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The LPG system consists of the following components, I've arranged them into groups:
The tank, multivalve and fill port - There are many types of these, most passenger cars use a donut shaped tank which fits where the spare wheel used to. The multivalve contains a one-way valve for the gas inlet (from the gas station) via the fill port, a one-way valve for the output to the engine, an electric solenoid operated safety valve which remains closed unless energised by the LPG ECU, and a pressure relief valve. This relief valve means that the multivalve must be vented to the outside air, not the cabin. For this reason, a larger hole is cut in the car below the tank, to allow these gases to vent. A 'lid' is placed over the valve once fitted, blocking it off from the interior. Here's a tank! The multivalve fits in that hole. The level sender (a plastic float) goes in there as well. It's a pain in the rear end to get it all in there.  Here's a nice, untouched spare wheel well.  And the same wheel well after some light grinding, drilling, and filing. Some chassis paint protects the area form rust.  An extreme closeup of the tank installed.  The fill port mounts on this bracket, which I placed under the rear bumper, where a tow hook would go. Most people cut a hole in their bodywork near the fuel filler. gently caress that.  A length of copper pipe with compression fittings to join the two. For some reason I have no pictures of the multivalve or fill port.  Injector mounting and injection pipes - This requires removal of the intake manifold. On a 1UZ this take a few hours because there's a Lot Of poo poo In The Way. However, once completed, you are rewarded with the sight of a very rarely seen 1UZ-FE starter motor.   The 1UZ intake comes in two parts. It's the lower piece that we need  This piece is drilled and tapped to take the gas nozzles.  These are placed as close to the cylinders as possible, and close to the petrol injectors (which mount in the larger hole in this image).  LPG certified gas hose is cut to length and clamped onto the nozzles. Maximum recommended length is 30cm, I had to go with 33cm as some cylinders were just too far away from my injector mounting location. This required some 'adjustments' in the map to overcome. The hoses should all be the same length (doesn't matter too much in practice).  Bending up some brackets to mount the LPG injectors. This took a surprisingly long time. I made up my own set screws to join the injector rails together into a 2x4 block.   A trial fit to check that the hoses can reach without kinking.  Intake back on the engine. You can also see that the reducer has been fitted here, and plumbed into the heater core inlet and return lines (before the heater valve).  Wiring - Many connections are to be made in the engine bay. As mentioned above, all injector signals need to be intercepted and replicated, so all injector wiring needs to be cut and spliced. The 1991-1994 1UZ engines use batch-fired injectors, with the Y-split mounted very far up the loom. For this reason, it was not possible to intercept these signals at the petrol ECU. It had to be done at the fuel rails. Fortunately, Toyota provided oversized injector cable trays to hold this wiring. Main loom  I decided to place the ECU inside the car for a cleaner look and to protect it from the elements (not that it needs it). The only space available was inside the drives footwell. The loom fits nicely through the clutch master cylinder hole (which was previously blocked off with a plug).    Some brackets were made to mount the ECU to the mirror control unit (yeah, that's a thing, the car actually has two separate computers to handle the wing mirrors - one for motion, one for vibration).      This switch turns the LPG system on and off, shows the system status (off, waiting for changeover-to-LPG requirements to be met, on LPG, fault), and 5 LEDs for fuel level. I mounted it like this:   I tapped into the wiring harness for the petrol ECU to access the lambda sensor readings. I pulled RPM direct from one of the igniters. I took LPG ECU and gas injector power from the constant power for the in-car telephone, as my car does not have this option, but still has a suitably-rated fuse and wiring to the dashboard. I pulled ignition-power sens from the EMV wiring feed, as I knew where it was and couldn't be bothered finding another source.  Once the wiring is complete, the engine bay could be reassembled. The car didn't run correctly. I suspected a vacuum leak, so built a boost leak tester for a NA car out of a piece of wood and a tyre valve. It worked a treat and showed me that I had misaligned the rubber seal on the resonator-to-throttle-body connection.    I decided to fit a 'valve saver' to this engine. There is dispute of whether or not this actually works. The argument for valve savers is that with no oily liquid being sprayed into the engine, there would be no film of oil created on the backs of the valves. This would introduce metal-on-metal contact between the valves and seats, causing premature valve/seat wear. The 1UZ, being from the late 80's, should not suffer so much from this as it would have hardened valve seats, a result of the recent switch to unleaded fuel and the unknown effect it would have on softer valve seats. However, the system is cheap and simple. It's a bottle, mounted to the car, with a drip that feeds into a vacuum port on the engine. I drilled and mounted a nozzle next to the throttle body, and drilled/riveted the mountign bracket for the bottle to the hydraulic fan fluid reservoir.     