3TCGARAGE.COM

For Easter 2012 I finally made it back to the Toyota Nationals!

Wow what a weekend.
Once again great to catch up with old mates - even though I have only been once previously they seem like old mates - and put faces to other forum contacts!

The truck drive down was eminently uneventful. Yes I decided not to risk shoddy roads, clueless wildlife, and potential mechanical mayhem and did the cowardly thing and transported the old girl in my truck! I had initially been going to sleep in Goondiwindi but found the truck had made better progress than I figured so I made it to Moree before nightfall. My attempt at sleeping in Moree was rather fruitless as it just felt creepy... Since it didn't feel right I broke my intention of not driving at night and made tracks. By 60kms out of Dubbo at 1AM I was flaked and fortunatly Gilgandra truckstop on the other hand was all peaceful. Waking up by 7 left me a short drive into Dubbo to start soaking up Toyota Nationals.

Friday was all about flat out gasbagging and engaging in my love of hard work - golly I could watch it all day! There are a couple of advantages to owning a turd which cannot be polished!

Saturday's show-n-shine while not my usual scene saw my celica on display with all the other cars. It was a little sad to note the very small contingent of classic celicas at this years event. The quality of several however was exempliary and you could almost see the money dripping off them! Damn a man can but dream...!
The afternoons motorkhana madness was as usual an awesome spectacle of vehicles being driven in controlled fury (mostly controlled)! I love seeing owners punting their cars around like they have been stolen.

Ahh Sunday and the 1/8th mile drags! Traction is somewhat limited for all involved due to the unprepared airstrip surface but adds to the charm. Tyres scrabbling for grip and screaming for mercy as they are relentlessly tortured by too much power and/or enthusiasm! I must have been a little too over anxious to bust a good number as I managed to miss gearchanges on a number of runs. My best of the day was an 8.5 second run which was fairly respectable. I wound in an extra 4psi of boost for the days last timed run but didn't manage to get a clean pass... When they allowed a final untimed grudge run I managed to line up all the dots and it felt fantastic - anti-lag crackling and banging on the line, clutch disengaged cleanly, gears found in correct order, and seat of the pants being pushed up my freckle by acceleration - yeah that was a good run and a big pity there was no time card. May or may not have been better than 8.5...

The presentation dinner had a couple of incidents better left undescribed however I came away with 'Best Sleeper' award!


My trip home monday started at 6.30am and finished 15 hours later at 11.30pm that night.
There was a little of the 'Thelma and Louise' routine despite trucking the celica...

Yes thats the celica unloaded off the truck in the middle of Qld outback ready to drive for diesel. I ran out literally 5kms from the service station being aimed for! That cost me an hour all up and was an interesting break in the trip! Once again I had not intended to drive at night however I was still feeling fresh come nightfall so I pressed on to make it home to my darling wife!

Cheers,
Jason

By September 2012 I was playing with 30psi boost and the air fuel mixtures were WOEFUL with the modified stock intake manifold I had been using. I set about 'fixing' it in the only way I know how!





Nearly fell dead in the water just after getting into the swing of it... As you may notice in pic one it turns out the dizzy shaft required a rather nasty skim with the die grinder to allow the front bolt for the new manifold to be inserted.

Slowly getting there anyhow!

Break for lunch...





Just how desperate am I to have a flat surface on a sunday afternoon?



Can't be more than say 2 hours work left in that? :rolleyes:

Back to it!

Over the last week there was this:



Followed by this:







And today this:



With everything all connected back up there is not really too much clue of the abominations which have been committed to the casual glance!

Anyhow it fired into life at the hit of the key and idled away just as if nothing untoward has been done at all.
I will check the timing is where I want it, top up the radiator and take it for a drive a little later.

Cheers,
Jason

I made some more preparations for the next drag strip assault:

Got into the cool air bit this weekend:







As usual it turned out to be 'slightly' more involved than I had figured at first glance.

