altezzaclub

Willis is right- Sadly, either it is running smoothly & registered, or its nearly worthless. Anytime an ad says "just needs finishing" or "needs a tune" it means the car is a dog and needs heaps of time and sorting out. So you'd be best to either give up and flick it for what you can get, or finish it and make the extra dollars. ...and if you had "built" the 4AGTE you would know what the compression ratio was. On here tonight somewhere is a graph of compression versus turbo pressure, and you can see quite clearly that a CR of about 9 becomes 13 under boost. So if you are only boosting at 7psi you will have an abysmal CR without the boost, and it will crawl...

If it cranks fine when it does, then its a solenoid problem or ignition key. Strip the starter and solenoid. Put a washer under the big copper contacts inside the solenoid to push them closer to the copper bar. That's where the 300amps goes through. Check the brushes in the starter motor & clean up the rotor face they run on with sandpaper. A problem there usually makes it turn slowly. The contacts in the ignition key setup may have eroded, that can be stripped and checked, and sanded clean if needed. Its quite fiddly to do with lots of little bits of copper. Keep an eye on all the wiring for a burnt or broken or corroded contact somewhere.

Sad, but a wonderful example of Govt interference with rules, laws, codes and regulations as they try to micromanage our lives in response to pressure groups and those who make their fortune from the same rules.... According to them we would never have survived without them in the previous 100years that people have been hotting up cars! This excuse of "making us safer" really means "do as we say or else!" and "don't try to be individual, we know best"

If the battery winds it over quickly straight away then its tuning as Towie said. How does it run once its going?? Idles OK, goes up hills OK?? The points slowly wear closed which robs the motor of ignition advance and it loses power & starts poorly. The other sad option for hard first starting is a head gasket leaking...

No power getting to the solenoid?? or an internal problem?

lol! that's what it takes to warm it up! Maybe the thermostat is jammed open, so it doesn't warm up- check the rad gets hot, 75deg is too hot to keep your hand on.. or as Medicine Man says, the sensor has the wrong resistance. I bought a correct Pintara one from the catalogue a few weeks back, it didn't even fit the threaded hole. A Nissan 4WD one fitted but refused to warm up on the gauge, and the third one (a 240SX I think it was) works fine. Have another try at Supercheap for a different resistance value. Mine is 1175ohms on the 2000ohm scale of my $10 yellow multimeter, and that's at about 15deg in the garage right now.

Does it self-return OK when you let the wheel go?? A bent rack might be another option...

I can't see it being stock, mine is lighter than any other car I've owned and they are nearly all power steering. Get a wheel alignment as love said, and means stock springs, rims and tyres.... What does the tyre wear look like right now?? Even right across each tyre tread? If that is OK then jack under each LCA to lift the front tyres an inch off the ground on both side at once and try the steering. Maybe its run out of grease and is jamming inside the rack bush.

What, the starter motor won't turn over at all or it turns the motor slowly but it won't start?

WTF! That's a worry! Probably end up with less power than stock!

Look'n good my man! Make sure its 110%....

Ah- OK. That's normal, in that the rest of the car feeds into it either at the starter or the alty. So Alex still runs one fat +ve wire from the boot to the starter, and if he's keen an earth wire going back beside it. I'd go and photograph mine but its such a cold wet shitty day & it is such an impossible place to get to! Toyota should have had the starter, the battery and the alty on the other side of the motor! I do remember as I moved the wires from the original battery +ve down under th exhaust to the starter terminal one of the fusible link tabs broke. They were all dirty, old and rigid so I did big cleanup and check of all the connections.

The alty +ve goes off to the fusible link circuit, on mine its part of the fusebox/relay box that sits beside the battery in the stock position. The battery doesn't wire directly to the alty, and the alty only uses a low-current wire as it charges much slower than the battery discharges. Wire it like this- The battery heavy-current wire is the blue one, it goes from battery +ve straight to the starter. The other wires (fusible link wires) go on the same terminal of the starter, (shown in black). The red one is the solenoid activator that is on the solenoid tab of the starter. Mine fitted perfectly, and while you are under the exhaust manifold in that incredibly cramped place, check the fusible links carefully as they wires burn and break.

Which two sets of cables did you run Jono? I just run the main battery +ve cable to the front, and all the small low-current wires link into that. (including the alty line) Ideally you would run a fat cable from the battery in the boot to an isolation switch where the battery used to be, and all stock wiring comes off that. Then you can kill the battery current from under the bonnet immediately. You're right about the gearbox, it uses the engine earth through all the bolts in the bellhousing. You can use an ohmmeter to measure all this, we did it in Altezzaclub when the arguments were raging about the fancy bling earth cabling that was for sale. Any time you have electrical problems it is worth spending 15minutes with a $10 multimeter from Jaycar.

