chnk

iTrader: (12)

Front main seal issues AGIAN lol! Discussion time!

Analysis of issue
So a day later the fresh installed front main seal blew again towed the car back home disassembled the front of the motor and surely enough the seal had popped out enough to allow oil to leak.

So again possible issues could be on of the following theories.

• Theory 1 - the front main seal was installed wrong by me, which is possible even though ive done this a few times already
• Theory 2 - the cam seals may have blown, i feel this is highly unlikely as i can see my cam gears
• Theory 3 - the oil pressure/crank case pressure may have caused it to leak
• Theory 4 - crankwalk from the motor being torqued down wrong or something, very possible since this was the first time i've assembled a motor

Troubleshooting each theory

• Theory 1 - was tested twice now with the seal installed when i originally setup the 1.5jz and last week with the new seal.
• Theory 2 - even though the cams looked fine I popped off the cam gears to find the seals looking fine
• Theory 3 - I've read very hit and miss things on the 2JZGTE pump on a GE block. The consensus is for some the GTE pump works fine on the GE blocks, others have had issues.
• Theory 4 - we are not going to discuss this till theory 3 is ruled out

Testing Theory 3!
So simply the 2JZGTE oil pump flows more oil than the 2JZGE pump due to additional oil passages and oil squirters for the GTE block. The GE block dos not have these passges or oil squirters, so in theory for my case I really don't need the additional oil flow/pressure a 2JZGTE oil pump.

The GE pump VS the GTE pump, there is lots of threads so I'm not going to beat a dead horse here and let people with more knowledge explain it. I linked a url below.
http://my.is/forums/f114/tech-info-d...l-pump-437894/

So I'm thinking my installed 2JZGTE oil pump is too much for my block. So to test this I'm going to install a GE pump and see if I still have front main seal issues. If I still do then that means the pump was in not in the front main seal installation, GTE oil pump, or the GE block. Which would mean it might be some more hurtful to my bank account, so lets hope the GE oil pump works fine.


So I ordered a new is300 2JZGE oil pump. Which according to rock auto its the same as any other GE oil pump go figure.

Here are the part numbers I used either one of these should work.AISIN OPT071, 1510046060, 1510046090, 1510046091
Theory 3 conclusion!
A few days later, the GE oil pump comes in and unfortunately I did not take any pictures.....

So just like the link I posted I noticed that the GE oil pump has a bigger oil pressure relief hole than the GTE oil pump. I know in the modified GTE oil pumps the drill out these holes to help with oil pressure. Not sure how much that help but it was just an observation.

Installed the GE oil pump and new front main seal like a I normally would and the car has been running fine for months now.

So I guess case closed for the front main seal issues.

chnk

iTrader: (12)

Thanks I'm trying to catch this thread up to where I currently am right now with what pictures I could scavenge.

Stay tuned cutting the fenders and wide bodying is coming up lol

chnk

iTrader: (12)

Wheel Build Part 1

So with the drive train all running fine for cruising purposes only time to move onto other pending items with this build. The next steps are the wheels and with the wheels next will be the suspension and making the car the car fit the wheels. This wheel build will be in multiple parts due to the wheels are in ok shape and I will be adding more wheel build parts as i clean the wheels up

Before the build starts
So here is how the Weds Cerberus use to sit, note I do not know the offsets but they don't clear big brakes without a small spacer
Fronts 19x10 - 245/35/19
Rears 19x11 - 265/35/19


So plans for the part 1 wheel build include:

• Making the 19x11s the front wheels
• New Achilles ATR sports 275/30/19 in the front
• Changing out the 2.5 inch lips in the 19x10s with 5.5 inch lip and putting that in the rear making the rear 19x13
• New Continental Extreme Contacts 305/30/19 in the rear

As you can probably tell this in no way will fit the stock body and I do no intend to run excessive negative camber to fit these wheels. So I will save that challenge for the the body build part 1 lol.

Back to the wheels, I wish I took more pictures. I usually have too much fun working on this car to take pictures sadly

First I began by removing all the nuts and bolts holding the wheel together.


After bolts and nuts are removed for these weds the faces will simply pull off leaving the barrel and lip in one piece held together by sealant. Use a knife to cut the old sealant between the lip and barrel. Then use something soft and sturdy to pry the lip and barrel apart. I have a plastic spatula from the kitchen for this. DO NOT use a flat head or something metal you want the lip and barrel surface that meet to be as flat, clean, and undamaged as possible for the best reseal.


After you separate the lip and barrel take a wire brush and clean up the surface where the lip and barrel meet up and the crevice where the old sealant was.

