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Big heavy car with a 4.0l engine can do more damage than what insurance believes is only a 1.3l
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Jan 20, 2016 17:02
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 why did I write month?It's per year. £400 per year. When I was 19 I was offered a good deal on a Mustang GT. The best insurance quote I received was £8000 for a year. Needless to say, I went Mustangless.
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Jan 20, 2016 19:52
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Just got word of a complete UZZ32, minus engine and trans. Guy wants £50 for the lot. Fuckkkkkkk.
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Jan 21, 2016 15:56
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88h88 posted:How many did you say you had? This would be the third 'complete' car, and would provide a complete set of spares. I would strip and scrap the shell within a week.
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Jan 21, 2016 16:57
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I've still got to get it trailered to my house (£150), have it removed afterwards (£??), and find places to store all the parts I remove (ugh).
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Jan 21, 2016 17:42
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88h88 posted:Sounds like £50 well spent then. Let's find out. Got a transport quote of £100 and a found company to remove it for free (scrap metal for them). I'll give myself 1 week to strip it. Should be easy if I don't get called offered work. It's a complete car except for the engine. Someone put a jack stand through the rocker (all the way through, holy poo poo, what was it, a bottle jack?!). Both bumpers and front fenders are hosed (not accident damage, just abuse). Doors are 'buggered'. But hey, it's got all the super-rare UZZ32 bits! (except for the struts - those were removed long ago in favour of coilovers, and the PO has replaced those with wooden planks for transport). Plan is to hope that the following is good: Front/rear lights Suspension pump, valve body, radiator/reservoir Display cluster Windshield Electronics (80+ electronic modules in this car) Body panels (trunk, hood, guess that's it) Door seals Interior (leather, carpet, dash, etc) Radiator Transmission (can't test this) Control arms, rear subframe, steering racks I already have the AC pump and EMV from this very car, which is how I ended up with the offer to buy it. 88h88 go buy a 6M2 green 1991 Soarer with a grey leather interior for cheap because of something dumb like a hosed hood and torn leather, and come take some poo poo off my hands to fix it for free. I only want this car for the active parts and the odd spares. I'm going to challenge myself to fill a 3 gallon-ish bucket with fasteners. Pomp and Circumcized fucked around with this message at 22:22 on Jan 22, 2016 |
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Jan 22, 2016 22:19
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Looking good!!    Bought my first (cheap as poo poo) sawzall today. Cut a (accident damaged) Soarer rear subframe in half in under 30 seconds. Was pleasantly surprised. Cut out the LCA mounting bits (camber bolts are rust-welded in) and trashed the subframe. Gonna tear up a car next week. Need to buy a windshield remover. Woo.
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Jan 23, 2016 23:02
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It's LPG, yes. Was a dumb mixer ring system but still worth some ££ on eBay. However, not worth as much as a not-hosed rear bumper. Damnit. I run LPG on my car, but have the filler located where a tow hook would go (under the bumper), which is not as nice to fill up (I often kneel on the fill pipe so I don't get wet knees from the ground), but preserves the look of the car, and would let me take it back to stock with no bodywork required. Speaking of wacky systems, the retractable antenna looking thing on the front bumper is a (rare UZZ32 option!!!) parking pole, which you can extend to tell you where the front of the car is. With a hood that long (that you can barely see from the driving position), it's a useful option! Pomp and Circumcized fucked around with this message at 15:00 on Jan 24, 2016 |
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Jan 24, 2016 14:56
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Yeah but does it have doilys?!?! This is from a Mk2 Soarer, but the Z30 series (like mine) had them as an option as well!
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Jan 24, 2016 18:52
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There was not much effort - it took around 4 days, working 4-6 hours per day. Total cost to me was £681 (including inspection and registration), and the system saves me around 11p/mile in fuel (after considering reduced mpg and valve saver fluid costs). I daily drive my UZZ32, doing around 20,000 miles per year. There is no noticeable change in the characteristics of the vehicle on LPG. If anything, luxury cars are most suitable for conversion. I'm curious as to why you're surprised at this. Is it because luxury car owners generally don't care so much about their fuel consumption? In the UK, it's not uncommon to see larger cars with larger, more thirsty engines on LPG. Most of my US import vehicle sightings have been at the LPG pump. If it helps, when I converted my car, fuel was costing me $8-$9 per gallon, with LPG costing half that much, on a car which returns 20mpg highway. I charge a set amount per mile by my clients, anything I can do to decrease my direct costs of driving will leave me with more money to spend elsewhere. My LPG install is next up, I'll detail the installation in my next update.
