The Rebirth

[BigMike]

April 28, 2013: Finally a cell phone mount!

Not much to say other than I now have a sweet place to mount my iPhone The mount can be bent in any direction and rotates 360-degrees. When bent back into the dash mat, it tucks away neatly becoming nearly non-existent. I ensured I could still read the clock while seated. Overall I am VERY satisfied with this. This is the mount I got: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007FMWWC0/

Essentially what I did was I removed the window suction mount section and just hard-mounted it to my dash. I figured that since I use a dash mat, if for any reason it didn't work out or I no longer liked it, the dash mat would just coverup the drilled holes.

UPDATE: Eventually the mount broke at the pivot point, so I purchased another one and am going to build-up the plastic pivot area with JB Weld Kwik Plastic, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003S2E4UE/ I've already purchased both but have not reinstalled the new mount yet. Hopefully I'll get to it soon because I really miss it!

[BigMike]

Not much happened during the late spring & summer. Got really busy with work and went on a ton of wheeling trips / events. I did however slowing piece together and design my future & final intake design/plan, with construction taking place....

October 4, 2013: Started on my new awesome intake redesign project!

If you recall, back on Dec 10, 2011, I dynoed my car with the stock air box and netted 143.4 WHP, and then again with the stock air filter removed and netted 150.4 WHP. A clean 7 horsepower increase from simply removing the stock air filter. CLEARLY the intake system is a big restriction, which to the 4A-GZE crowd, is no kept secret: There are a combined SEVEN-AND-A-HALF 90-degree corners between the air filter and the Supercharger itself. We all understand the design challenges Toyota had and their necessity for a reliable design, but seriously there is a lot of room for improvement here.

My ultimate goal is to replace all components before the final two 90-degree corners in front of the Supercharger with the equivalent of two-and-a-half 90-degree corners. This is a reduction of five 90-degree corners. Additionally, I will use a larger throttle body, cold air intake filter placement, and have a provision for the return of my homemade water/alcohol system to this car.

Above all else, the new intake is to be simply and readily able to revert back to it's 100% stock configuration with as little amount of work as possible.

Typing this from Feb, 2014, I can proudly say that all of my plans both made it to fruition and blew away my expectations

On to some pictures from Day #1 of my new Intake system!

1: What my engine compartment currently looks like
2: Look at the intake routing on the right side of this picture. Good lord
3: Stock intake routing removed, not to be used again until smog time 
4: Throttle body removed
5: Throttle body down-pipe and air by-pass valve (ABV) removed

The large inlet at center will be the only remaining stock intake parts before the Supercharger. Technically, I could have moved the Starter to my exhaust side of the engine -- as my C-series transaxle has the provision -- removing 1 additional 90-degree corner, but honestly for the sake of needing to restore stock parts for smog every-other-year, this is a very fair compromise:  All I'll have to do is just replace the components of steps 3-5 and bam I'm back to 100% smog legal.

[BigMike]

(October 4, 2013 continued)

Next I need to lengthen both my Throttle Positioning Switch (TPS) and Idle Air Control solenoid (IAC) wiring for where I want to reposition the throttle body at. I noticed that all I needed to do is just pull back the engine wiring loom to get much more free wire length. Sorry if this doesn't make sense right now. Basically I need the TPS and IAC harnesses to both reach over to where I plan to place the new-design throttle body and also reach back over and reconnect to the stock-position throttle body for smog time.

1: Removed the fuel rail and lifted up the engine loom and am slowly pulling back and back both TPS and IAC harnesses further upstream along the loom.
2: Might be hard to see, but look at the two long freshly electrical tapped wiring harnesses at center-left. These are the TPS and IAC plugs. You can see where they now exist the loom before the plastic loom bracket before the intake manifold. Now I have extra long TPS and IAC plugs that I can out stretch and reach nearly anywhere in the engine bay.
3: When I pulled up the fuel rail to get to the engine loom, look what I found!! I had a leaking injector that I never knew about!
4: New Japanese-made injector seals installed

[BigMike]

(October 4, 2013 continued)

Next comes the main entry: a 5mm larger 3S-GTE throttle body This takes me from 50mm to 55mm. I thought about using a 60mm (7M-GTE or even a Camry V6) but feared too drastic a change will go off the stock ECU tables. At any rate, the new intake as a whole is going to be wildly more efficient than the stock setup ... and I get to keep it all MR2 parts

1: I had to build new male-inlet and male-outlet parts for the 3S-GTE throttle body. Yes I could have used a normally aspirated 4A-GE throttle body -- also 55mm -- but the 3S-GTE variant uses the same ICV system as my 4A-GZE and getting the idle right is a critical piece of the puzzle that I didn't want to take any chances with.
2: X-X marks the spot!
3: Let the games begin!
4: I ended up making a second inlet section because the first prototype was deemed insufficient for flexibility/ease of tig welding.