Finally, the high pressure fuel pipe needs to be installed between the tank (multivalve) and the reducer. The regulations for this pipe are strict, in fact almost all UK regulations for the installation of LPG are to do with equipment having the correct certification, equipment (especially the tank) being securely mounted, and THE loving PIPE. The pipe is not allowed within a certain distance of the exhaust. It must be tucked up under the car where it cannot be hit by debris. It cannot be near the edge of the car or near any jacking points. It cannot pass over any sharp seams in the body. It must be clearly visible when required and not laid beneath any structure of the car. It must be attached to the car at very regular intervals, even if it's not possible to mount clips so regularly. It must make gentle turns, with no sharp angles or kinks. gently caress the pipe. Fortunately, the UZZ32 sends high pressure suspension fluid from the front of the car (next to the reducer) to the shocks at the rear of the car. These hydraulic hoses run through removable trays, in a small trough in the bodywork. They are well protected and do not encounter any sharp objects or tight turns. They are normally covered by things like the wheel arch liner, or special plastic skid plates, but for inspection, I can leave all this poo poo off and then cover it again once the car is certified (this is allowed. Lol). I wrapped the pipe in spiral wrap to protect it from chafing. This is technically allowed as the spirals can be slid along the pipe for any future inspections. I had to run the pipe over the rear subframe, but argued that as the subframe was removable, and that there is no other possible route, I got away with it by stating that subframe removal would be part of any future LPG servicing or checks.   I don't have many pictures of this pipe being installed, because it involved a day of lying on my back and swearing at a pipe. OK, that's it. Once the system was installed, I took the car for a long, spirited drive to allow the LPG ECU to learn the petrol injection timings at various RPM/engine load, and then used the 'auto calibrate' function to estimate suitable LPG injection times for idle and for driving. Another drive followed, during which the LPG ECU looks at lambda readings and how the petrol ECU is reacting to the new fuel (changes in petrol injection timing). The ECU will give a readout of when the car is running rich or lean, where the petrol ECU is having to compensate, etc, and the LPG ECU will apply offsets to these problem areas as required. You can do this yourself if you desire. I had to play with the mixture at idle, as due to the longer pipes, the engine rpm would dip when flooring it from idle. I got around this by increasing the gas pressure from the reducer, applying shorter LPG injection pulses to compensate, then making the mixture slightly richer at idle.. Finally, the system needs to be inspected by a professional and certified. This is not a legal requirement, however car insurance is a legal requirement, and (almost) no UK insurer will allow a LPG converted vehicle to be insured without a certificate to prove that the system was installed safely. According to the centre I visited (a major one in my area), mine was 'the best DIY install I've ever seen', followed by stories involving cable ties, twist-n-taped cables, garden hose, and bailer twine. Edit: 
Pomp and Circumcized fucked around with this message at 23:19 on Jan 25, 2016 |
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Jan 25, 2016 23:16
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Jesus christ you're a wizard dude. I love how you took this awesome snowflake high tech car and then add more technology.
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Jan 26, 2016 01:37
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What's the capacity of the donut tank?
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Jan 26, 2016 09:00
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bolind posted:What's the capacity of the donut tank? Around 327151kcal, so approximately 769767 donuts, depending on the type of donut. (59 litres / 15.6 us gal, limited to 80% fill of 48 litres / 12.7 us gal to guarantee that in the event of overpressure, gas will be vented from the multivalve, even when the car is parked at an angle of up to ?? degrees). Tank safety is an issue which can be offputting to many who are considering an LPG conversion. However, LPG systems as a whole have proven to be much safer than gasoline. The tanks are made of steel which has to be at least 1cm thick. They need to be mounted within the crash structure of the car (not in a crumple zone or 'Mad Maxed' out the back), and securely fastened with spreader plates used if they are being bolted to sheet metal. They undergo some serious testing.
