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Blue Thing: The Daily / Motorkhana Hack (Now Efi)


carbonboy

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The moment of truth.

 

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The sound.....oh my.....the sound!

 

 

I don't think I could be much happier with the outcome today, A ) it didn't blow up & B ) she's running healthy. Air:fuel ratios are pretty much exactly where they are meant to be, as was the ignition timing with the exception of retarding it 3° past 4,000rpm to make another 0.8kw.

 

Specs: 4A-GE 16v 3-rib bigport, standard crankshaft, conrods & 9.4:1 pistons. 0.25mm head & 0.25mm block skim, TRD headgasket, standard camshafts/valves/springs, some minor port work by Head 2 Head.

DIY intake manifold, Keihin CVK 40mm carburetors (185 mains, 35 idles, 160 airs, no washers on needles), random exhaust.

 

Not half bad, for a plumber.

 

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I put a new front crank-seal in when I built the engine & have replaced it twice since. I feel your pain, this was the next possibility to eliminate:

 

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Drain oil, disconnect: exhaust from cylinder head, lower engine plastics, oil cooler return line, front & rear engine mounts & crossmember. Then remove the sump & baffle plate, clean, re-do the sealing, put back together & fill with oil.

 

So far, so good.

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  • 1 month later...

Sweet lord, it's been a while between updates! :/

 

So, I made the journey up to Sydney for the Toymods Toyotafest on the weekend of October 4th/5th. Blue Thing performed well, the usual 8.5L/100km extended out to 7.5L/100km when just cruising on the highway.

 

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Had my trusty navigator to keep me company.

 

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One of my favourite shots from the day.

 

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For the rest of my photos from the event, follow the link: https://m.facebook.com/willyoukillmeifisayplease/albums/10152433902896943/?ref=bookmark

 

The only other thing worth mentioning is that I finally found the source of my oil leak. My breather system was essentially venting to atmosphere & may have even been a restriction to the crankcase ventilation, after revising the setup to use manifold vacuum to 'suck' the vapours out, the leak stopped. Am thinking excess crankcase pressure was causing oil to be forced out of the seals. Outlet from the catch can splits into two at a Y-piece (RHS of photo), then each of those split into two again & tee into each manifold runner vacuum line. This is to somewhat imitate the EFI setup of using manifold vacuum & avoids oily vapours going through the air filters/carburetors.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Had a squealing noise coming from the engine, I didn't think it could be the drivebelt as it hasn't even done 20,000kms yet. I checked anyway...

 

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So while I was there, I also swapped the installed underdrive crankshaft pulley for the standard item. The temperature needle would climb when sitting in traffic, no matter the ambient temperature. My theory was that the U/D item didn't spin the water pump fast enough to move enough coolant at idle. That theory held up in todays traffic (temp needle didn't move from normal operating temperature), so my thoughts are that the stock pulley works for a street driven engine, the U/D pulley might better suit a more racing orientated engine.

 

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All this stemmed from having it flatten a battery due to a dodgy starter motor on Saturday night, giving me a 7km walk home/7km bike ride back the next morning. Swapped the starter for a spare I had & am getting it reconditioned. It's the least I can do for it after the hammering its taken with all the 'difficult' starts it has gotten through.

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Crankcase ventilation V4.10, now with actual 90° elbows rather than dodgy bends in tube. Added bonus: Pretty sure the previous version had a vacuum leak somewhere, the horrible squealing noise that I thought was the drive belt (again) is gone.

 

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If you have nothing major planned for next Sunday the 23rd November, feel free to come on down to Toyota in Altona from 9am to check out the final round of the Victorian Motorkhana Championship. I will FINALLY be competing in Blue Thing once again, spectators/volunteers always welcomed & appreciated!

 

https://m.facebook.com/events/765162393520152?acontext=%7B"ref"%3A2%2C"ref_dashboard_filter"%3A"upcoming"%7D&aref=2&arefdashboardfilter=upcoming&ref=bookmark

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  • 1 month later...

Had a bit of a bother with BT not starting one morning. Turned out a clogged fuel filter was the culprit.

 

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Got the urge to Plastidip things again.

 

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Race car mode activated for Round 10 of the VMC..

 

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Blue Thing placed 20th of 52 Outright (11th of 43 if you remove the Specials), same-same on Handicap & 4th of 13 in Class A. Nothing broke & she started first crank the next morning, feels good to have some confidence in her again.

 

Got all scrubbed up for TCCAVs Classic Japan 2014.

 

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A link for the album of photos I took on the day.

 

A week later, I took part in TCCAVs Motorkhana Fun Day, a wee bit dusty but hey, it's all good fun.

 

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A couple of days later, BT's not running well, closer inspection revealed one of the vacuum diaphragms in the carbs is rooted, so I'm up for a new set. Available from the USA or Japan on back order only. *shakes fist*

 

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So that about sums up the last month, am currently using my bicycle & trains to get around until my parts arrive. Fun times!

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Well, that didn't go well. Got the new slides, installed/synched them & still same-same. Tweaked everything I could with no luck. Compression test revealed that the piston rings are the likely culprits, currently in the process of removing the engine to disassemble/replace/reassemble.

 

F**k I hate public transport.

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