1990 Toyota Celica GT4 ST185 narrow body

Did a bit of commuting, everything going well....



Then it wasn't going well....



Overheated on the drive in to work - looks like the rad fan temporary fix I put in didn't hold. Fair enough - topped up with water before I limped it home later that day.
Sadly, whilst rolling along in traffic (with temps looking OK), it just stopped.

When putting it on the truck to get home, a lot of water came out, assuming from somewhere near the water pump as it looked to be nearer the rear of the engine, rather than the rad or overflow area.

Onto the fault-finding!

Turning the car over it felt a little free-er than normal so cam belt was the first choice as the problem. I'm still crossing my fingers its not HG failure as I'm not ready to do that job yet. Tested compression and that registered 0 across all 4 cylinders but I assume if the cam belt isn't doing anything then this isn't a particularly helpful test.

Sure enough, got the various ancillaries and pulleys removed and found the cam belt has snapped. Not certain when it was last done but I am certain it was some time ago. Good job the 3SGTE is non-interference.

Look at the state of this side of the block though - its covered in schmutz.
I do hope this is old oil weeps and leaks over time that I've been sorting since my ownership, ratehr than something more serious that's recently appeared...



Given I've not seen any substantial oil loss or leaks since I sorted the rear cam cover gasket leak of 2014, i'm going with the 'older weeping seals' theory.

Sit-rep is currently waiting for it to stop raining so I can get back out and start fitting new parts. I've removed all pulleys and the tensioner in preparation but still need to drain the coolant (whats left of it) and remove the water pump, ready for the new item.

Parts list amassed and awaiting fitting is as follows:

• Tensioner assembly
• Tensioner pulley
• Idler pulley
• Water Pump
• Thermostat
• Cam belt
• Power steering belt
• Alternator/AC belt
• Crank Oil Seal

Also got the new radiator and fuel filler neck bits to sort too so that can all go on at the same time.
Going to be a busy one!

One thing I did want to say - anybody who needs to do this job, don't bother unless you have a blow torch as the crank pulley bolt would not come off. Ended up making up a tool out of scrap in order to hold in place, blasted it with heat and then finally managed to get it loose.

Didn't realise the cam belt snapped in November! Time has flown by and I've still not fixed it.

Made some progress since last update though as I decided to bite the bullet and pull the whole head off in order to get at the stripped thread. Its now been sat headless for a couple months and I've not had the inclination to put it back together, until this weekend.

Engine block face got a clean up in preparation for putting everything back together....

Before:


After:


Spotted some damage to number 4 piston whilst cleaning up too:


Can't see any damage to the head or valves and the cylinder also appears intact with no scratches.
I've no intention of replacing pistons so it'll go back together in this state.

Need to order up gaskets, head bolts, new exhaust manifold studs etc etc so I can put the damned thing back together now.

Replied to your PM - They don't make the eBay JapSpeed special I have (needed some fab work to make it fit properly).
IF you want an exhaust for ST185, your best option is the HKS Silent Hi-Power - it's periodically manufactured by HKS so you do have to wait for stock to be available but its one of the best systems avialable off the shelf. I would really like one but would rather spend £600 elsewhere on the car!

Putting things back together.....

Head back together with new exhaust manifold studs, valve stem seals, cam shaft oil seals, injector seals and a new overhauled distributor.
Everything de-greased to finally rid the engine bay of the years of weeping gaskets and seals. Intake manifold wire wheeled to celan that up and a couple bits painted.



This was after I stretched the bolts securing the hydraulic tensioner as well - I'm going to chuck my torque wrench in the bin and pick up a new one as I clearly over-torqued them. This is the same wrench I was using to tighten the pulley bolt that stripped the threads in the head.....




Other bits were de-greased or wire-wheeled, soaked in Evaporust and painted..








Head back on. New water pump, new idler pulleys and tensioner, along with the new cam belt (and ancillary belts).
Pain in the that job was, getting everything lined up with timing markings and having enough slack to get the belt on. I even went so far as to get a new bearing for the alternator belt tensioner pulley as it felt a little crunchy - measured that up and grabbed whatever came up in that size off ebay.







