Rudy, You are the man.
Take care,
Bill

 

I agree with you all that the larger downpipe and reduced pressure would net me increased benefits, just not sure its worth having it all re-made in 4" for cost sake.

Found an interesting comparison on supraforums from a motor trend article where they added a 3.5" exhaust system onto a 3" downpipe and saw 150-200 rpm increased spool with a peak gain of 66 whp at 6000 rpm @ 19 psi and ontop of that swapping to a 3.5" downpipe increased peak gain of 52 whp at 7000 rpm from the downpipe alone for a total of 103whp overall gain (full 3" to full 3.5" exhaust).

https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/mo...ust-test-tech/

Although these gains brought quite the bit of skepticism; another user went from a 3" to a 4" downpipe and 3.75" exhaust and only netted a 32whp gain @ 18 psi on a 67mm.

Overall I think I'll be okay for my < 700hp goals.

 

Bill I think it's safe to say that YOU'RE THE MAN!

And Joe - you'll be solid at that power level. I'd do the same thing in your position unless you've got a buddy that's a fabricator. Use what you have and make the best out of it. She's gonna be a ripper either way!

 

Small updates, trying to figure out exactly what I want to do with this build. I constantly feel like I second guess myself questioning whether I should "do it right the first time" and overbuild areas of the car or take a cheaper/easier perspective. I'll explain this below.


Injector dynamics 1050X came in with my walbro fuel sock kit, most of my timing belt parts aside from the tensioner. Also ordered a new oil pump and crank sensor, and I've been waiting on the crank sensor to come in. Still no word about my PHR parts and looks like my greddy intercooler will come in around december.



My new valve cover came in as well, this is the old one with the welded AN fitting which I will probably sell to a good home. Also, been thinking about my water routing/looping out of the water pump. I really dislike doing this and it appears that they are both coolant returns from the old turbochargers. What do most people do for this? I suppose I could go to a water/oil cooled turbo and have the rear port welded; and tap my neck again for a feed to eliminate modifying water pumps to close the lower port.


Had to buy another pulley removal kit; I got some parts off but ended up not being able to remove the lower timing belt gear because I didn't have any M6x1.0 bolts. Also still waiting on my oil pump, debating whether I should have it sent out to be modified.




So at this point I feel like I should yank the head off to do a new oem HG and ARP studs and valve stem seals. But so much of me is saying If I'm in there I might as well do valve spring and retainer upgrade; and if I'm upgrading valve springs and seals so I can rev out to 8k.. stock cams wont be making power past 6800-7200 so I'm wondering if I should do some kelford V202-C cams, BC springs/ti retainers/billet keepers and supertech exhaust/intake stem seals. Additional cost is ~ 2k but I really want my head "re-freshened"

Then apart of me is saying, well.. This bottom end is ~ 120-140k miles; stock GTE rods have been known to bend on ethanol small turbo ball bearing turbo setups, and vvt-i would only shift that power earlier.. Should I do rods/pistons/billet mains/ARP everything? I would be atleast 4k total in parts and easily another 2k for a machine shop to tear down the short block/head and probably be safe and do a small overbore to 68.25 or 68.5 with all new bearings/line hone.. and finding a place with a torque plate which is necessary in my opinion.

Another part of me feels like I should just have the head re-done; and then I could use my current baltics' 2jzge as a spare which I have upgraded/machined "for when it happens". But then I'm torn between Do it right the first time.. Or upgrade the head and let her eat? Apart of me feels like without the ball bearing turbo, and running pump gas this bottom end would hold and last me for years; and I could save a lot of money for other endeavors or investments. But if I wanted to run ethanol or race gas and up the boost in combination with throwing a new G30-900 or EFR8474 it would need to be all upgraded.

 

Long work week and wasn't feelin so good but have a couple updates. Got a new craftsman upper box which gave me a little more organizational space. I would love to get some nice sets of socket and wrench holders but for now this will do.
Picked up my new GTE oil pump and crank sensor. I don't think I'm going to have it modified because my goals aren't above 700 wheel and I wont even be on a built bottom end or revving very high (max 8k).

Lance @ PHR told me my exhaust was being packaged for shipment this week, which is AWESOME news and really fast turn around @ 7 weeks. In comparison THmotorsports let me know my Greddy intercooler wont be shipped until December! 7 month backlog on that. Rough, but thats okay because I have a lot to do before the intercooler needs to go on. Also my timing belt tensioner finally arrived completing my awaiting toyota orders.

