Rhyscar

Quick update. Been busy over the past month so this has taken a bit of a backseat. Got some stickers made for steering wheel/dash. Makes it feel a lot more finished. I’m not 100% happy with them yet but they’ll do for now also tidied up the curly cord mounting. Looks legit now. So the set of pulleys I brought back from the states didn’t fit my alternator (which turns out is from a 1zz fielder). So jeffy came to the rescue and made a bush to suit. For future reference..1445mm belt works with no PS, and underdrive alternator and water pump pulleys. This took quite some time to figure out found a wee molded hose to finish up the heater piping. Still need to 3d print an airflow thing for the dash heater ducts. Cooling system is now sealed and ready for a pressure test (pending a few extra hose clamps!) Also replaced gearbox axle seals and filled with oil for first time in 10yrs. Hope not too much damage has been done from sitting around. Bought and sold another Levin to pay for Link Storm g4x and engine wiring loom. Loom worked out great looks very hidden away. Some small mods to make but all simple enough. next up; 1. fix stripped thread in engine mount 2. replace sump with baffled version 3. remount expansion chamber 4. make headers 5. first start??

Yeah look like it. Nah I've said goodbye to 15" life. I've got 2x sets of 17s so fully committed relationship now. Zestino do a 215/40/17 with a 603mm diameter which is best of a bad situation. Haven't figured out slick sizing yet. But long-term I need to be finding a 5.3 or 5.5 above final drive to sort out the gearing. I can probably get them to chch in May if you need. I've got a 2zz corolla on my back lawn that's being collected by the owner and taken to chch. I'm sure there'll be room for a set of tyres.

Speaking of 13's.. Did you see on FB marketplace a stack of 13" advan semi's going for $50/tyre?? Tried to tag you in it but didn't work. AE101 on 13's would be hilarious! I'm not even sure they tyres would touch the ground...

Oh man with 9000rpms that will work out perfect! 13" wheels FTW. With 17's I need to go for a 5.3 diff!

Keen to see some progress on this. Love the philosophy with starting with something not too nice. shell looks pretty good. How does the J160 gearing work with the 4.9 diff? It'll be interesting to see what the torque sits with a decent 2zz. Seeing as you've potentially got up to 9000 rpms, you may need a higher diff ratio? (depending on tyre size too!) You may have already worked that out. Typically the toyota 6 speed boxes are quite long in the gearing.

New muff will be good improvement and looks great too. Will be interesting to see how it changes the 3S rasp.

Great little project and good work on the underbody. My Subaru needs this treatment sometime soon and I expect it will go a similar route...

I can fully get amongst this new direction/distraction. I went around in a similar circle trying to find one the right size. BRZ/86 is another option that's close in dimensions. I've got a Fenix core left over if you need to make one? 600mm wide and maybe 750-800 high. almost perfect size. Your configuration inlet/outlet ports could probably work well for dual pass as well? So excited about intake over the radiator. It's the way of the future.

A few snaps from Toyotafest. If anyone got some feel free to share as well. Great to get the car out and chat to lots of people about it. Lots of motivation to finish it now! Trailer queen for first and last time hopefully Finley loved it too

Also quite excited about purchasing alternator and water pump undersized pulleys from Monkeywrench racing. Interestingly, they claim a 3-4HP gain on a factory motor, which combined with my lack of belt-driven powersteering, higher compression, ITB's and exhaust could potentially add up to 5-8hp total. Might even get close to K20 power? This few HP is probably the cheapest $$/kw I'll ever make so stoked to have this piece of the puzzle coming together. These are waiting to make it into our suitcases when we visit the states in a few weeks..

Lots of finishing details taking lots of effort with this project. Stuff that's been sitting on the shelf 'finished' for a few years always needs adjustments or I need to remember how it was supposed to be installed... Final adjustments made to the gear shifter. Locked skateboard bearings in place with Loctite (they are a gentle press fit). Also replaced axle seals and got driveshafts in place. Gearbox is ready to roll once I add some oil... Polished up the headlights finally. Look great, but could be better still. Repainted mirrors in repco 'trim black'. Turned out great! Decided to paint gurney flap black as well. Not sold on it but unsure what other options would look any good? Also, its amazing to see how unlike this car looks like a factory Levin... Dropping a car 4" will do that! Pulled the front apart to do final welds on headlight frames. All comes apart in less than 30mins which is great. Wasn't stoked to need to remove radiator again though (it's a bitch of a job!) And because I hate AN fittings & braided hose.... I sourced some Continental heater hose for breathers (not rated for oil but is no pressure and has 150deg C temp rating so should be fine). Bonus that it comes in almost an exact colour match to my car. Still one more hose end to fabricate for the final breather. 2zz has an obscene amount of breather ports so why not use them all!? Less crank pressure = more power. Last night Drew popped around to do a final measure up on engine loom. Added a few things and adjusted the factory loom to suit. He also brought some goodies with him. This is probably the biggest financial piece of the puzzle left so happy to make this step. Assembling the car and touching things up for Toyotafest at Hampton this saturday. Entered show in 'under construction' category. It's bittersweet because it feels good to finally have something worth showing/sharing with people for my 10+yrs of effort, but still so much work in the finishing touches. Next year I'll be driving it!!

This one doesn't, but yeah they were an option for A31 & A32. But that one is manual (swapped) which is a rarity. Spent the day pulling maximas door apart to get stuck actuator fixed end solution is its completely fucked and I need to cut the door skin open to release the door. Not a fun time.

Been driving this bit lately for a few events/occasions. Maybe a bit much - watching the kms. Perhaps two of the finest cars built in Japan in 1996?? Prove me wrong. Got out to watch some Targa in North Waikato over the weekend. Did a quick reece over one of the roads and wow when you get in it, this thing is a beast. Wound the diff up and it just glues to the road and clunks at low speed. Steering is super precise, gearbox is perfect which makes for a lot of fun carrying speed through corners. Very impressive for 1996, a modern car would need 450-500+ hp to keep up with the 1180kgs of 90's engineering. Unsurprisingly, the brakes suck but that's a later issue (has a slightly leaky master cylinder and rusty booster). Its done 240kms so its to be expected. New exhaust makes it a pleasure to drive on all occasions. Can hear BOV & wastegate doing their thing now which is cool. Car feels at home in the service park. All the old Targa geezers were fizzing. Found a gravel road to test out some launches. Goes better on gravel than tarmac Going in the shed for a while now. Need to give it a clean/wax and get the Speedlines repainted.

End of weekend engine bay shot. Made a nifty heat shield for the firewall to keep the important stuff like brake masters and fuel hoses from melting. Rocker cover is off getting a parts wash to get all the swarf out from drilling breather holes out. Sump needs to same treatment after I added an oil temp sensor hole.