Roman

Hey so I just checked my spark plugs as it's been back to running rough as guts, and two out of four had cracked porcelain. They were $$$ platinum plugs too without toooo many kms on them, bugger! I've swapped them in and out a fair bit though in fairness so I might have overtightened them or knocked them or something I guess. I have swapped back to some cheapo plugs until I can figure out why it's running like crap, but then still running like crap after the spark plug swap. I've recently swapped out an injector that appeared to stop working, and now after a drive the OBD is showing that the ECU is adding 20% fuel across the board (maximum it can adjust) and it's still running lean as hell according to the plugs condition. So I'm suspecting that I've probably got a blocked fuel filter, or a failing fuel pump. Possibly on account of that it's just a random TA63 fuel tank I bought without cleaning out or whatever, probably has a whole heap of crap in it. Does anyone have any experience with cleaning out fuel tanks? I'll do some troubleshooting to see if it's a blocked fuel filter etc, but it likely comes back to an issue with crap in the fuel tank, or the fuel pump being zillions of old and giving up. pooz

Then get back to working on the car.

Good stuff man! Looking forward to a trackday with this and a few other sweet cars in attendance some time

Looks as though one of my injectors has packed up, dont suppose anyone has any of the pink FWD beams injectors spare? In other news it was actually a bit of a mish to get the speedo reading correctly. My Dad had been on the case for building some electronic wizardry to correct the signal - which tested fine using a Toyota speedo drive and dash cluster. But when in the car, the actual speedo signal recieves a lot of interference from other electrical stuff, so it had to be remade a bit to filter out this. So now the car has a little matchbox sized box under the dash, I can press one button or the other to speed up or slow down the speedo. Then you press both buttons together to save the changes. So it took a few doorts up and down the motorway later, and now has an accurate speedo! So in conjunction with fixing up a few other final bits, organised for Cletus to come back and... Booya! Pretty stoked to finally reach that milestone The motor is running great, the brakes are great, the suspension is great. Took it for a WOF straight after that, have a few minor issues to sort out. Nothing that'll cost me a significant amount of time or money though. Stoked! Hopefully depending on how lazy I am, should have the wof sorted within the week. By which I mean month. By which I mean year. Coupelife Bring on the next OS trackday!

The Base of The windscreen is a huge catchment area for high pressure air. Which is why the air intake for the fan for the inside of the car comes from there. Using the drip tray thing as an air feed would work better than a scoop, with the added benefit of being millions less ugly. Just make sure the intake is above the high tide mark for rain haha.

Fixed

Even a simple swap (like an early SR20DE) would still cost you $3-5k or so to do, if you can do all of the work yourself and keep the factory diff etc. If you need any assistance from a fabricator etc then that price starts going up pretty quickly. Things like getting a custom made drivshaft, engine mounts, gearbox mount, fluids etc, new radiator, radiator hoses, new exhaust, new clutch (would be silly not to) and so on. There's a good reason a lot of people buy lego-esque cars like Cefiros, as everything just bolts straight in. My car was relatively lego-ish, and it's still been a lot of work. Also unless you do a lot of work to the suspension/brakes/etc, something like a $2000 Integra or MR2 will still rip your car a new asshole in every which way. Doesnt mean your car will be any less fun though. The most fun car I've ever owned was a 1300cc Toyota Starlet that was a complete heap, yet was hilariously awesome to drive. Buy someone elses finished project, or just buy a car that's fast to begin with if that's what you're after. For a first project just try something simple like fitting a 1600cc Ford engine of some sort that bolts straight in, it will still be a lot of work to get going as there are always unforeseeable expenses and complications. Oooorrr, as alluded to in the other thread in a less than subtle way, spend the money on beer, partying and travelling and keep your car as is. You'll have a much better time overall.

Bring the 86 so I can steal it and take it for a hoon around scenic drive. In saying that, your MA61 really is remarkably tidy. (saw it at the leadfoot thingy)

