Stu

#ingredients #broke So yeah, short of the injectors turning up I should have everything for the engine wire up now. Huge thanks to DaveScienceTM @Roman who 3D printed me a super sweet mounting plate for the CAN-PWM fan speed control module. Just gotta find some time to wire it - there might be a few "sick" days off work coming up...

Lockdown didn't quite provide all the spare time I was anticipating due to picking up a heap of essential work, but I have been ticking away at this thing. I've been wanting to get into the wiring so have been putting in a few hours here and there. Wiring is something Ive done alot of over the years so while I don't enjoy body wiring that much, I am looking forward to getting into the ecu side of things. The whole idea with the wiring is that the engine/ecu wiring is plug and play so if I ever wanted to go back to a stock engine/ecu (I wont) then it wouldn't be a total nightmare to do. I hope it means the car will retain its value better this way. Way back when I stripped the car for painting the front end wiring loom ended up stashed in a box which gathered dust, but I hauled that out and started pondering things. I wanted to make a few small changes to the factory front wiring like shifting the washer pump wiring from the factory location behind the passenger strut tower where it will melt due to the heat from the headers, over to the factory 85 location on the drivers side. I also wanted to take out the air con wiring, re-route where the loom runs and tidy up a few other things. So the loom got stripped back, I traced all the plugs so I've got notes on what goes where with wire colours, then got to work. I removed all the aircon wiring but kept the circuits intact with notes on what connects where so if I want to later down the track I can overlay that loom and plug it all back in. I laid in the new washer wiring but de-pinned, insulated and hid the original wiring so it can be uncovered and repinned later on if the washer ever goes back there. The drivers side wiring route usually runs through firewall into the wheel well then in through the inner guard, down across the inner fender to the head lights and along the front under the top radiator support, but I've changed this so its all hidden under the guard, runs under the headlight and along the lower radiator support so none of it is seen. The alternator wiring is now re-routed to enter the engine bay below the head light so its a short straight run along the chassis rail and is far less noticeable - its actually shorter wiring along with being neater. Wrapped it all in conduit and then taped up and clipped back in using as many factory fixing points as possible. A large number of hours later shortening and lengthening etc it looked like this. I quite like the fact that I know what all the plugs do, where the wires all run and that there isn't any un-used plug or circuits. Lots of time spent doing things that no one will ever see or care about And other than the short section of alternator wiring this is all you can obviously see - its not finished yet but you get the idea. While I was at it I took the dash out and hauled the dash wiring loom out for a once over too. There was only a few minor changes I wanted to make like reconfigure the wiper wiring so instead of running through the engine loom like factory its part of the dash loom instead - Its spliced in so a factory engine loom would still work if needed. Fixed a few broken speaker wires and sorted the stereo wiring too. After that it all got a once over with new wrapping and replaced the odd plastic clip and it went back in. Quite satisfying that everything is in the right place, clipped back into factory points and theres no random wires. While I was at it I ran another separate loom next to it from the ecu area over to the dash for the Link inputs/outputs I want to run including a canbus circuit for future proofing incase I run a dash in this thing. Dash all went back in and at least for now its all buttoned back up properly. Then with the looms all plugged back in and the battery temporarily connected I powered the car up and after replacing a few bulbs everything seems to work and the smoke didn't escape so that's a bonus! I'll give the interior a good clean once the ecu wiring is done as its dusty as shit but it looks like a car again. I'll update on the ecu side of things soon but stuff as been arriving so im hoping to get onto that sometime soon. Other than wiring I also got the EGT setup pretty well sorted - have welded the compression fittings onto the exhaust so that can go on for good soon too. Thats all till next time

Sweet car and nice progress! One of my old mates had one of these for quite a while - it wasn't slow! But it did eat gearboxes - lots of them from memory! I look forward to seeing your progeess.

Twisting the circuits inside looms is handy for keeping things tidy etc - Poor mans concentric twist. I tend to use Deutsch plugs for most stuff, you can buy bulk packs if you hunt around which makes the plugs much cheaper.

Ive used divider circuits before into a link when using ABS sensors and it worked fine

Shit yeah! So good!

