Project: Send It

[SupraTRD_MK4]

Thats some crazy but interesting work done. Congrats, supra body kit looks lovely as well. Could almost say, it is only short of a TRD modified 3sgte engine with the way the interior looks. Would like to hear how this car handles on a track after the cage installation. 

Edited December 15, 2022 by SupraTRD_MK4 (see edit history)

[Mike2JZ]

Picked up the car from RRS last weekend and brought back to SRD HQ.

Quick glamour shot

First job on the list was to see how the dash was going to work the new cage setup. 

Stripped the dash of everything but the dash itself

Took some measurements between my car and a stock supra we had here in the workshop. Very quickly it looked like the dash was not going to fit very well at all, at least in stock form. Definately going to require a lot of cutting to get around the new bars. 

Spent about 30 minutes debating with myself if I should molest the dash or try and sell it. This dash was in reasonable condition, but it was far from perfect so I think if I tried to sell it I wouldnt get crazy money for it due to some imperfections. In the end I tossed a coin and I landed on heads. Time to cut this baby up. 

The requirements of the dash going forward are:

- Once mounted, it needs to be able to removed from the car as easily/quickly as possible. With everything bolted in, there is very little room inside to remove big bulky items, especially once the windscreen is back in. It's bad enough on a stock car, but now I have even less room due to cage and very time consuming to remove everything that can get in its way on the way out. Dash needs to come out with a few bolts being removed and minimal fuss. 

- The dash needs to be rigid enough to support the Motec dash and a few panels, but otherwise will serve no other purpose, other than keeping the interior feeling vaguely like a Supra still. As cool as the car is stripped out, I would miss the factory dash sweeping down in front of the driver position. 

So after a bit of head scratching and a chat with another Supra owner who has a similar cage setup, I decided to cut the dash into two pieces. 

Not going to lie, I cried a little cutting it like this haha. 

The passengerside of the interior will house all the electronics, heater core, fluid resevoirs and whatever else I can cram in there. Driverside will just hold a few panels and the motec digital dash, so if I need to mess around with anything it will likely be on the passengerside most of the time so will useful if I can just remove that half of the dash and leave driverside alone where its difficult to remove steering columns, pedalbox, seat etc. 

After lots of cutting the left side of the dash fits in something like this. Still needs a bit more shaved off in places in future, but it clips into OEM clip mounts at the top. 

Next up was the driverside. Unfortunately my cage front support bar goes right in place of where all the stock dash frames to mount the panels and combination meter. So after a lot of chopping that now also goes in

So with a quick test of everything loosely in place we are left with something like this. 

Next up for the dash is to make some custom brakcets in various places that will support the dash pieces in the correct place. Once thats done, I might flock the dash or do something along those lines just so the cut line between both sides of the dash is a little less obvious. Then I'll move onto the panels, will either run the factory panels and modify to work with the above, or build some custom panels out of ally to fit into the above. Haven't decided which way to go yet, but will figure it out as I go. 

I figured the dash was going to take some work, but this has quickly grown into a project of itself. Be interesting to see how this turns out. 

 

After all that trauma it was time to move onto something a little more light hearted. 

Yay shiny new parts

First up is the PHR brushless fan kit. Although the viscous has served me well for years, I wanted better accessibility to the front of the engine with enough fan power to keep this car as cool as possible. Had seen some good results on another car with these so figured I'd give them a go. They are PWM controlled brushless fans, so maximum amperage per fan is 25amps which is decent and likely wont need them running anywhere near maximum output most of the time. ECU control will let me ramp these on/off, so no massive jumps to the charging system when they kick on. 

These are quite chunky fans, and PHR have done a nice job with the shroud with built in flaps to allow excess air at high vehicle speeds to bypass the shroud like on many modern OEM cars. 

Next from PHR is this cool oil temperature/crank case pressure fitting that goes into the oil level port on the sump. I like the idea of the temperature probe sitting in the oil in the sump rather than somewhere further upstream on the oil system that could be prone to heat soak depending on where its mounted. Between this sensor and another temperature sensor mounted on the outlet of the oil cooler I should have decent visibility on the overall engines oil temperature and cooling performance. 

Quickly slapped some sumps on the engine and threw the engine into the car for the first time. 

