1993 Toyota Mark II JZX90

[zeitgeist57]

What you ARE getting accomplished looks better and better! Keep it up! :thumbup:

[KentStateTsi]

Did someone local have the WB1 in stock already or did you order elsewhere?

[BIGGU]

Did someone local have the WB1 in stock already or did you order elsewhere?

 

Brian, I was able to order it direct from Haltech before they went on backorder.

[BIGGU]

So another weekend and some more work. Unfortunately I had planned to start the car last weekend. Sadly I failed to do that but I did try for what its worth.

 

Big thing for me was getting the dash display sorted that way I can monitor from there while breaking in the engine. Since I have the IQ3 street dash I am planning to remove the entire stock cluster and just run the display but I did want a decent looking and something that looks OEM. I ended up going and grabbing some evergreen black polystyrene sheet and cut it to fit the stock cluster and mounted the dash to that. Since the plastic sheet wasn't super smooth and had some imperfections I decided to get some texture to it which looked perfect.

 

 

 

I also was able to get the oil line finished so I could prime the oil system to get it ready to start.

 

 

 

Now onto the annoying part. once the oil line was made, and I filled the cooler with oil I then put my coolant funnel in place and started filling the system with pure distilled water(didn't want to run coolant until I knew it was good). Got in 2.5 gallons and then started to see water dripping under the car. Initially I though it was just a water line missing a clamp but sadly it turned out to be seeping from the water pump. Its hard to admit but im going to do it anyway...I forgot to put the water pump gasket on when I put the water pump housings together. Unfortunately this means tearing down the entire front end of the motor, taking timing belt off and re sealing the water pump. Thankfully since Ive done this quite a few times and this is all new parts it only took me about an hour start to finish.

 

Anyways, after that was complete, I disable the fuel pump and cranked the engine and verified oil pressure and made sure everything else was reading properly. I then tried to crank it on over which it did however it only wanted to start once and when it did it popped and died out.

 

Looks like timing is off in the ECU so Ill have to play around with that but I ended up calling it quits for the night since I did see intcam1ang was reading uncalibrated and I couldn't find a way to calibrate it so I called it quits until I can talk with some one from haltech.

[zeitgeist57]

Now onto the annoying part. once the oil line was made, and I filled the cooler with oil I then put my coolant funnel in place and started filling the system with pure distilled water(didn't want to run coolant until I knew it was good). Got in 2.5 gallons and then started to see water dripping under the car. Initially I though it was just a water line missing a clamp but sadly it turned out to be seeping from the water pump. Its hard to admit but im going to do it anyway...I forgot to put the water pump gasket on when I put the water pump housings together. Unfortunately this means tearing down the entire front end of the motor, taking timing belt off and re sealing the water pump. Thankfully since Ive done this quite a few times and this is all new parts it only took me about an hour start to finish.

 

 

Holy cow...well done making as fast of a recovery from that one as you could!

[BIGGU]

this weekend turned out alot better than I was expecting but sadly the car still will not run but atleast it will start and idle for a second or two and die. Haltech display counters shows trigger system error count rising as I crank so that tells me there is an issue there I need to look into. Mainly I need to deal with a battery that dies after two tries to start the car which will be the first thing to deal with this week.

 

Anyways parts arrived for the car:

Haltech 4 Bar motorsports Map sensor

Haltech 12 position rotary switch

Haltech boost solenoid

Tial QRJ BOV

Odyssey Fab Downpipe

Apexi Hybrid intercooler

OEM Mark II corner marker

 

Onto what was completed this weekend I finally received my replacement projector so I got my HID projector retrofit completed. This time around I went with a Mini H1 projector since it fits much better. I dunno what the output will be like but time will tell. I also painted the outside of the stock shrouds like I did to the first lights. To be honest I didn't really want to do this however some of the chrome peeled off when I tried to remove the sealer that fell on to it. Ill wait on putting the lens on this time that way I can properly align the projector and get both straight.

