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Rhyscar's Toyota Levin - ‘fab it all from scratch’ project


Rhyscar

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yeah me too this one is getting towards the end of it life i reckon... i have a blacktop ecu if you want to chuck that in and see if it solves some problems?

GT Apex with superstrut is supposedly to 1150kg or something. impressed with 1040kg for wagon though! less body panel angles/no rear parcel tray/no superslut suspension is prob where the weight difference is. the coupe chassis are built pretty tough around the sills etc, prob why they are good cars to drive. found 1 small weak point in mine though where the floor is starting to crack... i have noticed the ae111 coupes have a bolt-on metal brace around this area which must make a difference.

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Wooo, super interested in the ECU, both of my caribs have limited at like 7400, but i'm sure the cars go to 8500, so will be interesting to try an ECU out of a car (if your one is from a manual car?) Also, I suspect mine has dodgy innards.

Can we arrange to get the ECU to me, and if its chipper i'll buy it off you?

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yeah i think the caribs had slightly different ECU's for some reason. hopefully it should all plug straight in as its still a ae11x model underneath the wagon-ness of it.

it revved out to 8200rpm when i was in my car. never missed a beat. will confirm tomorrow and PM you, just need to make sure its still under the bench where i think it is. :)

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Mmmmmmm 9000rpm, yummy. I'll have to whip my BT out one day and give it new rings/bearings/seals, as it leaks/burns a fair bit of oil. I also think the ecu is playing up, may be a good reason to go to a link, ha.

I used to have a GT APEX coupe, and they were said to be near on 1200kg, the wagon is 1040kg (was at the scrappy the other day, so weighed it) So not sure how more doors and glass = lighter? haha.

GT Apex is top of the range, so has all the bells and whistles, wagons are usually budget spec and have bugger all in them. Certainly wouldnt be hard to get sub ton

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nah i'm pretty sure the floor pan is the same part number when looked up on toyota's system. in fact ae111's are listed as about 80kg heavier than the ae101. prob mostly to do with being a newer car and having airbags etc. none of the ae101's came with airbags and you could get a gt apex with no ABS and non-superslut, it was just really rare. in fact i scrapped one not long ago :rolleyes:

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nah i'm pretty sure the floor pan is the same part number when looked up on toyota's system. in fact ae111's are listed as about 80kg heavier than the ae101. prob mostly to do with being a newer car and having airbags etc. none of the ae101's came with airbags and you could get a gt apex with no ABS and non-superslut, it was just really rare. in fact i scrapped one not long ago :rolleyes:

Mine is non ABS and s/s, my Trueno was ABS but not s/s

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  • 10 months later...

so here is a bit of an update on this POS.. 

 

did a winter series club day at taupo on track 2 august-ish last year.. managed to get down to 1.21's and have a few good races with evo's and nzv8's! took heaps of rides and generally thrashed on it all day long with clutch kicking and ruthlessneess.. the clutch was starting to go by the end but managed to drive back to palmy with it but next day the car wouldn't start or run or go into/out of gear.. so that pretty much decided it that the engine and gearbox were out, and I needed to find a bit more power so I can keep up with those bloody super 6's on the straights.. also the time bracket for IB cup changed to a 1.18-1.25 bracket so I'm looking to get this car up to 1.20's which is ok for a road car.. 

 

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2zz seemed like a good option as it is later model, lift+ VVTi, alloy block (20kg lighter than 4ag) and it bolts in. also has forward facing intake for touring-car style ITB's sticking through the grill and making doorrty noises. so I found an engine in need of a rebuild and starting buying parts from toyota and through mates I found a mrs C56 gearbox with a bellhousing that will fit 2zz... meaning I shouldn't of sold my bloody diff in the first place! ohwell.. 

 

So I started pulling things out and tidying it up because tbh this car has been pretty rough the whole time and it is in need of a birthday. I repainted the engine bay and cleaned all the cv grease off everywhere... 

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lightweight chromoly 2zz flywheel from the states; 2zz and 4ag clutch are the same so I have got an option of 2xheavy duty exedy/trd clutches to choose from left over

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So in between times I moved in with a girl and promptly moved back out which has stalled progress on the car substaintially along with drinking waay too much nothing really got done.. although I did buy 2 brand new sets of wheels for the car. 

1st is 15x7 +25p Enkei J-speeds which will be my race wheels and second set are some 16x8 +25 Rota slipstreams which will be my road wheels. think they will just fit under the guards with a bit of massaging and a 205/45 tyre.. 

 

 

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will use a G4 extreme as eventually I want to run outboard injection as it has proven gains at full throttle. I am making the intake manifold from scratch as well after looking at how to modify the blacktop one it is easier to machine the blacktop throttles out and use an insert like KPR did and then the manifold is just two flanges and some tube with the injector bosses you can buy off Ebay.. will be using bosch motorsport injectors and custom fuel rail. I think a 500L/hr in tank pump will be sufficient for now but hard to say once the 2nd set of injectors go in as they like to be about 800cc from what I've heard.. 

 

Suspension wise I am taking most of the camber out of the car and going to a stiffer front spring and a big adjustable rear swaybar to keep it from rolling the tyres. Tein coilovers are going to be shortened by 80mm for road legalness and also so it won't have any droop/pop a rear wheel when going around corners... :P

 

I am wanting to sort all the loose ends out with this car before recert/going back on the road. this means a full panel and paint, remounting the seating position and tidying up the wiring under the dash. there has got quite few challenges but I want to build it into something a bit more special than a slapped together POS

 

so progress is steady again with all rebuild parts bought, gearbox, clutch and wheels all sorted. can't wait to have this back on the road/track so I can drive it to work and then to the track on the weekends!

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Awesome!

 

As cliche as it is, I'm super keen to finally see a 2ZZ going into something. It's going to be pretty sweet in a 101. Some of those MR-S C52's have some kind of wacky sequential manual shift mechanism on them. Apparently they are slow and crap, but would be quite cool to see down the track whether you could get it working a bit better/faster.

 

Pretty crazy how quick this thing is already. It's about the same as Markku's 86? With a bit of extra poke and a little bit less weight in the nose it could be proper quick once it's all setup right. 

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^^ haha yeah definately going to be a bit different. markkus car is quite a bit quicker at manfield not sure about taupo fwd seems to work really well there for some reason - i'm about 200kg heavier and being a road car there are a lot of things that aren't worth removing. although this car is mainly built for driving backroads tbh it just has to be fast on track as well. 

 

a friend put a 2zz in a aw11 mr2 and made 130kw atw on a standard ecu.. with a G4 and eventually outboard injection I'm hoping for 145ish kw atw. even 130kw I would be happy with!

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Oh shit, miss read that and thought you were doing 1:20's around Manfeild. Don't mind me..

 

Have you found any sweet 2zz builds offshore to copy off? Probably best doing something tried and true, if people are playing with them elsewhere. Also, outboards make power everywhere, mid range and all not just top end.

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There are quite a few builds but it should be relatively simple. a lot of guys buy cams pistons etc etc but don't really want to down that path.

yeah engine bolts in pretty much as it uses a c series gearbox. will keep and eye out for a c60 6 speed but they are hard to find and about $1300.

Only a small plate is required to adapt drivers side engine mount.

how is the maxima going??

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