[Hodgdon Extreme]

These flush mount press fit nuts would work perfectly in place of the rivnuts, https://www.pemnet.com/fastening_products/pdf/fdata.pdf. I run a sheet metal fab shop and we use and stock a lot of these types of fasteners. If you want to re-do what you have, let me know and i will send you some.

Neat-o! The hole size I had to drill to accomodate rivnuts are on the upper limit of what those Pemserts call for so I think I'll stick with the rivnuts. If I were to it again, however - I'd definitely like to try the Pemserts.

 

[BERK]

How much does your adapter raise the upper manifold? Do you think that taarks adapter would fit with a gte head, upper, and lower manifolds? I have a vvti gte head with non vvti gte manifold, which touches the sound deadening material slightly. I was planning to do use that adapter in the future to add traction control. Are you planning on selling your schnoz adapter?

 

[Hodgdon Extreme]

How much does your adapter raise the upper manifold? Do you think that taarks adapter would fit with a gte head, upper, and lower manifolds? I have a vvti gte head with non vvti gte manifold, which touches the sound deadening material slightly. I was planning to do use that adapter in the future to add traction control. Are you planning on selling your schnoz adapter?

The maker of the adaptor (SupraVworld) claims the GTE upper will sit 35mm higher and 35mm further outboard on a GE lower manifold. I cannot confirm or deny this; all I can say is it sits HIGH.

If you gave me a good measurement from, say, the block's deck surface up to the top of your GTE upper manifold, I could measure the same on mine and we could compare. Maybe the valve cover sealing surface of the head would work if the GE and GTE heads are the same thickness.

I'd be happy to sell you my Taarks adaptor - could save you a month of shipping/handling and a handful of bucks!

 

[BERK]

I sent you a PM.

35mm is much higher than I expected to hear, I don't think I would have a problem. I would be happy to measure for you though if it helps solidify that claim.

 

[Hodgdon Extreme]

Been avoiding this step for a while because I feel like it's the point of no return. De-harnessed the car, which was a real PITA:

My car had the Toyota ecu and an ancient Haltech E6K piggy-backed in. From the looks of it, the original Haltech installation was done professionally (albeit bulky) - but someone later did a real half-assed job "improving" the ignition system with an MSD Dis4 box. The MSD ignition system was tied into (with no connectors) both the Haltech harness and the oem Toyota harness. A real mess. Go back and look at some of my previous pics and note how much cleaner and neater the engine compartment looks without all that extra wiring in there.

Fingers TOTALLY crossed that Panic Wire get's the new harness 110% right!

Speaking of which, I've been corresponding with Panic for months about this project - but I didn't have the setup nailed down enough to order. Which is a bummer because I only just got put on the "wait list", so I'm months and months away from getting the harness. Which means I'll be darn lucky to have this heap on the road before summer. Oh well, that's my fault...

...Plenty of other crap to do in the meantime. Battery relocation, ABS relocation, bumper covers, paint, seats, etc...

 

[Hodgdon Extreme]

Trimmed down the top cam belt cover to jive with the new valve cover and coil arrangement:

Got the cold side intercooler piping finished up. Tight fit but it clears everything - even the little ecu box heater pipe off the fan shroud! (WTF is that thing for, for real?) [Edit: I've come to learn exactly what that's for... The ECU enclosure has an inlet pipe at the bottom. When fans run, it creates a low pressure area inside the fan shroud - drawing air through that little bent pipe - creating airflow through the ECU box.]

At first I was gonna make this pipe two pieces so that I could service engine stuff without removing the bumper cover to get at the coupler on the intercooler - but I can get the radiator in/out with this pipe as just one piece. I prefer to keep couplers to a minimum. We'll see how it goes; there's really not a good place to cut it into two separate pieces anyway.

Did a bit of port-matching between my throttle adaptor elbow and the GTE upper intake manifold.

Ordered lots of stuff to keep me busy over xmas break; hopefully most/all of it arrives in time!

 

[Hodgdon Extreme]

I didn't get as much done over Christmas break as I wanted, but I did get started on several side projects: Battery relocation, Fuel supply/return setup and ABS relocation. So, all of these are simultaneously in the works.

I bought the Finishing Lines ABS brake lines, though I'm not sure I'm going to be satisfied with them - after mocking everything up I might just bend new hard lines or make up my own set of soft lines with perfect lengths that suit my fancy. If so, I'll put the Finishing Lines ones up for sale for a discount.

Anyway, here is the bracket I came up with for the ABS solenoid block. My air/oil separator/catchcan also mounts to it.

Basically I chopped the original mounting tabs/ears off the original bracket and fabricated some new ones to jive with some rivnuts I installed in the shock tower. There was one pre-existing hole that just needed to be drilled out for the rivnut.

I scavenged the forward-facing brace off the ABS bracket to create a bracket for the catch can. I'm pretty happy with how the ABS block and catchcan are nestled in behind the shock tower.

