my 2nd tercel build

I never would have guessed that the exhaust wasn't made from scratch.  Your pipe fitting and welding skills are inspirational.

V6Buicks said:

I never would have guessed that the exhaust wasn't made from scratch.  Your pipe fitting and welding skills are inspirational.

Thank you

So today I temporarily hooked up a tach booster from ebay and it works perfect.  So I went ahead and put my cluster back into the dash and moved onto figuring out my 12v supply issue.

Here I am about to tear my hair out after quite a few days just going over and over my logic and connections.  Going I did this right...it must be outside of what I did.  Why am I not getting 12v on this wire?  Checked the fuse going to the relay that feeds the dead wire.  Its fine.  Checked every fuse JIC...they are all fine.  So then I checked power at the fuse that should trigger the relay...zilch.  Nothing!  Strange...so I dropped the fuse panel and low and behold that particular connector out of the 8 or so connectors going into the back of the fuse panel was not clicked in!  Clicked it in...turned the key and vroom.  Fires up like a normal effing car!

I only have my self to blame...A for not clicking that back in when I put the dash back in and B for not checking basics first and just assumed I messed up on the wiring conversion.

So now...I am excited.  I have to figure out how to turn off the p0550 code for no power steering...if its a resistor mod or just ground out the signal wire so I wont have a CEL.  Tidy up my wiring.  Clutch line, radiator hoses and air intake....

As of yesterday...Floyd can move under its own power!

I tweaked the shift linkage a little just to refine it and then put together a clutch line using aeroquip line and fittings and Earl adapters.  Bled the system and moved the car!

So next focus is cooling system so then I can let it run and cycle the fans etc.  Maybe go for a brief jaunt up the street for fresh gas. 

Its been 2 years and 2 monts since Ive last moved this car under its own power.  Its almost surreal.

Drove the car home today!

Spent 5 hours today just getting to where I could drive it.  I have been sprinkling tiny bits of work in here and there since the last post.

Made a sensor "tree" for the coolant gauge and tercel fan switch.  Which then I had to ground that so it would work. 

Evap is hooked up and not throwing codes anymore. Fan works as it should.

Its not 100% and alot of what's there is temporary.  But its progress.  Somewhere along the line my fuel gauge stopped working and the relay pack for my HIDs took a crap.  Woo

Congratulations on the progress!  Your skills exceed mine by like 1000% and you've made me look at Tercels differently moving forward.

Drove it around about 20miles today.  When I drove the car friday it felt lean.  I knew this was going to happen as my intake is too large.  The MAF needs to sit on a 60mm pipe but I I had threw it together with a 2.5" pipe with a mild flat spot to bring it down.  I smashed it some more and the car feels about where it should  be.  Acceleration...while not mind altering, with the 4.31 final its brisk.

Fuel gauge for whatever reason does not work.  Which is weird as I never touched anything to do with it other then having the cluster out.  So maybe the wire got knocked loose in the connector.

However my main issue is the clutch, it was the original toyota unit and at 160,000~ish miles that this driveline has Id say its done.  Its soft and does not re-engage with any enthusiasm.  I was hoping it wouldnt be this bad, but it looks like its going on the sooner then later list.  I cannot really drive the car enthusiastically.

But thats fine.  I seem to have built a solid base to now tinker, polish and optimize the platform to exactly what I want from this particular car eventually.

Drove the car a few more times since last.  Adjusted the clutch so what is left is better to manage but I cannot be enthusiastic with shifting. 

Tweaked the intake more and now it runs seemingly perfect.  The car gathers speed VERY well.  Floyd is on par with Earl the mild turbo car.

Saturday I put most of the interior back together and then Sunday I drove 130~ odd miles and it was flawless.  

It genuinely makes me happy.

Now I can start refining it and tidying up the place.

Pic at the Toyotas and Coffee meet.  Thats my friend Eddie, that Solara (5spd) has like 225k and is one of the nicest ones ive seen.  My friend Brandons Avalon, and another good buddy Duanes LS400

Drove over 200miles today up in and around the mountains.  This car is just so good as is.

In reply to malibuguy :

This is the best time of year for it.  Kudos on the drive.  Love that little Turtle. 

volvoclearinghouse said:

In reply to malibuguy :

This is the best time of year for it.  Kudos on the drive.  Love that little Turtle. 

I actually revved going by your house at the beginning of my journey yesterday :)

malibuguy said:

volvoclearinghouse said:

In reply to malibuguy :

This is the best time of year for it.  Kudos on the drive.  Love that little Turtle. 

