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Carlos Who? My ST185 GrpA GT-Four Rally car
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Spent some time this morning in the shed & this went smoother than I could have hoped, this is another one of those jobs that's really a 2 post hoist job & not a 4 post hoist job but with a little thought there is little to nothing you can't do on a 4 poster. I got the transmission jack out & slid that under the center of the diff cradle to take the weight
Then just undo the 4 big nuts that hold the cradle to the car & gently lower the whole assembly down with the jack
Lower it down till the bottom of the cradle is at the same height as the ramp of the hoist & then just slide it over so that the cradle is sitting on the ramp
Then just slide it off the ramp & onto the waiting table
At least one of the bearings of the tail shaft has been rubbing & is worn so I'll send this off to a driveshaft shop & have it all replaced whilst it's out.
Next steps are to strip it all apart, clean & paint it & pop in the new bushes & then reassembly & reinstall.... this should be fun
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Started pulling this apart this morning, I was prepared for stuck & rusted on bolts & for some of it to put up a proper fight.. but I was very happy when everything went much easier than I could ever have expected. Pulled the hub off first.
Then removed the two arms & the driveshaft & rinse & repeat on the other side
Then disconnected the two blots at the back of the diff housing that attaches what they seem to call the diff cushion
Now the Diff is held in with four long bolts that attached it to the crossmember & that cross member is attached to the frame with two large bolts, with all that undone the diff & that cross member are free.
I'm going to focus on cleaning & painting the frame, the diff & the cross member first, so the arms & shafts etc can just sit under the table for now.
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Next is operation press out the old bushes, I was again expecting this to be a big fight as it often is... again I was shocked how easily these came out, the spit stell shell design that Toyota used on these was genius for when it's time to pop them out, just a tiny bit of pressure & they pop right out.
I even just tried removing one with just a hammer hitting the metal sleeve & just that on it's own was enough to pop one out... mind blown.
One of the bushes that held the diff crossmember in place was actually broken up, so that explains the clunk you often got when backing off the gas maybe... even if that wasn't what was making the noise it's unlikely that a broken wobbly bushing was a good thing.
The crossmember and frame are cleaned up now & ready to be painted & have the new bushes installed tomorrow.
Just the diff & all the arms to focus on tomorrow
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I have a new rear ARB to go into the car & as that is easiest done with the diff & rear cradle out of the car, no time like the present. Disconnected the old end links & the decided double check that the new bar was the right shape before I pull the old one out.
With that confirmed pulled out the old bar, turns out that this is not the stock bar but is also a Whiteline bar, but unlike my new Whiteline bar it's not adjustable.
Installing the new bar in at the medium stiffness setting for now
The diff cradle or subframe or whatever you want to call it along with the diff crossmember are now cleaned & painted & ready to have the new body mount bushes installed
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I've cleaned the diff but I've decided not to paint it... because racecar & I think I'm at risk of making this a huge rebuild project if I don't just do some things to a "good enough for the girls we date level"
With the diff installed back in it's home its time to reinstall the whole frame back into the car
Then things took a shite turn, when pressing the old rubber bushes out of the lower control arms the arm slid off the socket that I was pressing the old bush out into & it bent the bar instantly ruining it..... bugger
I sat in the shed wallowing in the emotional phase of this problem whilst I finished my cup of tea... then I switch into the solutioning phase of the problem & got on the interwebs to source a solution to this. To be honest I'm mostly annoyed that I didn't get to finish the job this weekend which was really the goal. I hoping that the parts I've ordered turn up next week & I can get this end back on it's wheels next weekend.
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I got a new bush removal tool the other day as I was fed up trying to use sockets for the job, it comes with 5 diameters of threaded bar to use but I mostly got the kit to use with my actual jack press as it's the many many steel press cups that I wanted.
That's the last bush replaced now so I have tomorrow off work & I might even try & get most of the suspension back on.
Speaking of suspension.... a box of very nicely made, very shiny parts rocked up today from NZ.... This is a fully set of adjustable arms for the rear & two new fully adjustable front lower arms too.
They are really well made by the looks of it & all rose joints instead of bushes where they mount to the body
I've only assembled one of the front arms for this pic, these are beefy units
Just need to take OE arm length measurements & then adjust this stuff to match so it's at least close when I put it on.
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Started bolting stuff back on... thought I'd put the hub & the driveshaft back on first & then install the arms one at a time after measuring them up against the OE arms to try & get them close to right to start with.
Installing the front lower arm was a massive pain, the stock arm is held in with a camber adjustable bolt on the stock arm for adjustment. This new setup has semi spherical spacers & these nifty washers that fill the camber adjustment slots in so that the bar can't move anymore.
