yoeddynz

Wow. Fuck this is cool. I love these sort of build threads and this discussion thread is already super interesting. Man that 2 wagon is cool too! I just looked up the sizes and according to the wiki gods this little car is close to 100mm narrower then my Imp! But longer. So tiny then. Gonna follow your thread with much interest! And yeah - If it were mine I too would be keeping that patina intact and just get the car safe and reliable + lowered on some widened steelies.

Cheers Ben! I showed it to one of our farmer neighbours the other day. I don't think he quite understood the humour and sillyness behind what I've done. So with that reaction I really can't what to see what the various barries will say at car shows/events in the future

Sounds like you are richer than us paupers

Phew! What a day. Started out full of beans but man it was hard work.. I'm sure I've burnt some fat and bulked out a bit. Started off digging in here.. Sun was intense but was getting into it. I changed my outfit.. But the end of the day I was pretty wrecked and my muscles felt pumped!..

Gonna dig this whole bank out and create some sort of nice seating/eating/chilling area. Started this evening... I'll report back soon - with more muscles. And a sore back.

It was meant to be.

Get your vitz/echo motor complete with a mini shell and a spare vitz right here... https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1450112115513943/?mibextid=dXMIcH

Awesome news. Yay for continuing well written updates. Do you know much about the history of this engine?

Inlet fun over and time to move on to some other jobs. First off was to start on the pipework for the cooling. Like I mentioned a while back the heads are symmetrical and each has a outlet for the hot coolant. So one ends up at the front and one at the back. Here's the back one... Both just visible in this shot... On the bike these were plumbed so they joined up near the middle and went into a thermostat housing and from there to the radiator. But I will be running an electric pump behind the engine so that's where these outlets have to be plumbed towards. I started on the front outlet. I gathered together the bits of pipework from the bike setup.. I chopped them up and using bits and pieces I welded together a pipe for the front. They are very thin- about 1mm so it was a tricky one for my tig skills but I did ok. I'll probably paint them and that'll hide the lumps Pipe went like this... Holes = whoops.. Bracket.. And that was all I could do for now as I had used up what bits of the old bends I could. I have ordered some 22mm bends from Aliexpress and so I wait. Better start sussing out the injection gubbins then. I went into the store room and dug out the box labelled 'electronics' and another full of various sensors I'd been collecting. Blew the dust off them and sort of like xmas day I carefully removed all the goodies within. Laid them out on the work table and this is what I had... The brains of it all is a second hand Megasquirt 3 with the expansion board. Apart from the faster processor, SD card slot, loads more ins and outs, canbus etc etc it also allows for fully sequential injection. I'll need to change some of the jumper wiring because its setup for a stepper idle valve and a hall sensor on the crank but otherwise its all good. I have a few VR and hall sensors to try out.. Temp sensors ... First thing was to plug in my megastim and power it up then test the ecu out. Its all working fine. Its been ages since I have used tunerstudio. Not used it since I sold my Viva. Now time to start on setting up sensors to suit. Starting with the crank sensor. The Goldwing came fitted with a 12-1 trigger wheel and two VR sensors (called pulse generators in bike world) to run the ignition module... I could have just kept the trigger wheel as is but for better resolution on a full engine management setup it makes sense to go for at least a 36-1 trigger wheel. I knew there would be nothing available even close to fitting my needs so I made one in much the same way as I did for the Viva. I cut out a disc with the plasma cutter.. Cleaned it up in the lathe and drilled/machined out the bore, ensuring it was perfectly concentric to the bore. The VR sensor needs to have no more than about .020" clearance. Made a jig for the drill and using the original trigger wheel I was able to mark out the teeth. I set the jig up with a locator bolt so I was able to turn the wheel one tooth at a time and drill it and then repeat... Then I carefully cut out up to the holes, gave it a tickle with a file and I had my trigger wheel. I have yet to remove the 'missing tooth' or tig in a nib in the centre that keys to the crankshaft. I'll sort that later. Now I had to sort out my second sensor wheel, for the cam or 'home' signal. This will be a single tooth or maybe a half moon. I'm not sure and have yet to work out what's best. The MS manual suggests a half moon type (like one long tooth). Other OEM setups just have a single small tooth. Either way I need a sensor to be mounted near one of the cam pulleys. What seems to be recommended as the better option for the home signal is a hall sensor due to the fact that the camshaft spins at half the speed of the crank and when the engine is being turned over at startup it could potentially be quite a low speed. So low that a VR sensor might not be able to produce enough of a pulse for the ECU. I had played around with a couple of VR sensors out of interest to see if they might fit in place but everything I had was too bulky or the wrong shape to fit under the cambelt cover... Anyway- they were VR sensors and not what I wanted. I looked about on googleworld and found a couple of hall sensors that looked like they might work. Another trip to my local wreckers was called for. I rummaged about in various engine bays and found what I was after in a 2003 Peugeot 307. It was ideal! I grabbed the plug with a length of wire attached. Once home I whipped up a bracket from some thick walled alloy angle, a hacksaw and file and had the sensor fitting where I wanted it. Once I have decided what type of toothed wheel shape to make I'll be sorting that out. After all this I stripped the whole engine down and removed the crank... The next day Hannah and I took the imp for a hoon and visited the big smoke, Nelson city, to do some shopping. I'm now sussing out where to get my crankshaft balanced up - without a doubt this is one job that has to be done. Imp looked great against the blue sky along the promenade in Nelson ...

