a neverending story - chris's turbo 900i

[ludichris001]

hello

after all the things i have done to this poor little car it deserves a project thread...
its a silver 5 door auto 900i that had 230,000 Kms on the clock, which i bought for $500 because of a "transmission problem".
it had no gear engagement whatsoever, which i found was due to no oil pressure.. anyway i got it towed home and pulled the whole front of the car off, the trans end plate and found a dead oil pump. i replaced the pump flushed all of the fluid put it back together and away i went!

(yay!)

after a few weeks of driving it around, it was running perfectly, but it soon bored me.. (too slow) so i turbocharged it....

and so it began....

started off with a stock T3, N/A fuel system and an intercooler from a toyota MR2 which i modified so it could go behind the grille (it was originally a side-mount intercooler)
fitted a 2.25" exhaust (stock one was like 2" )
i kept the EZK ignition system on the car and set boost only by the wastegate actuator. no APC...

i started off little.. 5psi... and the fuel economy went out the window.. 300kms to a full tank .. which i found out was due to still having the N/A fuel system, so i went and hunted down a complete LH2.4 system from a T16 and fuel economy came back (still kept the EZK system though).

by now i was getting bored again so i turned the boost up to 8psi...

it went like a rocket! i was very suprised at what this car could do now, but as i found, the trans didnt like it, at all.
soon came sticky gearshifts and very delayed 2-1 downshifts. i played around with band adjustments and kickdown adjustments until i got it somewhat back to the way it used to be and also started to notice the oil leaks now present from the trans.... i flushed it again which also helped a little and left it alone for a month or so...

then i got bored... again...

so i went and bought a 450x300x70 FMIC and chucked that on along with a blow off valve and an MBC.
things were looking good, i was slowly working the boost up until i had it at close to 17psi, at this point it was starting to scare me a little, i was having some fun with a few mates one night, showing off and such... i hit the accelerator, it kicked down a gear and lit the front wheels up, which almost sent me into the side of a bus at 70km/h ... i calmed down a little after that, at least until i bought some new tyres.. now that it had traction it was less "violent" when i floored it.
i was happy now. i had a excelent little car that could whoop a V6 commodore with ease (for a 4 cylinder, and especially an auto C900)

then came the time where i wanted it to go fast but also be reliable, i had little bugs and problems that showed themselves from the day i bolted the turbo on which i coughed up the $$ and fixed properly.. then i decided to get a 2.3L head and manifold. that went on in about a half a day, and i turned the boost back down to 8psi for the first 500kms, then back up to 17..

then after a few weeks of driving the trans let go, i was once again having some fun with some friends, i took off, hit full boost and heard something that sounded like i just hit the engine with a sledge hammer... i pulled over to find trans fluid POURING out from the front case.. i nursed it home and let it sit for a couple of months. i picked up a trans from a wrecker, stripped it down and replaced every bearing, seal, clutch plate, and bands, got the valve body overhauled and went over all of the gearsets ans servos etc, and repaired/replaced accordingly.. trans was fitted to the car and away i went..

then came the turbo issues that some of you may know about..
i went through 4 (i think) turbos in less than a week , all sending oil straight into the exhaust.
after a few days of research i then decided to fit a ceramic ball bearing turbo from a nissan RB20, because of the turbine size and the weight difference i basically had no turbo lag, which is ideal fo an automatic transmission.
these turbochargers have a tendency to "shatter" at higher boost levels (1 bar) so i had chosen not to go above 10psi.
along with the turbo conversion i made up a full 3 inch mandrel bent system with a supercat muffler and resonator. then soon after that i fitted a "gonzo" spiral resonator to make it quieter, which it did.