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Jan 26, 2016 10:46
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Thanks for this, I looked into getting one of my volvos kitted out but ended up getting rid. Is it possible to run a car on lpg only, ie build a kitcar with no petrol allowance at all? (Yes I'm a moron)
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Jan 26, 2016 12:14
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It's possible to directly inject LPG as a liquid (some say that the cars original fuel injectors could perform this task). One huge advantage is the cooling effect as the LPG expands. Claims of increased fuel economy and simplicity have been made. In reality, the system has not made it to the market for DIY users. It is the system of choice for car manufacturers who would potentially offer factory LPG cars. As the LPG is injected as a liquid, no heat is required to vapourise the LPG. Therefore, there is no need to start on petrol. The car can be LPG only.
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Jan 26, 2016 12:23
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Both Ford and Holden offer LPG only versions of the Falcon and Commodore. Theyre cheaper to run buy you watch that low fuel warning light like a hawk, as its not exactly a trivial task to pour 5L of LPG into your car to get it to the next servo. Although I have seen someone fabricobble up a hose at work to use a 9kg BBQ bottle to get their car to a servo when they ran it out of LPG. That was loving sketchy watching a falcon sedan drive away with a hose going from the fuel filler to the boot with a BBQ bottle wedged in upside down.
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Jan 26, 2016 13:17
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So out of any/all Soarer owners you know, how many of them go to these sort of lengths with their cars? Also there's a JZZ31 for sale about 5 miles away from my house. https://www.gumtree.com/p/toyota/toyota-soarer-lexus-sc300-2jz-not-supra-skyline-evo-s13-s14-328-200sx-/1151163923 Olympic Mathlete fucked around with this message at 13:30 on Jan 26, 2016 |
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Jan 26, 2016 13:19
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ShittyPostmakerPro posted:Around 327151kcal, so approximately 769767 donuts, depending on the type of donut. At roughly half a kcal per donut, that's no donut I want to eat. (So roughly the same as a normal fuel tank, gotcha. Cool. I've always wondered about LPG.)
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Jan 26, 2016 13:43
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Ferremit posted:Both Ford and Holden offer LPG only versions of the Falcon and Commodore. Theyre cheaper to run buy you watch that low fuel warning light like a hawk, as its not exactly a trivial task to pour 5L of LPG into your car to get it to the next servo. It also works the other way, you can cheaply fill your BBQ propane tanks at the LPG pump and it works fine. You can buy adapters to do this. Don't get caught, though. In the UK, you can sometimes find LPG for cars available at gas distribution centres (where they fill the bottles for sale/rental). When you do find these, it's cheap as poo poo to fill up. 88h88 posted:So out of any/all Soarer owners you know, how many of them go to these sort of lengths with their cars? In the UK? None, I don't think. Most spend a fortune to have them repaired at 'specialists', who are usually just mechanics with experience in these cars. These cars are very popular in Australia, especially the UZZ32. There's a large enthusiast community over there. Many people have fitted their own superchargers, etc. One guy I know of has 6 UZZ32's, some are supercharged, one is a supercharged manual conversion. As for an example of how far people go with these cars, here is an example: http://alscforum.com/discus/messages/131/2920.html?1180948732 (there are many more pages, bottom right). 88h88 posted:Also there's a JZZ31 for sale about 5 miles away from my house. https://www.gumtree.com/p/toyota/toyota-soarer-lexus-sc300-2jz-not-supra-skyline-evo-s13-s14-328-200sx-/1151163923 The JZZ31 was the 'base model', with a 220ish hp 3 litre straight-6 (2JZ-GE), the same engine as found in the non-turbo Supra (I think). They are a great drivers car, very light weight and still comfortable and feature-rich. That one looks like a great, clean example. I've not seen that colour before. The AC display hasn't bled! If you're after a Soarer, this would be a great car to buy. I've not driven the 3 litre model, but have been assured that it's a lot of fun to drive. They are almost as quick as the V8's and just as smooth. Many Soarer enthusiasts have one as their daily driver, with a UZZ32 or heavily modified JZZ30 (1JE) as their 'toy'. I'm not a fan of the wheels, but if you don't like them either then you can use them till the tyres are worn and then buy some more. This car is very cheap for a 1994 with no major issues. Buy it! I'd be all over this car if I didn't have 3 Soarers already. Edit: Just saw where it's located. It's about 20 minutes drive from my house. I wouldn't have time to check it out for another week, but if you buy it, I'll happily come look over everything for you (though nothing will be broken, those JZZ31's were pretty bulletproof). Edit: It's got the grey interior as well! If you buy it and need any interior bits, let me know as I'm about to break two Soarers with grey interiors and will literally give most parts away for free to people who paid $10 to post on an internet comedy forum. Pomp and Circumcized fucked around with this message at 14:48 on Jan 26, 2016 |
