the 87 t-top shoud finally be on the road soon... gettin some love

[toyotaspeed90]

So... anyone following anything I do knows I have way too many cars and way too many parts and way too many projects....

Had a 7age in the ae92 that lasted a whopping 50 miles.... it had a completely stock 7a shortblock (all original) except for rod bearings and new smallport 4age pistons & rings.... spun a bearing.... took a risk, block had 200K on it and nobody in town can turn a crank...

So, the ae92 got just another JDM smallport 4age.... which was a fiasco in of itself.

This car was destined to have a 4agte.... until I got my old 87 hardtop supercharged & megasquirt car back with a blown motor.... well, the 4agze from the t-top went into the hardtop (which is on the road again).

So... now once again the 87 t-top gets left in the dust.... except that I really want to have a t-top in the summer and I have a lot of spare parts, including this 7a with one spun bearing....

I also have a friend..... (yeah, I know, really)..... he has some spare 7a parts.... full crank & rod set..... he also has a set of adjustable cam gears for a 4age..... I have a spare JDM bigport motor lying around that he wants..... so....

The 87 t-top will have a 7age, C50, and running on MS.

7age will have:
adjustable cam gears
smallport 4age head with cleaned valves and new valve stems
smallport 4age high comp pistons (a whole 50 miles on them! ) with new rings
New oil pump
New main and rod bearings & thrust washers

Hopefully this go around it works better

I will get photos as it goes.... so far I have the 7age on the stand with pan off, oil pump and bearings in the house, and should be getting the crank, rods, and gears tomorrow.

Here are photos of the first go around:







As it sits now:



The biggest concern I have at this moment is that the ae92's header was modified to clear the 7a... I have a couple spare 4age headers, but the shop that modified the ae92 header shut down.... to make matters worse, the 2 spare headers I have and the ae92 header all use different down pipes.... so, not sure I can even use the ae92 header without modifying it for the aw11 AND modifying another header for the ae92....

[MR2Jedi]

Too many cars-not enough time! I hope you're having fun! Very cool though. Keep up the progress reports.

[toyotaspeed90]

Motor has been stripped down to the block... only the water pump remains (since it's new).

[toyotaspeed90]

Photos to come tomorrow....

I have both great and not-so great news......

The crank I got today is in very good shape, and was previously turned down..... the bad news is that I was under the impression that the crank he had hadn't been cut... so I had already ordered new STD bearings.... so, the build must wait for bearings.... on the flipside the spare mains will go into my core smallport 4age that needs a light rebuild....

[toyotaspeed90]

old crank on the left, new on the right. Box of 7a parts to the left and the head is sitting there in the upper right


head & old pump


block and adjustable timing gears (oldschool from japan... made off of stock gears... I think I like these a LOT more than the new ones you can buy.... just kinda nostalgic like that).


stock 7afe vs 7age highcomp

the car it's going in:

[toyotaspeed90]

and yes, my garage is horribly messy!

[MR2Jedi]

Originally Posted by toyotaspeed90

and yes, my garage is horribly messy!

just alittle...
Those cam gears will serve you well.
ATS does the same thing with 2nd gen cam gears making them adjustable. They're not as light as HKS or the like, but the steel can take more torque when locking down the set screws. Making them less likely to slip.
Thats a perdy crank!

[toyotaspeed90]

bearings arrived..... gonna attempt to get a rod & piston over to the machine shop... hopefully they don't destroy the piston trying to swap them over...... if they do... then I will get one of my spare old (eek, I know) stock high comp pistons (since my new ones are still std size... stock 4ag are full floating and the 7a has to be pressed) and have them put one on a new rod.....

then just need some plastigauge and assembly lube

[toyotaspeed90]

the bad 7a rod from the last crank is at the machine shop with a few pistons & their rods....

took them a new 7a rod & piston
took them the old 7age rod & piston (rod bad, piston good)
took them a spare smallport 4age rod & piston

why?

the 4age's are full floating and the 7age's require the pins to be pressed in.... so... don't know who realizes this but there's a lot of force holding those pressed pins in, and a lot of the time when they press the pin out, it puts too much force on the end of the piston.... and oops, there goes the piston.

I waited around a bit when I dropped the parts off because the guys didn't think they could get either the 4age rod off (was from a block that threw a rod and a few bit had hit the bottom of the piston.... looked overheated as well, but unfortunately was the better of my parts) or the new 4age piston off of the 7a rod...

well, amazingly ALL of the pistons had the pins pressed out and all of them survived... even the 7afe piston.... was really surprised (as were they). They just need to heat the rod up and drop the pin in....

machine work cost? an 18 pack of bud light.

[toyotaspeed90]

mains, thrust washers, crank, and new oil pump installed.... just waiting for the machine shop to call...

[toyotaspeed90]

more pictures to come soon.....

rod bearings couldn't be more perfectly within spec.... spec is 0.020 to 0.051mm and all 4 were smack in between 0.038 and 0.051....

head is back together with a 1.0mm MLS HG, smallport head, and adjustable timing gears.

Needs the rear main put back on (can't reach it on the stand), timing belt, valve covers, and oil pan -- then the efi parts can start going back on as well. Hopefully I have a spare 200mm disc as IIRC my 6 bolt flywheels are all 200's.....

[MR2Jedi]

I love watching a motor being put together....I like the install part less though...Idunno why

[toyotaspeed90]

I have more photos..... just didn't want to upload them right now....

timing gears, t-belt, oil pans/pickup tube, oil return line all reinstalled. Received OE (but newer, less than 300 miles on) clutch, pp, flywheel, and t/o bearing from a friend (he got it off of a motor he needed for his 88 corolla alltrac but those use different clutch/flywheel setups, and this I believe was a 212 & his aw11 we put a 200 in) for $20... put that in, installe the trans yesterday, and then today I bolted it into the car (after fiddling with smaller things here and there for an hour or so).

and who knew.... 86 and 87 passenger side motor mounts aren't the same.....

also, the car had previously been wired on MS for a 4agte with supra 440's... but it never started because the relay board was shot (have a new one, just need to install it)... the 4agte setup came out to go into the other 87 as a 4agze..... anyways, what I'm getting at is that I have to rewire the injector plugs because, of course, the supra 440's and the high ohm 250's use different connectors.... (even though they're from the same year).

Will also be hunting around for a 20V map for MS -- I figure it will be pretty close and maybe need to up the fuel req just a bit (as the 20V's have high compression with 290's... I will be slightly higher CR and 250's).... good enough to drive around on, at least..... since it'll be n/a I probably will never dyno tune it..... we'll see.

[toyotaspeed90]

Work accomplished today:

fuel lines connected
rewired the injectors (connected)
rummaged around and found another TB and my Chrysler coilpacks. Decided to use a gze intake side cam cover, unsure of what to use on the exhaust side yet (maybe the GM blank one I have and paint to match the gze one)
rewired and installed the new MS relay board
installed the Crank Angle Sensor for the MS

So, not a lot done. Still need to do: install shift cables, install starter, have header modified to fit, figure out the exhaust, figure out the TB and how to run the throttle cable, get/charge a battery, bleed the brake lines, install seats, etc etc etc.... oh, and title it... even though I've had it 2 years....

Photos from Friday (yeah yeah, I'm behind):













in the last one, if you know what you're looking at you can see how/where I ran the smallport return hose.

[MR2Jedi]

I'm not familiar with the 1st gens. The return hose you speak of? Is that the one with the white dot on it? just curious .
Also, the section between the block/oil pump and the oil pan what is that/purpose? Just for my FYI

ETA for completion?