KP_JAMES - 1986 MX73 Project 'grandadgoneboostin'

[4AGEMAD]

 

 

 

Purchased this gem from fello os'er 'oldnathan'.

 

I'm a 4AGE boy at heart but have always had a love for the old boxy Cressidas, also needing a tow car for the kp i figured...why not. 

 

Bit of history on the old girl: 1986 - Started off her life at the Toyota plant in Thames, at 60 thou km's in 1993 it was sold on to some old geezer who owned the car for about 11 years.

 

 

This is the part that saddens me, last year the coot decided to take her to the local wreckers for scrap!!

 

 

luckily it was saved but i'm assuming when the cambelt was changed around this time the crank bolt wasn't torqued correctly and eventually slackened off enough and did the damage. The car was passed on to Nathan who then must've realized his v12 Cressida was more important, then on to me. 

 

 

 

 

 

The thing that really grabbed me was that it was basically bone stock, I have further found out from the scrap yard that ford springs were put in the rear to lower it a bit but other than that she's unmolested. 

 

 

 

 

 

Specs:

 

 

Engine - 5M-GE 2.8L (worlds first engine of its kind with hydraulic tappets)

 

 

Transmission - A43DE 4 speed with lock-up torque converter

 

 

Rear end - Independant semi trailing, f series? 4.1:1

 

 

 

 

 

Sweet bits:

 

 

Classic Digital dash, Leather interior (seen better days), Cruise control, illuminating drivers door key and ignition barrel, power mirrors & windows, central locking, vehicle speed sensitive power assisted steering, remote radio & a/c controls, trick gold Cressida wheels which am pointed out to have been painted, dam nice job at that. 

 

 

 

 

So enough blabbering, got the car trailered home last saturday knowing it had spun the crank timing pulley key then stripped it all down, found the crank seems (fingers crossed) ok but the pulley is quite damaged. 

 

 

Managed to hunt down a brand new pulley from murica and will be here tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the mean time I spent the weekend cleaning the old girl up, nothing too major, most of the electrics weren't working but have found the one door was completely missing its regulator! in place was a handy piece of kiwi ingenuity...a block of wood 

 

 

 

 

 

nonetheless kept at it, diagnosed most of it, windows switches needs replacing, radio fuse was blown which stopped the wing mirrors from working...go figure. 

 

 

bits of rust here and there but all fixable, have sent through a mad order through to a guy for a bunch of stuff so hopefully can get all those nek wek. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Basically im doing a slight resto, bringing her back to its original grandad/ma self in all of its sheepwool seat cover, cassette tape radio, bobble headed dog glory. 

 

 

Dont get me wrong I love seeing them slammed on a nice set of Japanese 14's, but I'm wanting something a bit more practical with comfort and style in mind. 

 

 

 

 

 

Thoughts here 

 

[4AGEMAD]

One Bonus I fully forgot was that the ol boeast still has its original glass including the front windscreen!! 

 

Proven by the original number plate plastered on it. 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday night My new cambelt etc, crank keys and seals arrived so got stuck in as soon as i got home from work. 

 

 

Thankfully the new crank timing pulley fitted nice and snug on the crank snout so was in mint condition giving what had happened. 

 

 

 

Everything went together well, had to remove the exhaust side rocker cover to check the camshafts alignment, whilst it was out i took the chance to clean it up and add some sealant around the gasket to keep it from pissing out everywhere till i get new ones. 

 

 

 

 

 

Come 2:00am! it was all pieced together. Now bare in mind the car hadn't been run for over a year, i cranked her over for about 2 seconds, turned the key off, primed the fuel system then she fired straight into life. 

 

 

Had a bit of a miss when revved but cleared up not long after and has been great ever since. 

 

 

 

 

 

Being too excited/cold I didnt manage to snap a vid but hers another one after 2 trips to town as per trip meter. 

 

 

https://youtu.be/W_UO4ecej-c

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today I took advantage of Hawkes bays 21 degree weather and attacked the rust...cant get away from the dam s@#t. 

 

 

The worst that i know of at the moment is on the lhs 'A' pillar and after chatting with my boss he said back then it was a common rusting point.

 

 

After pulling out the goldilocks I engulfed the whole pillar with cavity wax and cleaned up all the rust. 

 

 

Ended up cutting back about 70mm of the guttering as it was toast and welded up the hole followed by por15 sealer. 

 

 

didnt get pics of the new plate but once the sealer had cured will bog over it all and repaint with the original coloured base coat in a can. 

