Below 265 SQ/FT Garage takai - my little do it all work cave [AUS]

[takai]

So did a bunch of stuff over the summer, but didnt write up most of it because of reasons... or something. Probably laziness.

Anyway, first up was cleaning up and tidying one end of the garage so I could paint it and get it sorted out:

Then moved stuff back in place, added the cabinets above the workbench and a few decorations:

Then it all got hot, so worked inside for a bit and removed the two useless clothes hamper drawers from the laundry and built a basic hole for the upright freezer.

Just needs a shelf cut down to size and to get one of the door frontages edge banded for it and fitted up. For now though it got the freezer out of the garage.

I also built a quick hutch/cupboard for the air compressor on the outer wall of the garage:

It has an outdoor powerpoint in there, and i lined up all the weatherboards for a different base spacing, then changed my mind, so going to have to deal with it being out of alignment. Ohwell its pretty obscured back there.

Also did a bunch of paving around the edge of the garage/workshop so can now get from the back door to the garage without walking across the lawn:

Still need to build the step off the deck.

Modified a hard rubbish cabinet to put all my scrap and short machining metal lengths into. Should work pretty well:

Plus started getting stuff up onto the walls off the floor to just try and tidy up a bit:

Oh yeah, and did I say it got hot...? Decided to rethink my plan of leaving the rafters open and at the last minute chose to insulate them.

Shoved a bunch of insulation batting up into the rafters on a 35C day...

And now have started to clad it all with 6mm OSB like the workshop... fun

Managed to drop off the old fermentation fridge to my mate yesterday too, which means that lots of the stuff is out of the garage and I should be able to finish off the OSB and paint inside. That will be a great day.

Also getting ready to get the electrician out to finish off the wiring, and then the mill and lathe can come out of storage to go into the workshop.

I also headed around to a mates house to help him put a H55F back into his 60 series, on a day when it decided to pour with rain... that was fun.

Mmmm, 90kg of freshly rebuilt cast iron gearbox:

Somehow we managed to get it up here with 2 jacks and a lot of dicey manoeuvres:

But while I was there we test fitted some wheels to the Hilux:

They are 32x11.5x15 on 15x8 -23 offset wheels. Fit up pretty well. Might need a touch of relief around the inner plastic guard on the flares, and those side steps will need to go. But no great loss there

Pretty much perfectly fitting guard wise:

Tempting to grab those when he goes to 33s.

Also came across a random ute in the street with a canopy setup similar to what I am thinking of, so leaving this here to jog my memory:

 

[hewey]

That's all coming along great. I've stepping stones from my back steps to my garage, and agree it's a great feature to have a solid walkway.

 

[takai]

Not much has happened over the last few weeks, mainly because it has been ******* down with rain every time i want to go do some work. Lots of little things sorted out, but the big stuff was getting the lighting up in the garage:

6 dual T8 battens with LED bulbs, courtesy of my cousin picking them up from some surplus/liquidation store in Queensland and sending them down.

Then i got around to moving the stuff so i could paint the two large walls:

With that done almost all the painting is complete. Needs the 5000x300mm strip painted above the garage door, but that will have to wait until all the stuff on that side is shifted, plus a handful of little touchups around the place.

Hopefully the electrician is coming on Thursday to wire in the workshop and breakers and perhaps there might be scope to moving the mill and lathe in place on Saturday if the lockdown finishes up.

 

[octane_matty]

Re: Garage takai - My Australian 2 car rental garage

New lights and paint looking the goods mate!

 

[takai]

So after our brief lockdown the electrician ended up coming on Thursday to run the new feed to the garage (6mm copper) on a 32A breaker. This then runs the GPO circuit around the workshop, the lights for the workshop, a 15A for welders, and the general power feed for the garage (lights and GPO). Now all nicely tucked into bed:

That means there is now light in the workshop:

(and a ton of junk)

Using the two single battens from the garage along with the LED panel lights that I had from our previous rental garages.

All of that together meant that it was time to get a move on with cleaning up and shifting things around for some heavy machinery to be put in place and then I can figure out where everything else goes.

First up was getting the lathe and stand in place, which was an effort using levers and dollys, plus an engine crane.

Then add one mill, which was even heavier.

