SimonB

Here's a pic of the oil takeoff mounted direct to the block, you can see the coolant port plugged at the top. I've fitted the fuel rail and injectors - I sent them to be cleaned and tested since they've been sitting around for a while. My exhaust manifold was looking a bit rough after a couple of years of daily use - the heat coating had gone. So I cleaned it up with acetone and sprayed it with black satin exhaust manifold heat coating with an airbrush (it needs to go on thin). I also rewrapped the downpipe and midpipe with heat wrap as that was looking a bit frayed too. The turbo is bolted on now, I've taken a few pics so you can see the turbo installation. The coolant pipes are not attached because I've managed to lose one! I was going to make new ones anyway but I'll have to order some more aeroquip fittings.

Thanks for the free bump anyway! Actually I was standing behind the set on my way to makeup when today's show was being shot so I could hear a couple of questions being asked. Here's a link to the iplayer page that will be active tomorrow (must be a glutton for punishment posting it up but hey!). http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00hv3d/Eggheads_Series_9_Episode_158/

The whole hold it at 2000rpm thing was for old school pushrod engines. It's not needed for modern overhead cams. Just fit them and don't worry about it. Normal engine oil would be fine, or assembly lube if it's going to be a while before you start it after fitting.

Because he has the Toyota engine manual... Seriously though, building an engine may seem like an impossibly hard technical thing, but if you take your time, read up (hence the Toyota manual), pay attention to the details and not skip things, and have a clean build area and the correct tools it's not that big a deal. It's just nuts and bolts at the end of the day. What Tony does is do everything right, even if it takes more effort and time, and that's the key.

Who me? I did make a comedy mistake talking about a question at one point and get John Paul Getty confused with John Gotti. Hopefully the family of one of the richest men in the world won't be watching me say "wasn't he a gangster?" ...

You bunch of pisstaking buggers! I'll have you know my hairline is "distinguished"... The "question room" is actually a bench next to the main set. I've got a pic somewhere. You sit next to the Egghead with a camera in front of you with an autocue type thing - you can see Jeremy asking the question and the possible answers on it. Kevin's the one who seems to know everything! Actually Daphne (the old one) wasn't on our show, it was Barry, Chris, CJ, Kevin and Judith. No cheating, but they do edit it to make the Eggheads look better. They cut out the time they're sat there umming and arrring and trying to figure out the answers! They have two signs in the studio ready to hold up, one says "look to Jeremy" because people look straight ahead when he's talking otherwise which looks weird. The other says "Speak up" because teams mumble and wisper to each other when talking about the answers otherwise which sounds crap on tv! They do get you to talk around the answers, which is why everyone says things like "well, it's not A because...". Unfortunately you can pretty much guarantee you're going to say something stupid while doing that!

Lol! Blimey, that lot are an ugly bunch. Pic of out team attached. They tell you to bring three different colour shirts with you, and you're not allowed anything with spots, stripes, logos, pictures of bands etc, white or black. Does kind of limit things! Then they pick different colours for each person in the team. It was a good laugh actually, the Eggheads are all fine. CJ in real life is actually a decent bloke. He does kind of love himself though! Not allowed to say whether we won until it goes out, so you'll just have to wait and see...

For those that know me (or don't!) and fancy a laugh, I'm on the telly on Thursday! I'm on Eggheads on BBC2 at 6.30pm with a team of us from work. Do we have the brains to defeat the Eggheads? You'll have to watch and find out... I'm the one on the right with the ridiculously bright yellow shirt. It's not my fault, the wardrobe guy picked it out, honest..

I guess you won't want to, but I'd be interested in the UTC if you want to split. I only have a parallel port one and it'd be handy to use my netbook which only has USB ports.

Stick on numberplate is the answer, see my garage there should be some pics in there.

I'm not sure which of us is more sad, you for spotting it in the first place or me for staring at the picture to decide if it was a Supra or not!

The HG you want depends on the pistons you go for too. For example my JUN pistons are designed to give a stock compression ratio using a 1.6mm HG.

Doesn't look like a Supra to me, dunno what it is though...

It happens to pretty much every Supra I've ever seen used on track, mine included. A cooler is the only way to go I reckon. I bought a small Mocal oil cooler ages ago but haven't got round to fitting it yet, too busy rebuilding engines!

Of course it could be photos of two completely different cars. Where did the photos come from, an advert or something?

Think auto is the retail name: http://www.thinkauto.com

Oh right. Well, the union bolt you need to go into the block that the filter takeoff attaches to is standard oil filter size, which is 3/4" UNF. Apparently you can use the Ford part number e8zz-6890-a if you can get hold of that, here's a pic of it from Supraforums: Trouble with that is there's no way of knowing how far into the block to screw it and I'm still not sure it's long enough. The part I bought was a Toyota part number 90404-19013, which is definitely too short on its own. So I had to also buy one of these to extend it a bit. https://www.europaspares.com/OIL_COOLING/OIL_UNIONS__ETC/OIL_SYSTEM_UNION___EXTENSION_BOLT___EB__2172.html That made it too long, so I cut down the extension a bit. I have taken off the nipple that screws into the block and feeds water to the stock cooler now, it's 3/8NPTF thread size, so I've ordered a plug to block that off.

