The completion took one and a half years to finish, and lasted less than 24 hours:
It all started as a dream. Something that I didn't think
was done before (I found out that they're out there, just not
many people know about them). What? A turbocharged Toyota
Corolla GT-S (old school 1985 rear wheel drive model).
While a student at UC Davis, I had the opportunity to take,
"Field Equipment Maintenance." Don't let the name fool you. It
may have started out as a class for repairing things like
tractors, but this was nothing more than a beginner welding
class in disguise. That's when the idea started, and the clock
began ticking. While I was taking welding, a few of my friends
took advantage of my access to the welding equipment, and had me
build some stuff for their cars (see TurtleSpeed Racing Products).
This page is about my project though. I started with the exhaust manifold. I saw a picture of a GReddy Stainless Steel turbo manifold in a Japanese magazine
called Options2. I tried to build mine the same way. One bad
thing...it was an equal length manifold and the picture I had to follow was a lot smaller than the one that I have now.. I think it would
have been a lot easier to make a regular manifold (which is why
most of the manifolds out there aren't equal length), but I
wanted it to be just like the GReddy one (duh). I thought I was somewhat
successful in copying the manifold except for the #4 cylinder
which I couldn't see in the picture. The result was that I
couldn't figure it out, and the #4 extractor is a really short
piece that just bends right up to the turbo flange. Now that I've seen a bigger picture of the manifold, I see that mine is nothing like it. Oh well.
After finishing the manifold, I bolted it in, and discovered
that it was too close to the engine block. It wouldn't sit
properly because it would hit the oil filter that mounts right below it. I
ended up cutting all the way across the top of the manifold, at
the flange, and extending each extractor about one inch. I then tried it again. It was good this time and cleared the filter.
The next problem that wasn't thought out too well was the
fact that the oil filter would NEVER come out with the new
manifold because the way the bends are. The filter would be blocked in when the manifold was in place. I consider myself somewhat "hardcore" about my car, and all my friends definately think I am, but I wasn't about to take out the manifold every 3,000 miles just the change the oil filter. I wasn't too worried because I planned on getting a remote oil
filter unit so that the filter would be somewhere else anyway.
I
started sweating when I couldn't find a kit that fit my car. I
lucked out when I joined the Toyota-Mods Mailing List.
It's the absolute "must" for any Toyota Performance Ethusiast.
The people on the list are nice, and someone will have the
answer to any question you could possibly have. From there, I
discovered CAP (Cyberspace Automotive Performance). They've got
awesome prices, and a huge selection of stuff that's hard to
find. If you've got a Toyota, and you're looking for something,
check them out first, before you shell out the big bucks at some local Speed Shop.
In all, my "kit" consists of:
IHI Turbo with internal wastegate
CarTech Adjustable, Boost Variable Fuel Pressure Regulator
HKS Race Blow-Off Valve
1989 Supra Turbo Intercooler
CAP Remote Oil Filter Kit
JC Whitney Boost Gauge
CyberDyne Air/Fuel Ratio Gauge
Various sizes of piping and steel braid line
Then, I started building the piping. First I made some
brackets and front mounted the intercooler. I bolted in the
manifold, the turbo, and started making the piping from there.
I wanted to keep everything in the engine bay that came with the
car (cruise control, power steering, etc.). A distributorless
ignition would open up mass amounts of space, and junking the
cruise control would have been good too, not to mention dumping
the powersteering, and losing the reservoir for the powersteering
fluid, moving the battery to the trunk (you get the idea).
Building the piping was actually pretty fast...the bastard
was making the downpipe. Since I tried building an equal length
manifold, it was a tight squeeze making the pass between the
steering joints, the firewall, and the frame of the car because
of the twisting bends that the manifold had, taking up a lot of space. What little space was left, didn't leave much for imagination. I was able to kind of
finish it up, but it was a monster creation.
I stress relieved the manifold at a place I found in the
phone book called ThermoFusion in Hayward, CA. What that involved was heating the manifold to a high temperature, holding it there, and slowly cooling it so that all the molecules in the metal line up and are happy. What happens is that when you weld something, the part that you're welding gets hot, but the rest of your work-piece stay relatively cool. This disparity in temperatures makes the molecules in the metal unhappy, and the piece is weak.