Finally move in cabinets, welders, and other general machinery which means it now looks like this:

Next up I need to build some shelving above the lathe for storage and put up the french cleats on the walls. I have to decide where to put the scrap metal storage as well, but that is a bit easier to move about. I will eventually build a workbench over the two cabinets on the right, and the welding table will go in the front bay door. For now though the priority is the shelving so that storage can be constructed.

 

[takai]

Still plugging away on this one. The old 80/20 rule applies here, the last 20% certainly takes 80% of the time.

Getting more small things done so i can move stuff around and clean up. Found a shower curtain fitting at Ikea that was suitable for hanging the fender guards:

So that now looks like:

Put up some shelving in the workshop so things can be stored neat(ish)ly there:

I keep watching all these woodworking shows too where they use french cleats for almost everything. So I have decided to give it a go:

These are just out of some scrap pine that I had around. Will build some more for over the workbench, and then also in the garage workbench. Should be useful for moving tools around as needed.

Then finally got around to regorganising the garden shed to make things vaguely sane in there:

I also found the Packout baseplate and installed my overly expensive milk crate and holder:

Picked it up on sale a while ago so that it can be a universal drag stuff out to the camper trailer/workshop/hilux or wherever. Also planning on building a top for it so I can use it as a router table for woodwork. Maybe... if i get around to it.

Finally I picked up this roll cab very cheaply a while ago and have had it in storage. Set it up and starting to transfer all my diagnostics and electrical tools into it:

That will make for enough room in my main cabinet to rearrange the automotive gear out of the two old roll cabs which can then be dedicated to woodworking and metalworking gear.

Slow going but steady progress. Might get a chance this week to cut up the steel for the workshop bench and then that can be welded next weekend.

 

[takai]

So not a huge amount of progress here with kids birthdays and other things taking up weekends. Mainly spending garage time sorting junk out of boxes so it can be stored properly.

Finished building the storage for the Quickjaks, including waiting for the $25 brackets to come in from the US rather than spending $180 for them here:

Then put up some shelving above the garage door:

And found some stuff stashed away that I had forgotten about:

Plus nopics decided she didnt like the coat hooks we had bought for the hallway, so i grabbed them for the garage and workshop:

But really 90% of the time has been sorting **** out. I have stuff from 4 or 5 projects ago. But getting to the point where it is starting to look like this:

Top shelf there are mostly parts that will go onto the Hilux or MX5, as is the red crate.

Need to do the same thing for the grey cabinet in the foreground which holds most of my spray cans and stuff.

Will be good once its done, but its pretty soul destroying just having to spend hours cleaning and sorting **** out.

To vary things up I also dragged the spare Hilux engine in to the garage last night, which was dicey as. First had to get the engine crane down the stairs (garage is 300mm lower than the path), and then pull the engine over and let it swing into the garage. Managed to do it without any major damage:

Got it up on the engine stand, and then decided to pop on a couple of bits that I had collected for it:

eBay manifold with random studs that i had lying around. Manifold seems decent.

But its clearly made for a smaller turbo:

Picked up that T3/T4 and manifold cheaply from eBay courtesy of some random code giving me a couple of hundred dollars off overall, so for $350 in the hole it isn't terrible. Trying now to decide whether i rotate the turbo and keep it parallel with the block or twist it 15deg to make it point outwards slightly. The second option makes it harder with the dump pipe, the first makes it harder with the intake.

Oh well that is a problem for future me.

 

[takai]

Had a brief muckaround after dinner with the turbo, playing with rotation or twisting the flange. A fairly small flange twist lets it all clear fairly well:

Its still close, but should work ok, and with a turbo blanket and insulation it shouldnt dump too much heat into the cam cover area. The disadvantage here is that there is much less room between the cam cover and dump pipe.

The other option is to create room by rotating the flange away from the engine, that i have simulated here with a couple of bolts in the flange holes:

That gives a reasonable amount of room, back to the engine, but might make the exhaust side a bit dicey. It does give more clearance for the exhaust housing though.

Not settled on what to do yet, will be waiting until i rebuild this engine and swap them over anyway, so can fix the turbo flange when the engine comes out. Big thing for now is to set up the engine fittings out of the car so that it is easier to do.

Oh and i pulled the cam cover from the engine and it looks reasonably clean inside, which is nice. Yet to get into disassembly proper, but given it turns over ok and no sludge gives me hope it might be a fairly simple ring and bearing job.

