ToyoSolV6]

Any updates?

[SirThomas88]

Hey guys, sorry I haven't posted any updates!! The car is still in Maine with Gabe. He's been posting some pictures to his facebook page if you want to check out some photos. I'll try to post a more informative update when I can.

Right now I'm scheduled to fly to Maine on thursday April 25th to pick up my car. It's not ready yet, but getting there! We've had some bad luck with the right axle. Had to get it machined a couple times and still doesn't fit.

Check out the facebook page and scroll down for photos: https://www.facebook.com/GLPMotorsports

[SirThomas88]

Hey josh, ever think about a tranny swap???? Eb60 6 speed from a scion. Read on TN that it bolts right up but im not 100% positive on it

Really? That's tight I hadn't heard about that. If we wern't already so far into the build I'd def have looked into it. Gabe sourced for me a MR2 Turbo transmission w/ LSD so thats whats going in now. Also we sourced a Celica Alltrac trans that we want to put in next so thats gonna be my next transmission most likely unless we decide not to do that conversion.

Thanks for the info I'll have to look into it!

[ToyoSolV6]

Hey guys, sorry I haven't posted any updates!! The car is still in Maine with Gabe. He's been posting some pictures to his facebook page if you want to check out some photos. I'll try to post a more informative update when I can.

Right now I'm scheduled to fly to Maine on thursday April 25th to pick up my car. It's not ready yet, but getting there! We've had some bad luck with the right axle. Had to get it machined a couple times and still doesn't fit.

Check out the facebook page and scroll down for photos: https://www.facebook.com/GLPMotorsports

sweet man! looks like your car is coming along as good as mine is. Yours looks like it will be done fast im aiming for mine to be done before the 4th of may. Thats my deadline for toyotafest.

[SirThomas88]

Ok so I went to Maine to see how my car is coming along and (hopefully) bring it back home but it wasn't ready yet. I worked on the car with Gabe and we got a lot done but decided we needed to spend more time on it. the car is almost ready to be fired up.

Some pictures are quite large so I suggest right clicking on them, clicking Copy Image Address, then pasting it into a new browser tab.

Because we moved the a/c condenser forward, we are going to have to cut off the front bumper mounting brackets AND remove the stock hood latch. Gonna have to prolly make some custom mounting brackets for the front bumper. Regarding the hood latch, I have two Aerocatch hoodpins for my CF hood. Should be sufficient to hold down the hood... Right? We ended up having to invest in a sump pump for the turbo oil to draw the oil out of the turbo and into the oil pan. The turbo sits too low in the engine bay to use gravity.

The water-air intercooler we are using we mounted vertically. It sits down next to the turbo and wastegate. We are going to wrap it in the DEI gold heat tape to help protect it from heat. We're also going to wrap the turbo in a blanket and perhaps make some sort of heat shield for the intercooler.






One major f*ck up while I was up there is we had this beautiful pipe welded and it came out perfect... except we asked the welder to weld the bungs on UPSIDE DOWN... The bungs are tapered at one end so... yeah doesn't work.. Stupid mistake.



Right now we still need to:
- Make custom mounting brackets for:
turbo's sump pump, intercooler, heat exchanger, a/c condenser, and front bumper
- Wire up:
sump pump, intercooler water pump, methanol pump, gauges, radiator fan
- Run intercooler water lines from the trunk to the engine bay and mount water tank and pump in the trunk.
- Wire up methanol tank/pump assembly and install in trunk, run lines to the engine bay.
- Fit fuel pump to harness

[ToyoSolV6]

wow that looks beatufiul!!!

[camrtm3]

Updates?

[ToyoSolV6]

Any updated dude?

[99BlackSandv6]

This should be wicked when you get it finished up.

But I have to say, they raped you with that battery install.

I would be happy to redo that mess for you when you get back to Baltimore. If you were closer I would definitely do it.
If you would be interested in meeting me halfway and paying up front for materials, I would seriously redo that for you.
It would only take a couple hours and you would be way better off.
I can't believe the $&*# some shops put out. Makes me sick.