Also finally had the machinist call me up to come have a sealing ring made up from hard plastic for my carb intake hat. The rubber seals were still insisting on blowing out frequently with over 30psi boost. This one is an L shaped plastic ring which is a fly's whisker interference fit to the top of the carb and the hat is then a fly's whisker interference fit over the plastic ring. Think this should be the goods.

Slicks fit!









Sorry about ruining all your beautiful dish Toyman...

I'm retuning the engine currently to optimise for the new manifold.

Cheers,
Jason

October 2012 was to be the highest and lowest points of owning my celica all in one drag strip outing...

What an epic couple of days!

I knocked off work midday Friday and loaded the Celica into the truck and headed for Benaraby Raceway for a couple of days drag racing. I had decided to do both the Friday night test -n-tune as well as the Saturday race meeting due to having several changed parameters and wanting to creep up on a tune. New intake manifold, increased water-meth volume, and the 17psi wastegate springs back in all told me to expect a few runs worth of tuning before getting the best from the old girl.

First run out on Friday night was 14.4 @ 98mph struggling with one of the gears. I reviewed the data log and decided to put a size larger jets front and rear to bring the AFR's back to the mid to low 11's. Second run I blew off the brake booster hose on the burnout and the car didn't want to run right so I crusied the track and was relieved to find the problem so simple back in the pits. Third time out I gave it 3 degrees more timing and went 13.4 @ 102mph. I had a baseline to start with or so I thought. I was with a group of mates and we camped in the back of my truck after a BBQ and much chin wagging!

Here is the dear old girl in the staging lanes Friday night:



Here is the old girl chilling waiting for some action:





Saturdays action kicked off with qualifying in the stinking 30something degree heat... I ran a 13.9 @ 100mph and pulling out my turbo excuse book found the heat of the day most likely responsible... Next qualifier the car didn't sound right on the burnout pad and wouldn't come up on boost on the start line. It turned out the dizzy internals had slipped retarding the timing to around 5 degrees advance - damn well no wonder the car wouldn't come up on boost... A quick rework of the clamp and some wire to help hold and I then had to carefully rethink my ignition strategy in the light of not knowing exactly what had been base timing for previous runs... Third qualifier netted me 12.76 @ 110.90mph with a reasonable 1.76 sixty foot time having given it an increase from 24 to 30psi boost. This time gave me the top qualifier spot for Street bracket.

There was opportunity for a fourth qualifier however I didn't make it past the burnout :rolleyes:. I went to pull a larger skid just because I love skids. There was a couple of pops as I pedalled it trying to keep it off the rev limiter followed by an almighty bang and the bonnet jumped several inches! It seems the part throttle high boost scenario ran cylinders lean causing a backfire which attempted to launch the carb hat through the bonnet (there is a large dent now) ripping out the material holding in the retaining nut. At this point I was going to pack the car away and enjoy watching the racing as there was also fuel dripping from the rear accelerator pump indicating the diaphram didn't like the pressure spike either... A group of mates came over and produced gaskets and diaphram for the holley plus a large aluminium washer to attempt repair of the broken carb hat. After a couple of goes we got the hat to retain boost while testing on anti-lag so I was able to front for the first round of racing!!!

Repair:



First race I had a bye run and since the carb hats unfortunate incident and subsequent hasty repair I lowered the boost back to 24psi and gave her a couple more degrees timing. The time was 12.92 @ 109mph with a 1.67 sixty footer thanks to anti-lagging the launch. As the carb hat was still intact I gave it 30psi boost for the next run which netted me a breakout loss with 12.35 @ 112.66mph with a 1.61 sixty foot time! The run felt good with the car behaving nicely. Since all was still well with the carb hat I turned the boost knob up once again - it was either that or give it some more timing as it was still a little sluggish in the mid rpm range! Third race the car rolled the beam on the start line as I was anti lagging it (I knew it moved but the stage beams were still on) and hence a time card of 13.8 @ 115.5mph with a registered 3.352 sixty foot even though it left like a slingshot! If the sixty foot time had been the same 1.61 as the previous run and discount the extra 3mph then it should have been a 12.06 et minimum... There is always the one that got away...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0RU3j7yr7I

