Woohoo, the rebuild starts!!!

[MA70-3.0GT]

Okay I finally managed to get all the gaskets and stuff required to put the sup's top end back on, just gotta wait now for some half decent weather and I'll make a start on it. Can't wait to hear this beast roar in full health at long, LONG, last!

[Green7mgte]

keep us updated

[MA70-3.0GT]

Update, as requested-:

Saturday was a reasonable day by the time I woke up late morning so I made a start on the jigsaw. It went pretty well I think & in about 3 1/2 hours of working at a relaxed pace with plenty of smoke/brew/chat breaks I've got the head on & torqued (went in 15lb increments all the way up to 95 ft/lb on the stock bolts, lightly lubed on threads & washers. hopefully this'll do the trick!).

After a quick rest to recover from the torquing session (I'm outta shape OK? ) I went ahead & put the cams, sprockets etc in & timed the thing up, also fitted the CPS while the rocker covers were off. Then came the fun of remembering what wires & pipes went through which bit of manifold, 2 takes & that was dealt with & the fuel rail, injectors, upper plenum and a few other gubbins went back.

I called it a day after that as my back was killing me (If you can remove the bonnet to do the HG it's a lot easier on the spine but I have to work outdoors & need it for weather shielding). Sunday & today have been no-go due to about a foot of snow falling over saturday night but with a bit of luck it'll be OK tomorrow & I can get the rest done. Basically all I need to do is fit the exhaust mani' & turbo/pipework, stat housing, coolant hoses, rad & fan. Then hook up the coils & remaining electrics, fit covers, fill fluids and grab the key & a big handful of hope!!!

I'll let you know what happens in a few days when I'm online again, touch wood I'll be driving round in the Supra by then....

[Green7mgte]

*touches my wood* (my desk)
sounds like you got the hard part done! crappy you have to be outside. im not much better. attached garage but unheated. at least i can leave my car in a good state of disablement w/o worrying about the elements.
post some pics!

[MA70-3.0GT]

I don't have access to my own camera hence why I only posted a few of the stripdown last year (yes, last year!!!)

I'll try and borrow one again once it's built up though, so we can at least see it looking pretty and clean under there. What I wouldn't do to have any form of garage, even a carport & I'd be able to finish up cause it's not been that cold, just the damned snow all over everything!!! Still, I'm hoping the old saying's true & good things really do come to those who wait. If it's anything like true then this car's gonna be pushing 700rwhp for how long it's taken

Seriously though, I'm so badly looking forward to trying the car out properly for the first time. I've only driven it 3 miles if that before, to get it home so provided everything checks out I'm going to throw as much petrol as I can afford (at over 5 quid a gallon FFS ) in the tank and go for a good thrash. I'm gonna check & re-torque the head after a couple of hundred miles too just to make sure.... ohhh roll on summer & no roof!!!

[907mge]

i'm assuming you cleaned the head out, can you recommend what worked the best?

[MA70-3.0GT]

Certainly, there's no point at all replacing the h/g without thoroughly cleaning both head & block, also get someone with the correct equipment to check the head for warpage as it may need skimming.

As the engine hadn't long been rebuilt before the h/g blow on mine (cause found, pinholed heater matrix, right at the top it would seem as it only leaked coolant with the front up in the air, but obviously would have drawn air in on cooldown before) there wasn't a great deal of cleanup to do & I found that carefully (can't emphasise that enough!) scraping with a scalpel blade & washing in brake cleaner got all the rubbish off fine.

Anyway I've more or less finished the reassembly by now as you may have guessed, since I found the heater issue when I bled the coolant, the damn interior's flooded & stinks of antifreeze. it soaked through the carpets & was dripping out the floor in 3 or 4 places!!!

Only bits to go back now are cosmetic bits, although I've also got to re-investigate an oil leak from the turbo feed/return which only turned up after the first test drive round the block. That ate about 1.5hrs stripping stuff out to get to retighten the nut closest to the manifold.

Hopefully this is sorted now 'cause I'm gonna scream if that lot's gotta be undone a third time. Also I've bypassed the faulty heater for now by taking the pipe from the back of the head to the vsv & routing it to the stub for the one that goes up to the other heater pipe (yes, I've made 250% sure it's not airlocked there too!)

Obviously this isn't a long-term solution as it reduces overall coolant capacity by a couple of litres nearly, but it's got the car running for shakedown & gives me the option of stripping all the damn dash out more or less at leisure... Oh and the alternator's still knackered too...

Anyway onto the good news, she started first time after cranking with the injectors & coils unhooked to spread oil round and boy does she run sweetly, even considering it wasn't too bad before it's a helluva improvement. Starting is so much easier when the cold start injector plug isn't missed out and steering at parking speeds is nicer with the speed-sensitive unit plugged in too... (Total Engine LTD have now gone under surprisingly....)
The tank's totally dry right now but when I get some spare cash either at the weekend or next tuesday I'm going to throw in a couple of gallons of super & drop the toolbox and spare batteries in the boot then take the old girl for a run to make sure all really is well & to run the aircon a bit to hopefully dry things out in the cabin.
Typically the weather's been beautiful the last few days 'cause I'm skint or I'd have been blatting round with the top off to that end, but such is life & I'm still a happy bunny considering this is the first h/g I've done on a car (plenty of bikes etc before, but you get more room to play with them!) not to mention 1st turbo engine.

All in all it's gone well & I'm (kinda) happy now I've found why the h/g blew with so little mileage on a full rebuild, kinda because it's gonna a pig to sort out properly but happy as it's not an over-decked/warped/bodged up head or block.

Coupla things I'd say to anyone thinking of doing this for the first time themself is first off don't rush, allow plenty of time & for fex sake be methodical when stripping & reassembling. I'm blessed with a near-photographic memory so I got by without but I'd recommend taking photos at each stage & even writing/sticking on notes to follow on what order to do stuff & where wires/pipes are routed (the viper's nest round & through the manifold is the bit that threw me first shot, I plugged the loom connectors in first!!!)

But mainly I'd say don't be scared off by looks, it's not half as tough as you'd think when you first stare at that lump of a motor with all it's sensors & vac systems, if you've got a bit of mechanical nouse & you're willing to spend more time than money then give it a go, if you get stuck there's a brilliant forum here to refer to, with tons of people who could no doubt do the job with their eyes shut by now.

If you need any further incentive then get a quote for the job from a garage & then consider that my total cost (including a torque wrench & 10mm allen bit, plus sundries oil, antifreeze etc) was under 100 quid...