The engine rebuild shall begun

[Monakopushisu]

Great Work!

 

[CosmicWanderer]

Transmission installing is done, tidied up the wiring harness, installed all stays. All ready for take off.



The day after tomorrow, I am expecting the air intake hose, coupler from turbocharger to intercooler, breather and vacuum hose kits to come.
Then I have a bit of work installing the fuel tank (pics incoming), putting engine on the car, then starting.

 

[CosmicWanderer]

We are here now: I was able to install all the mounts except for the passenger's side mount—problem with the mount's bracket threads; they are damaged due to inserting the bolt in a not straight line by someone else before me. Will fix that tomorrow, hopefully.



(Don't mind the two-finger-thick dust; it was parked inside garage for 10 months without washing since last wash, and before that, 20 years!)

 

[grip-addict]

dang, you're moving fast. keep up the great work! Don't forget to connect the grounding strap on the back of the intake manifold like everyone else does.

 

[CosmicWanderer]

dang, you're moving fast. keep up the great work! Don't forget to connect the grounding strap on the back of the intake manifold like everyone else does.

Fast... you mean slow? I can certainly say that the work on this project till now has been done 80% on overtime, and maybe 20% on work time. Overtime means after I finish work, working anywhere from 30 mins to 2 hours on the project, with lots of days off.

 

[CosmicWanderer]

In 30 mins the hoses will be at my house, I suppose. Let's rewind the time back and see how was the condition of the old, rusty fuel tank and old, rusty fuel pump.

If you are eating, maybe skip this post.



Fuel pump after I removed fuel tank.



"Inside Fuel Tank Before Repairing"



Outside of the tank before repairing.




Outside of fuel tank after it has been repaired.


Inside of the fuel tank after it has been repaired. The base seems a bit more yellow (and spilled, but learnt the lesson), I double-coated it just to be sure that any pinhole is sealed shut.


I have a video of recording inside of the tank after removing it. What can you expect? It's leftover petrol of over 20 years. I've never seen blackish orange petrol in my life. Basically it was full of "rusted" fuel liquid.

 

[CosmicWanderer]

I tried to install the fuel tank, but due to the strainer of the fuel pump not being at an angle of 90 degrees, I couldn't insert the fuel pump and failed to install the fuel tank since it was hitting the bottom of the fuel tank. I will need to buy another fuel pump with the correct strainer tomorrow.

However, lads, the time has finally come. Below, you will find a joyous engine oil squirt coming out of the untightened oil filter.

I revved the engine without the fuel tank and EFI fuse just for this moment, as shown above. I’m not sure about your routine, but here’s mine: after every rebuild, I crank the engine without starting it to check if oil flows out of the untightened oil filter. Why? Because if oil is making its way to the filter, it’s a good sign that the oil pump is working properly and circulating oil through the engine. This way, no bearing goes without oil, even for a short time.

Tomorrow, with or without a fuel tank installed (or with fuel in a plastic container), I just have to install the intercooler, charge hose, and turbo coupler hose, and I will start the engine and let it run for some minutes to observe for any leaks or abnormal noise(s).

Undoubtedly, it is a moment filled with anxiety and joy. What will happen? Did I forget something? Time will tell.

 

[CosmicWanderer]

After installing hoses and intercooler, and changing a 15 A fuse, engine started. This is a historic moment, not gonna lie.

It is working so smooth, no shake, noise or leak till now, though I left it running for 5 mins, it started to blow hot air.

However, a little problem is with the idle. Right now it is somewhere between 1.3K to 1.6K rpm.

The turbo actuator is withdrawn therefore wastegate is closed, could this cause this high idle? Does a vacuum leak or improper vacuum hose installation cause turbo wastegate to fully close and thus spin faster? I definitely can hear the turbo making noise. Maybe TPS sensor not adjusted correctly?
Maybe AFM? When I give a bit of gas, it does not return to lower rpm - where it was.

I just hope it's not the T-VIS butterflies that I removed.

The HKS EVC's digital boost monitoring illuminates 1 bar of boost, while pressing LOW, HIGH or Power ON/OFF seems to make no difference, even with just a bit of giving throttle.

Here's (yet to be finished) current engine progress:

 

[grip-addict]

Great work getting it started !
I suggest making sure all the sensors are connected
Checking for vac leaks (spray everything with carb cleaner)
Then checking timing (need timing light, bridge te and e1 in the diagnostic box, rotate distributor until you get 10* advance on the lower timing cover. I put whiteout on the crank pulley on the notch to make it easier to see)
One of those 3 things should sort it, but there is an idle set screw on the throttle body You can monkey with next if you are still troubleshooting.

 

[CosmicWanderer]

Great work getting it started !
I suggest making sure all the sensors are connected
Checking for vac leaks (spray everything with carb cleaner)
Then checking timing (need timing light, bridge te and e1 in the diagnostic box, rotate distributor until you get 10* advance on the lower timing cover. I put whiteout on the crank pulley on the notch to make it easier to see)
One of those 3 things should sort it, but there is an idle set screw on the throttle body You can monkey with next if you are still troubleshooting.

