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I am so impressed that you have been dedicated to making your truck road worthy. It is even better that you aren't scared to take it off-road and test your hard work out against the elements. I think the issue you are having with the power steering bracket not bolting to the head has something to do with it being a 20r head that was not originally set up for power steering. I have seen some with and without the added hole to bolt the bracket to. I see you got some clean black door panels. Any chance you would be willing to sell them?
I need some in a bad way for one of my projects that is all stock.
I have mecanical sympathy but I'm sure not gonna miss out on some fun because she's too pretty, if it breaks I just upgrade and make it stronger, for the body though it's a bit different I don't mind scratch but I sure as hell don't want to bend a rocker panel, b pillar or windshield frame, but hoods and fenders are replacable!
As for the power steering I'm pretty sure it's my bracket that's the problem since the 20r head IS setup for p/s but probably with a different bracket. So far it works good so I'm not touching it!
As for my door panels I will not sell them as they are impossible to find here sorry! It's also the cleanest part of my interior
So to give you guys a little update, I moved out of my rented garage last spring right after I finished my truck, I miss that place but I have finally convinced my girlfriend to use our (her house) 20x30 detached home garage for car projects. She has an 87 scirocco she has to restore and I have many more plans for my truck and other car/race related stuff in the future. So we built a shed to store all the non-car related crap. Once that was done I installed 12 twin tube fixtures in the ceiling of the garage, fixed the heating, and now I am just getting done installing 22 outlets. Next step is work bench, storage shelves, tire rack, welding table and exhaust fans which should be done in the next couple of months as money allows.
I couldn't pass up an offer on parts for my winter project engine rebuild for my truck. I pmed a guy on a ae86 corrola forum that was selling an intake manifold for a single sidedraft carb for 20r head, back in 2007! He replied saying he sold it a while ago but that he has some nice parts he wants to get rid of! So I bought them for less than 415usd shipped.
-Brand new Crane cam # 704-0014/TRD stage 3 (282/292 .458/.472)
-LCE double row adjustable cam gear used
-BRC custom 81-84 high comp forged pistons used 10k km (6k miles) unknown compression, 0.020'' over.
-ARP head studs used
-LCE crank scrapper
Here are some pics he sent me of the pistons:
It was a package deal so I'll need to carefully measure the pistons, and my block is pretty worn it might need to be bored over more than 0.020'' but we'll see. I am gathering engine blueprinting tools to carefully rebuild the engine within the tightest tolerances for my application, weighting each moving part to 0.1 grams for balancing, cc'ing the pistons, head gasket thickness & head chamber volume to achieve 11:1 comp, having piston to deck height within 0.0001 of each other, some porting things I want to try , etc.. I'll post all the progress on here. I've always wanted to rebuild an engine that way and just picked up a couple of books on blueprinting, volumetric efficiency, engine building etc and I find it really interesting and motivating, even though this 20/22r combo won't put out as much as a healthy 3rz in the end, it's all just for the fun of doing it. I also want to build my own single side draft manifold with long runners, that should also be fun.
That's quite a rebuild!
Maybe i missed it, but I was looking for your fabrication of block off plats for the carb... Can you point me in the right direction?
That's quite a rebuild!
Maybe i missed it, but I was looking for your fabrication of block off plats for the carb... Can you point me in the right direction?
That's quite a rebuild!
Maybe i missed it, but I was looking for your fabrication of block off plats for the carb... Can you point me in the right direction?
Hey thanks for checking it out! There isn't any specific places where I showed my block off plates but I mostly improvised, I used aluminum epoxy to block the egr holes when the head was off, the machine shop threaded allen nuts at other places, I used the existing plates that I cut-up and welded shut at other places, I'm reall happy with the results since I haven't had any problems and it didn't cost me anything. I couldn't bring myself to paying what those lce plates cost at that time and had a lot of fun doing it all myself.
