Celica T20 7AFE to 4AGE BT + rebuild (lot's of pictures!)

[onnaj]

I'm busy with a 4AGE BT conversion for my 1998 Celica ST 1.8 7AFE.

Why the blacktop? I just like the technique, it's lightweightness and the fuel consumption isn't bad either. Besides that i started driving in a 4AGE powered FX82 GT and got another 4AGE powered car after that, the MR2 AW11.

Full size pictures you cand find over here: http://imageshack.us/g/1/10034558/

We didn;t start as planned cause there were loads of sludge under the valve covers and it seemed that the engine was no good at all. But after disassembling the engine we were happy to see that the engine wasn't that bad at all. So we're thorouhly cleaning it and rebuild it with new pistons (wasn;t necessary but we made a mistake with low pressure glass blasting one of them), new pistons rings, new crankshaft and rod bearings, complete engine gasket kit ofcourse, new oil pump, new waterpump etc.

I'll post the progress with new replies.

This is how the car is at the moment. I don't want to change it cosmetic, but just under the hood.

This is how the car is at the moment:

[onnaj]

This is what i've ordered thusfar:

I've ordered a lot of parts like:
1) Distributor cap
2) Rotor
3) Engine overhaul gasket kit
4) Water pump
5) Oil pump
6) Complete timing belt kit, with new tensioner cause they tend to fail when they're getting old
7) Coil and igniter
8) Spark plugs
9) Spark plug wires, not genuine but Seiwa. Hopefully they'll do the job
10) Clutch disc
11) Clutch pressure plate
12) Silvertop flywheel (couldn't get a blacktop anywhere...this one weighs 1kg more )
13) Pistons
14) Piston rings
15) Crankshaft bearings
16) Conrod bearings
17) Thrust washers
18) Etc

[onnaj]

I've done a lot by now. Cleaning the engine was a horror, I've been busy with that most of the time.

Happily we made a start with building the engine again last friday.

New pistons, new rings, new conrod and crankshaft bearings, con rods, etc etc have been mounted already! This feels like a giant leap forwards haha

EDIT:added clickable thumbnails

Bare block:


Short block with engine squirters cleaned and mounted:


Old and new bearings:


Mounted the crankshaft:


The crankshaft (yes it looks a lot less orange after the wash )


Crankshaft closeup:


Ready to get in:


You can't oil enough:


Crankshaft back in the engine! Wow we;re really building it up again!!


And ofcourse oil, oil and oil


and more oil:


And...the pistons are suddenly back in. (forgot to make pictures when putting them in )


To be certain we wrote in which sequence we have to torque them:

[onnaj]

Yesterday we've mounted the oil pump and waterpump. We did want to do a lot more but cleaning the oil filter adaptor kept me busy for about 2 hours. That thing was dirty as hell!! Maybe we're going on with it today. We plan to disassembly the head today so i can either clean it myself or take it to the rebuild shop to wash it.

The pictures from yesterdays progress:

[onnaj]

Any idea how i can make clickable thumbnails with imageshack for club4ag? On other forums the tumbnail links work perfect, except for club4ag.

EDIT: I had to delete the 'quote' ("") marks to make them work.

[gaijin_rokurunner]

use tinypic.com easy to upload your pictures.....you looking for new valves for your head...greatly increase the flow and can be used will all stock parts...?

[onnaj]

I'm staying completely stock (at least for the moment).

Who knows that in the near future i'm going to build a 7AGE, but for now the 4AGE is enough.

