Truly excited to get it all together and driving it for the first time. I'm a little nervous that the seats aren't what I want; as in my GS300 made me feel like I was sitting a lot lower, same with my new honda civic but the SC feels like the front seats were reupholstered and they thickened up the foam a bit; who knows but I'm not thrilled with how I sit in it. I may have to buy a drivers seat bracket and run a corbeau or something that would fit me.

Got the damper on, fully tightened and it angles just down just enough to give me clearance to put a vacuum hose on it thankfully. Made sure to zip tie it now so I wouldn't have to do it when the manifold was on. Got the fuel pressure regulator on, and it reminded me that I need a 90 degree double male AN to attach to my ethanol content sensor. Also test fit a 45° on my valve cover to angle it away from the exhaust and I don't totally hate it, I could easily have that line cross over to meet the other; and have them both turn at the back of the head to reach the PHR oil breather catch can on the passenger side.

Another thing I noticed is the engine hook sits right where I want my injector clips to go. Pretty bothersome; but I figure I can install the engine, and then remove the engine hooks to fit the turbo and to clear the injectors clips how I want.

 

This thing is gonna run like a banshee!! Great choice in parts and I love the attention to detail. I'm in the same boat with seats in my SC. I'm not a very tall guy, but still sit a little high in mine. My passenger seat is in decent shape still but my driver seat has started to tear... I'd love to get a single bucket for the driver seat but it's been so long since I've had aftermarket seats that I'd really like to find somewhere with a few in stock so I could sit in a couple of them first...

 

Been busy with other things, my honda finally made it into the shop! Got a nice 2023 Audi Q7 turbo for a rental and its' real nice! Ichiban lower water neck arrived and I am very happy with the quality, fit and finish and engineering considering I didn't have to modify anything, uses the stock studs and nuts and tightens up with a 12mm easily. It also allows me to start off with the 'easier to use' rubber hose + clamp, and later on go to an AN setup; and having this already done takes a bit of guess work out of it. Also threw on one of my new denso altenators.

Lastly I decided to order one of those FRP Auto to MT console's from ebay made for chasers/soarers. I think I'm going to initially save myself time/effort and go the easier route of cutting my stock auto tunnel to be bigger; while not removing the seats/carpet and do welding/seam sealing before I get the motor/trans in. Trying to get it together and running by the end of June but I still need to find out where I'm at with the harness.

 

Joe,
You are doing a great job and also keeping all of us informed on your progress. Good luck to you. I just thought of an old analogy with your car. When you eat an elephant, you don't look at the whole elephant, you just eat one bite at a time, and that is way with your car, again good luck.
Bill

 

I like that Bill, I definitely have a list of things that need to be done, but i often focus on one task in the evening and do it, then check it off and move on; which usually entails more parts, or different choices.
Decided rather than cutting down the fittings I bought for the wastegates; I would find correct ones. These Tial 10mm X 1.0 to -4AN end up working perfectly with copper washers; just need to buy some sets of braided hose and my 3 port mac valve.

I also decided to use the 2jzge non-turbo oil filter housing; couple reasons for this. Originally the motor had a water fed heater that sandwiched between for cold climates, but I live in the PNW in the valley which very rarely sees snow and seldom under 0°C/32°F. So really wanted to simplify the water lines under the manifold, delete this piece and I did the direct mount oil filter. After more thinking, I went back to the non turbo housing which allowed me to have the IS300 union bolt #90401-19008 that has an 1/8" BSP thread on the end; perfect for my Link/Bosch Dual oil temperature/pressure sensor. Guys at Panic threw in free adapters for me; which I sealed in using some loctite 565.

 

For the motor mounts, and PLEASE correct me if they're in the wrong locations because I actually tried to mount the exhaust side wrong at first. Haha. Anyways, these are all blue loctited and torqued to 44 ft lbs. This also shows the bosch dual sensor which is pretty nifty.
Motor mount brackets are from my SC and the mounts themselves are the 97-98 turbo supra metal encased mounts. These are fantastic and I'm re-using them from my GS. Still need to get my water cross over pipe welded (the original turbo water drain; as I capped the other drain on the water pump) and the top feeds were welded. Tried to mount the link map sensor and the toyota bolts are too big, plus the spacing is off so either I make a bracket or just sit it there. Plugged in with the vacuum line it wont really move much anyways.

 

Met up with my welder who closed up the rear turbo coolant drain nipple. If I ever go ball bearing I will just use the blocked off port on the water pump, and have my upper neck modified for an AN fitting in the original location.