I had a friend with a turbo Mazda MX-3 (4-cylinder). His custom (read as $$$) manifold cracked all time and he had it ceramic coated also. I think this was partly due to poor bracing of the heavy TO4 turbo, and partly might be due to the fact that the manifold wasn't stress relieved after it was finished.
Beyond stress relieving the manifold, I
did plan to get it coated at JetHot, but held off because I
figured that it might be a waste of money since I expected/am
expecting the manifold to crack since I used pretty thin piping. 16 gauge mild steel was the only stuff I could find at the time I was
building everything when I was a student at UCD. I since learned (from the Toyota-Mods List) that U-bend steam pipes are much stronger. Maybe I'll hunt some of those down in the future.
Yeah, building a turbo kit doesn't sound like much, but try doing all this
while you're a full time student taking 16 units in undergrad,
then studying for the LSAT, and then being a first year law
student. All the while, you don't have anything to copy (unlike the mobs of Honda and Acura turbo kits that I could have copied if I had a Honda or Acura) The completion was planned for the summer of 97, but
that fell through when my motor decided to throw the crankshaft
pulley...twice. The second time, stripping the threads, and
jacking my crank. As any true car buff would do, I turned the
misfortune into an opportunity to spend waay too much money on my car!
As most car buffs have probably done, and if not, at
least thought about doing before they were saved by a moment of
rational thinking, I pulled a "Well, since I'll have to pull the
motor out to replace the crankshaft with a new one, I might as
well:"
Port and Polish the intake manifold
Pocket Port the head
Shot Peen the rods
Replace the rod and main bearings
Replace the valve springs
Polish the crank
Balance the motor
Lighten the flywheel
Replace the rings (HKS)
Yes, I like it, and yes it was bucks to do. Only problem I've
had (although it's a big problem) is the fact that my car burns
MAJOR oil. After running it by the Toy-Mods List, I've decided
that it must be the oil rings. I installed HKS rings, which I
was told, were chrome. I was also told that chrome being a
harder alloy, has a harder time seating. In any case, the motor
comes out again at Spring Break, for another ring job. This
time, I'm putting in stockers.
Anyhow, back to my turbo story, finals came and immediately after
the last one, I was back to my apartment to pick up the parts
that had been collecting dust for a year and a half, and drove to
my friend's shop, Import Circuit Tuning - ICT, where my install began. Oh yeah, I neglected to mention the
headaches I had trying to match fittings for the turbo's oil feed
and drain. Lucky for me, IHI supplied the old Mazda MX-6, and I
was able to get the fittings from an old MX-6 Turbo. Then I had
a bastard time getting fittings to T off the remote oil filter
lines so that I could feed the turbo. I won't go into details,
but trust me, it was a nightmare.
So in the kit went. Some of the piping needed to be crushed
slightly since it didn't clear the hood as well as I remembered. I think extending the manifold extractors moved everything just enough so that the piping didn't clear perfect.
I finished the downpipe leaving big time exhaust leaks. To make
the story short, I was jetting around at 3.5-4 psi. The
feeling is incredible. It's not that my car was some pocket
rocket, but it's the feeling that I got when I heard the air
in the turbo spooling, and the car beginning to pull faster than
what I "knew" it should be pulling. That's about all I can say
to describe the feeling. I'm sure some of that comes from the
fact that I've had the car for years before I put the turbo in.
Well, I decided that the exhaust leaks were too big to keep
the turbo in the car since the car was loud, and the car stunk
when idling. I took everything out the next day after driving
around and running some errands giving it a lot of thought. When
I pulled the turbo off, all the intake piping from the turbo to
the throttle body was filled with oil, and I had remembered
seeing mass amounts of smoke in my rearview when under boost
earlier in the day (another reason I decided to pull the turbo).
The problem is either faulty oil seals, the oil drain line wasn't
direct enough, or my oil rings. I'm thinking it's probably the
latter two reasons.
That's the basic story, here's some pictures from the one day
that the turbo was in my car. Oh well...it'll be back in there
soon...hopefully.
*****************************************************************
UPDATE: 7/8/97
Blew the motor. I guess that smoking was bit more of a problem
than most people thought. I was driving the car back from LA, after visiting a
friend, when I noticed that I was burning
big-time oil. About a quart every 1/2 tank of gas...not to mention the smoke whenever I accelerated.
