SC4Paulo

iTrader: (2)

looking foward to your build, I just turned 19' and have no clue whats going with the car half the time as I have never taken any auto classes. Before october last year I havent laid one hand on actually working on a car, Right now though I have had a few suspension set ups under my belt and starting to get more into the engine bay. hopefully doing a 5 speed swap in my 400 in the near future, if money permits. right now i just gotta replace my motor mounts, PS pump, and AC compressor. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. As soon as money permits its go time.

Back2aday

do work son haha looking good man

JoshWhite

Finally got a chance to do an update. A few things that developed on the SC, which is currently not running.

1) The oil leak is the rear main seal. This would explain the severity of the leak and why it does not hold oil at all. The issue also caused oil to leak over virtually all of the underside of the car, including exhaust, which caused smoking, and the transmission, which may have contributed to #3

2) After further research and consultation with people who have had the same issue, I've discerned the knock to be the Pilot Bearing, not the input shaft bearing, although they are closely related. I never had a chance to do a video to catch the noise as it happens, regrettably, but that's the least of my worries.

3) And the worst of the issues: the flywheel has stripped the bolts securing it to the crankshaft and is currently free-floating. With the car up on a lift and starter removed (which is good because I need to replace the Contact points in the starter), the flywheel can be turned freely, and is out of place. The heads of the bolts are also currently touching the clutch plate. Not sure if there is damage to the clutch itself or not, but there are metal shavings in the bellhousing, presumably from the stripped threading on the bolts. The biggest concern is whether or not the crankshaft is damaged, because if it is, that basically calls for an engine rebuild, depending on the extent of the damage. As far as why this happened, I'm not sure. I need to actually drop the tranny soon and evaluate what's going on. I used ARP PRO blots, used Red Loctite, and Torqued them down to factory specs, possibly more if I remember correctly. I re-used bolts, but not the flywheel ones.

If I payed the labor to have all of this done, including parts it would cost as much as a new engine, so I get to do some more work. Giggity. I'll post a walkthrough of everything I do. Stay tuned! Any advice is appreciated, as always.

stockhatch

iTrader: (12)

Wow, sorry to hear about your troubles! When you say factory specs, what do you mean? The arp bolts have their own set of torque specs to follow.

JoshWhite

My mistake, should have clarified. I meant the correct torque specs, not necessarily factory bolt ones. I'm still pretty shocked that the "top-tier" bolts stripped. Like it was bad. I pulled a piece of thread off of the flywheel when I was inspecting it through the starter motor cutout. How that managed to happen with the loctite as well is beyond me.

My biggest relief out of all this is that it happened as I was pulling out of my driveway, and not on the road in traffic. I had to use my car to get to class that day, wish it hadn't happened at all but at least I know.

Answer300

iTrader: (3)

love that you are taking your time. don't get anxious to do things fast because it permits mistakes and displeasure in the build. keep it going man!

JoshWhite

Just a quick update. Last of the parts bought for round two of work under the car and dropping the tranny. Hopefully I can get it all done in one day this time, but it depends really on how quickly we can get at those top bellhousiing bolts... they are a beeyotch.

Went with the same bolts from driftmotion... from what I've read they are the correct ones. Not sure what caused the failure, hopefully was something I did, such as over-torquing them or maybe even partially caused by the oil leak? I'm not sure. If anyone has used them, and is positive they used the correct specs, please post it. I'd rather not have the same issue in three months, and risk further damage if there isn't any this time. Fingers crossed...

As always, open to advice/correction/etc.
Thanks!

A link to the bolts I purchased.
http://store.driftmotion.com/static/...wheelbolts.php

JoshWhite

Finally got around to posting this update! Boy, do I have some car gore for you....

A few quick things to point out before we get to the beef:
1) The oil leak was the Rear Main Seal going bad. This explains why a quart of oil would last me maybe 2-5 days before hitting the light again. Got the part, have the oil, no biggie.
2) Remember that rattle that I misdiagnosed as the input shaft bearing, and then the pilot bearing? Well, a friend who has worked on quite a few Supras and 2J's in his lifetime told me he thought it was something much worse back in November. He was right...



