head looks good, and that alternator looks BLING!
gotta agree with bigmeanbulldog on the post thing...why not just keep it all in one post? so that its searchable all together...somthing like "my 3rd gen 3sgte build" or somthing?
i can help ya with that if need be, just PM me.

uh oh, has the chrome bug bit Gary?

what now chrome valve cover?

when are you gonna but this baby back together?

Is the clean gearbox your gearbox???

Great work...

wow... ya sure cleaned it up good. awesome update. make sure you keep us inform of all progress

oooooooooooo SOOOO NICE

oooooooooooooooooh my goodness

gary you wana build my motor next? build my car?!

awesome stuff. keep updating us as much as u can .

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No worries. Just send me a return airline ticket and a blank cheque



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Valve cover has been HPC coated in red

Hoping that it'll be back together before I fly off to Europe in 8 days time.
Gary


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PM sent

I've been following your whole project and let me say, it's probably one of the most detailed rebuilds I've seen. Keep up the good work. When you're done, I'm sure you'll have loads of power, and the engine will last for ages.

Tuesday:
TRD shells finally arrive after their trip from Japan. Though due to a logistical error, only 8 shells turn up, the other 2 are still at the dealer on the South Island. As soon as error is realised, the 2 shells are put on an overnight courier. In the meantime, crank can be neasured up against the new shells and machined to suit.
Wednesday:
Other 2 shells arrive and black and crank arrive back from the engine shop.
Thursday:
I'm at work all day so mechanic who owns the workshop (Mike) where rebuild is being done is tasked with fitting the new pistons and shells to help keep us on track.
Pistons #1 goes in now problem. Piston #4 is being put in its cylinder when disaster strikes. The bottom oil control ring slips out between the clamp and block un-noticed until the piston suddenly goes 'tight'. Immediately obvious that the ring is damaged so new ring is sourced without too much of a problem. However, this has also happened...





Oh dear

By this time, I've finished work and have popped in on the way home to see how things are going. Mike calls the engine shop owner (also a mate) who comes round to survery the damage. He 'offers' several solutions. A replacement block would be a mission to find, especially a good one, a sleeve is not an option considering I'll be running over 20psi and a new cylinder is way too expensive.
So, the block went back to his shop this morning to see if a 1 thou bore will remove the damage. 1 thou being the max we could go to.
Unfortunately, 1 thou isn't enough to cure the issue So, only option we really have is for a set of 1mm oversized pistons and a re-bore. That will essentially give a 2020cc capacity which isn't a bad thing
New pistons have been ordered and will be here on Tuesday when the block will also be re-bored to suit and the new pistons weighed to ensure everything is kept well balanced.
Downside is that I fly to Europe in 8 days so no way the car will be back on the road before xmas. The bottom end will be completed while I'm away and when I return on the 9th Jan, I can hopefully finish the rest and get it running again. I am already getting withdrawal symptoms
Gary

Are you having to pay for their mistake?

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No. Mike is a good mate and will be covering any additional costs. I'm not pi55ed off with him as it could have happened to anybody at the end of the day - including me. Just one of those things. He was as gutted as me when it happened.
Gary

What kind of HP numbers are you looking to get after this is all said and done?

lol that sucks but how freakin sweet

a nice nice gain from a mistake!
woooot

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Good question. TBH, I'm not entirely sure but would hope to expect at least 400 horses at the flywheel.
Gary

Good luck with your work, hope that it's more of a gain than a loss to ya

While the engine internals 'issue' is being resolved, attention was turned to the radiator.
First step was to clean up the engine bay. As can be seen below, it was rather filthy...





So, once again with the industrial strength cleaner and elbow grease and et voila!





Not quite like new, but sooooo much better

The OE rad seems to be pretty capable of coping with 300bhp, but whether it would handle over 400 is questionable. So, rather than leave it to chance, a Koyo unit was ordered from the US. Twice as thick as the standard one (and also the same fitment for the ST202), this unit is beautifully manufactured. Only issue would be with the OE fan fitment. Clearance is pretty tight in the first place and there would be some interference issues if the standard fans were re-used.
So I raided my spares box and came up with a pair of Kenlow slimline fans. 10 minutes later they were attached to the new rad and the rad in turn fitted to the car...







Nice and shiney. Won't have any cooling issues with this set up
Gary

i dont think your going to be having ANY issues with this car when its finished... except maybe speeding

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Sadly, your probably wrong, but this thing is still turning our awsome. I don't see a build not having problems. They'll probably be fixed and then it will run great, but they'll still be there at first. I'm really impressed with this thing. I wish I knew as much as you do and had the resourses to do those thing to my car.

very nice build here. what is the plan for engine management? piggy back on teh stock ecu or are you going for a standalone or pnp ecu?

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Apexi FC ECU which is modded by Power Engineering in Japan for use with the ST205. Placed an order last week for one and it should be ready by the end of Jan 06.
Gary

Beautiful. Really.

are you worried about clearance issues with the koyo ? It might be a very tight fit...

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After fitting the rad and the Kenlow fans, I have gained an extra 50mm clearance
Gary

jezuz gary, enough work eh? Looks great though. All in all how much $ r u spending on this project?? Im guessin a good amount. This things probably gonna be bulletproof though. For ur transmission/gearbox, are u just using the WRC spec gears? or are you gonna be changing the gear ratios. Also you doing LSD's front and rear when you move to the rear diff?

I might have missed it but what turbo will you be using Gary?

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Transmission will remain standard (other than the clutch). Rear diff already has a Torsen diff as standard.



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GT30.

Gary

Can't wait to see your beast up and running man, it'll definitly be a monster.

After the 'bore scoring incident', I decided to get the block ultrasounded to check if it was safe to bore it out to 87mm. Some cylinder walls on the earlier are as thin as 2.5mm between #2 & #3 while others are 4.5mm. As I said above, is a simple case of pot luck. Later blocks were revised with the thicker walls.
Tests on mine, which I got back today, show 4.3mm thickness so boring out to 87mm is going to be okay after all.
I'm off to Europe for 3 weeks Sat am so the bottom end will be all sorted out for me when I get back. Something to look forward too
Gary