This sucks. I pulled the motor again, and it was pretty ugly
when the shop took the lower block apart. I had three pistons
showing damage, and one piston had the ring worn into the piston
itself. Chips, and cracks everywhere. This lower block
is history. I kept the crank, I don't know if it's usable...I'll
have it check if I ever decide to try and use it again. It's
fully balanced, and polished.
Got a used motor from Attarco down in the Bay Area. I decided to
pull the head and to use my ported one instead. At that time, I
decided to get another oil pan too since the one I welded for my
drain fitting for the turbo was leaking. Then I just bolted
everything up and dropped the motor in. Boom, fired up and I'm
driving again.
The guys that tore the engine down told me that the rings were
really loose, so maybe I got the wrong HKS rings. We'll never
know. The turbo will have to wait.
*****************************************************************
UPDATE: 9/18/98
It's been a while since I've updated. In the mean-time, I sent
my manifold to a friend of mine. He knew someone with access to a
milling machine at UC Davis through the engineering department.
I never got to use the good machine shop because I wasn't an
engineering student (although sometimes I wish I was and think
I am).
Anyway, I sent my manifold to get the flange milled flat because
of all the exhaust leaks coming from the manifold from the first
time I put the turbo in. It was gone for about 6 months or so.
I started wondering if my friend's friend had graduated and
either: (1) took the manifold with him (2)lost it or (3)chucked
it. Lucky for me, the guy was just really busy with moving apartments and
he also had a hard time rigging the manifold up because it's got all the
weird bends because of the attempt at making it equal length.
*****************************************************************
UPDATE: 3/25/99
Turbo was put back into the car. I rewelded the downpipe at the areas that were leaking. The exhaust leaks are a lot
smaller, but they're still there. I'm getting about 5.5psi of
boost now. Only problem is that I'm smoking a lot when I'm under
boost. I'm going to run it by the people on the Toyota-Mods List.
In the meantime, I went to a muffler shop and had them redo part
of the downpipe. Since the fitting is so tight, the last time
I had the turbo in the car, I couldn't complete the welding
on the downpipe. I just did it enough to make the pipes connect,
but they were leaking a lot of exhaust. Muffler Tech put in my
flex pipe and changed the pieced-together piping as far as they
could reach with a single pipe. They offered to do the whole downpipe if i brought
it in...maybe later. Ditto with the 3 inch cat-back exhaust they offered to build me.
Well, I can't live with the smoking under boost (it's a lot), so
I took it all out again. I'm pretty good at this now.
*****************************************************************
UPDATE: 4/12/99
After pulling the manifold out, I noticed that it was leaking exahust gas all
along the bottom side. It's not sitting flat against the head.
The support brace that I have on the manifold isn't fitting right
anymore since the flange was milled. I cut a piece off the
support bracket (where a bolt connects it to the block), and
hopefully, it'll sit on a bracket and move about somewhat freely
while still supporting the turbo and manifold.
I put it all back in again. I tried to sand the downpipe flange
but it's not perfectly flat. Through the recommendations by
people on the Toyota-Mods List,
I tried pulling the hosing that runs between the intake manifold,
and the cam cover on the head. The theory is that the boost is
pressurizing the head, and causing oil to get into the combustion
chamber, causing the smoking under boost.
I plugged the manifold, and put a breather on the head. WOOOSSHHH!
Stan's in business. I'm not smoking under boost anymore, but I
am getting little puffs of smoke between shifts. I drove the car
for about two days, and went back to the Bay Area to visit my
family and to go to the AutoX at the Oakland Coliseum in
Oakland. I saw a bunch of people with my car there, it was
cool.
On the way back to Sacramento, I started noticing a whining sound
coming from the turbo. Everytime the turbo started spooling, it
would start whining. A sound more like a supercharger than a
turbo. I drove up to Sacramento, and started asking people on
the List to try and figure out what the deal was. The common
consensus was that my turbo was taking a dump. I pulled it out
(only the turbo this time), and took it up to Turbo Power in
Cameron Park by El Dorado Hills.