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Jan 26, 2016 14:42
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What's the reasonable operating temperature range for an LNG car? It was common at one time in Canada to put propane in cars but it was a lot of work to make it cook off in -40 or even -20. You also could not park your propane car inside an enclosed or underground parking garage. Chevrolet also made a few CNG versions of their particularly low-compression economy engines, so you could get a CNG S10 or Cavalier or whatever. I'm not sure how CNG differs from LPG differs from propane as I had assumed they were all basically the same thing; I assume CNG injects at a much higher pressure and is probably gaseous. Seat Safety Switch fucked around with this message at 15:33 on Jan 26, 2016 |
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Jan 26, 2016 15:29
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They both get injected/burned as gases, the difference is storage. Natural gas is what comes out of the ground, and is a mix of various hydrocarbons, most of which won't liquefy at room temperature and any reasonable amount of pressure. You can process it into ethane, propane, butane and heavier hydrocarbons. Propane and butane can easily be liquefied at room temperature with trivial pressure, so they're sold as different types of LPG; unrefined gas is stored in gaseous form/CNG. They all burn about the same, the difference is with CNG tank pressure decreases as you use up the gas so it requires massive overpressurization in order to maintain the same manifold pressure (a pressure regulator can decrease pressure but not boost it, etc), but is much cheaper because it's not as refined, whereas LNG costs more but maintains a steady, fairly low pressure (just like propane tanks for grills) because as the gas pressure drops, the liquid below boils off until the pressure equalizes again. And yeah vapor pressure drops with temperature, and for CNG the gas just depressurizes as it cools off, so you'd hit a point where you can't get useful fuel pressure, since these systems rely on tank pressure and typically don't have a fuel pump of any kind. Dunno what the deal is with the enclosed/undergound thing, it's a hydrocarbon just like gasoline, dunno why it would be more of a hazard.
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Jan 26, 2016 16:11
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I assume with the propane tanks it was because c3h8 is heavier than air. Any leaks inside an enclosed space would sit there forever, waiting for some toolshed to spark them. I have a feeling that's more urban legend than anything else though. Oddly enough our fire code says it's fine to park a propane fuelled vehicle inside a regular garage, just not one "serving more than one dwelling unit" or that is used by the public. http://www.municipalaffairs.alberta.ca/documents/ss/STANDATA/fire/fci/97fci003.pdf Seat Safety Switch fucked around with this message at 16:18 on Jan 26, 2016 |
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Jan 26, 2016 16:16
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ShittyPostmakerPro posted:In the UK? None, I don't think. Most spend a fortune to have them repaired at 'specialists', who are usually just mechanics with experience in these cars. Well I've asked for a callback regarding insurance on this to see what the deal is, so if they quote me happy then I might roll over and take a look at this assuming it's still about. Also howdy neighbour I guess.
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Jan 26, 2016 16:47
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Seat Safety Switch posted:What's the reasonable operating temperature range for an LNG car? In the UK our temperatures are generally between -10C and 25C, neither extreme is a problem for LPG. Going colder may be more of an issue. The problem would be whether your engine can generate enough heat to vapourise the propane fast enough, or rather, if your reducer is large enough to handle it. Seriously over speccing a reducer (i.e. one designed to run a 400hp engine on a 200hp car) would probably help. Even with hot coolant running through them, I've seen pictures of frost forming on the outside of the reducer bodies on humid days, even above 0C. None of the other components should care about temperature. There is no pump in LPG systems - as Enourmo said, the liquid is forced out of the tank by the gas above / pushes itself out? (if that makes sense). 88h88 posted:Well I've asked for a callback regarding insurance on this to see what the deal is, so if they quote me happy then I might roll over and take a look at this assuming it's still about. Do it! Try Sky and Adrian flux. Adrian Flux offered me a cheap deal when I was younger and trying to insure a Soarer. I am with Admiral now on a multicar policy, it works out about half priced per car, so kinda insure 1 get 1 free. I can't see that car sticking around at that price if the condition is as good as it looks. Nice 3.0's, especially later 1994 models tend to be around £2-3k. I'm living on your side of Staffordshire, so hey neighbour! I'm away with work until Saturday and then my breaker arrives and I'm going to be rushing to strip and scrap it ASAP, but feel free to get in touch to ask any questions.