 

 

After that was completed, I went back to the dash cluster and finished wiring everything up and mounting it. I had to figure out where to mount the button for the display that allowed you to scroll and change the way information was displayed. I had originally thought of putting it on the same panel the display was on but I felt that would be annoying to have to reach up to press so I put it on the left side of the wheel. Again since this display is the street display all turn signal, brake, high beam and really anything else is built into the display. I do need to take it out and customize the display a bit more and also adjust the fuel level gauge since I never calibrated it.

 

 

Next since the downpipe arrived I could finally finish up the exhaust. I basically built this out of scraps I had laying around in the garage from past projects thankfully I had just enough to finish tacking it together. Sadly I did run out of argon so Ill have to complete welding it next weekend.

 

 

Lastly I did get to mock up the intercooler. In order to mount it where I want to It looks like I may need to notch out the frame a bit but Ill play with it later when I have more time.

 

[BIGGU]

So its been a few weeks but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy working on the car. I dont really remember what all got done but I will say what I do remember.

First big thing is my solid sub frame bushings finally arrived after months of waiting. It looks like they also switched to a new design which is much nicer than the old stuff.

 

 

Biggest thing on my list was getting the intercooler mounted in the car and ill be honest, it was a major pain in the ass to get it to tuck up high and give clearance for everything. This required cutting of the front frame rails and massaging other places for fitment. All in all its in place and i'm happy with where it ended up. I also got to work on the intercooler piping as well. This is the 3rd or 4th time I welded aluminum and while its not the prettiest its going to work and hold.

 

 

While It looks like it works I was still not happy with the hot side. This is due to the turbo outlet I bought as part as the J pipe delete. The problem is that the piece is not angled and probably has a 120 degree which doesent line up with the 90 degree intercooler piping. So I decided to take my stock piece and cut it up and make my own. that actually comes out straight.

 

 

 

sadly now that this all lines up better it throws off the rest of the intercooler piping and i'm going to have to cut and re do that as I don't like to have any tension on the piping. Having the tension just means its got a greater chance of coming off.

 

Now that the piping is done which was my biggest hurdle I finally got back around to getting the car running. After alot of back and forth with a buddy and all the crank trigger sync errors we were seeing we decided it was best to replace the crank sensor. I did that and sadly it made no change. After throwing in the towel for a few days I remembered haltech has amazing tech support so I gave them a call and I spoke with Richard and he remotely connected to the ecu and ran through all the configurations and made a few changes. One big issue that I dont know how I missed was the IAT sensor was incorrectly calibrated. Rich did make a few setting changes when it came to the cam and crank sensors but to be honest I dont even recall what changes he made.

 

Reguardless we found out that the battery that was in the car was shot probably due to the cold. One quick trip to NAPA later ive got a new battery and tried to start the car. Turns out that the car was still trying to control the fuel pump. With my fuel pump ECU bypass that I had done the car would prime the pump then turn it off. Once the car would try and start it would think it was priming and then turn off again. I ended up bypassing the fuel pump ECU all together and gave the pump 12v when ever the ignition is turned on. This will be something I need to address later on so that the Haltech has full control over the pump. Regardless the car now starts up and runs! I was able to run the car for 30-40 minutes idling at 2k-3k to get to temp and to seat the rings. Last weekend I did the first oil change to get the break in out out and gave the car fresh oil.

 

One concern I had was it looked like the turbo elbow had fresh oil in it so I may not be out of the woods on the turbo. Its possible the seals did in fact get cooked....

 

FYI NAPA 7535 is a direct replacement for JZX90 for anyone needing a battery.

 

regardless the car runs and here is a video for proof!

 

 

Edited February 4, 2019 by BIGGU

[BIGGU]

So I haven't really posted much because there really hasn't been much to update.

 

With that said I did do a bit of work getting everything finalized and ready for the tune next Tuesday.

 

My Uras Trunk spoiler showed up so ive got to either find a spoiler less trunk OR weld up the holes in mine.

 

 

 

I also finished my HID retrofit by sealing the headlight lenses back up and got them bolted to the car.

