Tom's AW11

Re: Tom's AW11 (tom)

Fri, 14 May 2021 12:30:29 GMT

Finished putting it back together after the respray. Pretty happy with how it has come out.

Re: Tom's AW11 (rynex)

Sat, 10 Apr 2021 12:09:49 GMT

Only outside decals I'm missing are the fender strips

Re: Tom's AW11 (tom)

Fri, 09 Apr 2021 13:34:08 GMT

rynex
I can take high res photos of mine if you want?

My be better in some cases, though mine are 50/50 repros anyway.

It may help. If you have any pictures of outside decals it would help greatly. I got a set from Neil Jones in the UK and I am not entirely happy with them. I would rather draw them up myself and get them printed locally.

Re: Tom's AW11 (rynex)

Fri, 25 Sep 2020 11:21:38 GMT

I can take high res photos of mine if you want?

My be better in some cases, though mine are 50/50 repros anyway.

Re: Tom's AW11 (tom)

Fri, 25 Sep 2020 10:55:43 GMT

I am on the look out for reproduction stickers for most of the car. I may even recreate them in photoshop if need be. My only current struggle is finding the correct japanese fonts.

Re: Tom's AW11 (tom)

Fri, 25 Sep 2020 10:45:40 GMT

Car has been stripped for paint and panel work. Love working on these cars very easy to pull apart.

Re: Tom's AW11 (rynex)

Mon, 24 Aug 2020 18:23:06 GMT

Nice idea with the battery :) much better than under the intercooler.

Re:Tom's AW11 soon to be 4AGTE (Admin)

Sat, 22 Aug 2020 07:15:46 GMT

Looks great! 👍👍👍

Re:Tom's AW11 soon to be 4AGTE (tom)

Sat, 22 Aug 2020 00:05:09 GMT

UPDATE (Probably longest time between updates ever)
Completely forgot about the forums if I am honest, but realised I needed to record my journey somewhere.
Back in 2011 I got the motor finished, installed, turbo manifold didn't fit, got halfway through wiring in the ecu and lost interest, life got in the way, kids, traveled etc etc etc. The car has been in storage ever since. Finally last year I had some free time and got stuck back into it.

This is where it started (2019)

I wasn't happy with the above gearbox turbo setup I had originally made by Kelway.

I decided to redesign the packaging of the turbo and intercooler. Bought a welder and learned to weld. I just made a simple steam pipe log style manifold and reused the old flanges I had. Some suspect welds done, but if it breaks it gives me a chance to build a better one!

Then started working on the exhaust. 3" dump into 2.5" truck muffler. Really didn't want the car to be really loud. I may eventually add a resonator or similar to shut it up further. Welding slowly got better and really began to enjoy it.

Dropped the fuel tank to check for corrosion and give it a clean. Looked pretty decent for a tank that had been sitting for a decade. Scored a huge box of "speedflow" fitting through work for $1 per fitting, now the engine bay will have pretty bits. Got some AN lines brazed on the old fuel lines to make use of them and replaced all the rubber hoses and clamps while I was at it.

With the turbo, fuel, and exhaust sorted. I revisited the wiring, I had half-finished the wiring 9 years prior and upon looking over the harness I salvaged what connectors I could and started an entire rewire on the engine side of the car. My wiring experience prior to this was a couple of stereos and other simple auto accessories, I had a lot to learn. Harness took me a couple of months but gave me some peace of mind.

I picked up big chinese W2A intercooler locally for cheap. Was going to need a couple of changes to fit well. Compressor outlet, mounting brackets, water lines to front etc.

Mockup fitting. Made a simple bracket down to the gearbox, fabricated a new compressor outlet pipe. Tidied up a couple of things.
Motor still hasn't run since it was rebuilt, I was getting pretty keen for a first start.

First startup was pretty straight forward, once I had fiddled with the Haltech and dialed in the timing. Very proud I didn't have to troubleshoot the wiring apart from incorrectly wiring the fuel pump relay, everything else was spot on. Gave it a drive around the block and it boosted and drove nicely, even with my hacked together best guess "tune".

The issue I did have was with the distributor, I was having issues with the trigger signal to the Haltech. I was getting false triggering when the distributor was hot, sometimes IGN1 would occur at say 60 degree BTDC, maybe once every 20 cycles. The engine revved out and made boost and after chucking a scope on it I wasn't happy with the condition of the distributor and finding a replacement that was in decent condition proved difficult.

I decided to go with a high resolution 36-1 crank trigger wheel from MRP. Unlucky for me Coronavirus happened, NZ was locked down and my kit was held up for months. In the meantime, I turned my attention to the body.

Overall the car is solid, the paint is oxidized but there is very little rust for a 30-year-old jap car apart from some rust in the windshield and the usual rust in the front bumper area. I began work on the windshield rust.

Somewhat pitted but easily saveable.