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Jan 26, 2016 17:19
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ShittyPostmakerPro posted:I decided to fit a 'valve saver' to this engine. There is dispute of whether or not this actually works. The argument for valve savers is that with no oily liquid being sprayed into the engine, there would be no film of oil created on the backs of the valves. This would introduce metal-on-metal contact between the valves and seats, causing premature valve/seat wear. The 1UZ, being from the late 80's, should not suffer so much from this as it would have hardened valve seats, a result of the recent switch to unleaded fuel and the unknown effect it would have on softer valve seats. Look at a direct-injected gasoline engine - I'm sure this isn't hurting anything, but it's also most likely completely unnecessary. The vast majority of DI engines have no port-injection going on, so they only have air + PCV/EGR gasses passing over the intake valves. They don't run into wear issues, but they do run into carbon buildup because there's nothing to wash that poo poo back off. Since you run on gasoline when you start up, I'd bet you get enough cleaning action from that alone to keep the intake valves clean even if you run on LPG exclusively after the engine is warm. Well-done install, that seems like it'd be a lot easier on a much simpler manifold versus that two-piece super-long-runner setup.
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Jan 26, 2016 17:25
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Thanks, and good points! The concern is that the materials used for modern DI engines may be of sufficient hardness to negate any wear (which shouldn't make a difference, since if the valve and seats are made of the same material, surely they will wear out regardless of the material used). There is also an argument that wear can be accelerated by the higher combustion temperatures of LPG. I agree with you that there is likely little to no risk of engine damage, and all the people complaining of burnt valves were probably running lean as gently caress on LPG (an easy thing to do if you don't pay attention to your tune - something that most 'professional' installation shops don't really seem to give a poo poo about). But on the other hand, the system cost £30, and the fluid consumption is 0.5p of valve saver fluid per litre of LPG (which costs around 50-55p per litre right now). So, a 1% increase in costs if I run the valve saver all the time. I can just turn the system on and off whenever I like, so I could do things like run it every other week or whatever. There are plenty of contradictory websites out there that make this whole thing rather tedious. Most people who 'swear by' valve saver fluids, are those who are tying to sell them... http://www.go-lpg.co.uk/VSR.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VR_FE65zpo
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Jan 26, 2016 18:14
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You're in Staffordshire? I thought you were up north for some reason. You can also now get refillable gas bottles designed for caravans etc that are legal and certified so you could technically use one as an lpg Jerry can. I'm actually wondering about running a lawnmower on lpg only using that system.
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Jan 27, 2016 11:35
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I'm in Staffordshire, yes. But prefer not to post too much about where I live. Are you local?
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Jan 27, 2016 21:09
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Redacted
cakesmith handyman fucked around with this message at 21:53 on Feb 11, 2016 |
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Jan 27, 2016 22:08
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Checking in from the mechanical failures thread. I was never really aware of these cars, I want one really bad now, but I suppose the Soarer was only made with right hand steering? Found two LHS Lexi (thanks Partridge) and one RHS Soarer on the German used market. Google Translate convinced me that the latter's suspension was very active indeed! http://suchen.mobile.de/fahrzeuge/details.html?id=220723911 e: right left is confusing me Ola fucked around with this message at 09:57 on Jan 28, 2016 |
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Jan 28, 2016 08:51
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Man this thread makes me want a UZZ32 bad! The prices aren't too bad in Australia. I can daily one with a newborn daughter right?
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Jan 28, 2016 08:59
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Ola posted:I was never really aware of these cars, I want one really bad now Yup, I'd seen them around every now and again and I knew what they were but I had no idea what was inside them so being an 80s kid the idea of owning one is now a thing. I checked out insurance and for me they're just a little bit silly, if they're still around in a few years I see myself picking one up though...
