brawr
Part of things
Posts: 650
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Done! (for now...) This thing is starting it's journey back to the UK tomorrow, so a last push saw the final jobs sorted. Took it for a buzz down the road, and other than sketchy (not bedded in yet) brakes, it was good! Nice to see it in sunlight, now to seal it in a box for a few weeks until it pops up in England!
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brawr
Part of things
Posts: 650
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Apr 26, 2018 11:10:59 GMT
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Got some paint mixed up and painted up the rear spoiler. It was a plain aluminium one from T3 originally, but I wanted to make it look like it belonged on the starlet. I built the paint up in the same colour layers as the original age worn paint, then rubbed it back to try and get it to match the rear hatch. Pretty pleased with how it turned out: Oh also, it has one of these horrible UK plates now: Which means it can drive: And go to exciting things like the Bicester Sunday Scramble: Chuffed.
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Apr 28, 2018 21:41:10 GMT
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Its quite fun taking a car you bought, modified and drove in one country to another country and driving it on completely different roads. I did this with my Viva. Bought it in Norwich, drove it about Oxford and then shipped it to NZ. It was weird in a nice way driving it up the Kaikoura coast, that familiar dash I'd come to know but seeing a new vista outside. I still had the bright yellow UK plates for that first trip up from chch to blenheim and just hoped I would get spotted by a cop.
Your Starlet is surely worth a fair bit more coin in the UK than it was in NZ too I suspect?
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Last Edit: Apr 28, 2018 21:41:47 GMT by yoeddynz
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brawr
Part of things
Posts: 650
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Apr 30, 2018 14:38:38 GMT
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Its quite fun taking a car you bought, modified and drove in one country to another country and driving it on completely different roads. I did this with my Viva. Bought it in Norwich, drove it about Oxford and then shipped it to NZ. It was weird in a nice way driving it up the Kaikoura coast, that familiar dash I'd come to know but seeing a new vista outside. I still had the bright yellow UK plates for that first trip up from chch to blenheim and just hoped I would get spotted by a cop. Your Starlet is surely worth a fair bit more coin in the UK than it was in NZ too I suspect? I know exactly what you mean! Yeah will be worth quite a lot more in the UK, made it a very easy decision to bring it with me!
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brawr
Part of things
Posts: 650
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Not done a whole lot to this recently except drive it. It performed really well on the 2+ hour each way trip to RRW @ Goodwood. It's using a little bit of oil, and given that it gives up a puff of smoke when you open the throttle after it has been sitting at a steady cruise for a while I suspect it's coming through the valve stem seals. Put some VSS re-invigorating supplement in with the latest oil change and it seems to have helped a bit, but I've put replacement seals on the winter to-do list. One of the niggling problems I've been working on has been that the ECU throws an error code for 'speed sensor', and brings on the engine warning light. The ae111 had a digital input from the dash to the ECU to let the brain know whether you are stationary or moving. If you're sat in neutral revving the tits off the engine, it will flag up an absence of speed sensor input, put on the EML, and cut the redline by about 500-1000rpm to stop you over-revving it with no load on the engine to slow things down. As far as I know, it doesn't care what speed you are doing, as long as it doesn't think you are stationary. Since I'm running a cable speedo setup, I've got no 'square wave' input for this ECU signal. Essentially, the ECU pin for the sensor provides a ~5v signal that it expects to be intermittently earthed as the reed sensor is toggled on and off. Solution number 1: Bought a cheapy Halfords bike computer (you know the little ones that you put on your handlebars to show you speed and distance, has a reed sensor attached to your forks and a magnet on your spokes). Wired the reed sensor with one end to the ECU, the other to earth, and the 2-part magnet welded to a jubilee clip (opposite the worm screw for balance) and clipped around the prop. Sort of worked, but wasn't happy with the potential for prop imbalance, and it still occasionally threw an EML, I suspect from the magnet and sensor moving out of alignment with rear axle travel. Solution number 2: Found a 6v, solid state electronic flasher relay, presumably for old 6v car, bike or moped indicators. Being solid state it doesn't make a noise, and ought not to wear out like a bimetallic relay can. Bench tested it at 4.5v to make sure it would work with the ECU voltage, and it did. Wired inline between ECU +~5v and -earth. Should now provide an on-off-on-off intermittent square wave earthed signal to keep the ECU happy. Seems to be working while stationary, will test it out on the road when I get a chance. Sorry for a wordy update, have a photo from our trip to RRW:
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brawr
Part of things
Posts: 650
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Nov 25, 2018 16:56:49 GMT
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Love the patina! Saw this at the last Sunday Scramble. I have a 4dr KP61 that will be hopefully ready for a few outings in 2019. For the time being the little 1.3S 4K motor will be staying but I do like the idea of the 4AGE ! Really versatile little cars, tuned 4K, 4AGE, Rotary, etc...