As for what sealant to use, I heard people use Sealant. But I grabbed some sealant specially made for wheel from my local shop here Super Star Customs

Picture of the wheels all cleaned up sealed bolted, and waiting 24 hours to dry


Tires mounted on 2 days later

chnk

iTrader: (12)

Before the wheels come on the car its time to tackle the 20 year old bushings and control arms on this car.

I didn't want to take my power goals further than pretty much stock right now until I squared all the foundation of the car.

Suspension build part 1

Here is what is going into the car:

• Solid Steering rack bushings - already installed
• Front shortened modded knuckles for better steering angle, not that I'm a drifter just 3 point turns will be easier.
• JDM Sport coilovers - already installed
• OEM front lower control arms with good balljoints and FIGS bushing
  • With figs you order a set for the front mount, and a separate set for the rear mount of the lower control arm bushing. Part numbers are below and these are for 97+
    • SC / Supra / Front Lower Control Arm Front Polyurethane Bushing Kit 49.5mm - SC_BSH_LCAFR_SP1403K
    • SC / Supra / Front Lower Control Arm Rear Polyurethane Bushing Kit 54.8mm - SC_BSH_LCAFR_SP1404K
• TC Sport line front upper adjustable control arm
• Megan rear lower control arm
• Megan rear toe arm
• Megan rear traction arm

I put these together a while back and haven't touch them till now. After pressing the old bushings out I did paint the control arms with some rustoleum primer that turns rust to primer through magic or something and some gloss black paint. The ball joints and ball joint covers look good on these and they came off a 98 parts car I have.


So I pulled off the front lower control arms that were installed in the car and here is what I found lol. First time I've ever seen this.


Everything installed in the front


I may switch out the TC sportline for something different later but for now they are there to correct camber

Next is to install these bad boys unfortunately the traction rods had not come in yet but I can always install those later. I will have to say these megan arms kind of exceeded my expectations in what I was expecting.

I have a set god speed toe rods and traction rods I was planning to use but I'm glad I did not as I wasn't comfortable putting them on my car when i received them lol. So I bought megans.



So installation is pretty straight forward with these which again I forgot to take pictures. So I guess I'll just post some tips.

Tips

• wd40 all the bolts and nuts, especially the sway bar end links.
• After wd40 has soaked through I was able to break all the bolts with an impact
• For the adjustable arms, adjust them to the size of the stock component before driving and pretty much plan to go to an alignment shop before you go anywhere else in the car.
• removing the ball joint from the front and rear hubs are a bit of a pain. I was able to pop some off after hit the hub with a hammer for sometime.
  • Others I used a ball joint remover
  • if all else failed I used a pickle fork to pop off the ball joint which will ruin your ball joint

chnk

iTrader: (12)

Now for the moment I've been waiting for and dreading putting the wheels on and aligning the car. I drove to my good friends at Global Alliance in Lilburn, Ga where they had my wheels and cater to lowered modified cars. I highly recommend them if you're in Ga.

Today is going to be a fun day

As expected the wheels definitely stuck out by at least 2 inches all sides lol




This in no way will clear the front fenders once we lower the car. So there goes the fenders for now


The rear quarter panel is sitting on the rear wheel


Since the fenders won't clear we did the most cringe worthy thing I have done to this car. Sledge hammer the quarter panels


After some "massaging" of the rear quarter panels the car was able to move. Unfortunately at full lock the wheel also his the side skirts now that is off too.


The megans were a pleasure to align cant say the same for the tc sport lines


Drove the car home on no side skirts and no front fenders everything was peachy.

chnk

iTrader: (12)

Body Build part 1 - focusing on the rear quarter panel

PLEASE READ this whole thing before attempting there was lots of trial and error here and when im done I have some tips that will make things easier for your welder.

I have rocked stock bodied, pulled, stanced, slammed, flared sc bodies for a long time and decided to do something a bit different by putting these super wide wheels on the car. I've been sitting on the KDB wide front and rear quarter panel fender for a long time and I think its about time to put them on.

Mocking up the rear quarter panels I love the fitment of these quarter panels.



The fitment is pretty spot on and pretty damn flush with some room to dial in the camber

Now for wide body I wanted as much clearance as possible without going to crazy in cutting the rear quarter panel. I quickly drew a loop up to the body line as a cutting guide and pulled out the angle grinder.

So the quarter panel is made of 2 sheel metal pressed together. The outside sheet mtal is what I'm cutting off. After I cut the outside sheet metal I then cut slits on the side sheet metal and force the metal up to the cut out portion of the upper sheet metal. Kind of hard to imagine but I'll let the pictures explain.