Painted it with color-matched rattle cans and some clear and it polished up decent and ready for a new windshield.

Front radiator support was no good. A lot of surface rust on the crash bar and the front lip brackets came off in pieces.

Welder came in handy again! :D You can see the Subaru heat exchanger and pump plumbed up here also.

Trigger wheel kit came and can't speak highly enough of the quality. Within 15 minutes of wiring the hall effect sensor in, it was running perfectly. Timing is rock solid and with a timing light it looks like the crank wheel isn't even moving.

Fixed my interior light. The small rivets holding the terminals in had come loose. I drilled out the old broken rivets and used some small M2 bolts to hold the terminals in place.

Removed the Jap weeb bell and wired resistor in to make the tacho work with the Haltech. I have since learned that you can just bypass the resistor completely. Words cannot describe the pain of putting the speedo cable back in, I am unsure if there is some trick to this? the end of the cable seems to want to hide back into the sheat instead of engaging the speedo mechanism. After an hour cursing, I sorted it.

Modified the original valley cover to mount the 1ZZ coils. I used some Scrap exhaust pipe and some threaded couplers and they mount in nice and solid now.

Recarpeted the boot to neaten everything up, hiding the ECU fuse and relay panel.

Pretty much where the car stands currently.
Lots more to do. Both master cylinders need replacing, brakes need a once over, a couple of leaks, exhaust heatshield, steering rack needs a rebuild etc. I'll be sure to update.

Re:Tom's AW11 soon to be 4AGTE (tom)

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 16:23:27 GMT

The exhaust manifold & dump is being made up by kelway, unsure of how I will go from there back.

4agze's tend to get seriously loud with wider exhaust pipes, have had a 2.5inch system before and it was far to loud imo.

Should have the bottom end done this week hopefully.

Any guru's here know if sw20 turbo lsd axles inner stubs are the same as aw11 e51 lsd axles? Or if i need actual e51 lsd axles? Or if anyone has any experience in regards to this.

Re:Tom's AW11 soon to be 4AGTE (ozhummer)

Sun, 09 Oct 2011 22:34:46 GMT

Looks good - Nice to see others use good quality parts .. I'm interested to see how your exhaust is - I'm in the process of designing one for my SC rebuild ... Have a look at my thread in showroom for ideas on intercooling...

Re:Tom's AW11 soon to be 4AGTE (bugeye29)

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 21:44:12 GMT

Nice project, I hope it all goes well for you

Re:Tom's AW11 soon to be 4AGTE (ZEROGK)

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 21:35:50 GMT

Nice, good to see another AW11 turbo in the works!

You could have saved some money and used 4A-GZE pistons. They are more than strong enough for your desired power level.

I have seen people use the Subaru coolers to good effect and it should be fine for 150kw. W2A is definitely the way to go, it's just a pain in the ass to install.

Also good to see that you have a standalone ECU. Keep us updated " />

Tom's AW11 (tom)

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 00:07:25 GMT

Hey guys,
Just thought id keep a little record of my progress with my turbo build for my aw11.
It all began when the crank pulley ripped itself off my crank. Altogether unsure of how this happened, but from looking at it i am assuming it was loose for a very long time - hating myself for not checking. Rebuild was needed crank was beyond repair and while i had it out i thought to hell with it i'll turbo it " />

So far the plan is - a useable torque curve @15-18psi and aiming for around 130-150rwkw
Current shopping list

gt2560r
haltech e11v2
arias forgies with ceramic tops
full arp
acl bearings
standard bigport head
n/a bigport inlet manifold
custom turbo exhaust manfold currently being made by the lovely folks at kelway
e51 lsd box
unsure of clutch to use??
unsure of what intercooling system to use? i currently have a subaru w2a off a liberty given to me by a mate but the inlet and outlet look tricky to work well and the heat exchanger is tiny. Has anyone made and used these before with any success?

Now this is my first major attempt at taking an engine out, my previous experience to this was little more than simple mechanical works (changing oil, replacing suspension, replacing water pumps etc) i have a general understanding and have a keen ambition to learn.

Dropped the engine, couldn't believe how much of pain in the ass it was to get the nuts off the axles, one of mine was seriously stuck, snapped a 1/2 in drive trying to remove it. Got it off with a big whack and some heat " />

Big lump of japanese engineering!

And the teardown began, things didn't look good. Very black oil, sludge, had done some hardwork.

Then we began finding peices of bearing " /> ends out it had spun the thrust bearing. Unsure of why, friend helping me out suspected that the clutch and flywheel may be guilty." />

The good news was the block was in great condition, still had hone marks in it. Car only had 80,000km on it.

Got the head rebuilt nothing special here.

New crank

Aisin oil pump - with the toyota casting symbol ground off it. Got this for $85 bargain!!!

New pistons & full kit of arp bolts and acl bearings.