 

[Hodgdon Extreme]

Not too much to update. Unhappy with existing rivnut installation tools, I decided to invent one - which requires some specialty hardware that is on order. This should make installing rivnuts in tight spaces far better than any other tool available - but I guess we'll see.

Otherwise, I've made progress on a bunch of odds and ends but it'll come together once I can install a bunch of rivnuts to mount stuff to.

I did build my IGN1A coil sub-harness. I'm not much of a wiring guy so this was kind of painful for me to do. Took two tries, but it'd take another two to get it to come out perfect. It's a fussy, tedious process and you need to think 5 steps ahead if you want to achieve a nice clean sheathing - rather than just wrapping the whole thing with tape. I think it's serviceable as-is; it'll tidy up with a couple p-clamps and zipties.

For the record, the coil connectors I used are the "push to seat" Delphi/Aptiv GT150.3 connectors (Ballenger Motorsports part# CONN-76206)

Not the (rather obnoxious) "pull-to-seat" MetriPack GT150.2 connectors usually used for IGN1A coils (Ballenger Motorsports part# CONN-75627)

These connectors are interchangeable but they take different terminals and go together a little different. The push to seat ones are quite a bit easier to assemble and a lot easier to disassemble.

 

[Hodgdon Extreme]

Finally got the bits/pieces to build my rivnut tool. Works like a charm!

Got my ABS block and catch can mount all squared away and mocked up the new brake lines. They're a little longer than I'd prefer but I think they're workable. I shortened and re-bent the original return line from the ABS block back to the master cylinder. Seems to fit well.

Got the positive battery cable run through the cabin. Installed a distribution lug. Lengthened and re-routed the power cable for the passenger-side power distribution box. Made a new, longer power cable for the starter.

Dissected the chassis harness so I can shorten the ABS pigtail for the new location. Haven't decided how to proceed. The textbook approach would be to de-pin the connector, shorten the leads and re-pin the connector. However my connector is in such sad shape, I'm afraid to attempt disassembly. However if I cut it short and splice everything back together, I'll have a big fat bundle of splices - and won't be able to use a nice piece of heat-shrink... I'll have to just friction tape it.

I realized the wires that run to the ABS block come from both branches of the fork pictured above - some come from the ABS module inside the cabin, and power comes from the distribution box - so this is as far back as I can go...but I think it'll work out ok.

In that last pic you can see the firewall grommet with my battery cable coming through. The hole is gaping - it used to have the main trunk of my Haltech harness running through it. Anybody have any good ideas on how to plug the hole?

 

[Kris OK]

Anybody have any good ideas on how to plug the hole?

Shot of expanding foam? That may be too permanent, I don’t think it would be easy to remove. Maybe just a piece of rubber hose with the ends caulked up? That way you could take it out if needed. A piece of shower pan liner and the solvent bond may stick to the grommet so you could patch it, too.

 

[Piggity]

I'd look at something like this: Large Firewall Grommets – CE Auto Electric Supply

It was one of the first google hits when I did a search for automotive firewall grommet kits

 

[Hodgdon Extreme]

I'd look at something like this: Large Firewall Grommets – CE Auto Electric Supply

It was one of the first google hits when I did a search for automotive firewall grommet kits

The issue with simply installing a new firewall grommet - is it's not that simple to thread that harness through a new grommet. Pretty significant disassembly and pain in the arse, actually. Was hoping to avoid.

I guess I could cut the old one off and then slice thru to center on the new one - eliminating the need to remove the harness - but is that really better than effecting a repair to the existing one??

 

[theraflu]

The issue with simply installing a new firewall grommet - is it's not that simple to thread that harness through a new grommet. Pretty significant disassembly and pain in the arse, actually. Was hoping to avoid.

I guess I could cut the old one off and then slice thru to center on the new one - eliminating the need to remove the harness - but is that really better than effecting a repair to the existing one??
[/QUOTE

They do make two piece grommets. Might be a pain to install but it’s an option.

 

[Piggity]

The issue with simply installing a new firewall grommet - is it's not that simple to thread that harness through a new grommet. Pretty significant disassembly and pain in the arse, actually. Was hoping to avoid.

I guess I could cut the old one off and then slice thru to center on the new one - eliminating the need to remove the harness - but is that really better than effecting a repair to the existing one??

It looked like all of your wiring was disconnected...that is why I suggested a new grommet.

 

[Hodgdon Extreme]

It looked like all of your wiring was disconnected...that is why I suggested a new grommet.

The harness is fully disconnected downstream, but not upstream. It looks to me that to thread a new grommet down the trunk of the harness - the harness would need to be out of the car, and all the connectors depinning/removed from one end. Sounds worse than a hemorroid for a grommet.