I actually revved going by your house at the beginning of my journey yesterday :)

Heh, may have heard that.  We were out fixing up a wood splitter I just picked up and getting some firewood stacked for winter.  One of these days you oughta stop by and say hi. 

Latest updates

I made a battery tray and properly secured the ND Miata battery down with its factory top bracket

PS line bypass with breather 

modified and hacked my Yaris original heatshield to work for now and closed off the holes with gold tape on both sides

Made a 1/4 wave resonator to address a very slight drone I had at 146hz.  Also made an exhaust support bracket

Floyd was layed up for a month when I got a flat and damaged one of the wheels.  So I had to save up to get it mended and then got a full set of new tires in a slight upsize to correct my speedo.

Also replaced the clutch so now the car is even more fun to drive 

Went up to the mountains to break in the clutch.  The car just makes me smile

Sometime we need to compare my rallycross Volvo 122 to Floyd in a time trial.  lol

Not much is new just driving the car and loving it.  It can be an absolute backroad weapon (sorry to the Dodge Challenger that found out the hard way on a late late evening in mexico).  As much as it made me happy and proud of the car of the insane speed it can gobble up roads...its just too much to tap into safely.

Its the perfect 7-8tenths car.

The only real things Ive done is drive it, put amber bulbs in the cluster (i still need to get one more), an UltraGauge, Morel front component speakers, temporary tuck the harness up inside the car so my wife can ride and put in a sending unit so now my fuel level works.

Then took it to its 2nd Radwood

Nothing new other then clearing 4k miles since completing the swap last year.  This car drives so well.  I still need to wrap the harness up and there is things I would like to change, finish (like the AC) and address.  But at the same time it runs so good.  Still averaging 40-42mpg per spirited tank.  Not bad given the gearing.

I semi recently picked up an MRS trans that has the same final ratio but better 1st and 3rd gear ratios.  Eventually that will be gone thru and combined with my 1nz bell and an LSD will fully sort out that aspect of the car.

With my daughter in school now and we walk her there I can drive this car pretty much daily which is fantastic.

Put in a Powerflex "Street" rear motor mount.  As with the other car its too small for the US spec mount so I whipped up a properly sized sleeve on the tubing expander and welded in place.

Also repositioned the mount to better line up on the transmission as this was an automatic mount so it was slightly off.

So far I am mixed about it.  The tremendous slop is gone but with this motor seems to be slightly buzzier then the normal 5e like in the other car.  At idle funny enough my steering wheel buzzes less with this mount, however ultimately I have gained a drone from the mount (which is to be expected) and when revving out to 6500 the mount makes car feel like its going to 8k...so thats a plus?

I went to Tail of the Dragon this weekend with some buddies

Car did absolutely well for the 1,315mile round trip.  As expected with a 4.31 final drive the cruise RPMs at 80mph certainly hurts the soul, but makes passing a breeze.

Over the past few months I have been slowly working on the car.  First main thing was I changed the suspension.  The Stagg dampers I had were blown out up front.  So I removed them along with the Ground-Control coilover sleeves, and replaced with a barely used hand-me down KYB GR2s with H&R lowering springs, which I replaced the front hard rubber bump stops to the progressive Feal units I used to have in my Yaris (before going COs).  They dropped the car about an inch but it actually rides and drives alarmingly well and balanced.  I was going to spec out a set of RedShift/Standard coilovers for this car but I dunno now.  For how I typically use the car, this combination is essentially spot on and matched well with the tires.

I have also been dealing with ever since the swap, leaking axle seals.  3 Napa sets, and now Toyota genuine units along with new axles.  Its not dry but considerably improved.  All my other cars are dry so I do not get it.

I also in anticipation for the trip went out with some touge buddies to see how the car currently handled hard, Initial D like back road situations.  I found the 4yo brake fluid and the $7 rockauto pads to be not up to task.  So a fresh flush of ATE Typ200 fluid and some PowerStop Z23 pads went in.  This is the first time I have used these pads and like them so far for the street.  They work about the same to slightly better then cheap pads dead cold, but start to ramp up in friction once a couple stops are in then essentially level off.  I did not drive the Dragon really aggressively anyways, mostly 6/10ths with some spots a little more.

We met up with a local and toured some other roads a bit more enthusiastically and the car was just awesome.  And really the whole area was just beautiful and awesome.  I cannot wait to go back like every remaining year of my life.