[onnaj]

Last week we have been busy again. And damn what were those intake valve stem seals stuck!We had a lot of trouble getting them out, while on the exhaust side they went pretty easy. This engine must have used loads of oil. I think more oil then fuel :p

The head:




Valve stem seals (yes they're completely gone):


Combustion chambe...pff those have to be cleaned up as well later on :








Another head picture:

[onnaj]

So cleaned the head up a bit with mr muscle, now it's at the rebuild shop to get it washed thorougly. We all don't know how it's possible that this engine wasn't completely gone. So much dirt blocking all the oil passages, not normal at all. Maybe it used so much oil that it lubed all the engine parts after all

Men how difficult it is to clean the head with all those westvleteren 10 keep on smiling at you Couldn't resist taking 2 after the hard work (the people who loves beer, exactly know what i'm talking about haha


I've been busy with cleaning and polishing the valves. Most work though was cleaning all the valve components. Men that took a long time. It was competely full of dirt and oil. Mr. Muscle was really needed again over here!
Here's a picture of the cleaned and polished valve and all of it's components:





Pictures of the cleaned valves, nicely sorted in small bags. Important to do this otherwise you'd never remember which went were again.

[onnaj]

So, been busy again. Yes it's almost looking a bit like an engine again We've mounted the oil pan and crankshaft seal. Besides that i've put a lot of sweat (and mr muscle:)) to clean the throttle body. Difficult part to clean, cause it's not straight in any place at all.

After mounting the crankshaft seal and before mounting the oil pan.




After mounting the oil pan (but please don't tell me you see some dots on the newly paint engine...yes there's and i'm sick of that. Put a lot of time in painting it)





Some pictures after cleaning the throttle body. Not special pictures, but it really was necessary to do it. Don't mind the crappy pictures cause i forgot to take my cam with me, these are shot with my Samsung Galaxy S and as you can see it makes 'wonderfull' pictures

[onnaj]

Update time with better pix

Have been really busy with washing the head again and again. After it was time for grinding the valves. Yes, there still was some time left What i've done then? What you think of cleaning the intake and exhaust ports with a dremel and a little wire brush. My girlfriend still wasn't home so what i did next what getting started with polishing (not porting) the exhaust side of the head. I don't think it will give me loads of HP, but the air will flow better and get the heat out of it a bit quicker. The inlet i won't touch. The inlet ports are pretty smooth already from the valve guides till the combustion chamber. Only flow that could do a bit better will be the flow from the throttle bodies to the valve guides. If that has any advantage? I don't know. Opinions vary about that, so i'm sticking with the exhaust side.

But again, photo's will tell the story

For your memory, the uncleaned head:


Cleaned head:




Grinded valve:


Not grinded valve:


Uncleaned combustion chamber and in/exhaust but grinded valva:


Cleaend and 1st polish of combustion chamber:


Cleaned and polished exhaust port




Ow forgot, the cam cover is also clean again and will be sprayed very soon:

[onnaj]

That was yesterday news to be honest. I wasn't really satisfied with the polishing yet, so i bought another dremel tool to finish it. I must admist, i like the results. This looks quite a bit better then yesterday. Took also a lot of time!

Some extra pictures (photos has been shot with my Sony HX5V cam, i'm very satisfied with it! )










Combustion chamber (inlet unpolished, exhaust side polished)

[onnaj]

Time for another update:

Have been busy a lot with with installing the valves en valve stem steals. How stupid could i be, trying to put the seals completely to the bottom of the valve guide :S. Should have read better before. Killed 6 of them and i have to remove the rest of the valves to check the other seals. When comparing how easily the valves could go in and out, i spotted a little rip/tear in one of the seals. When checking 2 other seals i spotted the same problem . This is really expensive teaching money, but learned a lot.
Wow and how difficult the valve retainer locks wil go in position. This took my a LOT of time. And worst is that because of the seals i can do it all over again

Good news? Yes, i picked the stock airbox and exhaust header up from the powder coating. They really look as new, or maybe even better then new I'm really happy with that and it's worth every penny!

Because i had to wait on the new valve seals i went ahead with the throttle body. I removed the injectors and changed them for some i had ultrasonic cleaned before. Changed the o-rings and vibration insulators for new one's and (pre-)mounted the brackets.

Here are the pictures:

Powder coated airbox:




Powder coated header:


Cleaned injectors:


Throttle body with painted brackets:

[onnaj]

So most of the head work is now done. Going to bring it to the rebuild shop today to do a vacuum leak test. When that's okay i'll be mounting the head on the block this evening or tomorrow and then i'll be able to remount the cams, cam bridge, bearings etc. and ofcourse check the valve clearance.