 

[Pnut00]

Cutting one and then gluing it along the cut might work, probably best to glue it after its fitted and with a little care so you dont stick your fingers to the grommet or the wires to the grommet

 

[Hodgdon Extreme]

After more consideration regarding my ABS block relocation and shortening the ABS connector pigtail - I decided NOT to shorten it. The stock length is decently suited for routing inboard/under the ABS block, and then making its approach to the block as shown in this picture:

I'm not in love with this, but based on the condition of this connector, not finding a source for a nice replacement, and being too lazy to hunt down all the terminal bits/pieces to re-pin it... I'm ok with this arrangement for now. Maybe I'll readdress this later when I've got more bandwidth and feel the need to tinker with the car more.

Battery relocation is nearly complete. I bought a Summit "premium" battery relocation kit, which is honestly a pretty decent kit... But if things being "just so" is important to you, I don't recommend buying it. Rather - piece a kit together yourself.

The box is a bit too small for a Group 24 battery. It fits, but the terminals are too tall and too spread out to allow for stiff battery cables to exit the box cleanly. I also did not care for the fact the kit comes with all imperial hardware. Don't know about you, but I don't like mixing/matching metric/imperial fasteners and sizes. I also didn't care for the thick/heavy battery hold down bracket. The grommets supplied for the battery cables to exit the box are plastic and crappy. The battery cables (1/0 AWG) themselves are WAY overkill for our car, and therefore unnecessary weight. 2AWG would be plenty sufficient, and easier to route through the cabin and firewall grommets.

So I bought a slightly smaller battery that would fit the box better, and provide more convenient terminal placement for routing the battery cables. I used to build little open-wheel racecars, where every ounce of weight was to be avoided. So between the thickness/weight of the Summit bracket, and the fact it didn't fit my battery very well, I couldn't help but fabricate one I liked better:

I just drilled out the spot-welds for the tabs on the OEM hold down bracket, fabricated some more suitable ones from 0.063" (1.5mm) stainless sheet I had laying around, and re-spotwelded them on. The result is a much better fit, and 6-7oz less weight.

The Group 47 H4L2 battery is an ideal fit to the Summit battery box, and the "left handed" terminal layout lends itself perfectly for the cable routing I had in mind. It's 650cca, so slightly less powerful than the standard Group 24 our cars come with, but also 8lb lighter and I think it'll be just fine. I was temped to buy a Lithium battery, which saves 35lb over a Group 24, but I just couldn't bite the bullet on a $700(ish) battery. Plus, they're relatively new and haven't established themselves as a reliable street-car battery. I will say though, that $700/35lb = $20 per pound, which is an excellent price for weight savings on a car.

 

[Hodgdon Extreme]

Built the cold air dildo I've been envisioning, just need to add a 1" bung so I can route blow-by gases back from my air/oil separator. I've looked through a lot of pictures of various turbo'd IS300s and Supras, and it seems everybody locates their air filter inside the engine compartment. This confounds me. The air under the hood is hot and spoiled by the engine and radiator. Fewer bends between the air filter and turbo inlet is an advantage, but I'll just about always take that restriction if it means I'm sucking on cold, fresh air.

Anyway, I decided to put the air filter just behind where the passenger side foglight goes. If you're willing to give up that foglight and do some trimming to the backside of the bumper cover - there is a nice big spot to fit a BIG air filter.

The filter I've chosen is a K&N RD-1460, which fits a 4" tube, is 7" diameter and 9" long. My old filter was a crappy little Autozone Spectre. Considering the old arrangement made 470whp even though the filter was inside the engine compartment - I think the new setup should be a nice improvement - even if it doesn't show up on the dyno.

I wanted to avoid an oiled gauze type filter, because servicing it means pulling the bumper cover - but I was unable to identify a dry filter of appropriate size. Even AFE's "custom filter builder" didn't allow me to configure a filter this size.

I haven't attempted to fit the bumper cover, but I think it's gonna fit. If not, I can order the same filter 1, 2, or 3 inches shorter - which will definitely fit. This one is certainly the biggest honkin filter that can be stuffed into the spot available.

Anyway, some pics:

Old filter vs new:

This filter is bigger than the turbo!

The cold air dildo piping:

I wanted to make it all one piece - but I realized doing so would mean removing turbo inlet piping at all would require pulling the bumper cover - so that's why I added an extra coupler in the middle - also it'll provide a bit of flexibility to position the filter "just so" in its new home.

And some shots to show how close it'll be to the bumper cover:

I suspect this is probably a bit of overkill for a ~500whp turbo 2J, but I'm a sucker for turbo inlet/exhaust piping to look like a sewer pipe.

 

[Hodgdon Extreme]

I'm pretty sure I just located a source for replacement IS300 ABS pump connector:

30 Pin Connector

Harrness Repair Kit

connectorexperts.com

Also, these guys seem to reproduce every conceivable OEM connector you could ever want. Seems like a great resource for those of us trying to keep old stuff alive!

 

[Pnut00]

Dont forget to take the plastic bag off the filter before you cover it up lol