 

[GTVi]

Some good stuff in this thread . Closely following with keen interest.
Cheers,
Bill (Adelaide)

 

[takai]

So after a couple of weekends of not getting much tangibly done i pulled my finger out this weekend and did some stuff. First thing was to generate a whole bunch of sawdust and convert a pile of wood into two planter boxes. Choppy chop:

One up:

Two up ^H^H and out of lag screws:

After a quick trip to Bunnings on Saturday this is how they ended up...

Annoyingly on Sunday as the wood dried out a little the two inner posts bowed and now it looks all skewed. Oh well, with plants on it you wont be able to notice.

All of that was made much easier with the new saw stand i bought for the mitre saw:

Folds down really well and makes for a much easier time moving the saw around and getting it setup in position. Definitely recommended.

Anyway, didnt do as much on Saturday as a mate of mine flew down to pick up a car i had inspected for him, so we had a good catch up...

And then i ended up with half a car worth of spares in my garage. Every single stock piece off the car that had been modified.

Ohwell.

On Sunday I made a start on the new workbench to sit in the workshop over the red and green rolling cabinets. First up was to get the ancient German mag drill running. Its old and clunky... but like Clarkson says: "POWAHHHH"

Works a treat with annular cutters.

I then realised i was out of space on the welding bench because of all the clutter, so i finally built the angle grinder rack to go on the door, third modification on the same old rack i have had for ages, first time it has had paint:

Put it on some metal french cleats as well so i can move it to the side of the welding table if needed.

A while ago i had picked up this Torquata F-clamp rack, which made its way onto the door:

Now everything looks a little neater:

Then another mate came around for the kids to play together and for dinner, so we went to the garage and ended up fitting the new roller door motor. Strap it up:

Out with the old:

In with the new:

Ended up just removing the bracket from the wall and supporting it on an adjustable scaffolding strut that i picked up from hard rubbish earlier in the year. Worked a treat.

Anyway with that in place i could then see if anything would actually fit in the space above the door, and what do you know. Win:

That setting has plenty of clearance with the door up, and should be able to fit enough smaller stuff plus that size crate up there.

Finally i started thinking about how i would store all my jack stands. Considering just building some cubbies for them like this:

I toyed with inverting one like this, but not sure it gives me much benefit:

Anyway, should be able to finish welding up the workbench this week and then get it in place when it stops raining.

Plus with the new setup above the garage door i should be able to keep sorting stuff into those containers for longer term storage which will be useful.

Might even be able to get the MX5 in and start on some other projects soon.

 

[hewey]

Nice update mate, lots going on! That MX5 looks really nice, great storage solutions, and nice work on the planter beds as well.

 

[takai]

Nice update mate, lots going on! That MX5 looks really nice, great storage solutions, and nice work on the planter beds as well.

Thanks
At this rate I might even get to a real project before Christmas

 

[takai]

Another weekend, another few bits done. Not huge progress but posting to keep motivation up.

First up was welding together the new work bench:

You can see there my brain dead moment last week where i drilled 8 extra holes on the top rails which were just not needed at all. *facepalm*
Oh and true to Murphy I ran out of gas while welding on the final brackets to secure the top... typical

Anyway after a trip the next day to get gas, and then a coat of paint:

Built up some more hockey puck feet:

That box of 25 pucks that i brought back from the US in 2019 has proven to be very useful.

Then add some formply for the top:

And cabinets:

With that sorted out i then took to fixing up some storage in our attic which involved assembling this massive pallet rack:

Ended up having to assemble it around the beams, but it works. Nothing too heavy up there just a box of cables and then crates of baby and kids clothes.

Finally, I kept on sorting out the garage including getting a ton of small boxes setup above the garage door:

Getting some clear floor at last. It is a slow and tedious task, but needs to be done.

​​​​​​​Slowly but surely.

 

[bargainhuntingking]

Can you please post a pic of the opposite side of the hockey puck feet so I can see how the bolt is attached/fixed through it. Thanks!

 

[takai]

Re: Garage takai - My Australian 2 car rental garage

Can you please post a pic of the opposite side of the hock puck feet so I can see how the bolt is attached/fixed through it. Thanks!

I don't have any pics around but it is just a nut welded onto the stud to form a bolt head and then recessed into the bottom of the puck. Here is a photo of someone else doing the same thing:

We can't cheaply get hockey pucks here in Australia, so i picked up a box when I was last in the US. Using M16 chemset anchor studs there as they are a cheap source of threaded rod in the right sort of length, and then 50x50mm M16 square washers.
Basically the washer acts as the load spreader over the surface of the puck and it is just sandwiched together.