Dobie and Stacey were the nicest people. Dobie took the turbo
apart and let me watch while he took the turbo apart. Pretty
simple but there's a lot of accuracy required when you
put it back together. I wouldn't recommend it for the
do-it-yourself guy. Dobie uses a $7,500 machine to check the
balances on the turbos that he rebuilds.
After pulling the turbo apart, it turned out that the bearing
at the exhaust side was oil starved. We talked about my set-up
and his theory was that the oil velocity was causing the oil
to get extra foamy and to block off liquid oil from getting to
the bearing at the other end of the turbo.
I have 1/4" steelbraid hose feeding the turbo, but the fitting at the
turbo itself (off a Mazda MX-5 Turbo) is really small. He said
that the drastic drop in the diameter of the feed line probably
caused the oil to shoot out of the fitting at a high speed
causing the extra foaming.
That foaming blocked one of the oil passages in the main housing
of the turbo, thereby starving the bearing at the other end of
the housing. I was told to either move the small fitting further
away from the turbo so that the oil had a chance to slow back
before the turbo, or use a bigger fitting that he gave me, along
with a bigger drain fitting that he also gave me.
Well, being the typical car-guy that I am..."while it was out," I decided to hybrid the turbo...hehe. I went to a bigger impeller housing
and bigger impeller blade. Dobie told me that the turbo would
build max boost sooner and easier. Two
days later, and $300 poorer, the turbo was back in after a few
minor adjustments (the drain fitting's angle had to be bent a
little to clear the manifold).
It's all in, I'm boosting at about 5.5 psi. I'm waiting on an
Autometer oil pressure gauge that I'm going to install at the
turbo so I can know everything is peachy keen and happy there.
I'm getting puffs of smoke between shifts, but I can live with
that. My downpipe is still not perfectly flat, and I'm still
getting little exhaust leaks there (and probably from the upper
portion of the downpipe that wasn't replaced at Muffler Tech).
But it's in, and I'm boosting.
*****************************************************************
UPDATE: 4/23/99
This sucks. I was going to Home Depot to see if I could find a
check valve. I need one to put at my blow off valve (BOV)
because I have an air flow meter (AFM) in the car. It seems that
when the car is idling, the vacuum pressure is enough to hold the
BOV open. Since all air that goes into the motor has to be
metered in the AFM, the car doesn't idle if there are any leaks.
The other solution is to hook up the BOV the "proper" way, which
is to re-route the air that is released from the BOV, back into
the intake piping before the turbo, but after the AFM. I didn't
know it was going to be like this, so I didn't build my kit with
those considerations. Modifying everything to do this would be a
real pain in the butt.
So, even though it's actually better to re-circulate the air, I'm
not going to do it. Hence, I was looking for a check valve so
that the valve would be closed when the BOV is open at idle, but
will open when it releases air.
Anyway, I was at a stop light after not finding what I needed at
Home Depot, and the car started idling really really rough. I
pulled into a parking lot, and checked it out. Nothing seemed
wrong, but it felt like it was idling on three cylinders, and the
power was GONE.
It seemed to come and go as I hit bumps, etc. I think it might
be a bad plug wire. I'll change those and see what happens.
*****************************************************************
UPDATE: 5/2/99
While I was messing around with the motor trying to figure out why it started idling and driving so poorly while coming back from Home Depot, I broke a temperature
sensor at the base. I went to the junk yard and got another one.
Then I put in the new wires, and while I was messing around with
everything before i drove it, I noticed that the cause of the
severe missing seemed to be the AFM or the piping.
Since I went to a bigger filter than my original one that I used
when I was fitting everything together, I really had to mash
everything under the hood to make it all fit. The result was
a pretty tight "kink" in the intake pipe (flexible high pressure
piping I snagged off my friend's Jackson Racing Supercharger Kit
for his '96 Civic).
After driving the car around the block, the car is missing under
boost, and when I got back to the parking lot of my apartment,
the temperature gauge was pinned at the hot side. I tripped.
I dunno what the deal is now. Everything was fine, until that
AFM incident with the rough idle and loss of power. I'm pissed
that all I had to do was adjust the piping and everything was
okay...now all this.
After putting up my problems to the Toyota-Mods List, I was told
that the temperature sensor I replaced has nothing to do with
the gauge, etc. I might have the wire right next to it shorted
out somewhere (because the motor didn't seem "hot" when I came
back...but the needle was pinned). I was told that if there
is a short, it'll cause the needle to get pinned.
