My NA-T Nos Monster Build/Progress Thread

[Suprakeith]

This weekend have been trying to see if can solve issue but so far no luck, 1st i removed grade 8 plugs which were black and smelt of fuel so she clearly running mega rich for some reason, fitted old grade 7 plugs in and went through all vac lines and couldn't find any damage or loose hoses..(if honest was hoping was going to be simple vac hose).

I also did a compression test before fitted plugs and got 125psi across all cylinders that was stone cold engine with throttle closed, i also used camera to see if could see any damage on pistons and bores and they all looked ok. fired car up and was still running really poorly so was unsure what else to do so spoke to Mike from SRD and he remoted in to my laptop with car running poorly and couldn't find anything still, Mike suggested i did another compression test and try running car and unplugging coils one by one to see if coil was faulty, did compression test again and got 175psi more or less across all cylinders so happy that engine ok not head gasket issue. Also with car running and unplugging coil at time, engine dropped that cylinder and then revs increased when plugged in, so happy coils aren't issue either.

Mike also suggested that check mechanical timing and look for fuel in vac lines, so checked all vac lines again and all dry and clear, checked timing and all good with cam belt timing, i can't check dizzy timing as need to lock ecu timing and use HT lead and not sure how to do that at moment but going to have read up in week.

Today checked AFR sensor and air sensor just incase and they all good, i also checked ecu to see if any wire had come loose or damaged and everything looks perfect in footwell, spoke to Mike again today and he said to check coil loom as he's seen them causing running issues, so have Alex coming round this week to check loom and connectors to rule that out also going to borrow his map sensor as mine is reading low and its something else to rule out.

If can't find any issues with coil loom or map sensor think going to have to get car trailed to SRD as i out of options.

It could still be timing issue as dizzy could be at fault and if that case when SRD have car will get them to fit delete kit and OEM crank sensor so can get rid of dizzy at last.

I wondering as car was running fine and then started running poorly 10mins from home could a pot hole or something caused the dizzy to move causing all this hassle as i run solid mounts and car is very firm ride, really hoping its something simple and not to expensive but car needs sorting so can use her again.

Few pictures took this weekend and last phot shows dizzy and i think she was more in middle of adjustment but can't find old pics to prove its moved, really running out of options now....just want to enjoy the car and this isn't how wanted year to start with supra.

 

 

[Suprakeith]

Right few updates, with the running issues had Alex come round couple weeks ago and we went through all the coils, loom and plugs again to double check it all and still had no luck getting car to fire and run right, so decided to try the dizzy and adjusted timing slightly and car wanted to start so adjusted bit more and car fired up so now sure issue is the dizzy, removed old dizzy to see if had any play or damage and found big crack in magnet and the bearings had failed and shaft was moving all over place so am pretty confident that is what caused the running issue.

So rang Toyota and they wanted £872+VAT for new dizzy, looked online and can get same part from Japan Toyota for £218 so ordered new unit plus have ordered set of new HT leads so can reset engine timing and get car running sweet again.

Good news both items turned up last week so plan when Alex free again to fit dizzy and set timing and fingers crossed she's all back to normal

[Suprakeith]

Also while on holiday this week have been planning to strip interior carpet sort any rust and give everything good clean, its one of them jobs have been wanting to do for while now, so made start Monday and removed seats and carpet and was quite surprised as metal work was in good condition just dirty.

 

[Suprakeith]

So started off giving everything good clean and hoover, then went over the really bad bits with wire brush to make sure all clean, once happy painted the metal in a zinc primmer and once dried put silver top coat on, haven't done passenger footwell yet as that's where ECU sits and going to paint that by hand and finish bracket making for the Link ECU to sit pretty.

Plus while everything stripped plan to run sound system wires and also re-route Nos lines into engine bay ready to start using Nos system again. also going to sound deaden all under carpet before start the re-fit.

Gave Toyota ring today and have ordered new rubber bungs for floor as only £6 each and as can tell from other pics one is well worn and explains why carpet was bit damp in that area 

Today i also gave the carpet good deep clean

I know bit silly to start big job like this while still not sorted car running issue but am pretty confident its dizzy and making most of week of work.