 

[octane_matty]

Re: Garage takai - My Australian 2 car rental garage

I don't have any pics around but it is just a nut welded onto the stud to form a bolt head and then recessed into the bottom of the puck. Here is a photo of someone else doing the same thing:

We can't cheaply get hockey pucks here in Australia, so i picked up a box when I was last in the US. Using M16 chemset anchor studs there as they are a cheap source of threaded rod in the right sort of length, and then 50x50mm M16 square washers.
Basically the washer acts as the load spreader over the surface of the puck and it is just sandwiched together.

Nice work on the feet, I had the same issue with hockey puck supplies. Ended up ordering a heap of feet from alibaba $1.5 each I think plus postage

 

[takai]

Re: Garage takai - My Australian 2 car rental garage

Nice work on the feet, I had the same issue with hockey puck supplies. Ended up ordering a heap of feet from alibaba $1.5 each I think plus postage

Ah nice. I didnt think about Alibaba. These were more of an impulse buy while i was in the US.

 

[bargainhuntingking]

Thanks. I’ll be using that Idea! Is there a smaller diameter washer on the floor side of the bolt in the recessed area too? Or just the one on top?

 

[takai]

No smaller washer on the bottom, the underside of the bolt is chamfered enough to not worry about it and once its locked together it wont be moving as it isn't loaded in that direction (or if it is then there are much bigger things to worry about)

 

[takai]

I spent the last week at home with our newborn, and got a few moments throughout the week to potter around in a sleep deprived daze in the garage to get a few little projects done.

First up was giving the grease guns somewhere to live:

Just a quick little set of 75mm pipes with end caps. I have a few smaller pieces of 20mm conduit to be screwed down as well to secure the hoses.
Also gives a convenient spot to store the other bits

Plus rejigged the benchtop tool storage using some Stealthmounts.

Then built a small box to hold the jack stands:

And rigged up some brackets to hold the GoJaks:

Just using some spare 100mm angle lintel that a neighbour had turfed out for hard rubbish. Massive overkill, but as they say, its my second favourite type of kill.

Then started on some tool holders for my welding bench, which i had designed around being able to use 50mm trailer hitches, and quickly welded this one up for my ring roller:

So then i could roll a ring for my Ryobi bucket fan to sit on and be mounted to the wall, like this:

Pretty simple little setup that keeps the fan out of the way, plus gives a usable fan for heat or steam from the brewery without having to get a new fan to mount to the wall. This way i can still just take it off when we go camping etc.

Then I managed to get the bandsaw off the old stand:

And build some mounts to put the new bandsaw back on it:

Looks like it will work pretty well. I'll build a hydraulic downfeed for it later on, based on the one that ships with the Grizzly version but that can come later.

Oh and i managed to finally get the TV and speakers hooked up:

Plus added the first piece of decoration because of the Nurburgring 6hr race yesterday:

But most of my week was spent catching up on Youtube with bubs in my arms so that nopics could get some sleep:

 

[takai]

So, this next phase has taken a while, but mainly because it has been so cold and rainy. First up i needed to tidy up the garage so that I could shove all of the big and heavy stuff down one end:

Because it has been so wet I couldnt just dump it all outside, and so therefore i ended up doing the silly epoxy in two parts thing.

That was so i could sand the entire garage:

Then i could epoxy one end of the garage:

Wait about 10 days because its so cold that its taking forever to cure, and then epoxy the other end:

Managed to feather the coats together such that its hard to see where they overlap.

Finally I could get everything back into the places they were supposed to be, and get the artwork up on the walls:

The GT40 print i have had sitting around since 2011, but never had anywhere to put it.

And also a pano:

Still need to tidy and sort the stuff on the workbench and in the Milwaukee packout crate, but its like 99% done

Currently we are in lockdown, but once we get out I should be able to get the MX5 through and then i can start working on that again.

The end of working on the garage rather than working in the garage is in sight!

 

[hardtop5000]

That's a lot of work by any standards, but an awesome effort for a bloke with a new baby to wrangle.

 

[hewey]

Yeh I agree, impressive effort!