After installing all the arms, I realised that it was a dumb idea to put the hub & driveshaft in first as they where just in my way
For the other side I chose to fit the arms first, much faster to do it that way.
Now to focus on the front later in the week or on the weekend.
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Last thing to do at the rear was to fit the new handbrake shoes, this is such a fiddley job to do as there is little to no space to get your fingers in there. There is an lever arm that connects to the handbrake cable that you need to take off the old shoe to reuse as they are not supplied with the new shoe kit.
Next up I'll attack the front on the weekend... I have new polly bushes for the swaybar & for the steering rack
Then for the main game the whole lower arms are going in the bin to be replaced by my shiny new adjustable bits, I also need different sway bar links too for the new lower arms.
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Started with the super simple bits, the sway bar rubbers where really shagged so definitely needed replacing
There was no damage to the old steering rack rubbers, these new polly ones are just stiffer & remove movement from the mountings
There are 3 parts to the new front arm, the rear bracket that goes here
The front adjustable part of the arm that used to adjust the camber & has the 3 holes for the adjustability of the sway bar
Then the rear adjustable arm that adjusts the castor angle
I was super happy at how easily the old front arm unbolted & came off the car
Then I sat the old & new side by side so I could get the initial arm length adjustment as close as I could to how the car was set up
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I'm still waiting on science to make us genetically modified octopus to help in the shed on jobs like this, this think is adjustable & flexible in so many directions it was hard to install it without getting hit by a flopping arm in the head... but I got it on & in
These seem to be a great bit of kit, bolt right in with no issues, are really well made & I thing they look bloody awesome too... hopefully it won't be too long & I'll know how they actually perform too
Figured I might as well throw the bonnet back on too, there's no need for it to just be sitting on the roof the whole time, kinda nice & motivating to see the car looking like a car again too
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I now have to press out the 4 engine/gearbox mounting bushes. These are much much larger that the others so I'm not sure I have anything large enough to press out these original bushes. If anyone has any tips or ideas I'm all ears.
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Given I'm still very much recovering from thyroid surgery I'm restricted to light duties in the shed, I can't lift anything heavy or stress my neck so I'm looking for simple tasks, first one is cleaning the engine bay. I have a big container of chemical cleaner & this is what I was starting with.
Well that cleaned up really nice, very happy with that, I could get in there & scrub some sections cleaner but I didn't, because racecar
Since I had the pressure washer out I decided to wash the car since it was still covered the dirt & grim & oil from the track day that killed her... I do love how she looks
Tomorrow my plan is to clean off the water to air intercooler, specifically the bottom of it as I plan to cover it in this gold heat reflective stuff. I don't know what if any real advantage this will give the charge air temps but I have to think it will not make it any worse.
I'm half tempted to look at putting this reflective wrap on the firewall too to see if that drops the heat going into the cabin, it'll be bloody fiddley to fit but maybe it might be worth it?
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The underside of the intercooler is now heat insolation wrapped... this will probably do three fifths of five eights of fcuk all difference to heat soak after 30 seconds into the first rally stage but it can't hurt I don't think.
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Got the gearbox, front diff & the cross members all cleaned up today
Cut the engine & gearbox bushings out as I didn't have anything big enough to allow me to press them out, in a way I should have done them all this way as it's much quicker & easier to just cut them with the reciprocating saw to pop the wall in & then just smack them out.
Painted the cross members & put the new red polly bushings in
I think I only have one job left on this car that I must get done before the engine goes back in & possibly one I'd like to do but wouldn't care if it didn't happen.
Speaking of the engine, I spoke to my engine builder this morning & everything is finally back from the machine shop, he's just waiting on the bearings to arrive that he needs to start the reassembly. I've asked again for lots of pics, but he's been really slow on the uptake here for that. I may have to take a trip over to see him & get some pics myself if that's what needs to be done.
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It took weeks for the bearings to finally arrive, but arrive they did & whole short block is now assembled. Without having an OEM 3SGTE block sitting side by side you'd never notice any difference with the TTE block & an OEM one. Externally it's a 4mm lower deck height but other than that it's mostly enlarged oil passages & bigger oil squirters for the TTE piston skirts, those TTE pistons being shorter too obviously to fit the lower deck height.
ARP hard wear used to bolt all the spinny bits together as you would expect
The aftermarket Moroso larger capacity baffled sump is on now too... hopefully this isn't just fancy engine jewellery bling & will in fact prolong the life of this engine by actually working to prevent oil starvation.