Here are pics of progress so far.

 

 

[Suprakeith]

Right where do i begin....after the new dizzy turned up, Alex came round so we could reset timing and get car running again, we fitted the new dizzy and tried started car she would fire up but wouldn't idle and was running so poorly, at first we couldn't work out why and rechecked all coils and loom and everything was all good and working as should, tried again and still no joy at all.

Then Alex noticed the cambelt was loose, so we turned crack to TDC mark and noticed both cams were miles out, so we thought something must of failed or got stuck and caused cambelt to jump and lose tension. 

To say wasn't happy is understatement as was now worrying could of damaged engine after all the years of building engine, i decided to start stripping front of engine to see what had happened.

What found was shocking the Whifbitz Billet cam belt bracket had seized, i only purchased this part because believed the add that the stock bracket can fail, so thought be extra safe, once removed everything we discovered the shaft bolt had seized inside billet crack bracket, i compared unit to stock and SRD billet bracket and noticed they both have a bush inside where bolt goes where the Whifbitz one doesn't, and considering the out come could of been loads worst and since fitting crack bracket have only done 6k miles on my built engine.

And yes there was washer on shaft bolt just removed it for the pictures.

[Suprakeith]

After the discovery of seized bracket, and having right nightmare removing the ATI V2 crank pulley and i mean nightmare....lol.

spoke to other built owners and SRD and decided to go back to stock OEM crank bracket and also  stock Toyota crank dampener aswell, so placed parts order with SRD.

While waited for new parts to turn up, i gave engine bay area good clean ready. Am amazed at how clean the vicious fan came up. 

 

 

 

Edited May 14, 2024 by Suprakeith (see edit history)

[Suprakeith]

Also during this process after doing interior refresh, while refitting seats had issue with drivers seat, it got stuck and couldn't move seat to fir front bolts, in the end thanks to Alex again he managed to remove seat and took it to his to strip it, him and his dad found the old nylon cogs had totally stripped, so was another problem to deal with....i started looking at new aftermarket seats but also had heard of people fitting brass cogs from Toyota land cruiser, so i ordered couple new cogs and with lots of hard work and skill from David west and Alex west, and manual lathe they managed to bore out cogs and fit them to sleeves ready to refit into seat frame, when the brass cogs turned up was hoping would be simple push fit but was so wrong and can not thank them both enough for the hours spent on repairing my drivers seat.

Another good note all my new parts turned up from SRD ready to be fitted, can't believe that due to Whifbitz crank bracket failing i've had to spend nearly 1k to get engine back to where should be.

 

[Suprakeith]

This weekend just gone started fitting the new parts, fitted new plugs also as why not and also fitted stock OEM crank sensor duo to in future plan to go dizzy delete and get SRd to fit trigger kit, least the sensor fitted ready to go when needed. 

Got crank and cams on TDC and fitted OEM crank bracket plus greased up shaft bolt with nice new HKS cambelt for good measure, fitted new OEM lower timing cover aswell.

Really am happy with how its going now and have Alex coming over this saturday to help set up dizzy timing and make sure everything is 100% as should be ready to use her again, i only have the stock dizzy cap fitted at moment as have to attach HT leads to use timing to tell the Link ECU what the timing is set at, Mike from SRD has also been so helpful during this process and has helped loads remote logging into Ecu to check everything and to show me what to do when set timing. 

Have ordered new fuse box cover as tried to clean mine up and its ruined and after get engine running will do full oil change.

Roll on Saturday and should hopefully having running supra again and wouldn't be at this stage at at all if wasn't for all the help from Alex, his dad David, SRD and Mike from SRD

[Suprakeith]

Wow about time i updated this as have had so much going just totally forgot about it, Long story short Alex came over and we reset ignition timing using dizzy cap with HT Lead and timing light, can fired up and ran perfect but when went out for test drive she started misfiring again and was massively down on power as would expect, we both at lost and thought had to be coils again.

So after few weeks searching internet came across company in Australia called Supraworld who sell a billet coil bracket for the GE and longer coil stalks, some reason no one in UK does they only sell the GTE brackets for ignition coils. 