 

[takai]

Had a mate come over on the weekend and he helped me move the MX5 around the back of the house and into the garage:


Which is a bit of a milestone, as it has been outside for just under 12 months while i sorted everything out. But now that it is inside I should be able to get some more work done on that car.

After we moved everything into the garage we found the time to start tearing down the 3RZ. As I said earlier the internals and valve train looks pretty schmick:


Thermostat looks basically brand new:


Timing chain guides look like almost zero wear:


Plus the timing chain bolts look like they have been paint marked or witness marked at some point:


All was looking good until we got the main timing chain lower gear off:


Ugh, thats a pretty deep score.

But we plugged on and ended up pulling the head to see what the pistons were like, and found:


A ton of carbon build up.

Now i have no idea what the history of this engine is, whether it was rebuilt at some point (the timing chain and bearings look like it), or whether it is just low km from factory. Either way the crank is going to need to be sorted. Will have to pull the crank and see if i can get a shop to machine a longer keyway into the snout. If that is looking like a no go I will just pull the current engine from my Hilux and use the bottom end from that with the head from this new engine.

Either way it is time to order a rebuild kit.

Anyway, the garage now looks like this:


Couldn't stay so clean for that long anyway. Still have to clean up and tidy the workbenches and sort out some storage for 3RZ bits while im waiting to rebuild it. But it finally feels like I can work in the garage rather than working on the garage.

 

[takai]

Havent been doing much constructive work in the garage for the past couple of weeks, mainly just tidying up. But this weekend I thought it would be good to get started on the Hilux.

A couple of weeks back I picked up some wheels and tyres for this. Babs had a set of basically brand new Dunlop Grandtrek MTs going cheaply and eBay had a 22% off sale which applied to the Sunraysias i wanted. So like Captain Planet we get this:


Then after a couple of brief trips to pick up the last things it would need to do for a while I squeezed it down the side of the house:


Its blocked in with the camper trailer and I can barely squeeze down either side and open the doors. I call it Lockdown Constipation.

That was followed by a Maximum Effort (oh wait that is trademarked) to get the bull bar off, as all of the bolts were covered in mud, rusted and seized, and then i had to slowly lower the bullbar solo by hand (a friend still has my jack and we are in lockdown). But it is off:


That thing needs to go on a diet, especially with all the roller hardware for a steel cable winch. But that can wait for a bit. Oh did i mention that I attempted to remove the indicator plugs carefully, and they just snapped off... ugh. Time to rewire with Deutsch connectors.

Anywho, got stuck in and started pulling apart the engine for removal, and got to this point before my fingers were so cold i couldnt tell if it was the connector disconnecting, the plastic breaking, or my bones cracking.


This is the first time in about 15 years that I have pulled an engine with care to keep the AC stuff together and not just started cutting hoses because it was all going to be replaced. So much easier when you are building cars that 90% of it will be changed. For this one I think the only thing ill end up replacing with other gear is the fuel side of things, and just to swap that over to AN fittings because the stock stuff is pretty average.

As you can see its a pretty messy old engine, there is so much oil sludge and residue on the intake side down low that its probably going to spawn a monster or something, and I have no idea how that alternator belt was still holding on:


Coolant stuff is also pretty badly corroded, which thankfully I have better condition stuff on the other engine, but I just hope that the block itself isnt terribly corroded.


Either way i should be able to pull the engine out soon, and then the fun can begin of assembling one good engine from two. Plus perhaps a bit of scope creep.

This is where I left it for now though:

 

[octane_matty]

You've absolutely been cracking on the projects Takai!
loving all the organisation!

 

[takai]

Thanks Matty, getting there.

Had a bit of unexpected time today to work on the Hilux, as I was originally expecting it to be pouring. Finished stripping off the rest of the ancillaries (starter, alternator etc), and then started to figure out how to get to the upper two gearbox bolts. Because the engine is canted over one of them is pretty much exactly in the middle of the trans tunnel and almost impossible to get to, while the other is obscured by the transfer case and front drive shaft.

Figured the easiest way to try was to get the gearbox crossmember down and then squeeze long extensions up from there.

To do that I needed to do some literal archaeology:


The crossmember was so full of mud that there was no getting to the bolts, and it took me about an hour with a cold chisel and hammer to dig through the mud and rocks:



No idea what the previous owner/s have done to get that much **** into there but it was dried solid.