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Jan 25, 2016 01:11
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If you want to see my lovely posting, you'll need to check the counter-strike threads. But be warned, it's pretty cyka blyat in there. And thanks 
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Jan 25, 2016 01:33
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OK, LPG install time! These pictures come from two separate installs. I originally installed the LPG system on the green UZZ32, but ended up moving it to the white UZZ32 a few months later (this was a pain in the rear end and a huge waste of time, but turned out to be necessary. For those unfamiliar with LPG, it stands for "Liquid Petroleum Gas", and is a mixture of propane and butane (usually mostly propane). The composition changes slightly with supplier, supply and demand, the weather (seriously), etc. It is a product of refining crude oil, the same as gasoline and diesel. It used to be considered waste and burnt off. It is now available over most of Europe. It is considered a 'green' fuel, due to the very low levels of 'nasty poo poo' in the exhaust. The exhaust is very close to pure water + co2. For this reason, it receives a very generous tax break from most governments. In the UK, the price is 'fixed' at 50% that of gasoline, although most gas stations add a few pence per litre because gently caress you. For cars, it's a great fuel. It has an octane rating of 102-108 RON. It contains less chemical energy than gasoline, 26.8 MJ/litre compared to 34.8 MJ/litre for gasoline and 38.6 MJ/litre for diesel. For this reason, we need to burn more of it, which gives a reduction in MPG for the same power output. LPG's stoichiometric ratio (air:fuel ratio) is 15.5:1, compared to 14.7:1 for gasoline. 99% of LPG conversions work by injecting vapourised gas into the cylinders. This is done by using engine heat to vapourise the liquified (compressed) gas, and then 'injecting' the gas into the intake manifold near the inlet valves. In reality, the gas is pressurised and so will happily flow into the cylinders by itself. The 'injectors' are merely solenoid valves. As the gas comes compressed from the pump, no fuel pump is required. The fuel finds its own way from the tank to the reducer/vapouriser. Safety valves are fitted at each end of this pipe, and will close in response to ignition signal loss, RPM loss, or the detection of low gas pressure. A separate ECU handles the control of the LPG system. The installation involves cutting the original petrol injector ground/trigger wires, and splicing the ECU in between them. When the LPG system is not running, the LPG ECU uses a set of internal relays to 'reconnect' these wires. For LPG operation, the relays open, preventing the signals from reaching the petrol injectors. The LPG ECU is constantly reading the attempted petrol injector signal pulses, and uses a map/correction table to provide similar pulses to the corresponding LPG injectors. Once the corrections have been properly calibrated (this is 'learnt' using lambda readings and by testing for corrective action by the petrol ECU), the original petrol ECU will not know that the car is running on an alternate fuel. If the LPG ECU detects a drop in pressure, sudden drop in RPM, or any fault/missing component, it will immediately switch back to petrol and log the error. Errors can be pulled via proprietary software and a USB dongle. This software is also used to configure the system for initial setup. As the system requires engine heat to operate, the petrol injection system is still required. Therefore, almost all LPG cars are dual-fuel. They start on petrol, then after a few minutes/miles, when the thermostat has opened and the LPG ECU has seen a rise in coolant temperature at the reducer, it will attempt to switch over to LPG. This can be done all-at-once, cylinder by cylinder, or in batches of your choosing. You can define an overlap period where the car runs on both fuels. An advantage of keeping both fuel systems is the huge range advantage. You get to keep your original range on petrol (useful if you forget to fill up with LPG or can't find a place that sells it), but can boost that with extra miles on LPG. Next post: the install! (my fingers hurt)
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Jan 25, 2016 22:25
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The LPG system consists of the following components, I've arranged them into groups:
The tank, multivalve and fill port - There are many types of these, most passenger cars use a donut shaped tank which fits where the spare wheel used to. The multivalve contains a one-way valve for the gas inlet (from the gas station) via the fill port, a one-way valve for the output to the engine, an electric solenoid operated safety valve which remains closed unless energised by the LPG ECU, and a pressure relief valve. This relief valve means that the multivalve must be vented to the outside air, not the cabin. For this reason, a larger hole is cut in the car below the tank, to allow these gases to vent. A 'lid' is placed over the valve once fitted, blocking it off from the interior. Here's a tank! The multivalve fits in that hole. The level sender (a plastic float) goes in there as well. It's a pain in the rear end to get it all in there.  Here's a nice, untouched spare wheel well.  And the same wheel well after some light grinding, drilling, and filing. Some chassis paint protects the area form rust.  An extreme closeup of the tank installed.  The fill port mounts on this bracket, which I placed under the rear bumper, where a tow hook would go. Most people cut a hole in their bodywork near the fuel filler. gently caress that.  A length of copper pipe with compression fittings to join the two. For some reason I have no pictures of the multivalve or fill port.  Injector mounting and injection pipes - This requires removal of the intake manifold. On a 1UZ this take a few hours because there's a Lot Of poo poo In The Way. However, once completed, you are rewarded with the sight of a very rarely seen 1UZ-FE starter motor.   