In for more AW content!
Well the plans have finally been set in motion. The Turbo Tank is registered and going to the 2000 challenge!
Since my last update, honestly not much has happened. The notable big ones are the previous owner finally cleared out his shed and sold me the rest of the parts he had pull from this car and a separate parts car. Meaning a lot of the things I had to take from Chase I got to return. Sure wish I had all that to begin with for the total of 1500 I am now into the car, but it all worked out. Included was a good chunk of the turbo kit that would have definitely put me way over budget, and enough extra parts to recoup a large amount, hell maybe even get it into the illusive sub 1k. Now the car is a lot more complete but still a pretty big mess if it were to just drive to florida. In my shaking down I ended up braking some wheel studs, and when I went to drive it to the shop I blew an oil seal and basically parked it til recently.
With just 2 months to go, I knew getting this turbocharged and race ready alone would be difficult. I reached out to my Toyota guru chase, and he got me in touch with a great guy named Tim, who will be co-driving and helping get this car race ready. Tim used to have a turbo aw11 running over 20psi, and still held on to some crucial parts we will have to get fmv for and slap together. He also races his curent sw20 in SCCA and will likly lead on pushing this car to its limits.
Already getting ahead on the build book and have my plans for making this car stand out exactly as it should for the event. See everyone soon! 
Welp the last two months have honestly been a blur trying to get the car ready, but everything seemed to be ready to go last night. I was driving it back from the shop happy about how happy the car felt. Well turns out it wasn't going to last. I noticed my oil pressure start to fall and shortly after a ton of white smoke out the back of the car. After resealing every gasket on the engine and a deep cleaning I am back to where I started, but at least now I am pretty sure I know the issue. My best guess is the oil cooler line has failed, which sprayed right on the crank and then got flung into literally everything. Luckily I did this on Wednesday and not today, so I still have all day after work and tomorrow morning before loading up to fix it, clean the entire rear of the car again, load up and make it down to florida. I was saving putting the stickers on until the car was "done" so I didn't have to stress about pressure washing, but I guess I jinxed myself and so I will save the reveal for now. I'll try and update you all on Friday if things are still set to go, worse case I will have to bring my backup car that I just recently got for right under the challenge budget.
Fingers crossed it's just the line and can be repaired quickly
What oil cooler setup are you running? The stock system only sends the small portion of the oil that gets past the pressure relief valve through the cooler, and even then the cooler is a heat exchanger in the radiator return hose. It doesn't do much on stock cars and is probably pretty useless on a turbocharged one.
Yeah don't be afraid to ditch the stock cooler for the Challenge, you can get away with no oil cooler for autocross and drag runs since the staging lineup tends to enforce a cooldown time. Definitely get an oil-to-air setup for any sustained high-load driving though. Stock 4AGEs could use one and with a turbo you'll absolutely need one.
Yeah it's just the stock cooler. Line definitely looked busted so hopefully the hose i replaced and heat wrapped will be sufficient. I'm officially on my way, but definitely got pretty delayed this morning. I'll be rolling up to the raceway right at 7pm if I don't have to stop for gas or to tighten straps again. Can anyone confirm if I'll be able to roll up that late and still get in for camping?
Obligatory bucces pic
bailion said:Yeah it's just the stock cooler.
If and when you want to eliminate the factory "cooler" mess, remove everything between the block and the filter and install a threaded union, part number 90404-19001, into the block in its place. Then you can just spin the filter directly against the block or add the cooler of your choice when you are ready.
bailion said:I'll be rolling up to the raceway right at 7pm if I don't have to stop for gas or to tighten straps again. Can anyone confirm if I'll be able to roll up that late and still get in for camping?
There's a gate guard at the track until 7pm, so it'll be close but sounds like you'll make it!
Hey - I didn't get to mention this at the concourse Sunday but I wanted to say thank you for keeping tabs on my helmet. We were looking at your oil leak and I set it down thinking "I know I'm going to forget this here", and I was right.
luckily, you grabbed it and put it inside your mr2 in a conspicuous spot, so when later that night I realized what happened, I was able to find it and grab it for the drags.
thank you thank you thank you!
also, this is a cool car for sure and I am sorry we couldn't get your oil leak fixed in time. I'm curious to know what it ended up being, so please keep us in the loop on what you find.
In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :
Yes! I left it on the roof for as long as I felt was ok and I could keep an eye on it, but had to run off that night and right as I left it started to drizzle so I stashed it in the car and hoped you'd remember. By the time I was back it was gone so I hoped it ended up back in the right hands. The car is back with my good buddy Tim who helped slap it together in time just for the same issue to happen, so this time we will look deeper and really figure some things out, and finally just turbo the damn thing like it deserves. Hopefully I can make it back next year and thanks to all those that tried to help diagnose why it was gushing oil so badly.
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