We've also get all the paint of the cam cover and today it'll be painted in black again. It's getting better and better, i can't wait to have this engine in!

This is the assembled head (nothing spectacular but i'm happy :

[onnaj]

Yes i'm happy. Today the engine head was vaccuum leak tested and it was perfect! Not bad for my first valve grinding job Have to note that the valves weren;t that bad though But still i'm very pleased with it. Now i can continue working on the engine!

So updates will be there soon!:)

[onnaj]

Updating time!

Yesterday i've managed to mount the oil filter bracket and the oil filter first. After that ive mounted a new headgasket and reinstalled the cams. I was a bit afraid of installing them because they were up a little on the end. Asked about this at the rebuild shop but they say it is absolutely normal. There's no point where the cams don't touch the valve lifters. Just ensure that the crankcase pulley is at TDC and the dots on the cams are alligned properly. To be 100% sure it was advisable to turn the crankcase about 25-30 degrees counterclockwise. Then all the pistons would be halfway, so hitting the pistons with the valves would be impossible. So we've mounted them in multiple passes and very secure. So not thighten them to hard right away.
Also i've installed the water outlet and inlet and some small things. I wanted to mount a new thermostat but the new one differs a lot from the old one. Have to ask if that won't be a problem.
Hopefully tomorrow i'm going to check the valve clearance, put the new hydraulic tensioner on and install the cam cover.

Anyways, here are some pictures:

New headgasket on the block:


Marked the headbolts to ensure toquing @ the good patern:


Used some hulp for the toquing to turn them 90 degress twice :


Notice the white mark on the head bolts. I did this to ensure i would turn them exactly 180 degrees in total:


Mounted cams:




Oil filter and bracket with new seals:


Thermostat difference (new one is not a genuine btw):

[MoonGT]

A good detailed information which will help others on rebuild. BTW a bit curious to ask a question on performance after the transplantation?

[onnaj]

A good detailed information which will help others on rebuild. BTW a bit curious to ask a question on performance after the transplantation?

I cannot say much about the performance yet, while i'm in the break-in period for the next 1700 miles or so Also it still runs a bit rich so there's something that has to be adjusted.

[onnaj]

So has been a long time since the last update but the engine is in!

So has been a long time since the last updates but the engine is in for a week or 2 now!

I had to grab the power steering lines from a 4EFE Corolla and also took the reservoir of it. I used a part from the OEM power steering line from the Blacktop (it was ofcourse cut! ) and let a hydraulic company press it together with the Corolla power steering line. Its a great fit, you can see in the pictures below.

For the throttle cable i grabbed a cable from a 93-er Celica 5SFE from Rockauto. It's a bit long but besides that it's a nice fit. We've made an adapter plate for the throttle bracket so it cannot move.

For the igniter we've also made an adapter plate so that's also a nice fit. Going to paint it black later this week, so that it's completely finished!

At the first startup we had 4 codes or so. IAT (not connected), MAP, TPS and some code i don't remember. After three double check the vacuum lines and connecting the IAT all the codes were gone except for the TPS code, 41.

And that one wouldn’t go away. I’ve bought a new tps, asjusted it with Blacktop manual, but still the code. It made me go crazy. Then i’ve decided to meausure the voltage at the ECU of the VTA and E2 connectors. They voltages should be around 0.3V @ idle and about 4.7V @ WOT. I’ve meausured 4.7 @ idle and 0.00V @ WOT. Hey that’s strange i thougt, look like it’s upside down or so. Double checked the manual if i mounted the sensor upside down, but i didn’t.
So later that evening i had a sudden inspiration. I remembered using the TPS connector from the 7AFE while that one is exactly the same. So i thought: are those pins located at the same position as the one of the 4AGE TPS??? So i went to bed and first thing in the morning was grabbing the manual and walk to the car. And YES!!!! found the problem! They’re located in the opposite way. So i’ve repinned the connector and gone is the code

The engine runs a lot smoother now! Still running too rich, cause i can smell the fuel and hear some little backfires now and then. Also the starts are a bit difficult now and then. It seems to run on 3 cylinders for a second and then it runs fine.
Have to sort out what’s causing this. Maybe the O2 sensor had a hard time after the first starts with all the oil and residues of the painted parts Have to check this out later on.