 

For a quick test fit I'm happy so far. Obviously missing the turbo side currently, but overall looks nice and simple. Other than having to get creative with mounted a powersteering pump somewhere, the bay should look very similar to this when all is said and done. Lots of room for activities!

Test fitting some new OEM VVTI GTE cam covers and they look alright, but by the time I modify them to fit what I need I think it will be better to go with a billet valve cover. Unless Plazmaman get some VVTI covers going soon, then I'll probably end up going with some hypertune valve covers. 

Not sure on a colour scheme either yet. I normally just make everything black on the engine, which will probably look ok but feel like trying something new this time round. If anyone has any good suggestions then I'm all ears!

 

 

[bradleyh_15]

Looking good mate keep it up and can’t wait to see it in person

[Big Supes]

You truly are sending this one, Mike.

Loving chassis/body work and engine build. Some interesting parts you're using which is refreshing to see. 

Looking forward to seeing how it pans out and maybe catching it in the metal sometime. 

[rpslaughter1982]

This is going to be a weapon. 

Just seen Whifbitz are selling some flat looking race carbon door cards...may be worth a look if they clear your cage?

[mattdavies]

You had much time to work on this ? 

 

Was enjoying the regular updates 

[Mike2JZ]

Workshop has been super busy since start of the year. but I've been working on some stuff and ordering some more bits in the background. Once weather is a bit more reliable I'll get her out the garage and continue progress

[Mike2JZ]

Oh go on then, have a teaser. 

Decided in the end to ditch all the oem electronics that I was going to integrate back into the car and go balls out on the following electronics. 

Motec M150 ECU
Syvecs X20 E888 Expander
Motec PDM15 
Motec PDM30
Motec Rotary Dial Controller
Motec C1212 Dash
Motec 15 Button Keypad
MSEL Master Relay 
Motec DHB (for electronic wastegate control)
Motec PAL Rear Facing Camera
ECUMaster CANSwitch 
Wireless Network Module for M150/C1212 Connection

 

Heres most bits mounted to a test board that I've now wired up and sitting at home with me now. So when I get a chance in the evenings, I've started doing some calibration and integration of all the above so I can setup and test all the electronics without needing them in the car. Once I'm happy that I've got what I need, then I can go back to wiring plan and finalize that. 

Got some other juicy updates but I'll wait till I get working on the car again to show those. 

 

 

[mattdavies]

thank you for the update. 

Liking the amount of Motec you have invested in !! I look forward to future updates

[Mike2JZ]

Oh hello again

Well, it has been a year and not much progress has been made on the car itself. Between enjoying summer, travelling abroad and the SRD workshop being the busiest it’s ever been there hasn’t been many occasions where I could get the car out of storage to get any worthwhile progress on it.

Goodwood 2023

The good news is that the extra time has given me time to save some pennies and allowed for a few extra features and some much needed project creep to set in. There been plenty of head scratching and changes to the plan, but as of writing this I have a fairly focused plan on how to get this project to the finish line, so hoping I can stick to it now. I have a few days over the Christmas break to make some progress on the car and get some updates written down again.

So strap in and pickup from where we left off

First off, let’s start with everyone’s favourite subject. Garrett G40-1150, sold.
In its place is a Garrett G45-1500. Jumping up a turbo family to the G45.
Although capable of 1500hp worth of flow, my aim with this turbo is to make 1000whp as consistently and with as little boost as possible.

 

G40-1150 can just about do 1000whp but you have to run the bloody thing hard.

As my engine package isn’t all that sexy, I am going to focus on less combustion pressure but more airflow from bigger turbine to get the power I need and hopefully keep engine stress levels as low as possible. I'll be happy if I can get around 1000whp with 23-26psi of boost on ethanol.




The keen eyed amount you will have notced that Ashley the fabricator wizard started a SRD tubular manifold, using a T4 billet twin scroll collector.

He has moved as much of the pipework on the manifold out of the way of the downpipe so we have a bit more room for activities for the straightgate and downpipe combo.

But what about the lag from a larger turbo I hear you ask?

Let me introduce my next secret weapon.




The newly refresh R154 and associated parts have all been sold much to my dismay. In its place is an 8HP75 gearbox from a G series BMW. What sacrilege is this? Putting BMW parts in a Toyota? Oh yeah Toyota already beat me to that one.