the latest addition to this car is complete LH2.4.2 + DI/APC systems from a FPT 9k 2.3T

i made up two full wiring looms from scratch, one for the LH unit and the other for the DI/APC. fitted, modified, and/or built every little thing that these systems needed made it all nice and tidy and slowly got rid of all the little issues i had with them.
(the main one being a big airflow meter problem. i will post a link to the thread if anyone is interested)

in between all of this madness i have also added to the car:
-turbo timer
-9k rims
-front and rear sway bars
-K-jet fuel pump
-K&N inverted pod filter which is now behind the L/H/F indicator/parker light
-cruise control
-two trans coolers.
-engine oil cooler, located where the air box originally was
-"sticky" fan setup (a simple system, the thermostat kicks in, both fans come on, thermostat cuts out, one fan turns off, other stays on until ignition is turned off)
-catch can (removed A/C too, catch can is now where evaporator went into heater box)
-LED parkers and interior lights
-JVC DVD head unit, sony 4" front speakers and 6x9" rears, sony 12" 1300 watt sub, modified 900 watt mono amp and clarion 120 watt 2ch amp for 6x9's
-chrome grille
-battery in the boot now...
-turbo/APC gauge (fitted gauge set to original gauge cluster, had to re wire one side.. real pain in the a#%..)

there are a few more little bits and pieces i have done, i will post them if/when i remember...

i did not want to make it loud or even look like it was modified so i have kept it looking as stock as possible - SLEEPER

it has just clocked 260,000 Kms and is still going very strong, and has still got the original N/A bottom end of engine, which has remained stock and untouched. i am currently running it at 10 psi, and it goes a lot faster than what it used to when it was running at 17 psi

i do have more plans for future improvement which i will also post when the time comes.

apologies if i have ranted on a bit too much..

will post pics asap.

any questions, just ask

chris..

[ludichris001]

ok heres some pics ive gathered up so far..

these are the first pics i had taken, i had painted the rims and grille and removed the window tinting, which had turned purple









the turbo conversion:

[ludichris001]

head swap:









transmission rebuild:

[ludichris001]

RB20 turbo + exhaust + FMIC...

[ludichris001]

LH2.4.2 + DI/APC conversion, also moved air filter behind LHF indicator:

[ludichris001]

what it was looking like about 2 months ago:








i will be taking some more pictures when i get a new camera

[ludichris001]

took some more photos today, unfortunately with my crappy cameraphone

anyway:

new side vent thingy's



exhaust tip





sub, amps, and battery



new 6x9's



front speakers



head unit:



LED interior light (VERY bright)

[ludichris001]

this is a little off-topic but is quite an achievement fo me..
as some of you may or may not know, i am an apprentice technician at a toyota service center. and each year toyota australia has regional and national skills contests.
the regional is 5 of the best apprentices in their respective states competing against each other, and the winner goes to the nationals where they compete against one person from each state of australia.
i was one of the top 5 in the regionals. AND I WON!!!
i am off to sydney in november for the national skills contest, all expenses paid by toyota
if i win the nationals i get a trip to the F1 grand prix next march

[jokki]

Congratulations on your achievement and good luck.

I thought it was interesting you stuck with the auto box. I've always thought that if the manual gearbox is the weak link with the C900, why not use an auto. Planetary gears are inherently stronger than two side-by-side cogs. An auto can also be upgraded considerably by using stronger plates and clutches etc. And it makes life easier for the engine and drivetrain too as the 'shock loadings' are reduced.

Good job

[mumsaab]

Well done in view of the general advice to not turbo a N/A car any advice to turbo an 8v N/A

[ludichris001]

thanks guys

jokki:
you are exactly right about the auto box, they are heaps stronger than the manuals and less harsh on the engine and driveshafts.
and when (not if, when) they do start to wear out and such, its about $1500 for a rebuild kit (seals, bands, bearings and clutches). i dont think the gearsets would be that expensive either, as they are the same (i think) as the borgwarner 35 used in early fords.

the only disadvantage with the auto box is the turbo lag. especially with a stock or larger (non ceramic) turbo. even though its only for a few seconds it seems to take for ever. which is why i went with the RB20 turbocharger.
so one thing i would highly recommend if anyone wants to follow the same path as i have, is to fit a ceramic turbocharger, you cant run high boost through them
(10 psi is great, 12-13 is ok, anything more and youre just asking for trouble)
but the decrease in lag is unbelieveable, im on full boost at just over 2000 RPM!

mumsaab:
i have also turbocharged an N/A 8v engine in one of my previous C900's.
its pretty much the same as doing it to a 16v.
use all of the turbo fuel/ignition systems, start off small and slowly work your way up.
i was quite impressed with the results i obtained on the dyno, on 10 psi i doubled the engines power output at the wheels.


**boosting at 13 psi now!! **

chris