 

 

 

 

Trial fitted my A3A, i do like the look but i think the ol geezer wont be happy. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quick snap of the near completed engine, will redo the wrinkle paint on the covers at some stage and Very lightly water blast the engine bay. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Todays resolution: I'm bloody stoaked with my old Cressy (or Cress as per rego tag ). 

 

 

During my drive into town I had to test the cruise control, to my absolute delight it worked perfectly!

 

 

Its pritty crude in the way it operates but hey, a coming up 30 year old car with cruise control, that shizz is pure luxury. Lets not forget the automatic fan speed AND air direction modes.

 

 

 

 

 

Better stop my Toyota fan-boying...

 

 

Got the car up on the hoist, everything looks great underneath, sumps a bit bashed and both rackends need replacing along with one shock but other than that and the rust she'll fly through the warrant  fingers crossed..

 

 

 

 

[4AGEMAD]

I did a thing

 

thanks again 'oldnathan' 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saw Nathan had a W50 with an m series bell and other bits and pieces for a good price so i figured why not! 

 

 

sourced a new clutch disc, MKIII supra clutch pedal and slave cylinder. 

 

 

Had to customise the slave bolt hole and clutch pedal box bolt holes to suit

 

 

Also had a mission trying to piece together a driveshaft, ending up getting one shortened

 

 

 

 

 

All up was so worth it, definitely glad to get rid of that old slush box, will update with more pics soon  

 

[4AGEMAD]

Oh yeah, I still have this thing

 

 

[4AGEMAD]

Not a lot has happened in the past 7 or so month hence no update, been a lot of life things that I had to sort out but most of which is done so can get back into it. 

Dont have pictures but rust got away on me in the RH rear quarter which i had to remove the rear screen to fix it properly. 

Next was to sort out the leaking pinion seal....

Whilst there i figured ill get one of these..stripped apart and clean all down.

I ended up getting carried away and rebuilding the whole thing with some genuine bits

 

Worked with MRP again to get some coilovers made up 

 

Excuse the filth, couldnt make it up a 20mm rise in concrete but it looked cool 

Throughout the 7 month period I found another mx in Napier for $450! It had the facelift front lights incl factory light covers so i swapped them all over and stole its front lip, not sure if ill run it or not, well see. 

Also purchased some Carozzeria parcel shelf speakers and a Nardi classic wood grain wheel from japland. 

Passed its cert a week ago, will get some more pictures when the plate arrives so can have it in a not-so-jacked state. 

[4AGEMAD]

*Photo heavy post*

 

Been getting some free time lately to get into me old girls, So as of late i went ham and cut back 90% of the rust and smashed on some POR15 to seal it up then coat of colour matched paint for now, keep that patina look lol.

have been purchasing care packages of parts, each time making her run that much better. Now to the point where i get 600kms to the tank of 95 without fail! pritty stoaked so i daily this beast now.

Not sure if i posted it but i ended up having hawkes bays 2 gold cressidas 

I nabbed the facelift front and various other pieces, fixed up the shotty engine, adjusted all the valve timing on the correct rotations.. ran mint then sold to a young fella in Napier

basically where im at now riding on Riverside Reverges, this is the first car which ive actually really loved to look at and enjoy driving every day

Lots of little pieces ive replaced, trim clips you name it, pritty pedantic but its paying off. So far the engine have a new fuel filter/plugs/leads/thermostat/cambelt shizz/afm/tps/screw bung etc etc

heres the latest package

Filler cap seal was rock hard, so is the rocker cover seals but that wont be done till i get my turbo...oh yeah im chucking a turbo on as well lol will shed light on that in due time 

other things ive done during my hiatus on here was jap spec chrome wing mirrors, gx71 mk2 sedan monsoons, factory headlight covers, nardi classic woodgrain wheel, carozzeria parcel shelf speakers that light up with the park lights, I made a VU meter bar from led kits and a bit of ingenuity, works pritty trick.

 

Latest installment was to fix the dented lower valance, been pissing me off for years

Fitted the og undertray that i pinched from the other cressida

While i was at it i fitted the facelift front lip, eventually ill colour match it but its ok for now

\

 

Thanks for reading if you made it this far lol, hopefully keep this thread more up to date as the turbo setup becomes complete

[4AGEMAD]

Ive updated this thread back to a non-photobucket state!

On that note I managed to find a 7m CT26 from this bro through facebook for lunch money dollas  the amount of play feels great which is awesome

found 2 oem 7m exhaust manifolds in America hopefully getting shipped soon, my friends also turboing his x7

That's all for now

[4AGEMAD]

Been crazy busy lately with life but managed to find some time to get almost everything i need for the swap.

Manifolds arrived and same with most other bits to make it go good. 