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The TTE head is now installed on the engine, Toyota did have a fairly complex T-VIS variable intake system that mounts to the intake ports on these engines from the factory which improves low end driveability.. that's gone in the bin as the guys from MMC would say. You can see the T-VIS delete plates here have been ported to match the porting on the TTE head. Cams are installed too & we've gone with NA cams & not turbo grind cams as I'm told that's what TTE did in their engines & they seemed to do alright.
I now need to find some time to bring over some of the parts that I still have here that he needs like the Intercooler, my fuel rail, timing belt covers & throttle body etc... I'm thinking that I might just chuck all of the bits I have in the boot & then let him pick what he needs & I can cart the rest home again.
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I have just finished cleaning up all these parts as I need to get them over to the engine builder now some bits are going back on my engine & others are to replace bits he took from his parts bins to fit onto mine.
The plan as I know it now is that the engine builder wants to fit the engine into the car & use my existing loom & the Motec piggyback ECU for the initial fire up & break in as we know all of that stuff works. Then he'll replace the ECU & the wiring.
Dropped all the old bits across to the engine builder & got to see the engine in the metal. I don't remember them being this tall but I guess they are.
He has everything big at the shop now, so the new clutch & flywheel, Link ECU, the Link dash & the dash surround to install it, the loom & array of sensors etc Confirmed that we are running NA cams for more off boost torque & a bit more retarding on the exhaust cam to get the engine to rev more. Because I'm running a stock sized turbo we're not looking at big numbers here, he thinks we'll have 250KW at the wheels but given the nature of Targa rallys that's healthy enough for where my ability to get 100% out of the car is right now.
He's waiting on some fiddly fittings & a braided hose or two to rock up but he thinks we're a week to 2 weeks max from the engine being back in the car now. If that happens then it's feasible that I have a complete & running car back early 2025... fingers crossed & assuming no more visits from the fcukup fairy.
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I called the driveshaft shop & asked how my referb was coming along. Turns out not well was the answer, they had no issue getting the correct uni joints off the shelf, but the same could not be said for the two tail shaft bearings & carrier brackets where made of pure unobtainium it seems. They had tried every where in Aus & NZ to get a pair & had even been onto contacts in Japan & they where beginning to believe that these things are no longer available.
When I found this out I got onto GT4 Play in the UK as they seem to be the go to place for GT4 parts... the clue was in the name I guess. Now I'm not sure how rare & hard to find in Europe or specifically Ireland & the UK are
The GT4 Play website showed that they had 10 of these in stock, I needed 2 to refresh my tail shaft & just in case these are last 10 in existence I ordered a second pair.. you know to be sure to be sure
Got the parts to them & Got my tail-shaft back now, everything that moves is new & it was fully balanced with both sections bolted together. I think that's the last thing on my to-do list & now I'm just waiting for the engine builder to want the car & gearbox from me to put Humpty back together. I know he's just taken over a new bigger shop so I suspect that he's mid move right now so I kinda don't expect to have him to that bit till January now I guess.
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I had something very shiny turn up today for the this car, as much as I'm very keen to just rush out to the shed tonight after work & attack the car I think I'll wait till it's up & running. The car is really hot inside when you have your fireproof onesie & all your other gear on... the fact that the whole airbox is removed means that nothing flows through the air vents as they are fully disconnected so I've opted for a fully Carbon roof mounted air vent
Looking at the pics on their website, the install looks pretty simple... well so long as you're happy to have at your cars roof with an angle grinder...
The air vents then simply point directly at the driver & nav
The roof flap is just operated with a simple spring loaded T bar handle
I think I'll leave it Carbon finish but maybe I should paint it white...
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I got a call from the engine builder yesterday saying that he's done & is ready now for me to bring him the gearbox... so that got loaded up today, these are NOT light, hence the use of the engine crane
I'm also bringing him the whole car, as I have way too much on the XB & the Dodge that I want to get done over the Xmas/New Years period so I'm going to do a very un-Dave thing & let someone else do some of the donkey work that I could have done myself.
This meant I had to push the stupid thing down to the front garage as the roller door at the back of that front garage is a few inches too narrow to allow a car trailer to fit through... this is something that I will be fixing with very large hammers sometime in the early new year hopefully... also hopefully that's the last time I have to push the car at all, I can totally see why they invented engines for them now.
She's all loaded up now & ready to go first thing in the morning
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Just got an update from the engine builder, the engine & gearbox are back in the car & she's running... she's at his shop now for him to install the new standalone Lynx ECU & the LYNX dash along with some other small jobs. It feels odd to have a project moving along without any input from me.
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