I'll check that next. I'm also going to take out the filter so
there is more room, and I'll try to straighted out that kink to
see whether that's causing the misfire under boost. I'm also
going to put the old plug wires (NGK) back in since the car was
working okay with those before. When I replaced the NGKs, I just
used the old OEM wires that I had saved for emergency.
I may tinker with the air/fuel mixture too, if I find that that
may be a problem. I was told that I may be running so rich that
it's causing the misfire. I'll change the plugs first, take out
the kink in the intake, and check the wire to the temperature
gauge to make sure it's not grounded to anything. Hopefully
that'll solve everything, and I can focus on making a better
path for the intake so everything isn't so cramped.
I may move the battery to the trunk. Then the intake filter
would be right at the turbo with about 1/4 of the length piping
that it currently uses. I'd just have to extend the wiring that
goes to the AFM. I don't know if my trunk has the room though.
I've got an 8" speaker tube, amplifier, an a rear tower brace
back there already.
Oh well...gotta' get to my final now...check back for more
updates about my 4A-GTE Corolla.
*****************************************************************
UPDATE: 6/1/99
Dunno what the deal is. My car won't start. I've had a few problems with the car dying out on my while driving. I think it may be the ignition system or the fuel pump. I don't have time to tinker with this since I'm studying for finals...it'll have to wait.
*****************************************************************
UPDATE: 7/15/99
Well, car starts for about 1-2 seconds and dies off. Still don't know what the problem is. Bar Exam comes up in about two weeks. This will have to wait.
*****************************************************************
UPDATE: 7/30/99
Exam's over and the car is fixed. My friend just bought a used MR2 MkI, and he suggested (as well as someone off the Toyota-Mods List) to try the fuel system relay. I pulled out my relay, plugged in my friend's, and VAROOOOM!!! Stan's in business!! I'm sure glad it wasn't the fuel pump or the ignition, that would have been expensive. And here I was ready to bring the car in to a mechanic to troubleshoot. I'm lucky.
*****************************************************************
UPDATE: 8/10/99
Car runs well, except that it's sucking big time gas. I went to the local Pick and Pull, and picked up (4) RX-7 n/a fuel injectors. Talk on the List is that these will bolt straight in, and flow more than the stock 4AGE injectors. I'll post the results when I have time to put them in.
Hooked up the BOV today also. Running a long rubber tube to recirculate the released air back behind the air flow meter. It idles and runs fine, but I don't think it's working. I don't hear any "whoosh," when I lift off the throttle.
The problem might be that I'm not making enough boost (5.5 psi) to activate the BOV. It's been so long, but I think I ordered a 6-12 psi BOV. I've been advised that I might want to fabricate a shim to allow lower boost adjustment on the BOV. I'll give that a try since the BOV still isn't opening with the adjustment screw all the way loose (supposedly 6 psi).
I sometimes hear the BOV faintly. These are times when I really mash the throttle. I think in those times, I might be making barely 6 psi, which is enough to activate the BOV.
Oh Yeah, got an OEM Limited Slip Differential a while back and forgot to post an update about it. If you decide to do a conversion from the open diff to the locking diff, make sure you get the LSD axleshafts, they're shorter, and the open diff axleshafts won't fit.
Otherwise, it's a simple swap. Drain the diff housing, pull out the axleshafts, drop the third member, put in the LSD parts, and refill it with LSD fluid. Then you're all ready for 180s, 360s, donuts, or some racing.
I've also gone to the local Pick 'N Pull and snagged four Denso fuel injectors out of a second generation normally aspirated RX-7. Members on the Toyota-Mods List say that they'll drop straight in, and flow quite a bit more than stock. All I should have to do it tinker with the air flow meter to get it to idle properly. I'll probably wait until after smog to put these in.
I bought my parents car off them when they bought a new car. I decided that since I'm always working on my Corolla there was too much downtime and sometimes I would have to borrow my friend's cars. Since I have another main car now, I've taken the first steps to stripping the car out. I took out the radio, amp, and subwoofer and put it in my other car. Little by little, I'll turn my Corolla into a race-only car.
FOR THE FINAL UPDATE ON PROJECT X