 

 

Mounted the new Tial QRJ blow off valve.

 

 

And finally replaced all the clamps with Turbosmart Constant tension clamps.

 

 

As much as it pains me I did have to put the stock bumper on because I still have no idea when my CMW kit will be showing up. I spoke to the place where I ordered and I can get BN type 2 instead but honestly it doesn't look as good as CMW

 

[iwashmycar]

NICE!

[BIGGU]

So Tuesday was Tune day, Had a few things getting finished up until the wire but it was complete and ready.

 

Made the trek to Dynosty in Kentucky and got things sorted. One small issue cropped up that turned out to be rather common was the crank was one tooth off on timing. I still have no idea how that happened as I confirmed it three times after putting the timing belt on last time. There is no way it jumped timing so I must have missed it. Anyway its fixed and made some power.

 

Final numbers ended up being 417/440 on 17psi which tapers off to 14. I expected a bit more but again its a small turbo with a 3 liter bottom end so its only going to do so much. This is on 93 octane only. We discussed E85 as the car is ready for it but short of the cooler charge and less detonation with the turbo maxed out I wont gain much.

 

Only weird issue is the tuner said idle sounds weird and it almost seems like first cylinder is dropping out. It does go away as soon as throttle is given so it was not big concern. We discussed replacing the coil packs and checking the fuel injector and they do not seem to think this is the issue since it clears up. I think personally i'm just going to replace the coil pack anyway since they are pretty cheap. Dynosty seems to think its mechanical related and recommended a compression test and leak down just to be safe so Ill be doing that this weekend.

 

Other issue is we couldnt get the ECU to read speed. After talking to Mark at Panic Wire the VSS feeds directly to the gauge cluster then to the ECU so in theory I should just need to bridge the two wires and feed the raw signal to the Haltech and we can filter it there.

 

 

 

[zeitgeist57]

Love the vids. Looking/sounding awesome!

[Geeto67]

the car looks amazing, can't wait to see it in person at cars and coffee.

[BIGGU]

Oh hi, its me.

 

Got tired of the BC coils because they were way under dampened and bumpy even when adjusting them sooo I got a set of Stance Coilovers instead I ordered custom dampening with 24k front and 14k rear with helper springs. Ive got a set of helper springs also on the way for the front.

 

 

I also needed to add my rotary switch which controls the boost so I ended up putting it on the shift bezel. Ignore how bad the shift boot is, It will be replaced.

 

 

I also picked up a roof spoiler which will help tie into the look im going after. Just need to wait until the car gets painted to put it on.

 

 

 

Also waiting on a few other things to show up like Odyssey fab catch can, Odyssey fab rear subframe brace and Odyssey fab seat brakets so I can finally install my bucket seat. Once the sub frame brace shows up ill drop the subframe weld on the braces and then install the Serial9 subframe bushings and I should be done for a while until the body kit shows up.

[iwashmycar]

24K!? Isnt a piece of 2X4 softer than that!?

[BIGGU]

LOL Actually 24k isnt much higher than what the stance comes with by default. I went with a stiffer spring to combat not having a thick front sway bar but I may eventually get a front sway bar and then drop the spring down in the front.

 

The front of these cars are just heavy, my SC also had a 22k spring on the front so its pretty common.

[iwashmycar]

Right, but maybe I am not even thinking of it correctly. When I had the Mini, OEM spring rates were like 150#. The coilovers on my FJ are like 600#.

 

Is 24k not actually referring to lbs/inch?...or it is and the difference is only wanting 1/2" of suspension articulation?

[BIGGU]

Right, but maybe I am not even thinking of it correctly. When I had the Mini, OEM spring rates were like 150#. The coilovers on my FJ are like 600#.

 

Is 24k not actually referring to lbs/inch?...or it is and the difference is only wanting 1/2" of suspension articulation?

 

Correct, The difference is how much suspension travel im allowing the car to have.

[Smokey]

I figured it was 24 KG/mm which is the metric unit of measure for springs. Still a crazy high rate at about 1350 in/lb but I’m sure Patrick knows these cars well enough to figure it out. Actual ride quality will depend a lot on the motion ratio of the front suspension design too.