Thank you! What I did first was check ignition timing. Guess what? It was a 20-degree advance to BTDC. Fixed that, and idle dropped to 1.2k RPM.
Tested for vacuum leaks, nothing. Then I adjusted the idle screw under the throttle body, but that still wasn't acceptable, and lastly, I touched the throttle position sensor, adjusted just a bit, and it's almost perfect: around 850 RPM idling without load.

What's more interesting, though, is that when I adjusted only the throttle position sensor, the RPM was fine, but it lagged mid-throttle. Like some old carburettor cars running rich.

 

[CosmicWanderer]

We move onto the next problems.

First of all, and less seriously, the steering gearbox is leaking oil, and pretty bad. Will see what I can do to send it to a good friend of mine that works on those components; hopefully he can fix it if he has the required parts to rebuild it. If not, I've got to find a kit somewhere and send it to him.

Second, more seriously, I am unable to shift through the gears. This happens only when the car is running. It's like the clutch is not being disengaged at all when the clutch is depressed. Like trying to shift without depressing clutch. No matter if it's 1st, 2nd, or 5th, it doesn't shift, like hitting a brick wall; pushing harder nearly stalls the car. When I try to shift in reverse, I hit the grinding gears since, after all, reverse gear doesn't have synchro.

Now, when I was rebuilding the engine, I couldn't get the equivalent aftermarket kit matching part number clutch as OE, due to availability:

Therefore, I had to go with matching/application based on my car. I went with EXEDY TYK2124. It says it fits Toyota Celica Coupe _T18_ and both 3S-GTE variants of 204 and 208 HP, of years 1989/10 - 1993/11. In specifications it is stated that the outer diameter is 236 mm; it has 21 teeth and an alignment diameter of 271 mm, albeit I don't know what this is.

What I suspect is that the clutch is much thicker than it should be. Therefore, no matter how much the slave clutch cylinder can push, it will not be enough to disengage the clutch.
Tomorrow, I will try to move the slave cylinder more to the right by grinding to cause an extended push force; maybe I can get it somehow to work to at least engage in 1st, then the clutch will be worn out by just a little, allowing shifts then.

Has anyone of you used this specific type of clutch of EXEDY or experienced such problems?

 

[CosmicWanderer]

This is the current progress. This project is almost finished, taking into consideration that this topic is solely for engine rebuild, not extra problems through this journey. It sounds nice and quiet. This is before the test drive, by the way.

 

[underscore]

I don't know about that specific clutch, but aftermarket clutches causing problems is a known issue. A few companies have made extended slave cylinder rods for that purpose.

 

[CosmicWanderer]

After adjusting it a nut in width closer to the right, it still doesn't disengage. Not my lucky day. I have to pull out engine with transmission again and see where's the problem, which is likely the clutch kit above.

 

[CosmicWanderer]

Today, working on the car (and other cars as well), I've managed to pull out the engine once more again.

As I was comparing the clutch kits one by one, I've noticed this in the clutch pressure plate:

There's a number of "3082 672 001," which a quick internet search turns out to be a SACHS clutch pressure plate. Maybe AISIN/ASCO wrote an equivalent number of SACHS in their product as a reference. On the other side of the pressure plate there's "ASCO" written, and it seems like it's the same as AISIN, according to the internet. Remember, this is a clutch installed 20 years ago, so online catalogues were scarce or nonexistent:



Now, the compatibility table for this ASCO clutch pressure plate includes lots of models, such as the Hilux and Rav 4, but no Celica, let alone the ST185.

Here are the pressure plates sided:


And the clutch discs:




And here's the flywheel:


As for the clutch disc and pressure plate, I don't see major or significant changes that would let me think it's the wrong clutch kit; however, what I can think of is that someone before me who did the clutch job changed the flywheel to a Hilux/Rav4 one then installed this clutch to make it fit, for unknown reasons—maybe couldn't find an exact fit.

I couldn't get the clutch disc number because it's erased, but I see that it's AISIN written. According to the Toyota's EPC OE clutch disc, the one in the EXEDY kit that I installed fits—it's the TYD112U.

Again, maybe the flywheel isn't a genuine fit for ST185? Does anyone have a spare flywheel or some pictures of a flywheel and try to compare them?
What I suspect for the inability to disengage is that the flywheel's center hole is deeper than it should be, which can be seen zooming pictures. Maybe..?

Till I find a solution, I know I can't continue to install it.

 

[CosmicWanderer]

On the other side, as for the pictures on the internet of the flywheel, it seems, visually, identical. Of course I don't know dimensions, depth and alike but as visual elements are the same.

I am suspecting slave/master clutch cylinder losing pressure therefore not being able to push new clutch as it should.

In a hydraulic press, I've tested both old and new clutch kit with the flywheel. Both of them are pressed and disengaged good, though in the new clutch kit, the force to split the clutch disc is just a bit higher, which in the car could mean hydraulic issue. Hopefully.

Ordered a slave clutch cylinder, and made request for the master clutch cylinder. Let's wait, again...

 

[underscore]

Don't forget to check the clutch soft line. If that's defective or failing it could cause problems.