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Jan 28, 2016 10:09
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Ola posted:Checking in from the mechanical failures thread. I was never really aware of these cars, I want one really bad now, but I suppose the Soarer was only made with right hand steering? Found two LHS Lexi (thanks Partridge) and one RHS Soarer on the German used market. Google Translate convinced me that the latter's suspension was very active indeed! They sold them in LHS as the Lexus SC300 and SC400. Only in the USA though so they would be imports to Germany. Great cars, but they don't have the fun 80's digital dash or touchscreen. They did make them until 1999 though, and they got the VVTi 1UZ engine  .Edit: That ad.... a 1JZ VVTi, with the A02B LSD...it's so close to being the holy grail of Soarers. If only it was manual! (buy it anyway) 88h88 posted:Yup, I'd seen them around every now and again and I knew what they were but I had no idea what was inside them so being an 80s kid the idea of owning one is now a thing. I checked out insurance and for me they're just a little bit silly, if they're still around in a few years I see myself picking one up though... I'm an late 80's kid, I've owned Soarers for ages. Just do it. Pomp and Circumcized fucked around with this message at 23:54 on Jan 28, 2016 |
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Jan 28, 2016 23:44
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I think I'd prefer an auto in a car like that, unless it's a horrid slushbox. The ad says "Bilstein dampers", does that mean it isn't optioned with the magic suspension?
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Jan 29, 2016 23:47
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Ola posted:I think I'd prefer an auto in a car like that, unless it's a horrid slushbox. The ad says "Bilstein dampers", does that mean it isn't optioned with the magic suspension? The only cars that got the magic suspension were the ~800 UZZ32s, all of which have the V8 - that one has the 1JZ-GTE, which means it either has coils or airbags.
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Jan 30, 2016 01:33
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Right, thanks. I didn't read the OP well enough, I am (slightly) less confused about the models now. Amazing thread, car(s) and work, ShittyPostmakerPro!
Ola fucked around with this message at 02:01 on Jan 30, 2016 |
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Jan 30, 2016 01:55
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literally a fish posted:The only cars that got the magic suspension were the ~800 UZZ32s, all of which have the V8 - that one has the 1JZ-GTE, which means it either has coils or airbags. Only the v8s had the option for airbags. Airbag v8s were the most popular v8s. All 6 cylinder (1jz and 2jz) were coil springs. Bilsteins are apparently a nice upgrade, but were not available from the factory. The auto boxes are really nice in these. I guess it helps that it's a 4 speed, so isn't always having to choose between a million potential gears. Silky smooth box, lots of little tricks such as transmission pressure changes and ignition timing adjustments during shifts. Very responsive box in PWR mode as well. Put it this way, when I bought my first Soarer, I swore I'd never drive auto, and that I'd convert it to manual. 1 hour later, and I've never looked back. I sold my VR4 Mitsubisbi purely cause it was manual (and a brutal turbo JDM monster with the world's closest ratio gearbox). Pomp and Circumcized fucked around with this message at 03:23 on Jan 30, 2016 |
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Jan 30, 2016 03:19
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By the way, tomorrow is a big day for my UZZ32 ranch.
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Jan 30, 2016 03:24
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But I've seen airbag 1JZ ones for sale down here D: (seems more likely that the sellers are idiots, though) Mine was the lovely JZZ31 N/A base model with HAHA NO FEATURES FOR YOU though, and completely hosed shocks. ShittyPostmakerPro posted:By the way, tomorrow is a big day for my UZZ32 ranch. :o more car? Personally I wasn't a big fan of the transmission. But it suited what the car was (big floaty cruiser).