Picked up some M6x1.00 grade 10.9's and was able to pull the timing belt gear off quite easily, got all the oil pump bolts out and remembered that the pan has to come off first. But front main seal looked good after 8 years; didn't really see any indication of leakage from it.
And lastly I talked with a machine shop who does 2jz's here and they are currently only taking head work; which has me leaning more toward upgrading cams/springs/cam seals/HG/studs. Also been looking into shimless buckets because that seems like the most logical thing to do if i'm having it done at a machine shop. I will have to talk with them and see if they have the equipment to setup shimless buckets so I can order the right ones.

 

Decided to go for the head refresh, think I will be happy with being able to safely run 20+ lbs of boost and 7500-8k rpm

 

Started the process of stripping it down, my exhaust and most the valve train parts have shipped out; cams are expected to be shipped next week which is good news that the supplier i ordered from already had an incoming shipment. Really glad I decided to do this after seeing how disgusting the head is. On the other hand, the cylinder walls look great; tops of pistons look great. but sludge everywhere. Has me slightly concerned about the bottom end, but being that I'm having the head refreshed and new oil pan + pickup the rest of the internals shouldn't be very bad.

 

 

 

Feeling like the ACT stage 3 single 6 puck isn't going to cut it, or atleast it may cut it if I keep the car ~400-450 but clutch feel will be pretty stiff. So I decided to order the OS Giken TR2CD twin plate after hearing a lot of reviews that it can hold ~700hp reliably and is rated for 800ft lbs of torque (probably at the crank). Driftmotion says they've reliably done 730whp for years on it which is pretty much my goals overall. Also ordered the alteration kit because I want to keep the stock master/slave.

 

So couple updates but still need to take some photos and upload.

Clutch arrived with the pull-push conversion and everything looks really nice, also DHL international shipped it extremely quick from Japan, took 2 days once it RHDjapan. Realized I forgot to order the alignment tool and not wanting to use a plastic one; i ordered the JZA70 billet alignment tool from OS Giken USA and that arrived super quick as well. Shortened ARP flywheel bolts came from driftmotion super quick, after all it was his review that made me pull the trigger Figured i should get a semi-decent torque wrench so I ordered a precision instruments 20-100ft lb 3/8" split beam with flex head. Should be a bit more accurate to do the head studs and flywheel bolts

Tomei 252/260 poncams and ferrea valve stem seals arrived so I just need to drop the head off at a machine shop with the parts. My PHR 4" exhaust arrived, but the muffler was damaged by shipping, and after trying to fix it the damage to the burns muffler would be an eye sore every time I looked at the back of the car; and ultimately I would always be let down with its appearance. Lance @ PHR paid for return shipping on the muffler itself and offered a replacement. Excited to get that in, but the rest of the exhaust and oil breather is excellent finish and quality. I did have to buy a rivet tool to install the logo which had pre-drilled holes, kind of forcing me to install the logo which I thought was strange they didn't attach. Didn't bother me though because I wanted a riveter and it came out nice.

Decided I'm going to keep the stock rods/pistons in my GTE block; the cross-hatching looks so good, good compression and only had smoke on start-up. Will update once I get the rear main seal, oil pump and pan going back together.

 

You're making awesome progress man! It's amazing what a decent driver can do with a good clutch. My clutch now is from when I was still NA (it's a simple single disc ACT if I remember correctly that I re-used when I did my GTE swap since the clutch was still so new). It's holding over 100wtq more than what it's rated for like a champ! I try not to abuse it too badly, but the occasional clutch drop must ensue!!

 

have you thought about Using a rivet nut in it for the emblems. I bought one from Amazon and it’s pretty bad ***. I like your decision to stay stock rods and pistons, all the tuners now a days will pull some timing to make less toque to save your rods. This setup will make 700 with a ease. Love the build, keep up the good work homie!

 

So it came with the rivets to install the emblem and holes pre-drilled. I just needed to buy a riveter, it ended up working prime but I also want a rivet nut tool as well because they seem so handy.

I agree with you that the tuner can definitely help safe my rods, and the fact i'm not dishing out 3k right now for a ball bearing turbo only helps push my torque curve into a safer zone.

So this morning I started working on taking the car apart, Only worked on it for an hour but got the battery, clutch fan and intake off and started pulling the wiring harness. Boy those body plugs are a pain in my fingers, I've only managed to get the ecu plugs and one body plug out, still three more and took a break after struggling for 25 minutes on a plug. Still haven't dropped the head off, deciding on which machine shop to use. Not in a huge rush though, my current timeline is to have the SC apart and cleaned ready for the new swap to go in by the end of summer, I'll send out my harness and have a full new harness made for the link ecu and over winter the motor will be put back together with clutch and trans and harness, sensors ready to go and spring I will start putting it all back together for a summer 2023 debut.

 

Muffler arrived damaged, had to send it back but the rest looks really good. PHR is taking care of me and replacing it free of charge, and also covered return shipping. Also some random photos from my phone when my clutch and cams showed up.