Here's the layout. I coloured it for a slightly different reason, but basically turning the key to "ignition on" loads the green lines, and turning it to "start" loads the red line. That red line is the low-current wire that goes from the ignition key to the starter motor to activate the solenoid. The heavy current line goes from the battery to the starter and is still in black. The green lines go through the coil/rev counter & run the motor, and your part goes through the ign light then alty fuse then to the alty to power the windings. Once they are activated the alty produces electricity that feeds into the fusible link to run the electrics generally and charge the battery. You shouldn't have to touch anything to move the battery except the high-current wires. However if you are losing power like you said then you have a fault in the alty circuit.

Nope- the battery supplies the starter motor, up to 300amps when its cranking. Then the alty recharges the battery at only 50amps odd, so it take a few minutes. I've never run the lead from the block to the earth of the battery in the boot, I used the chassis to carry power, but it seems a good idea. Two heavy battery cables from the battery to the starter will give you the best transmission possible. Better would be to have the battery on the chassis on the driver's side, which is why I did it. Short leads and easy to do.

Where did the battery end up? Stock place, other side or inside? Do you reckon Toowooba's altitude will affect things like cams, jetting, timing???

You can alter the characteristics of the 3S-GE with an aftermarket ECU that controls the VVT1. A few guys in Altezzaclub have them. There was never any option to the 3S, its been done and its the only North-South 4cyl you can use. I thought you would've had it done by now...

7K would be a great idea if you grabbed a diff with a 3.7, 1800cc would pull that as a cruise. Get the newest diff you can, Hilux or whatever you find.

Here- http://www.aeu86.org/index/toyota-differentials/cat/9/topic=4761 The BW in the Skyline/Pintara also whines like a bitch from low Km. another BW dud! The wrecker said he wouldn't bother to sell me one, they will all whine....

I hit up a battery shop when I moved the battery to the driver's side and had them make up a +ve cable the right length with terminals crimped on. That still won't affect anything except the starter motor, that's the only time the battery has to produce full power. The rest of the time the car runs off the alty, and it only needs 25-30amps to run a car at night. So you're not getting much at all from your alty.

I would imagine its an alternator problem and nothing to do with your battery. You should be able to disconnect the battery and run the whole car on the alty, that is what they're for, but don't do it because they don't like the voltage spikes!! However, if you are draining the battery while driving the charging system is faulty. Once you have checked the earth connections put an ammeter on it or see an auto-sparkie & test the alty. I assume you ahvea full-size +ve lead to the starter?? Don't forget the longer the lead the more the voltage drop.

Toyota engineers probably worked out all the torque/revs/speed/BMEP figures before they picked that 0.86 ratio, so a lower ratio might not give better economy as you will need your boot down harder. Once you fall off a certain point in the torque curve you will battle to maintain speed. I'd say 3000 to 3100rpm at 100kph would be the lowest to go. Several points involved- Change the diff- I'm in Orange and went to Sydney & back yesterday, so it is all rolling hills with steep bits in the Blue Mountains descent. I'm using a 4.3 auto diff so it is running around 3500rpm in 5th, and when the revs drop to 3000rpm in hills I change down to 4th. That makes it 3300rpm & it pulls well. I don't tow boats or carry 4adults plus luggage, so I don't need low gears, and the nice thing about a diff change is that it moves 1st, 2nd & 3rd up too, so they have longer legs. The 4.1 change is on my list, but you would be using the box a lot if you have a 3.9 and hills. Change 5th gear- That will give you a cruise of 3000rpm using my 4.3 diff, which would be nice, but it would fall off the revs really quickly on a hill. You'd have to change down to 4th and run it at 4000rpm, a big gap like the useless 3rd to 4th currently. Certainly you wouldn't run a 4.1 with a 0.75 5th. The nice thing about this is that it keeps the other gears low so the car is quick around town. Close the box up- I would change 3rd gear actually, moving it closer to 4th. The 1000rpm gap from 3rd to 4th kills the motor in steep country. (Bells Line of Road) To raise 3rd means using an early KE box with a high 3rd and mating that to a 5th gear, or making new 3rd gears The Altezza has a 6speed with all ratios quite close to each other, the gaps shrinking slowly and evenly all the way up. About 600rpm from gear to gear in 4th-5th-6th. To me that is ideal. So overall, move 3rd up towards 4th and either make a 0.75 5th with a 4.3 diff or a 0.80 5th and run a 4.1 diff. Sounds good- make some extras while you're at it!

haha! Craig has it in one! :laff: Plenty of people on here will help Wizza, but not until you've done all the easy work! This is how its done- -Look up all the similar mods in the build threads. -Start a new topic -Explain what you want to do & what you want the car to do afterwards -Tell us what YOU are capable of doing and what experience you have with modifying cars. -Tell us your budget! 90% of these projects never get off the ground & just fill the forums with drivel.

Definitely sounds like fuel delivery. So, when you opened up the carbs were they full of fuel?