Remember gloves, safety glasses, and long sleeves for this. Cutting the outside metal sheet.



Outside sheet metal cut revealing the inside sheet metal.


It was dark when I got to both sides but here is the other side.


The next day after work I began working on the inside sheet metal.

If you scroll up you can see what it looked like before



Wheel back on just to check clearance.



I had made plans to see a buddy of mine to weld this all shut later that weekend. Before then I took a wire brush and cleaned up all the spots where he will be welding to make his job easier

chnk

iTrader: (12)

Body Build part 2 - the friend who is learning to be a welder

So a buddy of mine wanted to tackle the job of welding the quarter panel shut as learning experience. When my 2 other welders who usually do work for me didn't reply back I have a feeling my buddy is not gonna be in for a fun time.

Pulled into his shop jacked the rear up, while he welded the rear I was gonna figure out what the hell I was gonna do about the front fenders


Before he started welding he needed more paint sanded off so back at it agian I was with the sander





And at it he goes



While he does his things lets see how fitment goes for the front wheel.
Trying on the KBD fenders


Definitely wider than stock but not wide enough

Then I had the crazy idea of cutting the back side of the kdb fenders and mocking it on the stock fender to see if I can make it reach better. Which

of coursed ruined one kdb fender


Close but no dice. So now I'm back to point A and ruined a set of kdb front fenders sigh. Gonna try knock off vertex ridge front fenders off my buddies drift car and see if those will work. As much as I hate fiber glass I can work with fiberglass.

So here is the end result of the welding job my buddy did.


He wasn't happy with his welds and found this task rather difficult but he is learning. Since this was gonna be covered I figured why not. After his welded we grinded up some of the welds sealed off the parts he could get to with jb weld. Sanded that down that area and primered that section along with parts of the wheel well.

Some things to take away from this.

• I did not have to cut slits as deep as I did, made his job harder
• a thinner cutting disk would of made his job easier for filling in welds
• I kind of winged this and the end result ended up being more work for my friend. So next time he takes this task he will do his own cutting.

chnk

iTrader: (12)

So finally got around to mounting the KBD wide rear quarter panels, and well they fit pretty much perfect. I had a set of fiber glass rear wide body and well with some work they can fit. I did not want to mold anything to my rear quarter panels, the idea of bondo back there makes be uneasy. Since the KBD front fenders did not work out I will have to look into fiberglass options. Since most rep fiberglass kits fit like crap I'm going to have to do some work, which I don't entirely mind.

Widebody installation
I pretty much followed this tutorial http://turbopanda.net/features/widebody.html

Based off my experience this is the hardware I'd recommend. Do not get 1.5" screws like the tutorial suggest its too long
Fuel Door Hardware
1 x M6-1.00 x 30 bolt
1 x M6-1.00 x 50 bolt
1 x #8-32 Bolt 1.5" length
2 x #8-32 washer
1 x #8-32 nut
Washers for both

Overfenders Hardware
6 x #8-32 Bolts I used 5/8ths length
6 x #8/32 washers
6 x nylon fender washers
2 x 3M Scotch 5952 VHB Tape: 1 in. x 15 ft. (Black)

Prepping the over fenders for installation

• again I wished took pictures
• clean the grove where the 3m tape goes with some rubbing alcohol really well.
• there where certain spots where the molding process caused some imperfections in the groves, I cleaned that up with a happy knife.
• Run the 3m tape as cleanly as possible you can along the grove

Starting with the passenger side I first - installing the gas cap extender and over fenders

For the gas cap there is two peices that come with the KBD overfenders


They are pretty straight forward to install





Done


Took some paint to mark where to drill holes in the quarter panel

The mark I made

Holes drilled double side tape, red protection removed, and bolted up. Sitting pretty flush with the over fender


Drivers side done as well - looking pretty flush in the rear wheels.




More pictures outside the garage

chnk

iTrader: (12)

As far as front fenders go I borrowed a set of vertex ridge front fenders from my friends drift car and well I think I got a winner






Mounted the stock sides, 97 front bumper and fujin lip just as a mock up




Now that I have a mix mash of kits on this car we have a few issues

• The Vertex ridge front fenders flare out the side skirts need to match this
• The KBD wide rear fenders do no flare out which works with no wide side skirts
• The Vertex ridge front fenders fit like crap and are way too aggressive looking for the KBD rear over fenders

So what I had in mind now is

• Ditch the 97 sides for vertex rep sides, I don't want to ruin my stock sides and I miss being vertex kitted
• For the vertex fronts I will flare it using some metal to push the fron of the side skirt to match the front fender flare or I will take some spray foam and mold a new design using the vertex side skirts as a base. I've really been eyeing how the ISF and RCF does their side skirts
• To tone down the vertex ridge front fenders I plan to redo the vent to something a bit more oem looking, agian I was looking at the ISF and RCF for inspiration,

That is it for now, will have more once my body panels come in the mail

chnk

iTrader: (12)

So after driving around with no fenders or front bumpers for weeks my Vertex Ridge rep front fenders came in. Got them for a great price off ebay and well as expected you get what you pay for.