After few weeks kit turned up and was very impressed with the quality of kit, came with all new stalk springs and fixings, def was very happy with kit.

That weekend decided to fit the longer stalks to the SRD coils and get bracket fitted, again car started up perfect but once again took her for test drive and was missing again so was really confused as to what was going on as had Mike remote in when car was idling and ECU was flagging no issues or faults at all, so was thinking only option left deliver car to SRD for Mike to sort, was really frustrated and annoyed as we had tried everything could of.

Left car running while too fully charge up battery and was just looking around engine trying all vac hoses again just incase missed something as you do was second guessing myself, while leaning over bay i caught one of the coil wires and note of car changed so thought that was really odd so wiggled few wires and car began hunting and missing again, so again spoke to Mike and he said re-check coil loom, even though myself and Alex had all ready done full check using multimeter, we disconnected all coils again and wire wiggling wires and using multimeter we were getting different readings, so removed coil connectors from loom and 4 out of the 6 weren't fully crimped properly and had strands of wires, so turns out all along the issue was the Whifbitz R35 coil loom that came when ordered R35 conversion kit.

I ordered all new connectors and Alex rewired all new connectors to loom while also fitting new pins to wires and bingo bongo car was perfect again and drove better than she had in ages, was over moon but at same time very annoyed duo to poor quality of coil loom from Whifbitz.

Also new fuse box cover had arrived from Toyota.

  

Edited December 26, 2024 by Suprakeith
forgot vid (see edit history)

[Suprakeith]

The next weekend took car to local carpark as collage lad was doing photo shoot for project, was great to get car out again even though in rained was still great day and also took car to Yakushi show, Santa pod and lots of other local shows during summer to make most of car again and have to say had really good summer with car.

[Suprakeith]

During the summer and using car lots did come across of my exhaust nuts coming loose ever since had the Whifbitz NA-T kit have had issues with gaskets blowing and the nuts coming loose, have tried so many different stud and nut options but still same result, so as can off road for winter thought would try one more time with the PHR short stud and nut kit, so removed all hot side early November and after checking everything really carefully discovered the Whifbitz log manifold was badly warped and twisted so that had to be causing the issue for last few years, i mean it wasn't massive issue but was extremely annoying as everytime after using car had to retighten the nuts and was using lots of fuel duo to AFR sensor being in downpipe and exhaust gases escaping from manifold all the time.

Took the manifold to local machine shop who really know there stuff and they were the ones who machined my block before, to see if could skim manifold flat as didn't want to refit twisted warped manifold as wanted it to be right, and after speaking to them they explained that when turbo flange was welded to manifold it had twisted and manifold was basically scrap not fit for purpose at all, so connected Paul and he wasn't that helpful but did offer to sell me new manifold at discounted price but at this point really didn't want another poor quality part after all the issues have had so far from poor quality parts from Whifbitz.

 

[Suprakeith]

At this point was half temped to sell or break car as had really had enough but after thinking for few weeks decided against it as have spent 10s of thousands on car and really do enjoy and love car, she's amazing fun and love driving her.

So after speaking to few companies and Mike at SRD aswell decided new tubular manifold was way forward, lots of searching and reading later choose the Walton manifold with new 50mm wastegate aswell, means going to have to get new screamer, downpipe and hot side intercooler pipework made up, but decided was well worth it as always wanted tubular manifold.

 While was looking for manifolds also decided was going to replace all coolant system as had the SRD radiator since got car 14years ago and it had started to weep coolant, so have ordered new Koyo rad with new silicone hoses so that everything was new and fresh. plus treated car to nice carbon dizzy cover.

Was temped to get trigger kit as now have crank sensor in position ready, but choose not to as with all the extra cost of everything just can't afford it as car will need remap once new manifold fitted, hopefully will do trigger kit next winter.

Carbon dizzy turned up and fitted that to get rid of horrible stock GE dizzy cap, this is how my poor engine bay is looking at moment.