Eventually i got to these four bolts and then managed to get the crossmember off:


After soaking the crossmember in a bath for half the day most of the mud finally came away:


Then it was time to try and get the engine out. Which meant finding more bolts that were basically invisible underneath all the oil encrusted mud:


Finally had success at my archaeological expedition and got the engine out:


Didnt take many photos from then on as i was racing against the light, but its an engine on a stand, which i got into the garage in the same way as the last one, so you can review that post for how dodgy it was. Mercifully it didnt quite kill me this time.

Oh and i found out why the clutch always felt less than inspiring:

That was slipping rather badly.

Anywho, that is most of the boring stuff done, onto the more fun stuff.

 

[takai]

After i got home from work today I was curious about the engine, so I threw on the overalls and started tearing it down.


Now almost every crevice and valley was just filled with caked mud, like this:


And i was fully expecting the inside of the engine to be more of the same, a sludgy mess. buuuuut


All of it so far is pretty clean. Even more clean than the first engine we pulled down earlier.

Looks like at some point there has been work done to it, wrecker pen on the camshafts again:


And witness marks on the cam bolt:


But other than that it is pretty good.

I got the head off expecting to see a burnt valve, but there is very little to visually indicate anything:


Perhaps the 4th exhaust valve (2nd cylinder) is leaking a bit, given the discolouration. But who knows. Ill have to tear it down and check

Similarly no signs of huge blowby into the crank, although we would have had some inkling of that with the wet compression test that offered no increase in compression:


Thats as far as i got today, as i was reminded that pulling the sump while wearing work clothes isnt such a crash hot idea, even with overalls over the top.

Will be interesting to see what we find in the bottom end, because its pretty schmick inside for something that has basically been leaking from every orifice externally (oil filter mount, oil pump seal, front main seal, rear main seal, timing chain seal).

Whatever happens it will be good to have a fresh engine in there for what comes next....

 

[takai]

More teardown time over the weekend. Timing chain side of things on this one looks as clean as the other one:


Pulled out the balance shafts, big lumps of cast iron on either side of the engine:


Looks like the bottom end has been apart at some point too, more than enough RTV on the sump:


Bearings have a decent amount of wear on them though, this was one of the better ones too:


But mercifully the bores in this one are round:

Also a good tip if you are looking for a way to try and hold the telescopic bore gauge and the outside mic at the same time.

And then look at these weeny little guys:


Its like the 3RZ just skipped leg day.

Finally this is what you are left with when you have two mostly disassembled 3RZs kicking around your garage:


Onto the head for the next one....

 

[takai]

A couple of weeks on and I have made a bit of progress between work things that needed to be done.

First up was stripping the head from the Hilux to see if I could figure out what was wrong. Out comes the Snap On valve tool:



This thing is a bit of magic and can be used easily for removing and installing valve collets. Just place ontop of the valve retainer (black bit is the installation tool) and hit with hammer:


A little magnet in the recess pulls out the collets and lets it pop off the valve:


Installation is basically the reverse, will show that when the time comes.

Do that a few times—16 to be precise—and you are left with this:


And this:


Everything looked reasonable at that point, so i took all the valves over to the bench grinder to wire wheel off the carbon deposits, and there i found this:


Went back to the head and cleaned up that port (Intake 4) and valve seat and presto:


And a backlit comparison with the valve in the other port:


That would be the source of low compression on the second pot. Now in a normal situation i would just get a new valve cut for the head and have it matched in with stem length. But being in lockdown makes that more difficult.

However, I do have an entire spare engine.... so onto that head. Before i pulled the valves on that head though i rebuilt my vacuum tester and checked all the ports on that one to see if there were any significant leaks:


All tested fine at around 24inHg so that should be fine for lapping back and sealing up again.

So here we have it:


Another head stripped and ready for a quick clean up and reseal.

 

[hewey]

Rebuild is coming along well. Nice job getting it in that garage door too!

 

[takai]

Rebuild is coming along well. Nice job getting it in that garage door too!

Yeah, should be able to finish it off soon, even with lockdowns.

Getting it in the garage door was rather dicey. Certainly made me wish for a 'proper' garage again.

 

[takai]

Got a few more little bits done over the weekend. First up was giving the ports a bit of a clean up, as the castings are more than a bit average:


Half an hour with the die grinder, carbide bits, and flapper rolls took most of the edges off and enough for what I want:

Its not a race engine, and i have no delusions about it becoming one, but for the time investment it just soothes the soul slightly.

