[_zaclemore]

Judging by the contents of this photo, a big change has occurred.

I pulled out the BC cams last night and replaced them with the stockers. Funny how stock cams and stock lash sounds almost like a stock motor again. The motor hasn't been this quiet in years and I love it. Hopefully the machine shop guys can get me right and I can have a super quiet built head in a few weeks. This means I need to hop on the Cerakote now. I feel like I should at the very least do the teeth of these gears black, but I'm open to suggestions that aren't totally insane. I'm really into the polish + silver look and I think I can make it work, but I might pass doing that to the gears. Nobody's going to see them anyway.

 

[Pnut00]

Im not sure polishing something you want the timing belt to stick to and not slide over is a wise move. I might be wrong though.

 

[_zaclemore]

Im not sure polishing something you want the timing belt to stick to and not slide over is a wise move. I might be wrong though.

I plan on getting the teeth Cerakoted, which is a very thin and strong colored coating. I have the PHR billet crank gear, which has a polished look to it, and it has never skipped timing on me. Polish looks and feels smooth to the touch, but I imagine rubber would stick very well to it actually.

 

[_zaclemore]

Mail time yet again. The pics speak for themselves.

The unfortunate reality of the valve cover shave is that I do not believe the hoses will fit nicely between the head coolant port and the valve covers. (Who says I need to use AN line though?) It likely won't fit by the tucked heater core bypass I plan on doing either. Another L for me. At least I can play with my parts lol.

Also, the rest of my exhaust manifold studs.

 

[Kris OK]

Damn dude, you been spending some money!
You’ll have to open that new plug cover up so you can see them polished cam gears.

 

[_zaclemore]

Damn dude, you been spending some money!
You’ll have to open that new plug cover up so you can see them polished cam gears.

I'll place it on top like I do with my current cover lol. Side note, plastic is no easier to shave than aluminum!

 

[_zaclemore]

Of course I can't leave anything be for too long. I took the first steps in shaving the spark plug cover. I'll be using Bondo or JB Weld to fill and sand the scratches/holes. I'm heavily leaning on silver or black for the cover set.

Two way twin turbo? I have a one way single turbo, so that's gonna disappear. The razor blade that destroyed my fingers took out a little more than I thought it would so I need to hit these areas with some filler.

Of course, I bought the wrong kind of filler. It's fiberglass kind, I figured that it would work since this cover isn't really plastic, you can see some sort of fiber/composite makeup on the underside and where I've sanded it. I'm sure I could make it work, but I'll exchange it for the right stuff tomorrow.

I might have to face the music on the catch can setup. Radium looks like the best bet and I can use PTFE -10 AN for the thinner lines to keep it tidy. The rest of the stuff will be shaved.

 

[AlwaysBroken]

Of course, I bought the wrong kind of filler. It's fiberglass kind, I figured that it would work since this cover isn't really plastic, you can see some sort of fiber/composite makeup on the underside and where I've sanded it. I'm sure I could make it work, but I'll exchange it for the right stuff tomorrow.

Is it not plastic? I’d imagine it would just be a nylon of some kind. Though, I do tend to think every plastic in a car is typically nylon. See if there’s a marking that says something to the extent of PA6GF or PPGF. From what I can find, other Toyota engine covers are PA6GF. PA is nylon so you can use whatever best bonds to nylon.

 

[_zaclemore]

Got the right Bondo for the job today. I made the decision with the insight of @AlwaysBroken's post above and opted for the bumper repair kit. Just followed the instructions and went on my way.

I cut it down with the provided 320 grit paper until I felt like it was smooth enough. I highly recommend you remove all of the paint beforehand, this blue stuff gums up paper very easily.

Got a little carried away after scuffing and cleaning. I decided to bust out the old Krylon can I had on my shelf. Did a few test swatches and decided that they were no help. I figured if I didn't like it, I could scuff it and paint it again. I also forgot to shave off the Toyota logo, oops.

All in all, it turned out decent so far. A lot brighter than I remember. I'm going to scuff it up again then hit it with a 2K can I've been saving for a rainy day. I also need someone to tell me not to polish my covers. The cast is so nice on them and I need to scuff them for paint anyway. Maybe I'll polish one and see how it matches up. Also any suggestions for the color of the Toyota badge + lettering would be appreciated. Maybe I'll paint the center section black and mask off the lettering.

 

[Hodgdon Extreme]

I also need someone to tell me not to polish my covers.

I think you need to polish them valve covers.

 

[_zaclemore]

I think you need to polish them valve covers.

I think that might have happened this afternoon.

 

[_zaclemore]

I made the decision. I figured since I wanted to shave them for paint, I'd have to see what they looked like polished. I think I like the polish more. If I didn't want them shaved, the stock color works and looks very cool in my opinion. It had the silvertop 20v 4A-GE look that I wanted.

You can see some flaws, but that's aluminum polishing. With the tools I have this is just about as good as I can get it. I might be able to get it a little better in front of the PCV.

You can see the car soap I use pretty clearly.

The spark plug cover needs clear still. It's going to look very nice when it's said and done. This paint layer needs some shaping around the edges, but the parts I Bondo'd turned out very good. I had it under the light and it was very hard to tell.

Polishing tip: don't skip your grits. (Also try using the proper tools instead of the same thing for a year.) It takes way too much time to jump from 320 to 800, ask me how I know.