I expect this to fit pretty poorly, but I'm weird and its part of the fun for me.

So I've spent a few hours between 2 nights messing with these fenders and here are the pictures I got in between cussing at and hacking up the fenders.

First off they came in a giant box which looked good in the distance


Looks like they are cracked from shipping....




nothing I can't fix and I'm not surprised but cracked was not part of the item description so the seller is getting contacted soon to work something out

Quick mock up on the car, not bad, the body line is sloppy near the door, its a pretty bad mold. note I am missing the fender spacers so its not flush with the hood





Gap here


The mount points that are hidden under the door from the fender are pretty much non existent and the ones the fender provides are useless. I have a few ideas to remedy this issue that involves hacking up a stock fender i have laying around. But yea that gap



Where the fender bolts to the chassis behind the headlights is completely off. Same idea for the mount points behind the door I'm going to cut off this section from a set of trash stock fenders and bolting it to the fiber glass somehow


Just to give you guys an idea of how far off the headlight section is stock fenders measured from the inside 3 3/8" while the rep fenders measured less than 3" so the section behind the headlights that bolt to the frame should be almost an inch further back



After drilling some holes out of the 12ish? or so bolt holes the stock fender offers to rep fenders offer only 3 good places to bolt the fender to the chassis. This is mostly due to the amount of fiber glass you have to work with near the mount points. only 3 spots have enough fiberglass to drill a respectable hole.

I tried working with the spots with less fiberglass area to work with to end up with broken fiber glass like below.



I managed to mount the fenders on the car with bigger gaps than i like to atleast open the door. I have the bumper support bolted to the fenders as well with some modifications to the fender. The area where the head light goes to is pretty useable as well.

But this will not do. I will be cutting off mount points off a trash set of fenders I have to make up for the lack of mount points.

chnk

iTrader: (12)

Round 3 of tackling this fender fitment.

Wheel angle is going to be an issue with these fenders at full lock the 11" wheel with modded knuckles for better angle his the inside of the fender. So I need to make some clearance.

Just for comparison sake I pretty much had to cut out most of the inside vent area as seen in the passenger fender


The drivers fender is still uncut and damaged from turning the wheel


Clearance achieved


Don't know how much more angle I got from the modded knuckles but it feels better than stock angle that is forsure


Mount Points

Since the mold gave me little to no fiber glass to work with at most of the stock mount points I decided to borrow them from a set of trash stock fenders I had laying around. I pretty much cut off the top portion, headlight area, and near the door hinges.



First the mount points near the door hinges




Now the headlight area of the vertex rep fender fit so badly I just cut off all fiberglass in the area and made room for the metal ones I cut off.


and quick test! Headlights bolt up



Now for the top of the fenders if you look close enough you can see the white fender piece I cut off


Everything will be prettied up and riveted on later this was just a rough draft really. Still lots of modifications to come to these fenders.

After driving around the wheels rub quite a bit even more than I like from my stance days so I need to fix this with a smaller spacer and maybe some camber sadly.

I do have some goodies coming in

• Vertex Ridge replica sides - next week
• 97+ Vertex Lip replica in poly urethane
• 5mm spacers for the front
• If this deal goes through R154 as well

chnk

iTrader: (12)

So I got some goodies that came in

Vertex Ridge replica side skirts very nicely packaged unlike my fenders



A 97+ vertex replica poly urethane front lip. Which is no where near as aggressive as the real vertex front lip. Looks like they made it work with the 97+ sides. I'm kind of disappointed as the pictures on ebay pictured the real front lip. Kind of deceiving.


The side skirts are much easier to mount so I was able to tackle that in a short time. Will have to say the drivers side was molded pretty badly I will address those later. It seems this replica kit has a bad mold for the drivers side in general.

Some quick pictures



It was kind of late but I mocked up the front bumper and the vertex rep lip and its a no go on the lip. It will suite a stock body sc but not an aggressive body one. So back to the fujin lip.


Now one of my concerns was that the kdb rear overfenders would not match the sides to the vertex and well they don't.