Then lapped the valves back into the head with lapping paste and the drill/vacuum tube method:


Open up my big box of rebuild bits, and get fresh valve stem seals out:


Add to head:

Spend 15 mins struggling with putting them on square and having them pop off the valve guide until remembering that I had bought a set of valve stem pliers in the dim dark past, install all seals in 2mins flat.

Then reinstall all of the valve springs and retainers:



Quick punch down with the installation tool and voila:


Seriously that valve spring installation tool is magic, absolute magic.

I then vac tested all the ports and got a consistent 22.5inHg on the exhaust valves, and then couldnt get any vacuum on the intake.... realised i hadnt put the injectors into the head. Pop an injector in and voila, 24inHg


Thats about it for the engine for now. Dragged it all down to the machine shop to deck the block and head, hone the bores, and machine the flywheel for me. Should get it back later this week and be able to put it back together maybe next weekend.

Oh and my new LED headlights arrived:


Super clean low beam cutoff and good beam pattern, which i really like. Should be a good upgrade from the cheap replacement units where the driver's side fills with water in the rain.

Also got around to doing the brakes on the daily driver in the driveway:


Not the most comfortable, but its not terrible to work on and I'm not doing much more than basic servicing.
Probably should have done it a bit earlier though:


Had those pads sitting in the boot for about 2 years now...

 

[takai]

Not a huge amount of progress this week, under the pump with work and waiting for the block to be ready. Ended up picking it up all freshly cleaned and machined on Friday:


Gave it a coat of Cast Iron engine enamel:


Nice fresh canvas to work from, which inspired me to clean up a whole bunch of the other bits. Cleaned intake manifolds and then sealed up the pores with the DupliColor Cast Aluminium paint:


Plus most of the ancillary brackets and cam cover:


Then lots of cleaning of other bits, like the timing chain/oil pump/water pump cover:


But that included having to get the existing oil pump out, and there in was an issue. For some reason these engines like to ingest stuff like rocks into gap between the oil pump cover and the crank pulley, and it does this:


Not only that, but both oil pump covers seem to have had the same thing happen:


Now this causes an issue, because even the good one is cracked through that impact and has been weeping oil out of the groove. So going to have to source a new oil pump front cover.

That wasn't the only issue this weekend either, as I discovered my small set of lab scales that i use for measuring piston/rod/etc weights got drowned at some point in a solvent or acid that has eaten through the traces on the PCB, which means it is now junk. Have ordered a new cheapy one and hopefully it will arrive soon.

That brings me to my last issue, a bunch of bits for this project are still in the post and just floating around Melbourne or Australia going back and forth between DCs a few times and not really getting to me. Hopefully they will arrive eventually.

Once the scales arrive though I can finish building most of the engine, so ill just have to wait for that I guess.

Had Father's Day on Sunday as well, but was home bound because of a COVID test, so got a couple of hours to listen to podcasts and clean up in the garage, so its a little bit more respectable for the next phase of the build.

 

[takai]

Big weekend on the Hilux, first up was discovering that the bolt on engine mounts.... dont, you know, bolt on:


That was a simple fix with the drill, no biggy.

What took more time was starting to build the bottom end, which required me to get the scales out for the fresh pistons that came in the box of rebuild parts:


Plus the new rods, which didnt come in the box of rebuild parts:


That comparison is like leg day for the 3RZ. Such a good engine which is hampered by weeny rods. Leg day it is.

Which gives a box of reciprocating bits assembly like this:


Add rings with more feeler gauges:


and some fettling:


Pretty much the only use for that cheap Aldi sharpener these days.

Then a bunch of plastigage, because my internal dial micrometer is in storage 35km away:


Bang on middle of the range anyway, so good enough.

Gives one bottom end:


To which i had to retorque the middle main cap after forgetting the thrust bearings.

Add reciprocating assemblies:


Torque to spec and paint pen all the things:


With the bottom end together i started to put other things in and got to the balance shafts, and at the last minute decided to do a balance shaft delete. Cue drilling and tapping the block... should have done that earlier:



But one oil port blocked off and bolt loctited in place with obligatory paint pen.