It might even get an xjs heart while it's there...

I'm gutted for you but understand your feelings as some cars just do this to us. Best move on, put those efforts into the Marina (which as tatty as it is must be like a breath of fresh air with its simplistic design and layout compared to the rover) It's always a shame for us because we all enjoy reading your well written and documented threads. I too hope that whoever buys lucas realises and appreciates the amount of effort you've put into it.

- 11 years later - Wow Vinny the Hiace van is still going strong and used often. We'd be stuffed without this van as it does everything the cars do and soooo much more. Its taken us on many many camping trips, winter ones kept warm with that fireplace. Hauled all manner of trailers and loads. Shifted loads of timber for all the various builds that have taken place here- I'm amazed how well the cheap old roof rack has lasted. The low range option on the box really does help for some decent enough 4wding fun too. More recently it was visited by @Horse25 lovely 60 series camper with pop top roof... But it was getting a bit frilly around the edges and that green paint was showing its age. A mini rolling restoration was on the cards. Then another van came along. We bought a 100 series 2.8 high lwb 4wd - cheap because it had stuffed front pulley and broken bolt in the crank. Lovely van with a really great condition body and it had only just had its injector pump reconditioned. Lined some vans up (my mates similar 100 series that was in for work) Put the new van on the hoist.. Broken crank pulley bolt.. Machined up a quick jig so I could drill it out straight and not stuff any threads. Win... I machined out the stuffed pulley and machined a stepped shim to suit the flogged crank nose. It all bolted together with a brand new bolt from Toyota and worked fine. Much relief !! I also machined up some bushes for the drivers door which had comical levels of drop. I guess 600,000 kms will do that. The van was then cleaned it up, painted a few patches and it came up pretty sweet... We used it for a while. The 2.8 was a gem- it ran so smooth and has a good deal more ompfff than vinnys old 2.4. Hmmmm- which van should we keep. This new one was quite refined and much quieter. Almost felt modern! But we love our rattly old vinny, its classic looks, the fact its now a pretty rare van being an early high/low range 4wd model. Plus it's alot more nimble and handy offroad then the later one. Due to that extra long wheel base the new one cant even do a U turn on our road. So we started stripping down Vinny in preparation for a light restoration - the main priority being the rust removal. In pics. Rust be found,cut out and replaced with nice new steel.. funky old sticker.. We popped the new van (Vicky - since you ask) up for sale on trademe for $7500 and got a heap of interest. The mileage put most off but the exceptional bodywork was a drawcard. Its sold promptly and we were now stuck with no van - vinny still getting worked on. Big holes appeared and disappeared.. Hannah had fun remove several layers of paint and some impressive levels of filler hiding a few dents.. more rust cut out... Painting the bare steel in Durapox 2 pack primer as we went... We also had this old 60series darling come in for some serious rust work and it gave us an idea for a paint colour... Vinny moved outside for filling and sanding... Before top coats went on Hannah removed the headlining and foam by using her head... Then masking and top coats - no expense spared- we used the finest oil based enamel from Mitre10 First off a darkish grey, called Gothic Romance, chosen for its ability, we hope, to not show up too much of the dusty roads we have about here. Then it was orange. 'Pumpkin head' to be precise. Chosen because it matches a bicycle I had built last year which I really like plus after seeing the other van. Felt like a time for change from green. This is definitely a change... With bike.. We had scored this rare badge off a similar aged 50 series hiace from the wreckers ages ago and had been waiting until after the inevitable restoration to be able to treat ourselves and 'affix that badge' Its the little things in life. Looks perfect.. But its needed a partner and I had a badge in mind - found on 80's landcruisers of the same era with the same font as our hiace badges. I jumped on Aliexpress and this treat arrived in the mail in a record 7 days later! That's about it for the outside. I'll get some more pics of it now its built up. We will be breaking up the mass of orange on the tailgate with some grey and adding a white pin strip along the side but no urgency. Its back into service, fresh wof pass from a very impressed wof tester. The interior is next. We've already been to spotlight looking at various cloths and materials for the headlining. Mechanically we are after a 3L (2.8L) or 5L (3.0) engine to replace our 2l (2.4)* so we'll keep a look out. But in the meantime this old van will just keep trundling along... *Toyota really failed when it came to naming this series of engines with any sense of logic.

But imagine the kudos from Wayne and troy at the next rodders meet.

It's all good and that however I can't help but think that your open trumpets need some assistance and style...

