Had some minor issues with valve train noise which I tracked down to the springs not seating right, they look like they're standard diameter but they are ever so slightly larger. So heads off and machined the pockets just slightly:
For some reason I didn't get the rear main seal right this time, so may as well pull the whole engine and re-do that (changed to rubber/neoprene seal). While we're at it the cam was a bit lackluster so drop in something a little bigger:
That made a nice improvement, although I'm still working through the EFI tuning to make it drive as smoothly as possible. Tried it out on the drag strip with a best of 13.2 but inconsistent again, and running mid 13s @107mph so there's definitely more. Clutch issues again, I didn't do too much damage but the car definitely smelled a bit that day. Ordered one of these to fix it:
(still on its way)
Also decided that the diff ratio is too in-between at 3.45, it was good with the four speed but with the five speed (fifth gear is 0.64:1 so quite tall) and the new cam liking a few more revs I decided to change it back to 3.91:
Of course the diff change means I need to fix the speedo again - no problem, I have a couple of spare gears. Oops, none of them are even remotely close. Thought I'd try something different and see if I can get the 3D printer to produce something that will work:
With a little clean up it fits and works, we'll see how long the ABS plastic lasts (I suspect they are normally nylon?)
While the engine and gearbox were out again I decided to move the shifter to the rearward position so it falls to hand better. Unfortunately that meant the four cylinder console surround no longer fits (I believe someone changed it when the Toyota 5 speed was originally fitted, now long gone - shifter position is more standard again now). Rare Spares sells the parts to change it back to original but wow they are expensive and I don't really like the look of the switch panel in particular. So I made a surround to hold the boot:
and went back to a bit of CAD drawing and used the 3D printer to create a piece, along with an aluminium panel with a light coating of wrinkle black:
along with painting screw heads black and continuing the red pin striping, I think it looks OK:
The console needs a respray at some point to tidy things up.
An no surprises here but the clutch master cylinder is slowly bypassing (can't hold the pedal down too long, it will release by itself!) and starting to leak again due to the strange angles. Heath picked it already:
I thought a handy bloke such as yourself would have tried to remove the rocker cover and decided to do an under-dash clutch master creation instead?
So I got one of the shorty Tilton master cylinders, and will be attempting some custom bracketry to install this when the new clutch arrives (or before if the current one dies completely):
Hopefully its just short enough to mount it level to the left of the column under the dash, and the hose will run out the existing pushrod hole so I can still mount the reservoir in the engine bay where it belongs.
Edited by 76lxhatch, 23 November 2018 - 02:13 PM.