[BIGGU]

So last weekend I finally replaced my shift boot and handbrake boot and while I was at it I decided to re lid the arm rest with a leather cover as well.

 

 

And this last weekend I pulled the subframe out of the car to install the serial nine subframe bushings kit and the Odyssey Fab subframe brace kit. While the subframe was out I cleaned it up and re painted it and I painted the diff as well since it was looking nasty. I also found out that my front upper ball joints were trashed. Instead of just replacing the ball joints the Cusco front control arms were not that much more so I went that route. At this point the rear end is basically completed with exception of the rear upper control arm. I know FIGs is currently working on a replacement so I may just replace that so ive got all brand new arms and bushings.

 

 

 

I was also able to add the Odyssey Fab catch can in the engine bay as well. Came out perfect, super hidden and you wont really notice it with gaudy lines and what not. Its in the upper right hand corner of the photo.

[zeitgeist57]

Awesome shots. That engine bay looks proper, with the routing of hoses and piping.

 

Was watching Hoonigan over the weekend with an R154-swap into an auto JZX. Really cool cars.

[BIGGU]

Awesome shots. That engine bay looks proper, with the routing of hoses and piping.

 

Was watching Hoonigan over the weekend with an R154-swap into an auto JZX. Really cool cars.

 

Yea I just watched that video. Kinda annoyed me because they go baller on the trans yet they cheap out alot of places. I also feel like they gave out a ton of bad information in the episode but what do I know.

[BIGGU]

So busy weekend doing things I should have done a long time ago. Long story short I waited 9 months for seat brackets that were supposedly done to arrive and when they arrived they didn't even fit properly. After another month of waiting for them to be revised I go frustrated and decided to just make my own. The reason I have not taken the car on the track here was my old seat bracket bends like crazy which means it will not pass tech.I ended up moving my Recaro from the driver side to the passenger side after having to cut up the seat base I received to make it work.

 

 

Now that that seat is moved over I finally go around to installing my Sparco Evo3. Now you guys know, Im not small by any means which means big boy racing seat and generally some issues getting it installed. I ended up just hard mounting the seat to the brackets I made with no sliders since really Ill be the only one driving this thing.

 

 

Now that the seat is in I ran into an issue, due to the width of the seat I cannot run the stock seatbelt buckle because the seat is right on the center console. I kinda figured that would be the case so this means I have to run a racing harness. Due to not having a cage (yet apparently, because I don't like driving a car with fixed bucket and harness with no cage.)

 

I have not ordered harnesses yet due to wanting to figure out the mounting situation. With not having a cage you are generally limited in running the harnesses in a cross pattern to the rear seat belt bolts. In doing that the angle will be incorrect and in the case of an accident could compress the spine. I decided to run a harness bar in the car simply to adjust the angle of the harnesses that way it will be the correct angle to my shoulders.

 

 

Yes the bar looks close to the head rest but its just the photo, Sitting down even trying to hit the bar its not even close.

 

Lastly I got a set of knuckles from Tyler at Odyssey fab. One of my ball joints was loose so might as well get knuckles.

 

[BIGGU]

Now the thing that I have been waiting for quite some time on. CAR MODIFY WONDER!! Finally arrived last Friday and it was well worth the wait. I met with my buddy Sunday that will be painting the car to begin discussing what all needs done and what not along with color ideas. He is going to get me a color swatch for the color I am after to make sure its really what I wanted.

 

I cannot thank Koru Works for keeping on top of this. Yea it was a long wait but this was all production issues. Also this is the only new JZX90 kit brought into the states currently!

 

 

 

Ive also got my URAS Trunk spoiler and Roof spoiler along with my Ganadors mirrors.

 

[gillbot]

Your steering wheel is backwards.

 

Nice progress!!!

[BIGGU]

Cars going to go for bodywork / paint next week so I decided to start stripping it down but before that I put on the entire kit to make sure its what I wanted.