(Take note of the bits of the gearbox that need some cutting a shaving if you are wanting to put one of these into your supra)



Having said that, I honestly think that the 8HP gearbox is one of the key elements to making the new MK5 supra and similar cars boogie in a straight line as much as they do. Once you are on boost, you don’t drop it on any boost on gear changes, changes are fast, ratio spread over 6 gears is useful, launching is fairly consistent due to torque converter and here in the UK parts & boxes are cheap and plentiful.

Having fitted a number of 8HP variants to customer’s cars this year I was impressed with the results. I couldn’t find anyone brave/stupid enough to try and run 1000whp through a stock box to see exactly how many minutes it lasts, so I have volunteered myself as sacrifice on this endeavour. Will build box and converter accordingly as required in future if needed.

Running this gearbox through a domiworks JZA80 adapter kit, which makes all of this a breeze to install, as plug and play as it gets.

 

For gearbox control I was tied up between either using CANTCU or Turbolamik controllers. Both work well, but deliver in slightly different areas. I think for what I was the CANTCU will be a better fit. Having used CANTCU recently on a customer build and really love it, digging the OEM level drivability and should help keep box alive a bit longer as I can run an "intelligent" torque management strategy using the OEM gearbox trans controller to dictate what it needs from Motec on gearchanges and any other instances where box needs less torque than what the engine is currently producing.

Either way, should be interesting as there is much data out there on the 8HP75 boxes yet, so will share my experieces soon hopefully.

 

 

More updates tomorrow!

Edited December 21, 2023 by Mike2JZ (see edit history)

[Swampy442]

Oh no, not an auto! Think of all that driving experience youre going to lose!

[Mike2JZ]

Small care package from PHR:

Had to remove my subframe to fix a thread on one of the chassis mounts, so whilst it was out it was quick to throw some solid bushes in as mine were a mix of 30 year old OEM and polybushes.

Grabbed a new high pressure steering line as mine had seen some better days, so figured ill get that changed out before it eventually fails. Also changed the low pressure PS line from the rack to the same style of AN fittings and braided hose.

Final thing on my shopping list was the secondary cambelt pulley kit. I have no idea if this part will have any relevance to my build or not, but I have noted a lot of cambelt flexing/movement on some customer builds when revving high with big boost behind it. So I'm interested to trying this part back to back with OEM setup, see what changes it makes and if it improves any high RPM crank/cam signal stability.

So quickly dropped the rear subframe and fuel tank out. Ripped out the rear OEM brake lines that I'm no longer using and old fuel lines that I'm replacing with new.

Managed to save the thread on the front subframe mount in the chassis, which is anyone was looking for any details is a M14 x 1.5 thread. Luckily had a tap for this in the workshop so didnt have to wait to get a new one delivered.

Changed the Front Subframe, Rear Subframe, Front Diff & Rear Diff Mounts with solid PHR bushes. Had been a few years since I've done bushes, so started with front diff bushes which were not kind to me. Security camera in the workshop has captured some gold with me rolling around on the floor trying to get enough leverage to get the bushes out. Got there in the end by drilling out the metal tube then everything else popped out. By contrast every other bush went to plan and was only a few minutes of work.

Subframe looks a bit meh since i gave it a mild restoration 6 years ago, but I've decided I'm not going to get stuck in the trap of trying to make the underside look mint and perfect at this stage. It can look like shit, but every arm and join is in perfect working condition, which is far more important at the moment.

Only thing I need to revisit on the rear end is the differential cover bolt holes. The threads on them feel awful, so need to drop diff again quickly and tap them out or put a billet SRD cover on the back. For the time being I'm still with the OS Giken 1.5 Way with 3.266 ratio, seems to suit the new gearbox fairly well so will start with that and see how it goes.

Whilst the fuel tank is out, I was able to finish mounting the battery, washer bottle, nitrous bottle and run a bulkhead fitting for the rear brake lines in the boot/trunk.



Next I need the mount the rear PDM, make a bottle stopped bracket and run some fuel lines and battery cables and the rear fuel tank can go back in and boot should be more or less done with mounting all the important bits.