Neat! What a cool combo. Engines and parts are so cheap in the states too. This bit... "Power is sent to the rear wheels through a five-speed sequential transmission reportedly sourced from a Honda Gold Wing" That would be the stock transmission then (saved them about 9,765,653 hours of work)

I'll have to do a road trip south and visit you then (and your cats)

hopefully you'll get to see it when you come along to the oldschool nats next year

Oh and the ignition will be controlled by the megasquirt 3 and most likely be a separate 6 post coil - much like I had in my Viva. Wasted spark.

They ain't going anywhere - there's a lot of glue involved I want to see a Dave @Roman graph on the effects two Mandalorians might have on induction efficiency though.

I've finally finished the inlet plenum (although I want to add some paint/tidy some bits) and I'm pretty stoked with it. The end result is a bit of fun. Just mucking about after I had some ideas pop into my head and wouldn't leave. I had to do it. So where I left off last time I had made the base of the plenum which I continued on piecing together, changing some ideas and sussing out construction issues as I went along while keeping the design close to some original drawings that I'd done while visiting my parents. Building the box... made some stainless trims to smooth flow out of the rectangular hole feeding the plenum and also hide interior welds... Tubey bit sticks up facing towards the front of the car... Boxy bits getting tacked together. Welded on the inside too. Enough tacks and welds that it would hold fast and not 'pull' when the outside welds were added Tacked together bits getting welded on the outside... Stumpy elephant trunk... (it could be described worse) Back to milling bits of alloy... Making these bits.. Which were then very, very carefully bent to suit the curved lid of the plenum... Drilled and tapped to suit the plenum body... Lid fits nicely onto the body, sealed with high density foam and held in place with dome headed socket screws. Then the throttle body flange needed welding on. I took my time so nothing warped but luckily it was pretty thick ally anyway. Tacks then welding. Added another layer so I could file it down flat and have a good sealing area. In pics.. Next thing to make was a little curved bit of alloy that would surround a bit of acrylic. I started with some small section alloy capping and milled it down.. It had to be bent in 2 planes. Out with the shrinker stretcher which luckily did almost all of what I needed, the rest being finished in a vice with hammers and pliers. Turned out like this... I got some 5mm acrylic and cut it to the right size. I made a form from two bits of alloy, shaped to the same curvature as the lid. Out with the heat gun... Setting the forms and squeezing together... Checking the curves formed are correct .. Pretty good matches the alloy rim... Drilled some holes in the alloy and through the acrylic (carefully.....! ) which as I predicted was tricky next to the edge and I ended up splitting a couple of the trial domes. So I made this little tool, using a bit of steel I machined to a point and one of the little wooden handles I had made ages ago for wood burners we make. Heated the point up with the oxyset and pushed it through smaller pilot holes drilled... Around the same time as I was playing with bits of plastic some leds with a controller that I'd bought online turned up. I chopped them up and reconfigured bits to suit the underside of the lid. Tiny little solder pads on these. I checked they worked... A hole was cut in the plenum lid to suit the acrylic and alloy rim, which was then bolted in place with little socket head screws, again sealed with foam. Neat. Now I could look inside. Then I stuck those led lights to the underside of the lid. This was all needed because these little treats turned up a while back after I first had the ideas pop into my head. (thanks Ali express)... Lego fun.. The detail... I glued the Mandos so they'd never come apart. They got screwed and glued onto a little section of alloy. I cut a section bit mirror to size and stuck it to the back wall. Then the Mandos were bolted into their new forever spaceship home complete with some signage ... Zooming out from the front of the spaceship/engine... Plenum sits nice and low... I did a little video for fun. I couldn't resist... Fun is over. I now have to crack on with boring water pipes and exhaust manifold building (I must order some stainless bends!!!!) But yeah- I'm pretty happy with what I have just made. A bit of silly fun I know but hey- I'm not a very serious person I'll really enjoy seeing the response the 'Mandalorian spaceship' gets from the more serious type of enthusiasts at car shows in the future. I hope it works out for me and this is a thing that happens.

Take as long as you want. I'm ages away from finishing the Imp yet. I'm still busy assembling our van back together after giving that a bit of a resto.

I'm now watching this thread with even more interest because I've been offered a cheap complete mk1 mini which I might take up in the future when the Imp is finished * *the imp is always gonna be an ongoing project..

Yep- @igor any moisture that makes it past the window seal (which will be plenty) and then sits in the bottom of the door ,because the drain holes are badly placed or blocked, can then find its way as condensation onto the cards if not protected. A bit warmth in winter and the rising damp will fuck the cards on old cars with the hardboard backing and they'll warp easily (very hard to straighten once bent)

I tape mine in place with duct tape along the top so easy to remove if I need to do window/lock fixing in the future. Or if it just needs securing along the top then use sikaflex 123 ms bond https://www.placemakers.co.nz/online/adhesives-sealants/adhesives-sealants/caulks-and-sealants/interiorexterior-sealants/sikaflex-123-ms-bond-adhesive-and-sealant-300ml-bond-grey-595755/p/5900433?gclsrc=aw.ds Make sure to tuck the bottom back into the door so any condensation will run back into the door rather than out into your carpet. Our toyota van has long slots an inch up from the bottom where you pop the plastic through.

Do you lightly heat the vinyl before pressing? Looks great.