And that is it for Day #1!

[BigMike]

October 6, 2013: New Intake System Day #2

Basically this was an evening spent planning out the routing. Not much actual work was done...

1: Air flow meter and my 'H'ong 'K'ong 'S'pecial (Chinese HKS knock-off) air filter getting ready for mock-up
2: The new future home for all things COLD AIR! (Note this is a side vent I installed as a young wee little lad (back in 1999) on my driver's side of my car).
3: What it will look like from the inside.
4: It's difficult to see due to the flash, but take a look here for the Air filter pipe - to AFM - to 3S-GTE throttle body. This will be a direct, straight-through, cold, efficient, low-resistance air intake design.

[BigMike]

October 9, 2013: Inlet and oulet male Throttle Body adapters finished

I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves

Now I've converted a 3S-GTE throttle body to be installed inline, hose-to-hose.

[BigMike]

October 11, 2013: New Intake System Day #3

Knowing that this would be a big project, I planned to do it in stages. I got the car running today but it was missing a lot of features: Limited power brakes, no ABV, no crank-case vent (PCV), and of course no water-injection.

1: I got a new Toyota 3S-GTE throttle body -to- intake manifold metal gasket which made for an easy installation on the back side of the TB (no messy silicone).
2: I ordered some SWEEEET parts from http://www.siliconeintakes.com but failed to get a 30-ish degree silicone hose. I found I was able to use the stock intake part (that originally connected to the inlet of the AFM) -- which was 1/4-inch too large of a diameter -- by using electrical tape to take up the slack. (More to come on this later as I soon discovered this was a horrible idea!) I did order the correct hose but it wouldn't be till the next week to receive it. So I made do with what I had so I could get the car back on the road.
3: Starting to come together! This is a one-foot long 2.5" stainless steel extra thick (0.08") 135-degree exhaust pipe (product link) for $14.99. I got the extra thick version because I will be doing some welding to it later to hook-up water-injection, ABV, and power brakes (to be continued).
4: Connecting the AFM inline with the 3S-GTE throttle body. Hose entering AFM is a 3" to 2.75" reducer and hose entering TB is a 2.75" to 2.5" reducer. Downstream from the TB, all lines are 2.5" all the way to the Supercharger inlet. 
5: Modified the stock 3S-GTE throttle cable bracket to do away with some funky huge rubber dampener or something .... something that I didn't even have when I received this TB from a fellow on the MR2 OC classified section. So I just modified it to be directly compatible with my AW11 throttle cable.

[BigMike]

(October 11, 2013 continued)

I've decided to start using slightly larger images

1: The 4A-GZE TPS (left) is 90-degrees off from the 3S-GTE TPS, so you have to switch the associated bracket (two pieces vertically at right) at the throttle body for compatibility.

2: You can see the lengthened wiring harnesses of the AFM and ICV (yellow-ish plastic component on the side of the TB) connected. Also at right is a hose connected to the side of the TB. This is the Idle Control circuit of the 3S-GTE but I didn't have time to connect it so I am using this for my power brake booster signal line. Therefore I will only have power brakes whenever the engine is not idling.

UPDATE: This was rather annoying let me tell you. At a stop light the brake pedal would get firm, then would get soft; You'd go to grab some brakes and one moment the pedal would drop, the next it would be firm. I eventually learned to live with it but couldn't wait to get that fixed).

3: CHECK THAT OUT BABY!!!!

4 & 5: Intercooler installed!! Look how neat it all tucks up under the IC. Sure, I suppose it restricts some air flow, but there is a good four to six inch vertical distance of open space beneath the IC ... plus I have a fan atop my hood to pull air through the IC ... not concerned about this, not one bit. The performance gain from all this is paramount.

[BigMike]

(October 11, 2013 continued)

1: With the flash turned on you can see the intake pipe running all the way under the IC and to the side wall of the engine compartment where the air filter is. That is a sexy straight shot of cold air.

2: I forgot to reconnect the hot water supply to the TB, so off came the IC and on went the hot water pipes. The brass check valve is used to limit how hot the TB gets. I just don't see a need for it all to be cooking away...

3: All done and ready to drive home!

4: Before & After comparison. There is still much to be done. I really dislike those silly small valve cover cone air filters, but until I get this completed it will remain, expected to puke oil everywhere and be stinky.


