contrary to what you might gather from the blog, I have been doing things other than drink beer, those are just easy to post. The past weeks I’ve been working on the rallycross FX. We’ve been approved for 4 additional events at Kualoa this year so that gave me incentive.
First off, I discovered at last event that one of my Maxsport German retread rally tires developed a crack down to the steel belt. To be fair, as you can see, I’ve used them close to the end of their life anyway. We rallycrossers tend to run tires until they are seriously used up. Those who are fortunate to have access to pro rally teams will buy their cast of race tires as they have plenty of tread for us! So this time I ordered a new set of tires from Demontweaks in UK. They arrived at my door in less than a week, the wonders of the Net!
This time I got a set of Chinese Maxxis tires. My experience with Chinese car tires has not been good, but these are “name brand” Chinese tires.
They look good, directional hard compound gravel tread that I think should work well in our conditions.
Also at last event noticed clunking from front right of car. Bad steering inner tie rod joint. Not surpsing considering it looked like original Toyota parts. Decided to change inner and outer on both sides. Sad to see the replacement part from Napa having outer box labeled made in Japan, but inner documentation as made in Korea. Oh well, at least I could still get them! The outer joints are USA made with grease nipples, probably MOOG, good stuff.
Next up, amazingly was able to source aftermarket performance polyurethane suspension bushings. From Australia, land of quirky automotive taste (actually I think USA just has staid automotive taste), company called SuperPro. Amazingly manufactured there. Good fit, includes tubes of super tenacious silicone grease. Be careful to not get any where you don’t want it. Once you get it on something, glues and paint won’t stick, and it’s very hard to get rid of! Knowing this, I made sure I cleaned and painted the suspension arms before anything.
Made use of our newly acquired ultrasonic cleaner at work to run a final clean/rinse with water. Works well. I then painted with POR-15. The very name comes from their claim of Paint Over Rust. It’s a tenacious paint that doesn’t require complete removal of rust. It does want a clean oil free surface, which doesn’t explain how if you don’t quickly remove any from your skin, it’s on there for the life of the skin! Tip, use gloves. Second tip, buy only what youre going to use. Plan on once you open the can to use it all. It’s moisture cured. In Hawaii? I have Been able to extend the life of a can by putting in a ziplock with big packet of dessicant. Related third tip, clean the can lip of paint before reclosing. If you don’t and the paint cures, the lid is as good as welded shut. You can pry at it with a big screwdriver and you’ll only manage to bend and mangle the can.
Put everything together and test drive feels smoother. Perhaps placebo effect, but I think having non-binding bushings allows the suspension to work better. A couple of the original rubber ones were in bad shape, but actually better than I expected for almost 30 years old!
so it was off to Ken at Pacific Automotive for alignment and tire mounting. Been noticing that even with carefully monitoring the lithium battery, car has been hard to start. Once it gets going seems fine, so I’ll check into it later. things are looking good for the race, with two weeks to spare!
Following Saturday decide to get exhaust leak taken care of. The flex joint has failed yet again. Visit to the guys at Exhaust System. We decide to change from the typical stainless braid type to ball and socket style. I think I have unofficial frequent customer status, he gives me a great rate.
I spend the rest of the day driving around to use up the old gas in the tank. Major issues seem to be taken care of. There still is a little thunk coming from somewhere on the right side, sounds like rear. It happens on deceleration. I double check the rear suspension but it feels solid. I find front engine mount rubber cracked. Replace with a spare that I filled with 3m Window Weld goop a while ago. My experience with this DIY method is that it does not hold up to rigorous use. Might be okay for street, it’s failed on all the rallycross fx mounts I tried. Two part polyurethane mix probably works better, but that’s not something you can just go to the retail store and find. Trying to source a commercially made solution, but should be ok for now.
So Sunday afternoon I decide to address the hard start. I’ve made sure battery is charged. Car totally won’t start today! I jumper the fuel bypass so the pump runs as soon as key is turned on. This makes sure there fuel pressure even before cranking. Nothing. Open timing belt cover, it’s still intact, timing marks all match up. Could the solenoid be not engaging gear? Nope, crank is spinning.
Pull out the compression gauge. Cylinder 1, zero compression. WTH? Cylinder 2, zero. Massive headgasket failure between cylinders? I had the head done & installed gasket with ARP studs within recent memory, seems pretty unusual. Cylinder 3, zero, the F?! Cylinder 4, finally good compression. I’m pretty mystified. Oil consumption and quality has been good, no signs of head gasket failure. Stuck, burnt or bent valves? On three cylinders in a head that was serviced within last 5 years? It seemed the engine was kinda clatery, but 4age valve trains are known to get noisy, didn’t think it was a problem.
Bad rings? Did wet compression test by putting capful of oil down sparkplug hole. Cylinder 1 got compression. 2 and 3 still zero. Still not quite sure what’s going on, but with more discussion the theory is bad rings and/or scored cylinder walls. Possibly from ingested dirt, I noticed the silicone intake hose had a decent coat of dust on inside and thinking I need to find a better filter. I guess once the engine got started, warmed up, and oil circulated the rings could seal.
In any case, this engine was toast. So now what to do? With less than a week, it looks like I’m attempting engine swap with the jDM 20 valve that’s been sitting in the spare parts FX. It’s pretty crusty from sitting in driveway for years, but putting a ratchet on the crank I’m able to turn it by hand, a good sign.
I mentally map out a schedule, it might happen. Unfortunately we’re talking a one man crew working in driveway after work, with one evening shot by work schedule. By Wednesday I’ve gotten both engines out, and discover the probabl source of that clunk. Right engine mount rubber is fine, but bolt and nuts are loose, along with one nut completely gone.
Neighbor up the street who’s another Toyota guy stops by to chat. He offers to try and stop by Thursday to lend a hand. It ends up being a huge help as I can assemble the engine and transaxle outside the car and install it as a unit. Trying to fit the transaxle to engine while the engine is in the car is a pain. But with two people you can tilt and guide the combined unit into car. I actually take off from work early to get a head start. End up being a midnight wrench session, like all those reality shows. At the end of the night, the engine and transaxle are physically in place, but not connected.
Friday night crunch time. I do a mental assessment and it seems to be possible. Enough a possibility to make it worth trying. I work on getting the lower engine/transaxle mount connected and the fatigue is showing as a spend valuable time banging my head on why it wasn’t lining up. Turns out the letter A stamped into bracket is actually an arrow indicating this side up. I also end up installing and removing the power steering pump and bracket three times. With the engine in the bay you cannot install the pump on the bracket with the bracket on engine. Need to install pump to bracket, then install bracket. Oh, and you can’t install pulley to pump with the pump on engine in bay.
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