So if anyone wanted an update it's pretty sad, since the recent break-up with my ex the truck has been in a storage warehouse, I had to make the 1h journey in a huge snowstorm, it was pretty scary. I bought another truck an 83 just before the break-up that I tore appart and the engine looked brand new so I'll be using that block, got some other goodies too but for now I'm starting a new job in 2 weeks, I'm moving in another city and I really really hope I can work on my truck soon but I have many other steps in life to take before that, can't wait for the next update!
God I miss driving my truck, you have no idea !! I think about it everyday just sleeping in that storage warehouse. Good thing is I now live in a small apartement and there is a parking lot next to the apartment's storage garage, full of leaves and dirt hidden away from people, and I exhanged some renovation work in the apartment next door in exchange of that parking space, so on 1st of june I'll be registering the truck and moving out of storage to work on it in the hidden parking lot, I'll then be working on it replacing the motor and making doing some tune up to make it drivable again to get it ready for the big trail on 1st of july, which was my first outing 1 day after I finished the truck one year ago.
Funny story, here in quebec they made a special edition called the toyota igloo, only for 82-83, there were 200 made for quebec only, they all came in white, with special striping and fully optioned with all chrome and accessories available at the time. For a while I read a lot about this guy having one in mint condition, it was like a unicorn story, many people heard about it but no one ever saw it. So I started a new job 2 months back and it turns out the guy who owns it works there, a huge toyota nut, many of the special edition mirage truck pics you see on the net were his friends truck back when he was mud dragging toyotasin the 90's, here is a photo of his truck:
I'll keep you guys updated!
Last edited by gillesdetrail; 05-22-2015 at 05:21 PM.
Hey thanks for bringing this thread back to life! So I started driving the truck almost daily since the begining of june, I swaped the short block to a better one, it drove great all summer, I drove about 4000km and loved every second of it. I went wheeling about 4 times with it and I was not gentle, especially the last time, I blew the engine, again. I was comited to buying a winter shelter to store the truck and not touch it all winter, and save money, but I may have found a garage so I can work on it this winter at a good price, we'll see... I'll try posting a picture of the truck soon but it is not a pretty sight...
I am debating between finding a used engine in unknown condition or rebuild as cheap as possible (about 800$ for rebuild kit and machining). At the same time, I have the forged high comp. pistons sitting there...and the arp studs...and the stage 3 cam...damn what to do.
Last edited by gillesdetrail; 10-22-2015 at 03:41 PM.
If or when I swap, it will probably be a 2tr-fe! 2006+
The thing is I want to save for a house and a garage, I live in a ˟˟˟˟ty apartment in a ˟˟˟˟ty town now, so I have to balance between enjoying my life with my truck and save as much as possible to enjoy my life in 1-2 years with a house and garage, otugh decisions.
Last edited by gillesdetrail; 10-23-2015 at 08:32 AM.
Hey man! Well much has happened since my last post. A friend and I bought a 1981 rust bucket toyota truck for parts, it had 73k km on it (about 45k mi) with maintenance records of it until the year 2000 where it was used as a farm truck. I had no place to keep it so we stripped it for the engine, my friend kept the axles, wheels and tail gate and I kept the tittle, complete drivetrain, and many other parts to have as spares. I swapped the short block at the begining of the summer and had the 20r head checked, did some more porting to the exhaust side and intake manifold entry and it ran better than ever, much smoother and consumes no oil at all. Drove around 5000km on it this summer, wheeled it about 6-7 times and had a blast. I have now done 15 000km with the truck (about 9300 miles) and all of them were amazing and not gentle, it now needs maintenance and upgrade to the suspension and steering. In my last post I talked about having my own place and my garage to work in, it was around that time I put my head down and worked hard to save money and now I signed on a house that I am moving in on the first of may, with a garage to work in! So major plans of complete tear down and rebuild, many upgrades and a strange project I've been planning for a while of running honda EFI with CBR 1000 individual throttle bodies.
P.S. Am I the only one who can't any pictures I posted?
08-27-2014, 07:08 PM