I really like how it all turned out. I have all my old intake parts except for an extra TPS (I had to use my old TPS on the new TB), so I need to get another stock TPS and reinstall/readjust it to my stock TB. That way swapping parts out for when its time to smog the car will only take an hour or so and can be accomplished in my drive way.

[BigMike]

(October 11, 2013 continued)

While I was finishing the above up, I also did a few other things.

I mounted the air filter so that it won't be flying around everywhere and made sure the mount would not affect the ease of removing the air filter media for quick washes in the kitchen sink. Yes I am aware that the air filter will get dirty quick here, which is why I went with yellow (other options were green & red): Yellow will get dirty easy alerting me that it's time to clean it.

1. Simple hook.

2. Simple, loosely-fitted Zip Tie allows for movement when the engine torques forward-to-back.

3. All I have to do to access and clean the filter media is remove the two air vent screws and then unscrew that red knob at center. The outer screen comes out and the filter media falls into my hands.
I also removed a rubber grommet that plugged off the cab from this section of the body hoping to get more sweet intake vibes into the cab

4. Really happy with how this turned out


EDIT: I forgot to discuss the intake hose used at the air filter (shown in the first image below). All I know is I got this from a friend a few years ago from a Chevy 3.4-liter 6-cylinder engine conversion he did to his Toyota Hilux truck. I believe it has a 3" opening on each end. I don't have any other info on it. I was just lucky I had it laying around and it fit perfectly.

[BigMike]

(October 11, 2013 continued)

I also fixed some sloppy shifter issue I had off of a tip from my co-worker, Chee. I replaced my factory rubber shift bushings with Roller Blade bearings. I found out this is no kept secret either: See http://mr2wiki.com/AllModels/ShiftBearings plus countless other Google searches on the topic.

I had some old ABEC 5 bearings laying around and promptly converted them. WOW or WOW what a DIFFERENCE. Buttery smooth shifting now and much tighter feel. However part of the improvement was due to one old bushing of mine being absolutely wasted!! (this is the bushing that controls forward-reward shift handle movement -- I've been slamming a lot of gears!)

1: Standard Roller Blade bearing at left, factory AW11 shift bushing at right. This is the bushing that isolates the shift cable from the transmission. There are two of them: One for forward-reward shift handle movement and the other for side-to-side handle movement. So you'll need two roller blade bearings.

2: Add washers to compensate for thickness. This allowed me to raise the bearing up (raise the cable mount location up) resulting in a bit less bind on the shift cable.

3: Old bushings. Look at the wasted one at left. No wonder I would sometimes miss 3rd gear! ha ha

4: INSTALLED! Such a nice upgrade. If you haven't done this yet then get it done already! WOW

[BigMike]

October 14, 2013: What happened to all my boost?

You've surly noticed I've yet to describe how amazing the new intake setup is. The very next day I traveled to San Jose. I was understandably timid when I drove it home the night before, so I didn't really open it up until my road trip. Well, the thing is .... hahaha I actually lost boost. It was entirely impossible. How could this be? Peak boost had somehow dropped to ~5 psi (previously was ~8.5), and would drop to 3 and even 2 psi near redline. Something was messed up. Then half way to San Jose while passing through Los Banos it started squealing, literally, a high shrieking pitch coming from the engine. I pulled over and started removing parts here and there to see what was going on. I thought maybe I had left a shop rag in the intercooler (to prevent dirt from falling in while it was apart) but after looking into it with a flashlight I couldn't see anything. I put things back together, found I was able to get a couple extra turns tighter on a few hose clamps (**KEY POINT**) and fired it back up. Noise went away. Strange.

I kept the S/C switched off up Pacheco Pass and made it through the mountains and into Gilroy. Before highway 101 it started squealing again. Pulled over, found I could get a few more turns tighter on a couple hose clamps (**KEY POINT**), sound went away, kept driving.

I made it through the weekend and even back to Fresno without trouble, but still had a massive boost drop.

As mentioned above,

2: ...failed to get a 30-ish degree silicone hose ... found I was able to use the stock intake part ... by using electrical tape to take up the slack. (More to come on this later as I soon discovered this was a horrible idea!)

...well, back at the shop I opened up more parts ... and check this out

1: Hmmmmmm? What is that???

2: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Yeah, do ya think I had a boost drop for some reason?? HAHAHAHAHAHAH

This is the nice 135-degree stainless steel exhaust pipe section. So this is on the backside of the oversized/incorrect/stock intake hose I was temporarily using.


3: GET OUTTA HERE UNRELIABLE ELECTRICAL TAPE!! What a stupid idea that was

Thank goodness that didn't fall off and get sucked into the Supercharger. Can you imagine sticky electrical tape mess everywhere, and even crammed into the intercooler.... wow... yeeeeeeah.