Seriously, PM me if you would consider my offer.

[SirThomas88]

This should be wicked when you get it finished up.

But I have to say, they raped you with that battery install.

I would be happy to redo that mess for you when you get back to Baltimore. If you were closer I would definitely do it.
If you would be interested in meeting me halfway and paying up front for materials, I would seriously redo that for you.
It would only take a couple hours and you would be way better off.
I can't believe the $&*# some shops put out. Makes me sick.

Seriously, PM me if you would consider my offer.

That would be really cool. It's an excuse to hang out and meet a fellow SG'er! Bring your Solara too.

Well, right now it looks like this build won't be complete until Spring of next year Will explain in my next post w/ update

[SirThomas88]

Okay so, time for a long over-due update!

The car build is going well, and is mostly complete, except for one big big problem.... THE ENGINE! I bought Akora's 3.1L 1MZ which I have in the car now and it's making horrible rapping noises from the block.

Even worse, Akora (Ryan) was unwilling to give me any additional information about the engine build which might have helped us diagnose a problem. He got in a hissy fit with me about the fact that I hadn't made my monthly payments to him for a few months towards what I owe him for the engine, even though I was still well ahead of schedule in payments and my remaining debt to him was only $100 out of the whole engine... All I can say is that guy turned out to be a complete dick over really petty reasons, and I've never had to deal with that sort of pissy attitude from anyone before. Plus he lied on a couple occassions about how much remaining I owed him and when I confronted him about this, he said they were "There were additional payments for fees I've been carrying, hence your number" and when I asked him what were the fees for and how much, he called it "irrelevant". The guy is a total piss head. I'm not a difficult person to deal with and I've never had any complaints in any of my dealings. I'm a very straightforward individual. Oh, and he refused to even talk to me over the phone, resorting to our entire conversation taking place via text message over several days.

So, moving on from that...

I am in the final stages of buying a new engine!! Anyone know this car?



That's Brad Bedell and his yellow v6 swapped MR2 which won the 2004 SCCA Championship!

The engine block has pretty much everything that Akora's had done to it, and additionally has some head work done, including ported exhaust valves, custom exhaust cams, lifters, etc. Plus, I'm getting it for little more than I bought Akora's engine for.





Brad is a really cool dude with the experience and know-how to boot. And he totally went out of his way to open up the engine and inspect it and make sure that the bearings and everything are good to go and is even replacing the gaskets and seals for me. He did that because there was a time where he had sold the car w/ engine to another person and bought it back after some years and a rebuild.

So, with winter coming up and this unforseen setback both financially and time-wise, the new date for the car to be complete is by Spring time.

While the engine and transmission are out, I'm going to have the final drive ratio on my MR2 transmission swapped from the short 4.285 gearing over to either the Camry trans 3.99 gearing, or... if I can find it... the 3.722 final drive ratio out of the E55/E57 from the Corolla All-Trac. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_E_transmission#E55F5. The 4.285 final drive ratio is just way too short for cruising on the highway at 75+ mph. Plus with my build I'll be putting down plenty of power, I don't need short gears!

Regarding the engine I bought from Akora, after we remove it from the car we'll open it up and see how bad the damage is. If it's not too expensive to fix then I'll fix it and swap it into something else. Otherwise I'll part out all the good pieces and try to recoup some of my losses.

Anyways, thanks for reading guys, and I'll try to update more frequently!

[trentmeyer23]

How long after starting did it start making the noise?

[SirThomas88]

Picture links fixed in previous post.

How long after starting did it start making the noise?

We don't know for sure because the engine was idling for awhile and driven around the block a few times w/o the exhaust after the y-pipe so it made hearing those noises difficult. However one of Gabe's mechanics believes he could hear it at first fire-up.

We believe perhaps that Akora overlooked machining the rod bearings. When another person building a 1mz made this mistake, the engine failed in almost the same amount of miles as this one seems to have.