So i made a thing from ali this time Will likely bomb it black at some point, its a bit too shiny for me. Thanks to Richie i now have some cam covers that have the lower bolt provisions for the COP plate so im working on getting those tidied up, modified for breathers and painted. I've also been making a few brake hard lines and about to start buying the ecu and sensors etc.

Nice result! Can you link to the bluetooth battery monitor you use?

Oh cool! Yeah the old neon 15000v transformers pack a decent punch, if not I have access to a neon bombarder which runs much higher amperage / death

That doesn't surprise me at all! Youtube provides good examples of it going well and bad. Ive got a pile of neon transformers at work so was going to try those.

I'm not entirely sure yet if Im honest - it needs some body work and I'm about to pull the trigger on getting it done then back on the street, but would obviously want more for it then. I'll have a think about - send me a PM if you are genuinely interested.

Yep! Rego on hold.

Oh yeah, I also added this turd to the fleet. I have no idea why, seemed like a good idea at the time. Will likely move it on if anyone is interested. Its a 1985 EP70, that someone has spent alot of time/effort/money into squeezing a silvertop 4age into. Its quite hilarious to drive and unlike my blue car it doesn't try to kill you. Comes with a Link g4+, coil overs, si interior, rear disc brakes, etc. If I keep it I'll turn it into a track hack. It needs some new panels and a few bits so if anyone knows of a reasonably tidy EP70 going or not then let me know - just needs to be tidy.

Haha thanks but I'm far too lazy to go Blinky spec! CNC machines are handy / cheating!

Haha thanks man, it's pretty funny. I just wanted to make sure the design and program were good before cutting one from ali, but now it's done I kinda like it! Was reading up on how to get lightning style burns thru it by connecting high voltage either end, might give it a go!

So Stu, what have you done in the last 6 months or so? Well, short answer is fuck all really... In non car related issues a rat somehow got in and ate through the water feed to the dishwasher, the house flooded meaning the brand new kitchen, the brand new t&g floor, and the garage ceiling below all needed to be replaced - yay. Insurance somehow managed to take 6 weeks longer to do the job than they said it would, and in that time the car and everything else for that matter had to be put in storage at the in-laws. They didn't seem to mind too much but its stole pride of place in their garage somehow - better than outside where it would fizzle away to a rusty pile. Anyway, its back where it belongs in the garage and I've been sneaking in the odd hour or two and chipping away at it. Last year I made up some new fuel lines from bundy tube, i was never 100% happy with it so ripped it out in favour of running new -6 teflon line through instead as I had a roll left over from my car building days. At work I butchered some brackets together on the cnc router using 10mm plate ali. They hold the breather, feed and return, and brake line up under the car. Here's the first test one I made. So I made a hole bunch, tidied them up and then ran them all through. It came out reasonably well. I didn't take any pics but these run through to a billet filter mounted low on the drivers chassis just under the fire wall, then up to the rail. The fuel reg is mounted low in front of the brake prop valve so its all pretty stealth which is what I was going for. So that's the fuel system done finally. Moving back to the engine I dummy fitted the coil plate which will work - just need to pickup some redtop cam covers that have the bolt provisions to hold the thing down. Richie might have a set for me so hopefully will try those up with some new breathers at some stage. The top cover then hides everything. I have finished wiring the hall effect sensors and put all the timing gear together and buttoned up the front of the engine. Just need to find the top cam belt cover which is currently awol. Still need to make a dizzy blanking plug. I got thinking about the factory spark plug cover and that it has the spark lead provision at the front that I don't need, so decided to make a new version without the up step. For now I've made a timber one but will run this from some 16mm plate at some stage and matty b it for a simple look. Here's the timber one anyway. Its pretty funny being timber - might just varnish it and leave it till it catches on fire Other than that, ive been working on the brake lines and have rebuilt the steering rack along with new boots, new rack inner and outer arms etc. Need to get a few hard lines made then check the system for leaks. Then its onto wiring then skids! See you in another 6 months...

Silvertop and blacktop have physically different distributors. Also the early bigport ones have 4 tooth reluctor pickups inside inside rather than single tooth that the redtops have. If your using an aftermarket ecu you can make a bluetop/bigport dizzy work, but stock ecu doesn't like it much even if you grind the teeth off.

