The Night Rider
Active Member
Alright, I'm back. I haven't worked on the car for a few months since uni got crazy busy (was my final year).
Anyway here's some recent progress. Note: I got out of the habit of taking a lot of pics etc. so if you feel like some are missing or things aren't shown clearly, that's why.
So, I the first thing I did was install the oil sump. This involved installing the windage tray, oil pickup and sump.
Engine up in the air:
Cleaning up all the old sealant:
Making the oil pickup gasket:
RTV applied to windage tray
At this point I installed the windage tray and bolted it into place using the oil sump bolts. I let it sit for about 10 minutes so that it would get tacky and hold onto the windage tray while I installed the oil sump. The bolts for the oil sump and windage tray are the same.
I also installed the oil pickup tube at this time and torqued it to spec.
Oil pan being torqued:
Done:
I also remembered that I had not clocked the distributor and installed it properly. So that was the next task. Engine was turned to TDC position. The distributor shaft was clocked as shown in the pic below: (Note the two dimples highlighted by the red dots).
The distributor was then installed, it went in without trouble. Once the engine is in and running (I really hope it runs), then I'll time it using a strobe light timer.
Once this was done I was just having a look at the engine bay for no real reason. I noticed that the engine bay air fan was pretty dirty, as well as the coolant hoses/oil cooler. No better time to clean it than now.
This is the engine bay air fan. It automatically switches on only when the air temperature in the bay gets above a certain level:
Disassembly:
Notice the dust or whatever, inside the stator (Yes the fan was working):
Rotor also dirty:
Cleaned up rotor:
Stator cleaned up:
Cleaned up housing:
Put back together:
Re-installed:
This project has started to really take much longer than anticipated, mostly due to uni being so busy this year. Anyway I need to get the car back together so that I can enjoy it during summer. If I get it back together and it doesn't run...
So I decided it was time to get the transmission and engine mounted. Before I could do this the clutch had to be installed. You might remember seeing my brand new Exedy clutch kit in one of the above posts. It had been sitting in my room for the last few months. When I went to installed it the clutch alignment tool wouldn't fit into the clutch disc it was way too large. Kind of annoying since I had to wait another day for the shop to re-order the correct tool. But I don't think it was their fault (supplier sent wrong one most likely). Either way I'm glad they sorted it out so quickly and easily.
Once the new tool arrived I got to work.
Here is the flywheel after grinding (As you can see its from a blacktop 4AGE so its lighter than the original but still factory like usability):
Bolting it to engine and torquing (Note: All new flywheel bolts from Toyota, were pretty expensive but its highly recommended to use new bolts for this):
At this point I thoroughly cleaned the flywheel and pressure plate mating surfaces with wax and grease remover. I did this until no residue appeared on the cloth.
I then fit the pressure plate over the clutch and used the new pressure plate bolts to lightly hold everything in position. This allowed me to make sure the clutch was centered:
After confirming the clutch was centered I started to tighten each of the six pressure plate bolts as evenly as possible to avoid warping of the pressure plate. After this the bolts were torqued to spec:
Cleaning up the transmission input shaft and clutch fork pivot ball:
I then lightly greased the input shaft splines and the pivot ball. Its important to only lightly grease these; excess grease can fling off onto the clutch disc and cause slipping (or so I'm told).
Clutch fork and release bearing installed:
Finally mounting the transmission. I know it looks like its hanging from the input shaft but don't worry I wouldn't do that. It's resting on the diff part of the transmission which is hard to see from the pic:
Done:
I also cleaned up the engine bay a bit more:
That's it for now, it feels nice to be working on the car again. Sorry for the shitty pics though, lol.
Anyway here's some recent progress. Note: I got out of the habit of taking a lot of pics etc. so if you feel like some are missing or things aren't shown clearly, that's why.
So, I the first thing I did was install the oil sump. This involved installing the windage tray, oil pickup and sump.
Engine up in the air:
Cleaning up all the old sealant:
Making the oil pickup gasket:
RTV applied to windage tray
At this point I installed the windage tray and bolted it into place using the oil sump bolts. I let it sit for about 10 minutes so that it would get tacky and hold onto the windage tray while I installed the oil sump. The bolts for the oil sump and windage tray are the same.
I also installed the oil pickup tube at this time and torqued it to spec.
Oil pan being torqued:
Done:
I also remembered that I had not clocked the distributor and installed it properly. So that was the next task. Engine was turned to TDC position. The distributor shaft was clocked as shown in the pic below: (Note the two dimples highlighted by the red dots).
The distributor was then installed, it went in without trouble. Once the engine is in and running (I really hope it runs), then I'll time it using a strobe light timer.
Once this was done I was just having a look at the engine bay for no real reason. I noticed that the engine bay air fan was pretty dirty, as well as the coolant hoses/oil cooler. No better time to clean it than now.
This is the engine bay air fan. It automatically switches on only when the air temperature in the bay gets above a certain level:
Disassembly:
Notice the dust or whatever, inside the stator (Yes the fan was working):
Rotor also dirty:
Cleaned up rotor:
Stator cleaned up:
Cleaned up housing:
Put back together:
Re-installed:
This project has started to really take much longer than anticipated, mostly due to uni being so busy this year. Anyway I need to get the car back together so that I can enjoy it during summer. If I get it back together and it doesn't run...
So I decided it was time to get the transmission and engine mounted. Before I could do this the clutch had to be installed. You might remember seeing my brand new Exedy clutch kit in one of the above posts. It had been sitting in my room for the last few months. When I went to installed it the clutch alignment tool wouldn't fit into the clutch disc it was way too large. Kind of annoying since I had to wait another day for the shop to re-order the correct tool. But I don't think it was their fault (supplier sent wrong one most likely). Either way I'm glad they sorted it out so quickly and easily.
Once the new tool arrived I got to work.
Here is the flywheel after grinding (As you can see its from a blacktop 4AGE so its lighter than the original but still factory like usability):
Bolting it to engine and torquing (Note: All new flywheel bolts from Toyota, were pretty expensive but its highly recommended to use new bolts for this):
At this point I thoroughly cleaned the flywheel and pressure plate mating surfaces with wax and grease remover. I did this until no residue appeared on the cloth.
I then fit the pressure plate over the clutch and used the new pressure plate bolts to lightly hold everything in position. This allowed me to make sure the clutch was centered:
After confirming the clutch was centered I started to tighten each of the six pressure plate bolts as evenly as possible to avoid warping of the pressure plate. After this the bolts were torqued to spec:
Cleaning up the transmission input shaft and clutch fork pivot ball:
I then lightly greased the input shaft splines and the pivot ball. Its important to only lightly grease these; excess grease can fling off onto the clutch disc and cause slipping (or so I'm told).
Clutch fork and release bearing installed:
Finally mounting the transmission. I know it looks like its hanging from the input shaft but don't worry I wouldn't do that. It's resting on the diff part of the transmission which is hard to see from the pic:
Done:
I also cleaned up the engine bay a bit more:
That's it for now, it feels nice to be working on the car again. Sorry for the shitty pics though, lol.