Surface of the flywheel, safe to say it's pretty far gone. That may be fixable with a resurfacing, but this isn't...



See that? Yeah it's not supposed to be like that. This particular hole is the hole of (supposedly) the last bolt to back out, which is still in the crank. The actual bolt head is gone. Yes, you read that right.

Competition Clutch Ultra-lightweight Flywheel down the drain...



That'll buff out, right?



Oh. I don't think that will. Competition Clutch Stage 3 Segmented Disc Clutch down the drain...



Just about the only thing that could potentially be saved, after a resurfacing, of course.

In the next post I'll show just how bad it was, and why torque specs are crucial when swapping the OEM clutch out. A very expensive and painful lesson I learned the hard way. *heavy sigh*

JoshWhite

So yeah, remember that? This is what I saw when we got the bellhousing out from under her the second time:

(Quick note, my cousin and I got everything stripped down and dropped in a little over 1 1/2 hours, which a shop wanted to charge $650 to do. Having the knowhow and proper equipment makes a world of difference, in both time spent and funds invested)



That's what a crankshaft looks like when all the bolts have backed out of the crank, presumably taking the threading with them. Either that or the ARP Pro bolts I got from Driftmotion were made out of pottery clay and pot metal. Note the red coloring from the red thread sealant still in/on the threading.



This is a closeup of the bolt that still is sitting smugly in the crank. Not exactly easy to get out. At this point the crank seems to be a good candidate for a cool lamp, maybe even a club or breaker bar.

Notice the clockwise shaving of the crank from the bolts coming out and taking metal with them.



Out of focus shot of one of the bolts, notice the lack of thread and polish towards the neck of the bolt, then retention of thread the farther down it goes.



Better shot of the ARP Pro bolts post-cluster*****. Notice how the threads are pretty much gone from the bolt. Over-torqued or under-torqued?



So this is now a common sight for my car. At the moment she's sitting in my backyard behind a shed (covered of course), but in all I've had to pay to tow the car 3 times now, for a total of $245. That, coupled with the almost $500 gone in the clutch/rotating assembly that is now expensive paperweights and learning examples for others.

So, CL, what say you? I honestly have no definitive answer for what happened, other than a lack of experience on my end or extremely bad luck. I still have yet to get a definitive answer from anyone as to what may have caused this, or even what torque specs to use for the aftermarket bolts. Yes, I used the search bar and read through plenty of threads will plenty of different opinions. I was never able to get in contact with ARP about what specs to use. I did talk to Aron at Driftmotion, and while I appreciate their customer service, when I asked him if they were, in fact, the correct bolts and what specs I should use, he said that they had used them for "plenty of swaps" and torqued them to "60-75ft/lbs and a 90* turn". That seems like a high number to me, which would lead me to conclude that the bolts were over-torqued to the point of failure if we had used those specs. For reference, we used just over the factory 36ft/lbs and a 90* turn originally, and used a star-pattern ordering to tighten them (like what you would use for wheels, same concept).

I'm not sure what to do at this point. Part of me wants to just tap out and buy a 2JZGTE and be done with it, but I haven't been able to find one for a good price (aka within my price range). I have a transmission, so I don't need the package that comes with an auto, and regardless I would need a new harness and ECU, so that option seems like a waste of time and money I don't have. On the other hand, I could just try to find a new (used) crank, but if I open the block I feel like it would be best to re-build the engine completely, and get the head and block machined. At that point it seems like a waste of money. Being that this is my only form of transportation, and that I have work and school, safe to say I need this done soon.

Getting a beater would be nice, but to afford that means taking out a loan. This also means I have a car I have to pay off and probably put money into before I can sell. I would much, much rather fix the SC and wing it until I can afford a bike for the summer, which is when I had planned the swap to a GTE anyhow. Unless someone has a 5speed beater they'd like to donate to the cause .

As always, any advice/info is greatly appreciated.