The 1UZ intake comes in two parts. It's the lower piece that we need  This piece is drilled and tapped to take the gas nozzles.  These are placed as close to the cylinders as possible, and close to the petrol injectors (which mount in the larger hole in this image).  LPG certified gas hose is cut to length and clamped onto the nozzles. Maximum recommended length is 30cm, I had to go with 33cm as some cylinders were just too far away from my injector mounting location. This required some 'adjustments' in the map to overcome. The hoses should all be the same length (doesn't matter too much in practice).  Bending up some brackets to mount the LPG injectors. This took a surprisingly long time. I made up my own set screws to join the injector rails together into a 2x4 block.   A trial fit to check that the hoses can reach without kinking.  Intake back on the engine. You can also see that the reducer has been fitted here, and plumbed into the heater core inlet and return lines (before the heater valve).  Wiring - Many connections are to be made in the engine bay. As mentioned above, all injector signals need to be intercepted and replicated, so all injector wiring needs to be cut and spliced. The 1991-1994 1UZ engines use batch-fired injectors, with the Y-split mounted very far up the loom. For this reason, it was not possible to intercept these signals at the petrol ECU. It had to be done at the fuel rails. Fortunately, Toyota provided oversized injector cable trays to hold this wiring. Main loom  I decided to place the ECU inside the car for a cleaner look and to protect it from the elements (not that it needs it). The only space available was inside the drives footwell. The loom fits nicely through the clutch master cylinder hole (which was previously blocked off with a plug).    Some brackets were made to mount the ECU to the mirror control unit (yeah, that's a thing, the car actually has two separate computers to handle the wing mirrors - one for motion, one for vibration).      This switch turns the LPG system on and off, shows the system status (off, waiting for changeover-to-LPG requirements to be met, on LPG, fault), and 5 LEDs for fuel level. I mounted it like this:   I tapped into the wiring harness for the petrol ECU to access the lambda sensor readings. I pulled RPM direct from one of the igniters. I took LPG ECU and gas injector power from the constant power for the in-car telephone, as my car does not have this option, but still has a suitably-rated fuse and wiring to the dashboard. I pulled ignition-power sens from the EMV wiring feed, as I knew where it was and couldn't be bothered finding another source.  Once the wiring is complete, the engine bay could be reassembled. The car didn't run correctly. I suspected a vacuum leak, so built a boost leak tester for a NA car out of a piece of wood and a tyre valve. It worked a treat and showed me that I had misaligned the rubber seal on the resonator-to-throttle-body connection.    I decided to fit a 'valve saver' to this engine. There is dispute of whether or not this actually works. The argument for valve savers is that with no oily liquid being sprayed into the engine, there would be no film of oil created on the backs of the valves. This would introduce metal-on-metal contact between the valves and seats, causing premature valve/seat wear. The 1UZ, being from the late 80's, should not suffer so much from this as it would have hardened valve seats, a result of the recent switch to unleaded fuel and the unknown effect it would have on softer valve seats. However, the system is cheap and simple. It's a bottle, mounted to the car, with a drip that feeds into a vacuum port on the engine. I drilled and mounted a nozzle next to the throttle body, and drilled/riveted the mountign bracket for the bottle to the hydraulic fan fluid reservoir.     Finally, the high pressure fuel pipe needs to be installed between the tank (multivalve) and the reducer. The regulations for this pipe are strict, in fact almost all UK regulations for the installation of LPG are to do with equipment having the correct certification, equipment (especially the tank) being securely mounted, and THE loving PIPE. The pipe is not allowed within a certain distance of the exhaust. It must be tucked up under the car where it cannot be hit by debris. It cannot be near the edge of the car or near any jacking points. It cannot pass over any sharp seams in the body. It must be clearly visible when required and not laid beneath any structure of the car. It must be attached to the car at very regular intervals, even if it's not possible to mount clips so regularly. It must make gentle turns, with no sharp angles or kinks. gently caress the pipe. Fortunately, the UZZ32 sends high pressure suspension fluid from the front of the car (next to the reducer) to the shocks at the rear of the car. These hydraulic hoses run through removable trays, in a small trough in the bodywork. They are well protected and do not encounter any sharp objects or tight turns. They are normally covered by things like the wheel arch liner, or special plastic skid plates, but for inspection, I can leave all this poo poo off and then cover it again once the car is certified (this is allowed. Lol). I wrapped the pipe in spiral wrap to protect it from chafing. This is technically allowed as the spirals can be slid along the pipe for any future inspections. I had to run the pipe over the rear subframe, but argued that as the subframe was removable, and that there is no other possible route, I got away with it by stating that subframe removal would be part of any future LPG servicing or checks.   