Battery is a varley redtop 40. I opted for this over a lithium battery as I actually want some more weight over rear axle, so few extra KG from battery seemed like an easy way to get that. Chose a mounting bracket that will support a lithium battery if required, so easy to change in future if the need arises.

Nitrous bottle is 2KG/5lb bottle from Wizards of Nos in the UK, only a baby bottle but got quite a few in this size from another project, so made sense to reuse and allowed for slightly tighter packing. I've got some really cool bits for the nitrous system, but I'll make a seperate post for those when they arrive soon.

Washer bottle is just a generic kit from the interwebs, nothing overly special. However it does use a push type connection for the motor, can install the washer motor from a GR Yaris, so the pump acually has some balls to it, rather than a soft stream like most of these out of the box chinese washer motors are.



Next on the agenda was the steering column. It was in total working order last time I used it, but now everything on the interior is black, a piece of unpainted rusted steel column could not be ignored.



Now it's satin black so blends in a bit better with interior. Got the multimeter out and checked continuity across the clock spring and switches and all still working as intended which is great.

[Mike2JZ]

5 hours ago, Swampy442 said:

Oh no, not an auto! Think of all that driving experience youre going to lose!

I know, cant believe I'm putting an auto in it, will certainly miss the manual for driving fun. 

Luckily I'm keeping the clutch pedal, clutch master and manual tunnel so if I do need to drop a sequential or manual box back into the car, then I've got everything ready to go.

This auto is just to prove some numbers in a straight line, but I'm not sure its going to enjoy going round a track so I am prepared for the idea that it will be changed with something else one day. 

Ideally I just need a very good sequential gearbox, but I dont have a spare 30k to blow on a decent one, spares & upkeep etc at the moment, so that will have to be a future thing. 8HP was the best I could find that gave sequential straightline performance for a fraction of the cost. 

[Mike2JZ]

After waiting patiently until our fabricator Ash could spare some time for my build, he eagerly jumped on the welder and got to work straight away as soon as the new gearbox was in and mounted.

First on the agenda was mocking up part of a 4'' downpipe to see what room we had to play with. Same process again with the 4'' intercooler pipework.



Once the downpipe was in place, the straightgate and wastegate collectors could be fabbed up



The straightgate 50mm is compact on the pipework side of things, but the housing for the electric motors and other electronics is quite a chonky boi, so finding space to mount everything was a challenge. Ideally I would of love to have had it mounted in the space near where the brake booster normally sits, and on a poppet style wastegate this could have been do-able as its basically a 90 degree bend within the gate itself.




The straightgate on the otherhand is as the name implies a straight shot through the gate, so I wanted to keep the flow pre/post gate as free flowing as possible with minimum bends and turns to help encourage flow through the wastegate collector. Feel like having a series of sharp 90 degree bends to mount the gate in a more serviceable location probably defeated the idea of using a straightgate in the firstplace.

To make life a bit easier for Ash i sourced a billet wastegate collector with the correct flange for the new gate. Nice thing with billet is that this piece has been CFD flow'd for the best efficiency and has little risk of cracking so should be solid for years to come and saves Ash from having to spend a few hours making something from scratch.

 

Ash did a good job on finding a spot where it was still semi accessible without getting in the way of anything else. Next up for the exhaust system is to get the rest of the downpipe pipe made, recirculate the straightgate into there, then fab up a midpipe and rear section.




Was wondering how we were going to tackle the 5'' pipework as its really hard to find here in the UK. Again Ash to the rescue, looking in a corner of our storage area and coming out with two massive 5'' 90 pipes. An hour later and he fabbed up this beauty above. Looks and is totally OTT, love it.



Also chucked in my pre turbo pressure/temperature sensor and pre turbo mass air flow sensor. Fairly hidden unless looking at the right angles.

Once the turbo outlet to intercooler pipework has been made, then we look into the lowerhalf of the air filter pipework and see what can be squeezed in there.