I believe this hose on the bottom was for a tacoma that I found reading some build threads on here. With the NA filter housing it pushes up just a little bit, but the hose doesn't seem to collapse in any way and fits pretty good. Overall happy with this setup over the GTE oil filter housing. Lastly I replaced the gasket here again, despite the other being brand new; these are crush gaskets from Toyota and I had already torqued down the old one before I decided to have this pipe welded. Only a couple bucks, and I added some toyota FIPG to enhance sealing and blue loctite on the nuts. No way could I fit a torque wrench in here with the manifold on; so I used a 12mm box end wrench and pulled em till they stopped. Good enough for me.

Ended up bending the rear coolant pipe near the fuel rail just slightly to bend under. This line will feed the idle speed control valve; and then the throttle body before returning to the front of the head. Even though it will hardly ever freeze here, I figure if I ever do end up in snowing/freezing conditions they will thaw as intended.

 

Still waiting on my wastegate lines and fittings to arrive. I also ordered another 45° for my turbo oil drain. Looks like most the lines from fragola are backordered till next week atleast. Last check in with Panic ~ 2.5 weeks ago I was #50 in line so getting closer.

Also decided to upgrade my mishimoto radiator setup from my GS to a Koyo race radiator #R1856. Wanted to go away from the USA made and go with something a little more period correct japanese.

 

This thing is such a unit... I love your attention to detail and thoroughness. Keep up the awesome work!

 

Thanks Rudy!

Definitely trying to do everything right before it goes in the car, not too worried about making it look brand new or anything but every nut and bolt will be torqued by me with some loctite! My attention to detail is for peace of mind, i spend hours researching and thinking about each step in the process, weighing different material choices, lubrication and sealants.

For example I ended up assembling my head, shimless buckets and cams with ultra slick; but damn if I didn't notice that a day later it seemed like everything we put on essentially dripped off the cams/buckets. I'm sure the journals still have it in there no issues; but cam lobes/buckets not really. Headgames just happened to post a reel about this on instagram mentioning they use cam-shield assembly paste for this very reason, if a motor is going to sit for any length of time before startup this stuff actually stays on the parts you want protected. Ended up ordering it and going to re-do that just for some extra break-in protection.

Also just called toyota and ordered a GTE radiator shroud with the lower piece and clips. Didn't go for a 97-98 style because I think I have the older side fan somewhere.

 

I'm with you... I don't need my car to look like a show piece but I do want it to be solid and thoughtfully put together. I'm a very OCD person but you seem to take that to another level (and I say that as a compliment). Good call on the assembly paste - that's good piece of mind for when you go to turn that thing over for the first time!

 

#37 in line for my harness/ECU package! I don't think this will be ready by end of June; so I'm most likely looking at an August start up/work out bugs/tune

 

No updates on the harness yet, I just sent a message to see where we're at after 3 weeks. Just hit the 9.5 month mark and its getting though to be patient when I'm ready for it! I ended up taking next week off work for my birthday and originally was hoping for the harness by now to put the motor in the car; but now I'm thinking second week of August for an install which gives me a little more time to button things up.

Holley ended up sending me the wrong part in the correct bag, contacted them and replacement was easy. Just got it in which allows me to finish off the turbo oil drain. I think this clears the manifold well and will still provide unrestricted gravity drain being a full -10.



Jegs on the other hand keeps delaying my order with a fragola back-order. half the products are in stock and they wont send them out, Fragola has pushed the shipment date three times now which doesn't allow me to finish my wastegate lines. I may have to contact customer service again and see if they can help out without having me pay more for shipping.

 

I always appreciate the thoughtful routing of hoses, lines, wires, etc. Nice to see you putting thought into it and placing these things carefully. It looks great!

 

Yeah I feel like more people should plan out the things they do! Trying to make it so I don't end up having problems down the road. I probably should have had the manifold ceramic coated for heat; but the turbo and manifold should be able to be removed pretty easily in the car in the future if I ever decide to change things up.

I do plan on having the feed line pulled away from the manifold as much as possible and on the other side of the drain. I ordered a cheap 3 port mac valve to test fittings and plumbing once my waste gate lines come in. Going to have full -4 AN with all the waste gates and mac valve.
Also, emailed for an update on the harness and I'm currently #15; which should work out for my august start-up. I'll still have to connect fuel lines and change out fuel pump once its in, and have a drive shaft made.