I don't have many pictures of this pipe being installed, because it involved a day of lying on my back and swearing at a pipe. OK, that's it. Once the system was installed, I took the car for a long, spirited drive to allow the LPG ECU to learn the petrol injection timings at various RPM/engine load, and then used the 'auto calibrate' function to estimate suitable LPG injection times for idle and for driving. Another drive followed, during which the LPG ECU looks at lambda readings and how the petrol ECU is reacting to the new fuel (changes in petrol injection timing). The ECU will give a readout of when the car is running rich or lean, where the petrol ECU is having to compensate, etc, and the LPG ECU will apply offsets to these problem areas as required. You can do this yourself if you desire. I had to play with the mixture at idle, as due to the longer pipes, the engine rpm would dip when flooring it from idle. I got around this by increasing the gas pressure from the reducer, applying shorter LPG injection pulses to compensate, then making the mixture slightly richer at idle.. Finally, the system needs to be inspected by a professional and certified. This is not a legal requirement, however car insurance is a legal requirement, and (almost) no UK insurer will allow a LPG converted vehicle to be insured without a certificate to prove that the system was installed safely. According to the centre I visited (a major one in my area), mine was 'the best DIY install I've ever seen', followed by stories involving cable ties, twist-n-taped cables, garden hose, and bailer twine. Edit: 
Pomp and Circumcized fucked around with this message at 23:19 on Jan 25, 2016 |
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Jan 25, 2016 23:16
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bolind posted:What's the capacity of the donut tank? Around 327151kcal, so approximately 769767 donuts, depending on the type of donut. (59 litres / 15.6 us gal, limited to 80% fill of 48 litres / 12.7 us gal to guarantee that in the event of overpressure, gas will be vented from the multivalve, even when the car is parked at an angle of up to ?? degrees). Tank safety is an issue which can be offputting to many who are considering an LPG conversion. However, LPG systems as a whole have proven to be much safer than gasoline. The tanks are made of steel which has to be at least 1cm thick. They need to be mounted within the crash structure of the car (not in a crumple zone or 'Mad Maxed' out the back), and securely fastened with spreader plates used if they are being bolted to sheet metal. They undergo some serious testing.
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Jan 26, 2016 10:46
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It's possible to directly inject LPG as a liquid (some say that the cars original fuel injectors could perform this task). One huge advantage is the cooling effect as the LPG expands. Claims of increased fuel economy and simplicity have been made. In reality, the system has not made it to the market for DIY users. It is the system of choice for car manufacturers who would potentially offer factory LPG cars. As the LPG is injected as a liquid, no heat is required to vapourise the LPG. Therefore, there is no need to start on petrol. The car can be LPG only.
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Jan 26, 2016 12:23
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Ferremit posted:Both Ford and Holden offer LPG only versions of the Falcon and Commodore. Theyre cheaper to run buy you watch that low fuel warning light like a hawk, as its not exactly a trivial task to pour 5L of LPG into your car to get it to the next servo. It also works the other way, you can cheaply fill your BBQ propane tanks at the LPG pump and it works fine. You can buy adapters to do this. Don't get caught, though. In the UK, you can sometimes find LPG for cars available at gas distribution centres (where they fill the bottles for sale/rental). When you do find these, it's cheap as poo poo to fill up. 88h88 posted:So out of any/all Soarer owners you know, how many of them go to these sort of lengths with their cars? In the UK? None, I don't think. Most spend a fortune to have them repaired at 'specialists', who are usually just mechanics with experience in these cars. These cars are very popular in Australia, especially the UZZ32. There's a large enthusiast community over there. Many people have fitted their own superchargers, etc. One guy I know of has 6 UZZ32's, some are supercharged, one is a supercharged manual conversion. As for an example of how far people go with these cars, here is an example: http://alscforum.com/discus/messages/131/2920.html?1180948732 (there are many more pages, bottom right). 88h88 posted:Also there's a JZZ31 for sale about 5 miles away from my house. https://www.gumtree.com/p/toyota/toyota-soarer-lexus-sc300-2jz-not-supra-skyline-evo-s13-s14-328-200sx-/1151163923 The JZZ31 was the 'base model', with a 220ish hp 3 litre straight-6 (2JZ-GE), the same engine as found in the non-turbo Supra (I think). They are a great drivers car, very light weight and still comfortable and feature-rich. That one looks like a great, clean example. I've not seen that colour before. The AC display hasn't bled! If you're after a Soarer, this would be a great car to buy. I've not driven the 3 litre model, but have been assured that it's a lot of fun to drive. They are almost as quick as the V8's and just as smooth. Many Soarer enthusiasts have one as their daily driver, with a UZZ32 or heavily modified JZZ30 (1JE) as their 'toy'. I'm not a fan of the wheels, but if you don't like them either then you can use them till the tyres are worn and then buy some more. This car is very cheap for a 1994 with no major issues. Buy it! I'd be all over this car if I didn't have 3 Soarers already. Edit: Just saw where it's located. It's about 20 minutes drive from my house. I wouldn't have time to check it out for another week, but if you buy it, I'll happily come look over everything for you (though nothing will be broken, those JZZ31's were pretty bulletproof). Edit: It's got the grey interior as well! If you buy it and need any interior bits, let me know as I'm about to break two Soarers with grey interiors and will literally give most parts away for free to people who paid $10 to post on an internet comedy forum. Pomp and Circumcized fucked around with this message at 14:48 on Jan 26, 2016 |
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Jan 26, 2016 14:42