Big thanks to Ash and many apologies for the crazy amount of fab that is still left to do, I promise it will be really cool when its all done and working 

[Swampy442]

Nice work

[AC93]

Think we need to see the CCTV footage of you rolling around 

[Suprakeith]

Stunning build, must have read it 3 or 4 times now, going to be extreme beast for sure, question with the PHR is oil temperature/crank case pressure fitting how are you going to check oil level? only asking as i was thinking of getting one aswell for mine

[Mike2JZ]

1 hour ago, Suprakeith said:

Stunning build, must have read it 3 or 4 times now, going to be extreme beast for sure, question with the PHR is oil temperature/crank case pressure fitting how are you going to check oil level? only asking as i was thinking of getting one aswell for mine

Using the dipstick still. PHR oil temp thingy replaces the low oil level sensor, not the dipstick

[Mike2JZ]

I’m not sure how it happened, but I think I’ll blame Jefferson at RR for his offhand comments of how it would be nice to get rid of all the factory wiring as it will look better and have more functionality with a fresh setup (he’s not wrong, but was tight on cash at the time so opted out initially).

That thought stuck in my head for a few months before I started cracking and slowly started acquiring more and more expensive black boxes and gizmo, then decided the C127 was too small to see properly, so went C1212. Before I knew it, I had amassed a small fortune in electronics. Even though it took longer, I’m glad I waited as I have all the toys I think I’ll ever need at this stage of the cars development.

 

 

So we have:
- Custom Steering Wheel with CanSwitchV3 + Otto Buttons + Domiworks Paddles
- CANTCU Transmission Controller
- Motec M150 Devel Firmware
- Motec PDM 15
- Motec PDM 30
- Motec C1212 Dash
- Motec 15 Button Keypad
- Motec 5 Button Rotary
- Motec DHB
- Motec Rear Facing Camera
- MSEL Master Relay
- Syvecs Expander X20
- Syvecs Can2Lam
- Syvecs 100hz GPS/IMU
- Turbosmart Electronic Straightgate 50mm
- CanHub CBD08

Motec PDM30 & PDM15
These power distribution modules will as the name implies, take care of distributing power from the battery to electronics, lights and anything else that requires power on the car. There are no fuses or relays anywhere on the car now as everything is built into these two little boxes using solid state technology trickery, essentially mimicking what a traditional relay box/fuse setup does, but in a much more streamlined package and can be managed entirely from the software side of things.

The PDM30 will provide power for most of the interior and engine related components and be installed in the front of the car, whereas the PDM15 will take care of everything in the rear and any extra things that don’t fit anywhere else.

 

M-SEL Master Relay Switch

This little guy is quite clever, essentially it’s a solid state relay that can disconnect the battery from the rest of the electronics through a driver, external or CANBUS based switch. Any issues can have their diagnostic messages sent through the CANBUS to display on the dash, so easy to understand any issues whilst strapped into a bucket seat. Same job as an old school kill switch, just better in about every way.

 

Motec M150 Devel ECU

This ECU will control the engine and communicate over the CANBUS with various devices in order to implement everything required by me. I upgraded this ECU to a developer license to mess around with M1Build which will allow me to repurpose or create custom functions for the project and develop a custom canbus configuration to keep all these devices playing nice with each other.

 

CANTCU Gearbox

This is a controller for 8HP & DCT gearbox implementations which keeps the factory transmission ECU inside the gearbox, and feeds the correct data over CANBUS to make the stock TCU function as intended.

I like the OEM tune of these gearboxes and it drives super smooth and the torque management system is just like OEM, so really clever and efficient when paired up with an engine ECU that has proper torque management strategy built into it.

Can flash the OEM gear map like you would on any other factory 8HP car, so can change things on the TCM side if required, but other than some torque limits and minor mods to TCU, I want to keep the gearbox control messing to a minimum.

Racegrade EGT Module

Will allow connection of 8 EGT sensors, which then feeds the data from each over the CANBUS back to ECU. I liked this module compared to competitors as I can mount it somewhere in engine bay, plug my EGT sensors directly into module and only have to pass 4 wires for power and communications through the bulkhead back to ECU, rather than 20 wires that all need to be specific material to keep the EGT’s accurate through a bulkhead connector, which is a pain.

Will have per cylinder EGT’s & downpipe EGT, with a spare for anything additional.

 

Syvecs CAN2LAM

This thing is epic. Been waiting for this to be released for some time and it came through at the right time. This is a wideband/lambda control module that can take up to 8X NTK wideband sensors, with up to two exhaust pressure sensor inputs for single or multi bank exhaust pressure compensations for the lambda signals

It can send all this data to any ECU using CANBUS, so wiring isn’t that scary. Will probably implement this in a way that can be removed from car fairly quick in case I want to chuck it on another setup easily.