Lucky poly urethane flexes pretty easily so a quick mock up. Will head to home depot later to put a brace or something together.

chnk

iTrader: (12)

With the rear over fenders off new 3m vhb tape on they are ready to go back on. Removing the old 3m VHB tape was not fun that is some good double sided tape. I also took the mouse sander and sanded down the edges of the overfenders some so the 3m vhb tape can make better contact with the rear quarter panels.


Brackets made out of some 1 1/4" 90 degree aluminium from home depot and welded together with some AlumiWeld rods from harbor freight. If you have never used AlumiWeld rods they are great for making small brackets liek this. I would use it for anything that requires structural strength but for poly urethane I think it will manage.



Quick mock up before I drill hole and prime it black.


With the over fender flaring with the side skirt the inside of the rear quarter panel is somewhat exposed. A little black primer will pretty that up some.


Overfenders put on for the passenger side I purposely did not line up the over fenders to sit flush with the side skirts do to how the overfender double side tape sticks to the rear quarter panel. I'm ok with this look maybe later i'll do some fiberglassing to make it flush. But for not I'm just happy The over fender flares out . I will probably come up with something to cover the inside of the rear quarter panel later once I get tired of looking at it.




With the drivers side like every other part of the is kit the drivers side seems to be badly molded. With the amount of gap the rear overfender will not cover that hole. I measured about half a 3/4ths different in amount of fiberglass compared to the passenger so. Time to bust out the fiberglass resin and mats.



Once this dries layer of bondo, some sanding and black primer will finish off side skirt so I can mount the driver side over fender as well.

chnk

iTrader: (12)

Back to the side skirts bondo added, a little black primer, and back onto the car it goes




So now the fun begins with the vertex rep front fenders. I received them broken and the seller offered me a refund so I'm going to repair, reinforce, and redesign these. So first things first I hate that the front vent cuts into the body line and the body line is removed afterwards.

A little tape

5 layers of fiber glass and resin later

A day later sanded down


a quick wipe down and cleaning before I add the bondo


Bondo added

chnk

iTrader: (12)

So it has been a minute and I have picked up a number of things for the sc300,

I got this R154 swap for a steal which I got to remove myself off a once running car so I was able to nicely separate, label, and baggy up all bolts

R154(looks like mk3)
Bellhousing
OEM flywheel
Spec D? 6 puck clutch and pressure plate (non heavy duty from it appears)
driftmotion 3 inch 1 piece driveshaft
driftmotion solid guibo differential adaptor
driftmotion transmission mount kit
brand new clutch and brake pedals
shifter
master cylinder
reupholstered manual bezel with heated seat buttons
driftmotion steel braided clutch line
slave and any other odds and ends possibly needed for a full swap.

Also ordered
OEM Toyota clutch release (aka throw out bearing) bearing 90363-45012
OEM Toyota pilot bearing 90363-12002-77
ACT Extreme 6 Puck clutch 6240607 - which according to driftmotion is good for around 600 ft/lbs


Since I'm already w58 I have enough parts to 5 speed another sc300!

Also got this bad boy in, a torsen t-2 lsd from a soarer in australia. According to somerthings I've read online this torsen is a little stronger and newer than the torsens commonly found in auto TT supras. Apparently these are only found

As quoted here https://www.clublexus.com/forums/per...i-go-with.html

ignore my dirty garage


I also picked up these sweet Whiteline sway bars, back front and adjustable endlinks


I plan on finishing off my car foundation build with some FIG poly urethane different bushings and all suspension components will have been tackled!

Back to the wide body front. Still improvising this but half a gallon of bondo, quart of fiberglass resin, and some polyester glaze putty to seal everything off later I am close to a finished product. I'm pretty excited to test out some evercoat easy 123 polyester glaze

but here is the nitty and gritty, first layer of bondo left alot of low spots and large holes. My feathering and mixing technique is pretty on existent so I'm sure you body shop guys are laughing at me right now. Could save alot more material if I had more experience in this area. Oh well, back to the fun

circled all the spots i need to touch up with another layer of body filler



Another layer added, cut out some poster board to plan out my vent. You can see the body line I'm trying to bring back


Sanded the second layer much better but not perfect

First attempt at fiberglassing the vent shape. I should of done this with the fender off the car.


Again I'm no professional so all you guys who are cringing feel free to drop some advice lol


Reinforcing the cracks caused by shipping, this is the backside



More body filler later

The 75% finished product on the car!

and this just looked so cool to me from my garage. Can't wait to have this car back in one piece with all the new goodies. I have a good idea on what I'm doing for the passenger fender so it will be a much quicker process, practice makes perfect