[BigMike]

(October 14, 2013 continued)

But wait, there's more!

1. Check this out, this is at the front end of the oversized/incorrect/stock intake hose I was temporarily using. So both electrical tape "fixing the slack" parts failed.

Then, in the end I discovered that the high quality T-Bolt clamps I am using (product link) had more than enough force to clamp down over the oversized 2.75" stock intake piece such that they fully enclosed around each 2.5" pipe. I never ever needed to attempt to take up any slack in the first place!

2. Here we are with everything all back together

[BigMike]

(October 14, 2013 continued)

And now I will tell you what difference this new intake has made....


All I need to say is this. The current history of boost on this engine:

• Stock: 8psi
• Performed "ABV mod": Boost increased to 8.5 psi
• New Intake: 9.75 psi to 10 psi at redline!

Yes, I'm hitting near 10 psi with all stock USDM pulleys. Stock 1988 crank pulley and stock 1988 SC12 pulley with stock 1988 SC12 Supercharger.

Power:
H-U-G-E DIFFERENCE on the mid to top end. The power band kick at 3,500-ish RPM comes in much stronger now and the thing pulls stronger and stronger until you have to shift. There seems to be no top end. Power just builds all the way to redline. The first thing I noticed right away is that the rev limiter came so much quicker that I kept missing my shifts. I kept hitting rev limit.

This makes complete sense. Go back and take a look at my dyno sheet from Reply #235 (shown below). This is at 8.5 psi. Blue line is with factory air box & filter, Red line is with the stock air filter removed from the stock air box (ie. slightly less restrictive). Just by removing only the stock filter my top end was shifted from about 6,800 rpm to about 7,300 rpm. I have not dynoed the new intake yet, but there is no doubt in my mind that power is now developed continuously all the way to peak 7,500 rpm. Whoever said the 4A-GZE shouldn't be revved to redline obviously had a restrictive intake holding them back!


Stock intake system with ABV-mod running 8.5 psi

Sound:
Keep in mind that I've already built a 17 psi SC14-powered 4A-GZE engine (details) so I know what these old Roots blowers sound like when you spin em up. Also I am still running stock pulleys here. So the sound is definitely not as prominent as what it could be, but I can now hear the SC really whine and it sounds wonderful! Finally starting to bring back some old memories!! It is a combination of faint SC whine + deep N/A-type intake sound from the long, straight intake setup. You get the low bellowing, throaty sound first and then you hear the SC whine come in around 3k rpm and it's just awesome. Once I change my SC pulley and up the boost, it's gonna get even better. I have to admit, having the air filter inches away from my window, I find myself driving around with my driver's side window rolled all the way down

It really sounds funny when going WOT with the S/C switched off. You get the deep bellowing intake sound but then as the Supercharger picks up speed naturally from the incoming airflow, you can hear it chopping the air and making a reverb sound. Sounds crazy and you just know that it is restricting a ton of airflow. (remember ABV is not reconnected yet)

I need to get some video of how great it sounds with the SC turned on. I will see if I can get around to this soon.

Fuel Mileage:
My MPG has gone up now from 28-30 MPG to 32-34 MPG. It increased even despite having to breathe through the S/C (again ABV isn't reconnected yet). Definitely requires less throttle to maintain 70 MPH cruising on the freeway. Also I can go up the west side of highway 152's Pacheco Pass out of Los Banos, CA without using the S/C. My speed does drop on the last steep section to about 60 MPH, but before I would drop well below 60 and just hit the switch for the Supercharger. Of course I don't want to do 60 mph on the freeway, but the fact is that there is an undeniable improvement illustrating just how restrictive the stock 4A-GZE intake system truly is. Open that thing up and it will open up your world!!


Issues / TO-DO:
As mentioned in previous posts, here is a list of things not currently done:
- Fix power brakes
- Reconnect Air Bypass Valve (ABV) for improved economy and performance while driving around with the S/C switched off
- Reconnect the crank-case vent (PCV) so it doesn't stink, won't drip oil everywhere, and most of all will have that leaking air correctly metered
- Install provision to get my old water-injection system hooked back up


For now this thing is GREAT! I just wanna drive it everywhere!

I've got more updates and will try to post them up soon-

Regards,
BigMike

[Sirdeuce]

A problem with the short shift mod. When you move the shift cable end up the stick you also increase the angle of the cable. The cable sheath is just plastic and will break at the mounting boss. You need to move the cable mount up to get a lesser angle. Driving with a uncooperative shifter is a real pain!