Hi Scribblez, There's a bit of a false economy with Beams motors - Due to some complexity in the fuel system and Electronics which make them actually a lot more expensive to fit than it first seems when purchasing a motor. There are a few problems that need addressing when swapping beams motors into a different car: -Factory dual mass flywheel is a piece of crap, aftermarket lightweight flywheel + new clutch adds another grand or so to the purchase price. -The motor uses a returnless fuel line system, that runs at a higher pressure than most cars. The options for fixing it are to use a fuel rail from a FWD beams engine with an adjustable FPR fitted, tapping the standard fuel rail to accept an FPR, or fitting the Altezza fuel pump in the gas tank. Any which of those options would likely cost you $500+ -The gearbox shifter position is on par with a remote shift W57 gearbox, AKA really fucking far back. However you can unbolt the shifter, flip around the part on the end of the gearbox shaft and bolt it further forward which is handy. Any old W series driveshaft (or auto equivilent) shares the same spline though which is handy. -Electronic speedo drive in the gearbox - good luck getting your speedo working if it runs from a cable. (which it does) You can convert the gearbox to a cable drive using a W57 speedo drive, but then the ECU throws error codes if it doesnt get a speed signal. -Electronic throttle body These motors have a shit house electric throttle body, the cable only pulls the throttle about 1/4 open and the ECU does the rest. So you need a pedal position sensor mounted on your gas pedal, which is a bit of faffing around. -Finnicky airflow meter If the airflow meter is not contained in the right shape/size housing, the ECU shits its pants. This means fitting a pod filter or similar yeilds crappy results on standard ECU, (20hp atw less, in my case) and the factory airbox is a fucked up shape that you'll not likely be able to fit. -Big plenum The intake on these is a bit of a huge bitch, might be a tight squeeze into an escort. At this stage most people decide it would be a good idea to use quad throttle bodies instead, which means.... -Disregard ECU, aquire aftermarket one By this stage most people have probably spent $6-8k, and then need to buy a $2k ECU and about a grand for tuning. If you're running a standard motor with standard manifold or quads, standard exhaust etc you can expect between 110-135kw at the wheels depending on a few things. You'll also need to upgrade your brakes to get a cert, get a wheel alignment within 1/2 degree of factory camber, fit driveshaft loops (which is horrible) and jump through a few more expensive and time consuming hoops. Soo if you are happy with having your car off the road for 2 years or so, spending 10k and having 130ish kw at the wheels then yep sweet. Personally I think for a first project, and size/weight of the car it makes more sense to opt for a 4AGE. A T50 gearbox fits easier, the engine is a lot simpler electronically etc and can run on the standard ECU (or a cheap aftermarket one, no VVTI etc) and it's a much more sensible hassle free option for a first engine swap. A standard bluetop 4AGE swapped would cost less than half the time and money, and still be heaps of fun to drive. Otherwise something like an SR20DE is also a lot simpler to install and get running. If you want to get an idea of what's involved in a beams motor swap, there are quite a few in the project section - do a search for 'beams' and you'll find a fair few in various states of deconstruction haha. also for what it's worth, by the time I've (nearly) finished my beams project, I actually enjoy driving my other car with a standard motor just as much, because I'm now old and dont care so much for hooning around. Kind Regards, Roman 'Been there done that and hate myself for it' Dave.

Had a bit of a convoy with some of the usual suspects, fun start to the day. Favourite car was the crazy porsche ice rally 4wd thingo, sweet jesus I would drive the hell out of that thing. Oh, and this cool volvo thing that turned up that I didnt take any pics of.

I reckon avoid cutting the bonnet at any cost! Ruins part of the charm of a modern engine in an old car.

Oh hello

Cool project! Dont reccomend rose joints for the 4 link however. In order for the rear diff to move through its arc of travel, each arm needs to become slightly shorter or longer to allow it to raise/lower/tip, which is allowed for with rubber bushes. When you fit rose joints, each arm becomes an exact length instead. So other parts of your car (i.e. diff mounts) need to make up the difference. it also wears out rosejoints pretty quick. Probably especially bad on a triangulated 4 link.

Converted from cable to electric speedo, in order to get it to read more accurate. It's easier to adjust a digital signal, than make a gearbox for the speedo cable or whatever is required. Waiting on Jaycar to get the speedo adjustment kit in stock though... They had bloody well better hurry up! currently works great, but it's hilariously inaccurate (reads 180kph when doing 100) I also spent some time cleaning the garage floor...

+1 to the above, great to see it back out of the woodworks, and not owned by some douche. Look forward to seeing how it progresses.

Awesome thanks!