Another job not on the list but again, I was buying parts from BRD so chucked them on the order.
Gear linkage bushes replaced with new poly items and a new 'sugar cube' to smooth out the gear changes.





aaaaand another thing I wasn't going to do is the alternator replace. I was ordering bits from GT4-Play so added it to the list whilst I was there
The contacts on the original were rusted through and I thought may as well!




Everything back on so far, only drama was getting the exhaust manifold and turbo combo back on thanks to a slightly wonky re-drilled manifold stud. It may have been me when fitting but it just seemed easier if I removed a couple of the studs, hung the manifold on the 2 I left in-situ and then refit the remaining studs.

Did some tidying of the loom as I refit it - some of the electrical tape and wrap was looking a little frayed and grotty so that's been re-taped.

Fresh coat of VHT purple on the cam cover as well (in case you couldn't tell!)

It only bloody runs!! Well chuffed.
Finished buttoning up everything in the engine bay. Chucked oil and coolant in, primed it and then went a first start - fired immediately and straight into a steady idle.
Pretty happy with that




Since it's been off the road the MOT has lapsed so that'll need doing now. Just got the replace the fuel filler neck first as it leaks when putting vpower in and that stuff is expensive so would rather not drop any on the floor.

Made a start on the fuel filler neck replacement and I'm going to need a few new parts in order to put it all back together.
The tank straps are rusty but serviceable but I have sheared all of the tank cover retaining bolts - they hold the plastic cover over the tank and fasten into the tank straps. I've not investigated too much yet but I have 2 options:
1) drill out/remove the sheared bolts from the tank straps, clean up the rust, protect and find some spare 10mm bolts to hold on the cover.
2) Buy new straps and fixings.

I know what the cheapest option is! I will take a closer look at the straps first and make sure I'm happy with the state of them before I reuse.

Once I'd got the tank off which wasn't actually too much of an ordeal I then set about trying to remove the filler pipe itself - this thing is in a right state.....proper corroded.





I chiselled off as much of the rust I could to get access to the small 8mm bolt heads. Surprisingly, 4 of the 7 bolts came out without issue. Seems is just massive surface rust ratehr than the threads being rusted or damaged.
2 bolts I had to get a good pair of pliers on to remove (after filing some straighter edges onto the bolt heads) and 1 I cannot remove.
I have an 8mm Irwin bolt extractor socket arriving this week so I can hopefully remove this final bolt.

I've new 8mm bolts already to fit along with a new filler pipe.

Looks like a very diligent and methodical build, nice one mate! I've long lusted after one of these

With the tank straps all shiny and new I've also given the tank itself a bit of love to hopefully keep it alive for a little while longer.

A bit crusty in areas but the majority appears ok:



I went to town with the wire and flappy wheels to get as much surface rust off as possible then used a process of Bilt Hamber Hydrate80, paint and then rubberised underseal for good measure.


Whilst that was all going off I reassembled the straps ready for fitting.


It's now all assembled and back on the car - not much to show in terms of pictures for that as all you can see is the plastic tank cover.

Maybe now I can finally finish off setting the timing properly as I've not done that since fitting the new cam belt!

Another frustrating weekend spent with the Celica.
Went and picked up a timing light and got to work checking whether the ignition timing was out. It was probably a degree or 2 retarded so perhaps I have helped things by making sure its now bang on 10 BTDC.

After sorting that I went ahead and got it all warmed up again and checked to see if the backfire still occurred - when doing this it died on my and then refused to start at all.
Long story short, it cranked but wouldn't fire, multitude of error codes but these may have been caused by me unplugging things and checking stuff, put more fuel in it as was low and then left it until Sunday.

On sunday's troubleshooting day it would now crank and splutter for a second before dying. More cleaning of AFM and TPS connectors and general tinkering and it eventually spluttered long enough for me to get some revs into it and keep it going. It smoothed out after a short while and now runs and starts OK.
I still have a cut-out issue when revving it though.



The error code that now gets flagged is related to the starter motor so I'm not convinced that is correct.

Pretty sure I need to go get all-new ignition components and make sure everything is in good shape before going down a rabbit hole of troubleshooting.
I am a little worried that all this weirdness could indicate there is somethign wrong with the ECU - the older units are known to start blowing and leaking capacitors. I do wonder whether I should pull it and at least double-check for any signs of age-related damage.