I can't wait to get the head back from the shop. A lot of big things are being done once I get it back. The "Big Rewire", stock ECU removal, FFIM, top mount. I will also get my Radium fuel rail installed next week for sure, maybe even before all else.

 

[AlwaysBroken]

Got the right Bondo for the job today. I made the decision with the insight of @AlwaysBroken's post above and opted for the bumper repair kit. Just followed the instructions and went on my way.
View attachment 143635

Seems like a good choice. You might have to watch out for how it behaves after a bunch of heat cycles though. (JB weld hasn’t fared that great in my experience with engine bay heat but that might be my lack of prep. Not all that comparable to the stuff you got besides both being epoxy.) It’ll be a lot better than normal bondo regardless. Polyester resin has no place on a car anywhere imo.

3M also makes a less branded version of this. It’s called 3M EZ sand multi purpose repair material. It’s a lot cheaper for the amount you get. If you ever need a bunch for other flexible body filler projects, it might be a good fit.

Also, wow that’s shiny. I don’t even want to know how long that takes.

 

[_zaclemore]

Covers are so close to being done. Decided to paint the lower cam cover, or maybe it's the upper timing cover? Middle timing cover? Either way it's painted now. I decided to hit it with some extra 2K clear that I never opened from around 3 years ago. I put a very heavy clear on these so it's sandable. If it looks weird, I have a brand new middle timing cover that'll look great.

I sanded the exhaust cover up to 600 and it turned out better, but I decided to finally order new polishing materials because I want these to look good. This is the only photo that you can't see the hash lines from my lack of cutting before coloring.

 

[persocon]

nice balisong too

 

[_zaclemore]

nice balisong too

Thanks dude, it's my first Bear Ops one, I always heard they sucked but after the Bearsong IV they got good. It's been a few years since then lol. I have a Kershaw Lucha and DogBite DB3.1.

 

[_zaclemore]

Decided this was the weekend to install my Radium Engineering fuel rail and DMR direct mount regulator. Not the craziest idea, but I like to remove reliability from the car every once in a while and that time came at about 5:30 on Friday. You know, pop out the feed line.

Pop off the soft line quick disconnect. Check out that jackstand placement, very nice.

Skip a bunch of steps, here we are. The interesting parts start. Hook up the DMR to the back of the rail, don't worry about clearances. The injectors are too tall because of the 25 adapters needed for them, shim it with old injector parts or what have you. Check out that VVTi wiring, pretty sweet right? Check out how close the -8AN 90* fitting is to the VVTi banjo, it almost touches when the fuel rail is properly bolted down with the OEM spacers. The fix is to tighten the fitting before the rail is bolted down, how cool is that? Oh, just buy the $35 Radium branded banjo to alleviate that, yeah no thanks.

The pressure regulator is sideways because of course it is, for some reason they provided a 90* fitting on this fuel pressure regulator, the direct mount regulator, it's designed to be mounted to the rail, why is a 90* anywhere near this? Luckily my situation is equally as scuffed, so it worked out. That gauge is also not provided, I got that from my old one, that came with it, shout out Tanks Inc. By the way, it touches my firewall. Use to set the pressure, then ditch it. I'd love for my regulator to be up and down, but sometimes you need to wake up and face the music. Buy something else.

Here you can see my mess. You can see the messy reality of the coolest car in the world. Zip ties holding my oil filter relocation lines out of the way of my steering rack, not an issue on a RHD car, which it's designed for. Random single wires hanging about. Unplugged Toyota Sequoia oil pressure sensor. Oh yeah, the main focus You can see the -8AN going horizontal then the -6AN line going perpendicular toward the firewall.

Here's my -8AN 45* hose end, -8AN male to -6AN female, -6AN 90* and the crown jewel, the Radium Fuel Pump Adapter. Stick another O-ring down in there if you want it to actually do it's job. (Debatable.) Shameful.

Here's another look, notice how it covers the plug, that's my bad.

Need to reseal my return line and it should be fine. For some reason that's an issue now, but if that's not it, then I need to figure something else out. The car ran fine otherwise.

 

[_zaclemore]

After the reseal, it's looking better than ever. It's also sealing better than ever too. You can see that O-ring I was talking about, be sure to add more if necessary. (HINT: it is)

Here it is after running for about 5 minutes. You can't tell if it's leaking or not, but I can assure you, after 3 days of huffing gasoline fumes, it in fact isn't. All that seepage dried up after a 45 minute test drive and it looked dry as a bone by the time I got back to my house. All it took was disregarding everything Radium says to make their junk work. If I had an Aristo fuel pump hanger, I'd rip my hair out twice as much then take a long walk off of a short bridge. Anyway.

 

[AlwaysBroken]

After the reseal, it's looking better than ever. It's also sealing better than ever too. You can see that O-ring I was talking about, be sure to add more if necessary. (HINT: it is)

Apparently they leak when used in Lotus too. Not a new problem it seems. In the case of the Lotus application, it was because the fittings hit the cover plate. Maybe this is something to check here too?

 

[_zaclemore]

Apparently they leak when used in Lotus too. Not a new problem it seems. In the case of the Lotus application, it was because the fittings hit the cover plate. Maybe this is something to check here too?

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that, the cover will not work whatsoever. I bent it for my original return line, and it was fine, but now it's just lightly placed on top. I then cut where the bottom of the seat contacts it so it shouldn't have any pressure on it. If anyone sits down there I'll have a heart attack.