Ive been following what all the american dudes did back in the early 2000s and basically copied that since its all quite straight forward. 

 

The setup is as follows: Upgraded fuel pump/BEGI (MaxG now) adjustable rising rate regulator/7m oem turbo manifold/single scroll ct26 turbo/wideband o2 to tune fpr and the rest is just figuring out how to want to route the feeds and drains etc. 

I started off mounting my mr2 intercooler i got for free, was pritty straight forward, used the holes that were already drilled and popped in some rivnuts.

Can barely notice it which is what i want, and will hoop pipes under the rad and back up underneath the turbo

I wasnt going to pay 200 + bucks for a down pipe so i bought a flange from stickyflanges and made my own down pipe from bits of warranty job exhausts lol, pritty hack but does the job.

 

The rising rate regulator took me awhile to source as the last mention of it being used was about 10 years ago and also being made in america it was a bit of a struggle. i ended up getting a hold of the engineers daughter who now owns bell engineering who she then put me on to the proper owner who was just starting his new business and has these in stock luckily. I know its not the most ideal option but its been proven multiple times and im on a budget lol. 

beauty of this is you can adjust the base pressure when on vac, then can adjust the onset gain to adjust fuel pressure per pound of boost

for the coolant lines im just tapping into the heater hoses, i couldnt find anything to suit what i needed because of the -4an coolant fittings from the turbo so made some myself.

pritty straight forward, 20mm joiner with a 5mm barb tapped into it and will braze it up at work tomorrow

opted for innovates MTX-L 2, pritty good price for what it seems to be 

 

Another 2 things i forgot to put up

I had new JDM MK2 sedan tail lights and me and my friend bought another cressida to save lol

[4AGEMAD]

Dropped the sump to undent it and weld on the AN fitting for the drain as the factory one is too small. Bit of a pain in the arse but got there lol.

Prepped and coated the manifold in high temp black. Raxed some new nuts from work 

Gave the other thing a good tidy up,  just waiting for the new rack to turn up and will go get a new trans soon

[4AGEMAD]

Water blasted the subframe etc, half the gunge went on my arms and got sick of it. Found some 80s as 'shell be right' welding lol.

welded the bung on, my welding was probably no better than the subframe, layered on the silicon for good measure.

After trying to figure out what the heck is going on here i realized the core had been spun around for some reason! 

Keen to hear your thoughts on this too, little concerned about the amount of oil around here, also the fins are all bent around. ill try it out and see how it goes but fingers crossed.

How it should be

 

My goal is to have in and running next weekend, have a few things to order for the intercooler setup but all going well it should be good!

[4AGEMAD]

Mid week after work decided to mount my rrfpr 

the following day was all go since i got friday off to mish it through the weekend. Whipped the tank out and fitted a Deautchschesjrwerks fuel pump since the stock one cant keep up with the new regulator setup. I chose an intank to keep it all hidden and the DW pump is fairly quiet, can only just hear a high pitched ringing till the engine sound takes over. 

Come friday i had already stripped out most of the stuff the previous night  (was up till midnight). The muppet at the shop who i bought the oil fittings from gave me the wrong thread,  luckily had grandads old bsp tap and die set which solved that problem.

Slowly getting the hang of my welder now, am pritty happy with the results for what is very home-job. Cool feeling to have made it all from scratch besides the flange

 

Some random shots

 

I also have made up my intercooler piping from offcuts and alloy bull bar out of a hilux which was wrecked lol, does the job and its strong as hell. 

So all thats left to do is wire in my wideband, weld up the rest of the exhaust, plumb in the regulator and other hoses for the turbo and shes all go fingers-crossed. 

All going well i should be able to fire it up tomorrow atleast. 

[4AGEMAD]

Best mod on this car bar the manual swap!

The midnight missions were all worth it on that first turbo resirc sound. Its amazing how it runs better with a turbo than n/a, the annoying miss whilst at cruising rpms is gone and it idles much smoother. 

At this point i am only willing to rev it to 4.5K rpm as the afrs start to lean out to 14:1 but my rising rate will fix that, just need to get some more fuel hose. 

She started up first pop no worries and no leaks which was brilliant.

I also replaced the rock hard cam cover seals and sprayed them with wrinkle black then sanded the raised parts to bring it back to oem spec. 

Intercooler piping turned out quite nice with the mix of scrap bits i could find

 

In all, fully worth it, Happy i got that low-key/factory type of look. 

Just have to get a new reducer pipe as the one i got is too big and add a catch can for the pcv which im getting a factory mr2 gen 3 one from my mate which will work nicely