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Seat Safety Switch posted:What's the reasonable operating temperature range for an LNG car? In the UK our temperatures are generally between -10C and 25C, neither extreme is a problem for LPG. Going colder may be more of an issue. The problem would be whether your engine can generate enough heat to vapourise the propane fast enough, or rather, if your reducer is large enough to handle it. Seriously over speccing a reducer (i.e. one designed to run a 400hp engine on a 200hp car) would probably help. Even with hot coolant running through them, I've seen pictures of frost forming on the outside of the reducer bodies on humid days, even above 0C. None of the other components should care about temperature. There is no pump in LPG systems - as Enourmo said, the liquid is forced out of the tank by the gas above / pushes itself out? (if that makes sense). 88h88 posted:Well I've asked for a callback regarding insurance on this to see what the deal is, so if they quote me happy then I might roll over and take a look at this assuming it's still about. Do it! Try Sky and Adrian flux. Adrian Flux offered me a cheap deal when I was younger and trying to insure a Soarer. I am with Admiral now on a multicar policy, it works out about half priced per car, so kinda insure 1 get 1 free. I can't see that car sticking around at that price if the condition is as good as it looks. Nice 3.0's, especially later 1994 models tend to be around £2-3k. I'm living on your side of Staffordshire, so hey neighbour! I'm away with work until Saturday and then my breaker arrives and I'm going to be rushing to strip and scrap it ASAP, but feel free to get in touch to ask any questions.
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Jan 26, 2016 17:19
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Thanks, and good points! The concern is that the materials used for modern DI engines may be of sufficient hardness to negate any wear (which shouldn't make a difference, since if the valve and seats are made of the same material, surely they will wear out regardless of the material used). There is also an argument that wear can be accelerated by the higher combustion temperatures of LPG. I agree with you that there is likely little to no risk of engine damage, and all the people complaining of burnt valves were probably running lean as gently caress on LPG (an easy thing to do if you don't pay attention to your tune - something that most 'professional' installation shops don't really seem to give a poo poo about). But on the other hand, the system cost £30, and the fluid consumption is 0.5p of valve saver fluid per litre of LPG (which costs around 50-55p per litre right now). So, a 1% increase in costs if I run the valve saver all the time. I can just turn the system on and off whenever I like, so I could do things like run it every other week or whatever. There are plenty of contradictory websites out there that make this whole thing rather tedious. Most people who 'swear by' valve saver fluids, are those who are tying to sell them... http://www.go-lpg.co.uk/VSR.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VR_FE65zpo
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Jan 26, 2016 18:14
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I'm in Staffordshire, yes. But prefer not to post too much about where I live. Are you local?
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Jan 27, 2016 21:09
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Ola posted:Checking in from the mechanical failures thread. I was never really aware of these cars, I want one really bad now, but I suppose the Soarer was only made with right hand steering? Found two LHS Lexi (thanks Partridge) and one RHS Soarer on the German used market. Google Translate convinced me that the latter's suspension was very active indeed! They sold them in LHS as the Lexus SC300 and SC400. Only in the USA though so they would be imports to Germany. Great cars, but they don't have the fun 80's digital dash or touchscreen. They did make them until 1999 though, and they got the VVTi 1UZ engine  .Edit: That ad.... a 1JZ VVTi, with the A02B LSD...it's so close to being the holy grail of Soarers. If only it was manual! (buy it anyway) 88h88 posted:Yup, I'd seen them around every now and again and I knew what they were but I had no idea what was inside them so being an 80s kid the idea of owning one is now a thing. I checked out insurance and for me they're just a little bit silly, if they're still around in a few years I see myself picking one up though... I'm an late 80's kid, I've owned Soarers for ages. Just do it. Pomp and Circumcized fucked around with this message at 23:54 on Jan 28, 2016 |
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Jan 28, 2016 23:44
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literally a fish posted:The only cars that got the magic suspension were the ~800 UZZ32s, all of which have the V8 - that one has the 1JZ-GTE, which means it either has coils or airbags. Only the v8s had the option for airbags. Airbag v8s were the most popular v8s. All 6 cylinder (1jz and 2jz) were coil springs. Bilsteins are apparently a nice upgrade, but were not available from the factory. The auto boxes are really nice in these. I guess it helps that it's a 4 speed, so isn't always having to choose between a million potential gears. Silky smooth box, lots of little tricks such as transmission pressure changes and ignition timing adjustments during shifts. Very responsive box in PWR mode as well. Put it this way, when I bought my first Soarer, I swore I'd never drive auto, and that I'd convert it to manual. 1 hour later, and I've never looked back. I sold my VR4 Mitsubisbi purely cause it was manual (and a brutal turbo JDM monster with the world's closest ratio gearbox). Pomp and Circumcized fucked around with this message at 03:23 on Jan 30, 2016 |
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Jan 30, 2016 03:19
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By the way, tomorrow is a big day for my UZZ32 ranch.