Back to reassembly. The engine rebuild kit i bought came with a timing chain set, which is a good thing as the old set of guides was pretty hammered:


Add under half of the timing assembly bits back to the engine, with all nice fresh guides and tensioners:


Obilgatory paint pen:


Add timing cover and then head:


Torque up all the things..and add cams:


That is about where I am at currently. Need to bolt up all the ancillaries and check the valve timing and lash again, but I ran out of Hylomar for the gaskets, so need to get more of that to seal up the engine properly.

Should be able to get some Hylomar soon and get it sealed up by the weekend... hopefully.

 

[takai]

Not a huge amount of work on the Hilux this weekend, mainly due to long sleepins *yay*.

I did get out the feeler gauges though and start doing the valve shims, which was slightly infuriating. I didn't think about doing it beforehand, and presumed that it would be close to correct given that it looked like it had been done in the recent past. How wrong was I. Clearances were all over the shop, with only one valve actually in spec:


That is ok, I had another stack of shims from the spare engine and a few extras, so i sat down with a Negroni and started measuring:


Which gave:


****, only one of those is actually useable.


Now i have to find 10 shims in a pandemic with shipping blown out to weeks at a time. Fun.

Went on with a few other things though, first up was sorting out the drain plug:


Using a wideband bung that I had lying around, makes it easy to plug for now then can add an AN fitting when i add the turbo.

I then mounted up the turbo again:


Wow, it fits this time... after some fettling:


This would explain why the turbo manifold was so cheap, there is no way it would ever fit a T3 housing turbo with the angles it was setup for. But for some reason it came with a T3 flange. I suspect the design was built for a T25, which would also explain the setup for internal wastegate which is more prevalent on the T25 flange, as opposed to most T3 housings which are external wastegate.
I will just tack this in place for now and then measure up again once the engine is in the Hilux, to check clearances back to the brake MC etc. But all of that does look a lot easier than before.

Thats about it for now. Need to get shims and go from there.

 

[hewey]

Hope you get your shims sorted soon. My wife's been enjoying her Negroni's of late too.

 

[takai]

If i had access to my old surface grinder this would be trivial. But as it is I have managed to source shims locally, just have to figure out how to get them with lockdown.

 

[takai]

Definitely in the 80:20 phase of the engine side of this build, lots of little things this weekend.

First up was managing to get all of the shims i needed, all 11 of them...


Not cheap, but its what it costs in a pandemic and good to get things dialled in properly.

Lots of pretty new shims:


Which is basically the entire exhaust side and a few on the intake side:


In hindsight i really should have just done it on the bench and ground the tips of the valves, but I was rushing a little bit to make a deadline (which is now pointless due to lockdown), so... moral of the story, dont rush.

Once that was done it is a trivial exercise to bolt all the ancillaries on, and you end up with this:


Plus i pulled out the Jaaaaaaaaaag V12 alternator that was rumoured to fit, and voila:


Fit it does, and its a bolt in 140A replacement for the stock 75A unit. Should do well.

After that it was just a bit of tidying up on the engine bay ahead of reinstalling the engine:


While i was pulling the clutch line out because the rubber was bulging, i also found out why the floor was getting wet in the rain:


Tore straight off while wiggling the bracket to get the rusted on retaining clip out. Will have to sort that one out.

But also found that the spare Gktech clutch line from some Silvia or Skyline fits almost perfectly:

Finally found a use for it, one less thing to do.

Lastly I got busy with the rattle can and did what all the cool kids call "murdering out"

Back in my day it was just spraying the radiator panel with a rattle can... oh wait it still is.

Possibly able to get the engine back in next weekend, if its not pouring for all of it.

 

[takai]

A bit of a side thing from the garage itself. Built the kids a LEGO table over the weekend.

Using these Trofast cabinets from Ikea, as they already have all their LEGO stored in the cabinets. Build four of them, and arrange in a square


Prime and paint some MDF:


Add to cabinets with castor wheels:


Carefully flip over and cut top pieces.


Add some paint and some stickers from the Cricut


Then get the kids to add the LEGO:


The centre piece is removable so they can crawl through where one of the boxes is and stand up in the centre, or it can be part of their bigger playset. Its moveable enough with the castors that they can shift it if they need, but heavy enough that they cant move it terribly quickly and put holes in the walls.

Good little weekend project and they love it. Plus the lower height means they will play with their LEGO at the table rather than on the floor, and we wont have to worry about stepping on it. Plus mum and dad get to play with it too.