Exciting news, on the "Make my engine run less shit" front! It's been theorized for a while, that although not OBD2 compliant, these motors actually have an OBD compliant serial stream from the ECU. Which as it turns out, is the SIL pin. Some crazy russians have spent some time with a scope and figured out the baud rate, protocol, etc of the Japanese OBD data, which means.... With some wizard magic wiring into the Diagnostic port (Courtesy of my Dad) we have got an ELM327 Bluetooth OBD2 reader connected to the ECU successfully. It needs some custom commands to make it work, so currently it only works with the app "Torque" for android devices. Well worth the $7 for this app! Awesome for troubleshooting. Can look at idle speed, TPS angle, coolant temperature, etc without having to look at the gauges. I've had some issues where the car runs a LOT better with the TPS disconnected. Turns out that as far as the ECU is concerned, when the throttle is fully shut it's at 27% throttle and when fully open, it's at 60% throttle.Which meant it had a fairly crappy 1400rpm idle running super rich. I unscrewed the tps from the housing which let it unwind a little further - now shows 9% throttle opening as far as the ECU is concerned, and drops to a stable 850rpm idle. Booya! This should hopefully help make the cold idle a bit nicer when the TPS is replaced with the proper one. So I need to find a 3 pin TPS from a gen 3 or 4 3SGE, does anyone have one kicking around? I also need a 3SGE knock sensor in working order... If anyone's got one, Love you long time!

I'd leave it on for sure. When you're at full throttle, there are more gases in the crank case than vaccum in the intake, so the gas blows out the non PCV pipe into your catch tank. When you're at idle, it sucks through the PCV line, and draws fresh air in through the other line from your catch tank. So the non PCV line works to do two jobs at once, flows both ways. I've got both lines hooked up to my intake, beams motor has a catch can built into the cam cover so I'm not convinced that excessive amounts of vapour etc makes it out anyway.

It's not too much of a drama about the PCV - because if you look at the size of the hole in the valve, it's effing tiny... And it's got a valve in there to stop it from sucking too much air through. It also makes your engine a bit healthier by sucking out the crappy fumes etc while you are idling. So it's not a bad thing, just cunty to try and fit in some how. You could probably get away with plumbing it into just one or two of your throttles perhaps. Easy way to get a rugged sounding idle hahaha. Unless of course he's also saying that you need the other crankcase vent line connected to the intake too, in which case... aaahhh... yeah. Dunno how that would work. It's pretty awesome how much you've managed to get done on this car in this time frame, A++ would read thread again.

Oh yeah, so just to get the picturelessness out of the way: Have made some progress, changed the steering arms back to the proper ones. As Clint suspected, (ARE YOU A WIZARD?!) the proper steering arms have a 'drop' to the tie rod end, where as the steering arms I had in it had everything more in a flat plane. Which is weird, as apparently they were from a Carina, and I dont see how you could *not* have bump steer, with a flat arm. I would be interested to see the suspension setup of the car they came from! It cant be an MZ10 or MA61 or GX71, as they have a larger ball joint on the LCA. It must be from some variant of either Carina/Celica/Corona with some wizard magic tie rods or something. Perhaps from a... power steering, steering box setup or something. Dunno! Big thanks to Ken/Kinloud for helping me out with some other steering arms though. I had my rediculously helpful Dad come around and wire up a check engine light, and he also made some spacers for the front suspension: As basically, the front spring rate was good, but it was preloading the bejeezus out of the springs to get it to the height it was at. As is often said, having an adjustable spring platform is more about accomodating different spring rates/lengths, rather than height adjustment. So my options were to fit longer shocks (Which then might not fit in the strut casing anymore, as the bottom part would be longer too?) or put spacers between the strut towers and top of the suspension. But yeah, it pays to think carefully before cutting down your shocks/struts! This raises the front by 10mm, meaning I can wind the springs back down a bit, for sake of mechanical sympathy/having more suspension droop. Although, the car currently gets down my driveway without scraping, and steers really nice, so... screw it! More interested in doing sweet jumps/gravel bashing/Takumi style gutter dives than having a low car. So might cert it at the current height, and hopefully spend summer cruising around in it without fear of destroying my sump and being stranded in... fuck knows where. Sooo I've just a wheel alignment to go, then pester Clint/Cletus into a recheck before my time runs out

^^There's a lot of benefit to advancing the cam (or not) based on load as well though, so you pretty much get a more miserable fuel bill disabling it too. (Assuming your ECU has a load vs rpm table for it I guess) there was a guy who built a turbo Altezza motor with Supra pistons - which have different shaped valve reliefs. Checked all of the clearances when buildint the motor and it was fine, but then started tuning and advanced the cams - crunch! woops

Performance chips... removing vvt... sigh. Inb4 Octane booster

My car's probably a little heavier than this, and I went 3.5kgmm in the back and it's perfect. That's coming from springs which were previously... way way too hard, way too hard, too hard, then 3.5kg. I'd rather see this thing raised a bit and doorting around some back roads than barely scraping along the highway without fear of killing yourself.