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Jan 30, 2016 03:24
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literally a fish posted::o more car? A little bit more car:           This thing was a huge pain in the rear end to unload from the trailer. It had no shocks and temporary wheels, it had to be jacked up off its own arches to move it off the trailer. That took around 2 hours in total. However, 3 hours later....     How did I manage so much in so little time? Partly experience, but mostly new toy:  (new toy is now dirty as gently caress) Pomp and Circumcized fucked around with this message at 19:11 on Jan 30, 2016 |
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Jan 30, 2016 19:09
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Spent another day stripping down this 'new' car. Got most of the interior out, sent 3 trunkloads of trash to the 'recycling centre', and pulled everything out of the trunk. Started on the front steering and suspension, but stopped when it began to rain. I'm to used to Soarer dashboards, that with 3 impact guns (so I don't have to change bits), I got to this stage in about 15 minutes:    God drat loving PO's, 'automotive electricians', and anything to do with wiring in cars. It's not hard to do things properly ("do things properly" = not twist-and-tape, = following original wiring paths instead of running them past moving parts such as the loving brake pedal, = not splicing into splices of splices of splices with no fuses in sight, = bundling your cables neatly, cutting off the excess (who needs 5 metres of red wire coiled around their steering column?), and securing them properly). The real  moment came when I went to remove the gas (propane, not gasoline) tank. As I mentioned before, there are strict guidelines on securing these tanks. Normally, for cars with a spare wheel inside the trunk, the tank fits inside and is bolted down. However, this car had a tank which was designed for vehicles with spare wheels that are stored underneath. It has mounting lugs on the top of the tank.But ShittyPostmakerPro, how do you mount such a tank inside a regular wheel well? Well....how about you cut the whole loving bottom of the spare wheel well off and jam the tank in what's left? But...how would you secure such a tank? Well, with a standard butyl adhesive, of course!  That's right, someone saw fit to loving glue the tank in place. And don't go thinking that the mounting lugs on top were used. Oh no, those things were just there for show. OK, so what tools shall we use to extract this pressurised gas tank?  Steak knife seems appropriate.   I needed the jack to stop the tank from simply falling onto my driveway as I cut through the adhesive. I mean...yeah there was a slight curve to the sheet metal which may stop the tank from getting bounced right out the bottom of the car, but I'm still not convinced that this is an appropriate mounting method. A few minutes of sawing off adhesive later and nobody will ever know the horror.  I also checked out the  modifications to the headlights, before throwing them in the trash. Coming up tomorrow: Steering! Suspension! Hoses! Maybe a rear subframe (if the weather is nice)! Maybe a dash, heater box, seats, carpet, entertainment system, and interior wiring (if the weather is lovely)!
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Jan 31, 2016 19:48
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I'll need to check on the price of sawzall blades and butyl adhesive first to see if it's viable. That thing isn't going near any of my current cars. Maybe in the future, if I buy something with space to mount it externally
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Jan 31, 2016 22:44
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Holy poo poo I put a lot of work into this car over the last 2 days. I don't have many pictures to show for it as I was working flat-out. Yesterday, I removed the whole interior, all wiring looms (this was a bitch, even though there are only 7 looms in the car, plus the two antenna looms), prepped to remove the subframes, removed most of the poo poo from the engine bay, and pulled the heater box.    Today, I loosened the subframes, stripped the doors, fuel tank, trunk, and did some other miscellaneous things, then called up my local scrapyard and had the car hauled away, leaving the subframes behind. It got dark shortly after, I only had time to remove the driveshaft and have a crack at the join in the control cables which are currently tying the two subframes together.    Tomorrow, I'll strip these subframes down, clean up and strip then store/trash everything which has been removed so far, and scrub my driveway down with detergent. This was a fun (but exhausting) project. Now comes the boring, lovely bit - listing all the bits I don't need (but I know have value) on eBay and on members clubs, to clear out some space and raise some funds to cover the cost of this endeavour.