Also the valves are ticking a bit. But they were about 0.01-0.02 mm out of spec…meaning too loose. I’ve didn’t buy new shims while mostly the valves are tighten up after a few thousand km. So hopefully that’ll go away or otherwise i have to re-adjust them.

So the pictures:

New harness made by myself :












Engine compartment:


power steering lines and reservoir:

[onnaj]

Still have to figure while it's running so damn rich. Maybe i should wait till the break in period is over. Today i've changed the injectors for other onces without much succes. The first time i changed them it runned only on 4 cylinders. So i grabbed another set that was lying around resting and the car runs back on 4 cylinders again. But still i miss power. Still seems that it runs way to rich, giving me some little backfire in the airbox...i must admit does sound nice, but shouldn't do it.

But i'm also proud, very proud i must say while today i've done compression tests...all cylinders reach 190 PSI! That's spec Not bad for a first time

Cylinder 1:


Cylinder 2:


Cylinder 3:


Cylinder 4:

[onnaj]

Because my car had a car appraisal today i cleaned and waxed it earlier this week. This result is beautifull if i may say mysel

If you don't like a lot of pictures, skip this topic

7th june:














This morning waaaaay to early :

[Gino1X1]

Great work, onnaj.

Nog effe, heb je kiekjes van de nieuwe 20V?

[onnaj]

Thanks!

The pictures are at page one

[onnaj]

For the interested people, i've just shot a movie of 8200 rpm Celica ST . Don't mind the quality, cause my phone camera was damaged during the rebuild and needs a rebuild too I think the sound will make it up for this haha

My next project will be a 6 speed gearbox, while the gears are really really long as you can see on the video. @8200 rpm i'm driving 120 on gps in second gear. The gearbox itself has no problem with shifting @ 8000+ RPM

It's still running a bit rich and i think i miss about 20-30 hp, but i hope after a while it'll get better. I need to drive it faster and take it (a lot) higher in the rpm range then during the break-in period. Endly that break-in period is over and now it's really happy with 5W30 full synthetic

The sound is really awesome, that's going to cost me fuel haha! From 6000 RPM it's like having a little extra turbo or so, cause then it really goes!

Yesterday went to Germany to test if the speed limiter is working and unfortunately it does. It's pretty harsh i must say. Likes like i'm running into a wall when the speed limit is reached. And that's about 192 km/h on GPS.

But here comes the movie! The speed on the tacho it's the real GPS speed, this is caused by my 17" (way too heavy) rims. Hope you enjoy the sound! :p

Youtube movie

[TORPARTS]

great work!

[RuizXIII]

YES! Very good pictures of the engine rebuild--thanks!

[onnaj]

YES! Very good pictures of the engine rebuild--thanks!

You're welcome. Hope people can learn from it and be abel to do some work themselves.

But even more important news....some presents arrived today:

Blacktop flywheel:


Shifter cables and gear lever:


Last but not least...C160 LSD gearbox!! :


And thursday i've been busy for about 3-4 hours to clean the gearbox. What a mess it had on the outside. From the inside only a layer of dust, so that's a good sign But it looks a lot better now already:





Hopefully i'm able to mount it somewhere this month!

[tomodachii26]

do u know what is the flywheel' size for 20v blacktop but manual trann?

[onnaj]

212 mm, same as the 7afe flywheel, though the 7AFE flywheel has 6 bolts i think

[tuner88]

nice build , i too wen through a complete rebuild, replaced many parts including the 20 valves, question : why did you grind the valves?