[Suprakeith]

Final update for today..lol

Few days before Christmas the Walton Motorsport manifold and wastegate turned up, can't praise the guys at Walton Motorsport high enough as explained satiation with old manifold and what was looking for, and they did me amazing deal on the parts and the quality of manifold is 2nd to none am so pleased and happy with it, as now going all out hot side treated car to all new titanium studs and nuts for manifold and turbo, and of course all new gaskets, plus some heat wrap for when get downpipe made, manifold looks to good to wrap, its a work of art.

Have now spoken to company in Lincoln who make custom stainless and titanium pipework, so once got manifold fitted going to get Matt at Nicromobeum to make new pipework for hot side, also depending on cost will look at getting inlet pipework done in titanium as have decided to refit Nos solenoids and start using Nos again as paid out so much to have custom Nos setup and haven't used it since going turbo.

Anyway enough writing now here is pictures of new manifold and wastegate.....once get manifold fitted will update build and just sidenote will be selling old 3inch downpipe and 45mm wastegate with screamer. 

[jagman]

Nice looking manifold , do you have any feedback using titanium bolts ? I have used titanium fasteners before in aviation ,they are seldom used ,and pretty much always into titanium . Usually around jetpipes as they get so hot and titanium is common as it’s strong and light . But we always used special sockets , normal chrome vanadium are not used , I forgot why , getting old - lol . Also expansion rates between head / manifold /and bolts will differ- would this be an issue? Along with different torque values . 

[Suprakeith]

Just now, jagman said:

Nice looking manifold , do you have any feedback using titanium bolts ? I have used titanium fasteners before in aviation ,they are seldom used ,and pretty much always into titanium . Usually around jetpipes as they get so hot and titanium is common as it’s strong and light . But we always used special sockets , normal chrome vanadium are not used , I forgot why , getting old - lol . Also expansion rates between head / manifold /and bolts will differ- would this be an issue? Along with different torque values . 

Thank you very much, i used titanium studs and nuts to hold turbo onto old log manifold and had no issues at all, over the year they didn't come loose once and held perfectly tight seal so was more than happy with them, that's main reason why decided to buy the exhaust studs aswell, i have a special socket for them aswell as the nuts are 16 sided and don't want to cause any damage when torquing up, i can't remember what torque settings used last year for turbo studs but do have it written down, i don't think the heat expansion rates should effect them at all if honest but only time will tell. if honest just wanted fancy looking studs as the manifold looks so good wanted to whole setup to look stunning.

[Suprakeith]

Yesterday had some free time so decided to test fit new Walton Manifold, at first i cleaned side of engine block and gave head exhaust side wipe and clean aswell, after i then fitted the new titanium studs and new Toyota gaskets before lining up manifold just to make sure everything ok before tightened up.

I have torqued up the nuts to 50 ft/lb at moment may go tighter but think should be all good, have to say really happy with how manifold looks and also love the look of new titanium nuts and studs.

I fitted two studs into turbo flange to test fit turbo to see how looks and have noticed slight issue, my turbo is too big lol..i haven't got enough space with distributer there to mount turbo fully as the cold side will catch carbon dizzy cover which is annoying as only purchased carbon cover few weeks ago but it is what it is, was planning to buy trigger kit at some point just means will have to do it sooner rather than later now. 

Had to rotate turbo to get turbo drain in right position which also looking at will need to drain fitting as its close to manifold and also longer braided hose as mine too short, least the oil feed was fine means one less thing to buy.

Next plan is to have play with old downpipe and new wastegate as will need custom downpipe making and new screamer pipe.

Few pictures of yesterdays progress

[jagman]

50lb is about correct for that size stud , at work we always used molykote mso2 , molybdenum grease - just a dab - it will help with dissimilar metals - titanium into aluminium and allow them to be removed again over time -just drop the torque by 10% . 
there are a few things that bolt into jet engine hot areas ,engine cases etc and we always use a grease - used to be ease off 990 a nickel based grease but there was a move away from that - any seized bolt in a case that causes damage is around 1million quid ! When you start leaning on a socket to remove - it gets tense -lol 
 

[Suprakeith]

I thought 50lb be about correct for size of nuts, bloody hell million quid for seize bolt damage and can well imagine that's very tense lol