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Feb 2, 2016 19:41
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some texas redneck posted:Holy poo poo, that's a lot of copper. It was a 3 foot cube, and about 80lb of wiring - after I cut all the plastic trunking off and coiled it up, it became a lot more compact! the spyder posted:Finally! Another AI poster who's obviously as crazy as I am. That's quite a bit of work/parts holding to keep those cars on the road. I approve. I don't have a bitchin' shop and a line of sweet cars outside, though  . Love your work and your thread, and glad you're getting paid to do what looks like your hobby
Pomp and Circumcized fucked around with this message at 00:04 on Feb 3, 2016 |
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Feb 2, 2016 23:59
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OK, back to what I was doing on the green UZZ32. This is the last update for the car, and one which I should have posted ages ago (like...when I was actually doing the work on the car, not now, 3 months later). The car was driving 'weird' since I got it, I figured it needed an alignment. I took it to an alignment shop who found the following:   Welp, guess this car is hosed. I was actually able to measure the rear right wheel as being 2cm further forward in the wheel well compared to the rear left. One last ditch attempt to fix this car would be to pray that the control arms or subframe is bent, and not the body. I measured the body using the factory reference measurements (it's nice to have these!) and all looked OK, but I couldn't be sure as I was only using a basic tape measure. There was no signs of any impact damage on the body, and no visible creases, so with some luck, I could get this repaired in a day or two. New complete rear end arrived on a pallet from a friendly junkyard (who pretty much gave it away for scrap value) Time to pull out the old subframe. This is tricky on a UZZ32, there are 6x hydraulic lines to disconnect, the rear steering rack needs to be removed (the cable linkage from the front rack is too much of a pain to realign, so avoid disconnecting the cables if possible), the struts need to come out (another 4x hydraulic lines, plus the pressurised accumulators in the legs to lock down). There are 5 sets of wires running to the subframe, each is a pain to disconnect and free from the car. After that, it's not too hard to drop the exhaust, the heat shields, and the driveshaft to access the hand brake cables. 10x bolts later and this pig comes out!  The hydraulic shocks need to be bled to remove excess fluid held under nitrogen pressure, and then 'locked' with an allen bolt before removal. Locking them means that they can't be retracted for removal, so a juggling game involving unlocking, compressing, then locking them is needed to ensure a Spill FreeTM removal.   These hydraulic lines were a nightmare. All 4 of the front lines had flared unions, all were rusted in place. A propane torch, flare nut wrenches, and swearing eventually freed them.  Fast forward 4 hours and the subframe is on the ground!  The new subframe came partially assembled. The lower control arm camber bolts were rusted in place (standard on a Soarer), and as they were already at neutral (centre) alignment, I left the control arms on, at least until I got the alignment re-checked.   I wire-wheeled the subframe and control arms, and applied some chassis paint (I accidentally ordered white, and decided 'gently caress it')    A few hours later and the subframe is in.  It took most of the rest of the day to reconnect the lines, cables, etc, then more time to re-bleed the suspension and steering systems. The next day, the car went back to the alignment shop. Only a minor change, and still a huge lateral axle offset. Oh well, guess this car is scrap. It's now sitting outside a friends house. I'm currently looking to move into a larger place with more space to work on these cars, when I do, I'll either break this UZZ32 for parts, or buy a very late model Soarer (1999 or 2000), and make it into an active suspension model. The newer Soarers are generally nicer to look at, and will be less beaten/worn, so this insane project would have an interesting finish. Comedy option: active suspension V8 FD RX7.
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Feb 8, 2016 17:16
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Beats me! The alignment shop was as surprised as I was. There's no evidence of damage to the body shell, I think maybe it spun into a curb and rippled slightly enough that we couldn't see it. Me and the alignment guys checked over that car for almost an hour, and all agreed: "don't know how, but it's hosed".
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Feb 8, 2016 17:22
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Seat Safety Switch posted:Man, I've never seen that second diagram of wheelbase difference before and I've gotten a lot of alignments done. I went to an alignment-only place that does lots of alignments for custom builds, race cars, kit cars, etc. Regular alignment shops just gave me a "not in the system. does not compute. shall I 'do the tracking' for you?". The shop I used had a Hunter system, and they were happy to use my alignment specs and procedure as provided by Toyota. The guy switched to that second page after looking over the car and deciding 'something's not right'. There is also a third diagram, which renders your wheel alignment in 3D, with the deviation from standard exaggerated, and a 'ghost' of the ideal alignment. So the tech can watch their changes happen in real-time as they adjust various adjustments. My 3D diagram looked like someone had crumpled the car into a ball. Pomp and Circumcized fucked around with this message at 18:05 on Feb 8, 2016 |
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Feb 8, 2016 18:03
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There is a resistor pack 'fuel pump controller' which can often fail on the older Lexuses. It's pretty cheap to replace with a junkyard park, you can short the "B" and "FP" (battery and fuel pump) terminals on the diagnostic connector to give +12v directly to the fuel pump for testing. Bad ECU caps normally start by manifesting random codes, you'll get rough running and unstable idle and all sorts. I've never heard of an ECU being unable to start the car, but it's possible. Note that it's not usually the caps themselves that show symptoms, it's the other components which have been burnt, and the burnt traces from the corrosive electrolyte. If it's capacitors, best case is $5 of capacitors and some IPA to clean up any goo, worst case is some trace replacement or a replacement ECU (cheap, many go aftermarket as these ECUs are not flashable or moddable in any way). 'Capacitor plague' didn't affect these cars, it came later in the 90's. It's just 25-year old capacitors that are being run to their limits. Even modern* electrolytics have a MTBF of 2000-3000 hours. If it's an otherwise good car, then go for it. Running examples in the UK are around £400-£500, but I've yet to see one without some body damage or rust or hosed interior or something. I'd say a good, clean exterior and interior would be worth more than a running car - 1UZ's are cheap and reliable. And yeah, fuel pump swap is easy on a SC, not sure about a LS but I assume it's almost identical. *'modern' is a loose term, I mean...it's some foil and wet paper rolled together and stuffed in a can Edit: note that all of the above knowledge relates to the Soarer/SC, but the cars are almost identical other than the body style, so I hope this knowledge transfers over to the LS.
