Haha I know right! I figured just do it, with some healthy peer pressure of course. 

Sitting on the train just now got the call that the pistons are in so the they'll get on with the build. Diamond brand pistons. I've asked for a photo before they lock them away. 

Well it turns out I had to take my own photo of the pistons. But I'm ok with that!

 

Think looks good.  Every second ticking off the clock must be itching you!  Its time to drive!   Need a hand to drop her in this weekend?

ah does mr mechanical sympathy live in Brisbane?

Damn id love to see this thing once its complete. 

Yeah Brendan is near me on the North side (corolla heartland, lol), I actually met him face to face at the local independent auto parts store, Auto Power Parts.  The guy there, Scott I think, is one of the most thorough parts interpreter you will ever meet.  Hes like a pharmacist for car stuff.  He once sold me some carby cleaner and gave it a description a sommelier would be proud of.

I'm just about in! 

I'll be around all day Sunday Mat if you'd like to drop by? Hopefully it'll be running by then. I've just put down a couple of kegs of zesty homebrew..

Dave I'll certainly have it out and about in the coming months!

Off to SCA tonight for plugs/filter/fluids. 

After running around for multiple fitments of fanbelt, last minute hose clamps and running-in oil I popped the cover off to confirm #1 TDC to install the distributor and plumbed everything else.   

It's all up an running now. A couple of niggles to sort with dash and gauge wiring - something has gone awry there and it's annoying me. 

The timing chain seemed awfully noisy to begin with but seems to have settled down. Of course I'm nervous at any little clatter or rattle but it strikes me that the 2TG is a bit of a rattler anyway.  

can't wait to get home tonight and rev it a few more times, maybe drop the running-in oil. 

woohoo! nice progress. 

25 minutes ago, Mechanical Sympathy said:

Of course I'm nervous at any little clatter or rattle but it strikes me that the 2TG is a bit of a rattler anyway.  

Always the way with brand new things. Ultra sensitive hearing breeds paranoya. 

After destroying my BMW engine, i built up the second engine and i think i must have checked the timing belt tension 30times to make sure it was tight - all kinds of paranoya. The destruction noise still haunts me. 

Edited September 10, 20179 yr by ke70dave

I pulled the cam cover off a couple of times to be certain!

With the bonnet down and the door closed all the rattles disappear, so maybe ignorance is bliss?...

As my new Zealand mate always used to say, If in doubt - Rev it out. 

I don't think it was related but he blew up 2 engines in quite quick succession when he was living in Aus. 

Honestly most engines rattle and rasp and carry on, especially 4 cylinders which are by design, unbalanced.  I think most modern engines have insulators all overt them just to shut them up and add refinement with no mechanical changes.  That's about all that's changed.  T engine has a nice note wide open with those carbs Im sure, its one of the pornest retro motors on sound I think.  There used to be a rally vid on youtube called the sound of rallying and there's a clip of a 2tg powered celica going apeshit and it sounds just incredible. 

 

 

Well... what a difference a properly adjusted timing chain makes! 

Now to just tune these Webers. Had to cut it short last night because I'm not sure if the neighbours are as enthusiastic as I am. I expect I've got a vacuum leak somewhere.

I'll try disconnect/plug my gnarly PCV system and see how I go from there. 

Love the sound of them. 

Richened up 2 & 4 until they stopped spitting and now it runs grouse. 

Right on my self-imposed 9pm rev curfew too.

A few weeks between updates, indicative of the ongoing troubles I've been having,  and the time available to get to it.

I've been able to tune the idle just nicely thank you. But then when I'd try to fine-tune it and go for a drive, everything would go pear-shaped. At first I assumed carb jetting was the problem.

Well it's seems that I forgot all my early reading about Webers. Of course now I realise that Webers have no port vacuum and the 2TGEU EI distributor (and probably most others?) requires port vacuum - not manifold vacuum. Duh.

So every time I tried to move out of the shed, the timing would become hopelessly retarded whenever manifold vacuum dropped.

I purchased a proper timing light and that's when I realised the error of my ways. I've now disconnected the vacuum advance and trying to tune it on mechanical advance only.

This has been quite a bit better, but I'm not quite there yet. I'm up to 38 degrees total advance and it's still farting around like it's retarded, though it's running well enough that I'm now able to street test it. And remarkably still starting ok with 25 degrees initial timing, though it needs to be nursed until warm 

So I put it aside last night, nervous about pushing it with more advance. Nervous for my custom pistons! 

I began reading about hemispherical combustion chambers and domed pistions I now realise this results in very slow flame propagation. But also makes them very ping resistant. Chrysler Hemi engines even ran up to 45 degrees advance back in the day.

Tonight I'll have yet another go at tuning at 40, 41 even 42 degrees.

Anyway, it's made it out of the shed again for a dust-off wash. Time for a good buff.

I've got a bloke lined up for a mod plate and roady when I'm done.

Edited October 4, 20178 yr by Mechanical Sympathy

Damm that looks good!

The T pistons are like the 18RG's, so they don't propagate flame very well when cold or lean either. Its funny because hemispherical heads were the absolute peak of technology in the 50s and 60s, until they realised bathtubs were just miles better for just the reasons you mentioned.