Will use this and 7 NTK sensors to give me oversight over per cylinder variation on fuelling and overall fuelling in the downpipe. Thinking to put an exhaust pressure sensor in each scroll of the manifold, so can keep an eye on pressure on both scrolls. You’d hope they would be equal, but I’m interested to know if there any difference.

Syvecs 100HZ GPS/IMU

One of the fastest GPS systems available at a consumer aftermarket level as far as I’m aware.  Whilst it can provide a speed signal to ECU, the positioning data for long/lat/roll and forces of pitch/yaw/roll will be very interesting to me. Can plot out racetracks or drag runs using GPS data and use previous run data to do some sneaky tune modifications.

Motec 15 Button Keypad

This keypad works over the vehicles CANBUS system and can be used to control functions on the PDMs, ECU or Dash. Will have this mounted near my head on the nearest roll cage so I can still push buttons whilst strapped in with harnesses.

Motec 5 Button Rotary Switch

This is a cool addon, it integrates via the canbus and works mainly with the Dash & PDM. The rotary button allows for menu scrolling & selection on the dash, similar to what you might get on a MK5 Supra iDrive system for example, just a bit more simple in comparison.

Syvecs X20 Expander

This works similar to a Motec E888, and is just an expander for extra I/O for the ECU. Communicates this data over the CANBUS to main ECU or dash. Also comes with two built in lambda sensor controllers, which I was going to use initially until the CAN2LAM was released.

Motec DHB

This is a high current driver that can control things like fuel pumps, electronic waste gates, water pumps etc. using signal from the ECU to tell it what to do. Trying to control some of these systems direct from ECU will normally end up frying the board on the ECU, so an intermediary box like these become very useful.

Motec C1212

Not much to say other than big ass display that is miles ahead of the competition in terms of customization and quality currently (in my opinion).

The C127 display looked a bit pony once the stock dash was removed, so decided to make it a bit easier on my eyes by fitting the C1212.

Only thing I'm still on the fence about is getting an aftermarket ABS controller from SCS Delta. Otherwise I think im good to go now on the electronic front. 

 

About half way through the year I setup this little mobile workstation so I could power up most of the new toys and make sure I could get them to communicate and setup the CANBUS network in my free time in evenings. Everything went smoothly with this and I get everything I needed out of it at the time. 

 

One thing I've always wanted for my Supra but never found one was the Defi Super Sport Cluster, for its time period I think its an epic dash. 

So if I cant have the real thing I'll make the next best thing. Needs a bit more work till design is finished, but you get the idea. Will stick the reverse facing camera in the right side of the screen whilst in this view so can always see people disapearing away

One thing I really like using the Motec rotary controller is that it can function with the dash as seen in the video below. Essentially lets you have lots of digital rotary switches, so you can choose what mode you want your boost/traction/launch control/dbw sensitivity/ gearbox modes or whatever else you can dream of, all from a nice drop down menu rather than needing loads of physical rotary switches. 

Next I had to figure out where I was gonna stick all this stuff in the car, so got round to test mounting a few things. 

Once strapped into seats you cannot move, so all controls and adjustments basically need to be in reach of the drivers seat, so had to get creative either putting things above or below the driver. 

 

 

Needed something to mount the button keypad and master switch over rides above driver rollcage, so had one of our apprentices mock up this mount.

 

 

 

Need to make a slight revision to design and print it out a different plastic, but as a POC it works great, allows easy mounting of buttons directly above my head. 

 

Started mocking up a rubber mounted plate for main board that will house the majority of the brains of the car. Going to design it in a way that all the wiring coming in/out of this area is completely modular, so can remove panel for each wiring changes if required, as no doubt I'll be messing with the configuration of things as time goes on. 

Will make a kick panel that goes over this once done to keep any excited passengers feet away

[Suprakeith]

9 hours ago, Mike2JZ said:

Using the dipstick still. PHR oil temp thingy replaces the low oil level sensor, not the dipstick

Of course...brain fart moment, least not that stupidest comment this year, that has to go to putting coins in engine