Hopefully catch you at a show in '19
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what was the car show/festival ?
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Nov 26, 2018 21:01:06 GMT
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Nice "Stirba" and great engine choice. Theyr lovely to drive, fantastic sideways action machines. Friend of mine had one back in the day when I had AE86, years before anyone had heard of drifting, we were having sideways fun all the time every where on fresh snow. Hope you take it some where to you get to push it's limits.
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Last Edit: Nov 26, 2018 21:01:31 GMT by samulis
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brawr
Part of things
Posts: 650
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Nov 30, 2018 11:51:09 GMT
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what was the car show/festival ? The one with camping was RR Weekender earlier in the year. The one with the r32 and Civic was Bicester Sunday Scramble, and the one with the planes was a Silverstone Social meet at Turweston Aerodrome.
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Fantastic ,my first car was a W reg 1.2s one of these.
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brawr
Part of things
Posts: 650
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Mar 19, 2019 20:12:34 GMT
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This was tucked away over winter having some tickling. It was running really well last year, but was drinking a bit of oil, and would let out a puff of smoke when opening the throttle wide after a period of pootling. Compressions were good on all 4, symptoms pointed to valve stem seals, which is a common issue for these engines at this age. As a 'while I'm here' job, I decided to replace the inlet cam VVT pulley, as this had developed a rattle (again, extremely common due to wear of the internal teeth that engage to actuate the vvt timing change). NOS pulleys are available, but expensive , but the only other choice would be going standalone management and aftermarket vernier pulleys with a VVT delete - something I wasn't particularly keen on as I like that it runs so sweetly on stock management. I bit the bullet and bought a pulley and set of Supertech valve stem seals from Battle Garage in the US. Oh, and also a TRD high-comp head gasket. Got the head off: Cleaned up the block surface. Take a look at the top of the pistons and take a guess at which ones have been burning oil... Head was in good nick, but the valve faces were all quite badly coked. Pulled these out, and cleaned them back to being mint, then lapped the valves/seats, reinstalled stem seals, valves, springs, clips, shims and buckets. All moved nicely and looked much fresher than when it came off. Refitted the head on the block, using the thinner HG - this is supposed to raise compression ratio to approx 11.5:1 (from 11:1 stock). Minimal gainz expected as it's on stock management, but is good futureproofing and is a small enough bump to not worry about detonation (I only put Super in it anyway). Replaced the VVT pulley, fitted cambelt (kept old tensioner, as this has only been on there for 1yr/1000km and was still mint), and got it all timed up and back at factory specs. Have driven it several times since and it feels just the same, seems to be using a negligible amount of oil (i.e I haven't noticed a drop at all so far, win!), and doesn't produced an annoying VVT pulley rattle at idle. Quite happy all in all! Have a recent snap from a local breakfast meet:
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brawr
Part of things
Posts: 650
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When I was slapping everything together back at the end of 2017 to get this thing on the boat to the UK, I did a bit of a hash job splicing the wiring looms (4age engine and ECU loom, and the Starlet body loom) together, just to get it into a running state to load. It worked, so I left it as it was for 12 months and just enjoyed the car, but it bugged me knowing what a state it was under the dash. Take a look at this mess: So I ordered a nice fuse/distribution box and set about shortening wires, routing them properly, and generally making the whole thing easier to troubleshoot and less of a fire risk and OCD nightmare. Made up a simple backing plate for it that I welded to one of the dash braces: Tucks away under the dash nicely, conveniently close to the body fusebox: The thing I liked about this box is the ability to run 2 +12v busbar lines; one permanent live and one ignition switched. Nice to keep everything in one place and minimise connections. Much happier. Oh, was overdue a visit to Caffeine and Machine, so went for some excellent Nachos on Friday evening.
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