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Feb 9, 2016 12:55
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I've just had a quick check through my many, many pictures, to see if there is anything I missed, and I'm pretty sure we're now up to date with these loving cars. I transferred the LPG system over to the white car, making a few adjustments on the way.  This is with both engines partially torn down, to swap the drilled-out intake between the two cars. I also verified that the white car does indeed have a well-hidden starter motor. This is the final picture I have of the two cars together - the green one went away the next day. I replaced the AC system on the white car - the compressor was making a clicking noise, and the condenser came out like this:    I ordered a SC400 condenser from the US, and had Soarer fittings TIG welded on.  Worked out £200 cheaper than buying a Soarer condenser (gently caress my life). Bought an autoclimate AC machine for cheap as it wasn't working, repaired it for next to nothing, and used it to fill my car with sweet, sweet air duster.  (not sure where my pictures of it, or the compressor check, reseal, and install are) Opened the gas ports on my spare shocks (this is a one-time deal, don't do this unless you mean business), and hydraulic fluid sprayed out. Guess these seals are hosed!  Had schrader fittings welded on and regassed the shocks. This will last for a while before the leak again, and force me to reseal them.  Now all that's left is for me to break down this hunk of junk when the weather improves!  Let's have a look at the final 'jobs list' for the green UZZ32, to see if I managed to complete any of it.... Boot lid all lovely, hole in rear bumper - NOPE CD player doesn't work - NOPE Headlights are full of water - Yeah, I opened them in the oven, cleaned the insides, resealed them, replaced the breather tubes, and now they are dry! Active suspension feels very hard, as if the sealed nitrogen accumulators have leaked. - I got those accumulators (picture above) sorted out, but didn't end up sorting the harsh ride in time for this poor car. That brings us all up to date. What's next? This is next:  These unicorn $1000 exhaust headers (imported from Australia) is next
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Feb 10, 2016 00:35
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These aren't shocks, they are not even really a car part. They are just regular hydraulic accumulators, the kind you may find on farm or construction equipment. They just happen to be stuffed between the wheels and the body of a car. It's best not to try comparing them to normal suspension shock absorbers. 
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Feb 10, 2016 17:18
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All the suspension and steering stuff is made by Aisin with Denso electronics, so I guess Toyota just threw them both a bunch of cash and said "we're making one hell of a car for the US market, now we have to beat it over here because we Japanese always keep the best stuff for our own market hashtag Jay Dee Emm"
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Feb 10, 2016 18:18
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Well yes, but the post you quoted was a joke in response to a joke.
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Feb 11, 2016 09:17
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Cakefool posted:What I'm taking away from all this is that if you want to become obsessive about a car, try to choose one that was common as muck and cheap as chips Did you know that Mazda made a line of cars which were powered entirely by twirling metal nachos?
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Feb 11, 2016 11:33
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Yeah, check out this SICK CROSSPOST http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/172093269740 Should I loving do it?
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Feb 11, 2016 18:50
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I think I'd be better off paying £500+shipping for the car, then £500+shipping for a wrecked GS430 (2nd gen GS). Plus, I'm currently in the process of buying a house and don't need two non-working cars to have to deal with. Still, I posted it to show that it will fit into a bay designed for an engine that's about 1/4 of the size, lol.
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Feb 11, 2016 18:58
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£500 for a 2005 coupe-ish with 60-80k miles on it, though! Where else can you get that? Seriously - tell me! I'll soon have a 'spare' 1UZ floating around which will need a home.
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Feb 11, 2016 19:58
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| # ¿ May 8, 2024 21:03 |
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Nothing But Hate posted:V8 RX8 sounds GR8 M8 FTFY
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Feb 11, 2016 22:44
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