You mean where the nipple goes into the block for the water feed? No, it's a NPTF thread of some sort I think, probably 1/2", I'll unbolt it and measure it at some point because it'll bug me having a bit of hose blocking it off! I'll post up the thread size when I do.

Another pic of the assembly so far below. The alternator, water pump, valve covers, plugs and coilpacks are on, as is the cut down wiring harness. Which was a right pain as I couldn't remember where it went and it also has to move due to the new intake manifold. Just have to bolt on the exhaust mani and turbo stuff and there's not much more to do before it can go back into the car. Oh, and I forgot to change the pilot bearing while the crank was out so I'll have to pull the old one out and change it when it's off the engine stand. Which will no doubt be a PITA!

I gave in to temptation and bought a Ross Machine Racing intake manifold. It's a really nice bit of engineering, lovely welds, proper velocity stacks etc. There is also no need to move the battery, PAS reservoir or intercooler pipes. You can see it bolted on in the pics. It comes with a fuel rail and the correct size holes in the manifold for Bosch type top feed injectors (which I have). It has a flange for a 90mm Ford Mustang throttle body - I bought a Wilson one. There's quite a few things you have to do to fit an intake manifold like this. It has ports on the side for the stock idle control valve and various vac ports. Those will be used by the brake booster (you need to change the fitting on the hose), the fuel pressure reg/MAP sensor via the stock damper thingy, my BOV and the return from the PAS idle bypass on the pump. The other problem you have is what to do with the intake air temp sensor. These intakes are made in the USA and US spec cars don't have it so there's no provision for it. The Wilson TB has two ports in it which are designed for the Mustang idle control valve - one is in front of the throttle blade and one behind it. Normally you would block those off with a plate I bought. I found that the one in front of the blade is almost exactly the right size to tap a thread for the intake temp sensor though, so that's what I did after modding the blockoff. Very neat and quite cunning I thought! See the pic. That leaves the IN port for the PAS idle bypass. I'm going to tap into my intercooler pipe for that. I also need to knock up a bracket to attach the diagnostic port and dipstick. Plus a bracket to mount the throttle cable to - that I'll do when it's in the car I think.

It's been ages since the last update on my engine build, I've mainly been waiting for various bits from various suppliers. Anyway, update time! First of all I decided to do what Chris suggested and bin the stock oil cooler assembly and mount my filter takeoff direct to the block. That removes the need for the coolant feed to the cooler, and I've also binned the feed to the idle control valve as it's not needed with our climate. So what I decided to do was replace my TT water pipe from the water pump with a NA one, which doesn't go round the back of the block. Much neater. I haven't got a pic of the TT water pipe handy, but you can see the NA one in place in the first pic. I had to modify the bracket that attaches it to the back of the block a bit. The other problem you have with attaching the takeoff direct to the block is that you need a union bolt to go into the block to screw the thing into. I got a tip off supraforums that you could use a part from another Toyota which I duly ordered. However, it's too short - it ends up flush with the block. I hunted high and low for an alternative - you can use a Ford part apparently but it's a USA part and a pain to source. Eventually I found an extension which has a male thread and a female. I cut that down, threaded the male end into the block and the Toyota union I'd bought into the female - result a nice bolt length to attach the takeoff to. You can see the bolt in the 2nd pic and the takeoff attached in the 3rd. I'll replace the straight threaded adaptors that go into it with 45 degree ones I think. You'll have to block the water return nipple on the block too, I've just done that with a bit of hose blocked with a bolt for now although I'll probably replace it with a proper plug if I can find the correct thread size to go into the block.

You need to plumb it in as before, so the IN goes to somewhere in front of the throttle body, you'll probably have to tap into the pipe coming from your intercooler if there's nowhere on the throttle body. The OUT goes to a port on the intake manifold. The PAS pump basically diverts air past the throttle to increase the idle speed when the pump is running and putting a load on the engine. Yes it most definitely is. It wants to be somewhere where it won't suffer too much from heat soak. You can put it in front of the throttle if you want too. E.g. in the intercooler pipe.

It's just the replacement for the SVA isn't it? There was a big article in practical performance car about it a couple of months back where they were asking VOSA what consituted a suspension change etc. It sounded like they were going to be quite flexible about it.

I'd prefer the APs myself I think. Where are you looking at getting them from? Last time I looked the APs were pretty much the same price, at least the bigger 6 pot APs were, but that was a while ago.

Yeah, you have to be a bit disciplined about it too. Because just as you can put money into your account and pay less interest on your mortgage you can also draw money out (go overdrawn in effect) up to a point at least. It's just like adding more onto your mortgage. So you can get tempted to spend loads of money because it's easier than having to remortgage to free it up, in effect you have a 20 or 30k or more overdraft limit! With mine my current account is a separate account with it's own balance though, it's just linked to the mortgage. Otherwise it would be like having a massive overdraft which would be weird.