Are you sure on that? My Silvertop had two different filters

1nz+t Carina is looking more and more likely

Full send. I approve

This thing has been a pleasure to help with - so stoked its just a sniff away from being road legal. You've built one hell of tidy car mate!

Yearly update Life has been busy, and while juggling kids, a growing business, and another couple of projects for people it's meant I haven't got all that much done on either car. I had visions of making OS Drags this year but yeah nah the 86 isn't running yet and I've left it too late to resurrect the EP71. EP71 wise it still starts up and drives fine, except the gearbox is now leaking so will need to come out. I've got a new Cusco LSD on the shelf along, several good gearsets that I already modified a few years ago, so really just need to put a box together and swap that in. Will aim to build the traction bars Ive got in my head at the same time. I also still need to build the 3 inch exhaust system from the stainless tube, bends and flanges I have in stock, but finding the time is the hard part. The alternator bracket that I made years ago has also mysteriously broken while the car has been in hibernation - easy fix though. I bought a new GTX2867 Series 2 turbo for this a while back and Kris has run this up on his Hilux for a comparison to his GTX2860 series 2. It made for some interesting results, and I think on the engine in the EP71 it should make some reasonably decent numbers compared to the GT2876 on there now. Anyway, will work on this car next year and hopefully actually put some effort into racing the thing the following summer. Pic for motivation. Onto the 86. I've made some progress, but no way near enough to make the OS Drags. Next optimistic goal is to make Toyota Fest. Things I have done though: My boys helped me fit the front and rear bumpers so thats all done and tidy now. The front lip has been grafted into the bumper, not sure I like this idea now but it will do for the time being. I definitely don't like the gloss black paint though, will repaint in bumper black once its going. Picked up a battery and made a wee bracket for it in the engine bay. I'm no longer a fan of relocating batteries so thought this was a good compromise. I've also been mucking around a little bit with the front end. Stripped the front end apart, cleaned up the arms, fitted power steer knuckles, new brakes set of rotors and pads. Dropped some lowering springs onto the stock shocks for now so its wof friendly but will swap in the coil overs later. I've got new rack ends, rack inners with spacers, new front Cusco sway bar and full bush kit to go in too - hopefully onto that very shortly. I'm considering a Cusco caster arm setup too, haven't quite pulled the trigger on that yet. Wiring wise Ive had the front chassis loom and rear chassis looms out of the car to make a few changes and re-wrap them. I've taken the aircon wiring out and added in larger dia wire for the fuel pump in the rear and new wiring for the twin radiator fans in the front. I'm setting up the fuel pump and dual fans on solid state relays so I can speed control them all. Jacked it up and ripped the fuel tank out, have fitted a Aeromotive Stealth pump and changed all the lines to AN fittings and black teflon braid that Ive had left over from previous projects. Also took all the old fuel lines out and have run new hard line through. I need to redo the brake line too at some stage. Gave the underbody some love so thats all tidy now. I managed to pick up a new Cusco panhard for a good deal and a new Cusco rear sway bar so those have gone in with new bushes - will get photos of that next time. I've got various CNC gear at work to play with so have been working on coil plates to suit Suby COP's that will fit under the standard small port cover. Finished product is in but I havent taken any photos yet so here's so progress shots while making a few trial units. Should have these for sale at some point. Other work underway is the dash wiring, have taken the loom out for a strip down/few changes/re-wrap and have the Link ecu wiring planned out and started. Getting back into the engine bay will be next, there's not alot to do really. The hall effect setup is all done so I just need to make up a blanking for the CAS location and that's done too. Also got this. And this to fit at some stage Hopefully will get a good week on this over the Christmas break which should almost see it running, fingers crossed.

Dare I say it, but throw a Link on it instead? That way you can use the dizzy you have? Plus it will be better in the long run once you inevitably slide carelessly down the "might just do a couple of subtle modifications" route...

^ Thats awesome!

Easy as, send me a PM and we can work out what you need. Im super fussy with cutters and the edge finish being perfect straight off the machines so I buy quite reguarly. Im my game if I can save labour hours each day cleaning up edges its well worth buying more cutters instead.