I was dirty with myself at the mistake so asked the meeting director if I could have another run once the finals were finished. Now I had not thought to take a glance at the boost gauge for the previous couple of runs so I can only hazard a guess as to what the boost may have been after winding more in again for this final run (north of 35psi). The car felt absolutely menacing this run as though it were out to eat me. The data log and the 60ft time of 1.63 both show some wheelspin off the line and from there it was the one of the wildest passes I have had bar none! I was fighting to keep the car in my lane while it was snaking first one direction then the other. Gear changes (all of them) unsettled the car nastily. My head kept saying get off it but my right foot was clamped to the floor with adrenlin. The tail was drifting somewhat controllably as I shifted into 4th and then all went quiet... I didn't think to put the clutch in or shift neutral but still ran 12.2 @ 96mph. Rounding the exit lane I stabbed the throttle a few times trying to see if there was life and was rewarded with the sound of gravel in a mincer. I knew what would be waiting so I popped the hood and looked around with my torch and found the newly created inspection hole is at the passenger side at number 1 cylinder position.

RIP the little 3TC that could. I know I was being a little unjust this weekend as I just kept pushing the boundary so I feel a little guilty as though my dear little engine deserved better...

I'll do a post mortem and put up the findings some day but right now its somewhat fittingly a gloomy rainy day and I don't have the motorvation to unload the truck and get started.

Of course I'll build another bullet and go again, however I'm going to have a careful think about just how much better to build it. The way the car itself behaved with my last twist of the boost knob I believe I have found the limits of chassis and suspension - that is without spending money hand over fist on what is my daily drive with a sideserve of fun. The 115mph tune is well and truely enough for a mid 11 second timecard if I could convice the gearbox to accept nasty ripped flat shifts and the car still ran straight so I feel to build the engine with this as my goal post for reliability. Forged pistons and rods are a no brainer and cheap insurance but I think there will not be any need for serious changes to the combo at all.

Cheers,
Jason

2012 post mortem...

I have started pulling stuff out of the engine bay with aim of pulling the engine itself Sunday.

At a preliminary look around it appears the dipstick is the failure point.



The crank journal looks clean so definately must be the dipstick at fault...



Can't for the life of me figure out why the turbo oil drain has come loose... I distinctly remember tightening it...



Cheers,
Jason

So for the last year and a bit I have been collecting bits and getting machine work done etc:

So the build for the new motor is slowly happening.
Block is bored and crank is off being reground.
My cam has been reground to repair a small amount of damage/wear.

Parts have started to roll in also!

Brand spanking new 2TC toyota head:



87MM 3SGTE (GT4 Celica) forged JE pistons:



Eagle forged rods:





Cometic 60thou head gasket:



ARP studs for head and mains are ready to be fitted also.
Uprated oil pump is on its way currently.
Main stud girdle will be built shortly.
Billet steel flywheel and uprated clutch are being constructed.

I have also made a complete new dash arrangement mostly from fibreglass:



Cheers,
Jason

So now we are up to November 2012 and I am reposting the items from my Jeffco thread!

Hi Guys,
Just posting a couple of pics of my Jeffco 3 speed transmission and adapter!

Cos I am rather excited that's why!!



But preceding that pic there was the adapter for Jeffco to Toyota bell housing.



With less massaging than I had imagined it fits in the trans tunnel.



Just ignore the inspection hole in the block for cyl 1...

Cheers,
Jason

1st


2nd


3rd


Reverse




Cheers,
Jason

Anyhow at personal request of Toyota1515 I'll add an update!







I finished the roll cage over the last week and started on the turbo plumbing Sunday afternoon. This is the part I have been most keen to get onto!!!

Cheers,
Jason

Waste gate plumbing and dump pipe all nestled into place.
I like it when a plan comes together!









Yes there is clearance between plumbing/hardware and the car - just not too much!

I guess it will be time to move on with the intake side of things... I'm knackered and my back is caning me so it is armchair for tonight.

Cheers,
Jason