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Jan 30, 2016 04:02
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literally a fish posted::o more car? A little bit more car:           This thing was a huge pain in the rear end to unload from the trailer. It had no shocks and temporary wheels, it had to be jacked up off its own arches to move it off the trailer. That took around 2 hours in total. However, 3 hours later....     How did I manage so much in so little time? Partly experience, but mostly new toy:  (new toy is now dirty as gently caress) Pomp and Circumcized fucked around with this message at 19:11 on Jan 30, 2016 |
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Jan 30, 2016 19:09
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Spent another day stripping down this 'new' car. Got most of the interior out, sent 3 trunkloads of trash to the 'recycling centre', and pulled everything out of the trunk. Started on the front steering and suspension, but stopped when it began to rain. I'm to used to Soarer dashboards, that with 3 impact guns (so I don't have to change bits), I got to this stage in about 15 minutes:    God drat loving PO's, 'automotive electricians', and anything to do with wiring in cars. It's not hard to do things properly ("do things properly" = not twist-and-tape, = following original wiring paths instead of running them past moving parts such as the loving brake pedal, = not splicing into splices of splices of splices with no fuses in sight, = bundling your cables neatly, cutting off the excess (who needs 5 metres of red wire coiled around their steering column?), and securing them properly). The real  moment came when I went to remove the gas (propane, not gasoline) tank. As I mentioned before, there are strict guidelines on securing these tanks. Normally, for cars with a spare wheel inside the trunk, the tank fits inside and is bolted down. However, this car had a tank which was designed for vehicles with spare wheels that are stored underneath. It has mounting lugs on the top of the tank.But ShittyPostmakerPro, how do you mount such a tank inside a regular wheel well? Well....how about you cut the whole loving bottom of the spare wheel well off and jam the tank in what's left? But...how would you secure such a tank? Well, with a standard butyl adhesive, of course!  That's right, someone saw fit to loving glue the tank in place. And don't go thinking that the mounting lugs on top were used. Oh no, those things were just there for show. OK, so what tools shall we use to extract this pressurised gas tank?  Steak knife seems appropriate.   I needed the jack to stop the tank from simply falling onto my driveway as I cut through the adhesive. I mean...yeah there was a slight curve to the sheet metal which may stop the tank from getting bounced right out the bottom of the car, but I'm still not convinced that this is an appropriate mounting method. A few minutes of sawing off adhesive later and nobody will ever know the horror.  I also checked out the  modifications to the headlights, before throwing them in the trash. Coming up tomorrow: Steering! Suspension! Hoses! Maybe a rear subframe (if the weather is nice)! Maybe a dash, heater box, seats, carpet, entertainment system, and interior wiring (if the weather is lovely)!
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Jan 31, 2016 19:48
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So are you going to fit that to one of your other soarers or keep it for spares?
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Jan 31, 2016 21:02
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I'll need to check on the price of sawzall blades and butyl adhesive first to see if it's viable. That thing isn't going near any of my current cars. Maybe in the future, if I buy something with space to mount it externally
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Jan 31, 2016 22:44
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Holy poo poo I put a lot of work into this car over the last 2 days. I don't have many pictures to show for it as I was working flat-out. Yesterday, I removed the whole interior, all wiring looms (this was a bitch, even though there are only 7 looms in the car, plus the two antenna looms), prepped to remove the subframes, removed most of the poo poo from the engine bay, and pulled the heater box.    Today, I loosened the subframes, stripped the doors, fuel tank, trunk, and did some other miscellaneous things, then called up my local scrapyard and had the car hauled away, leaving the subframes behind. It got dark shortly after, I only had time to remove the driveshaft and have a crack at the join in the control cables which are currently tying the two subframes together.    Tomorrow, I'll strip these subframes down, clean up and strip then store/trash everything which has been removed so far, and scrub my driveway down with detergent. This was a fun (but exhausting) project. Now comes the boring, lovely bit - listing all the bits I don't need (but I know have value) on eBay and on members clubs, to clear out some space and raise some funds to cover the cost of this endeavour.
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Feb 2, 2016 19:41
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Holy poo poo, that's a lot of copper.
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Feb 2, 2016 22:10
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Finally! Another AI poster who's obviously as crazy as I am. That's quite a bit of work/parts holding to keep those cars on the road. I approve.
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Feb 2, 2016 22:26
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some texas redneck posted:Holy poo poo, that's a lot of copper. It was a 3 foot cube, and about 80lb of wiring - after I cut all the plastic trunking off and coiled it up, it became a lot more compact! the spyder posted:Finally! Another AI poster who's obviously as crazy as I am. That's quite a bit of work/parts holding to keep those cars on the road. I approve. I don't have a bitchin' shop and a line of sweet cars outside, though  . Love your work and your thread, and glad you're getting paid to do what looks like your hobby 
Pomp and Circumcized fucked around with this message at 00:04 on Feb 3, 2016 |
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Feb 2, 2016 23:59
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If we got the 1JZ-GTE powered cars in the US, I'd probably already own one. Still this thread makes me miss my SC400.
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Feb 3, 2016 00:55
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OK, back to what I was doing on the green UZZ32. This is the last update for the car, and one which I should have posted ages ago (like...when I was actually doing the work on the car, not now, 3 months later). The car was driving 'weird' since I got it, I figured it needed an alignment. I took it to an alignment shop who found the following:   Welp, guess this car is hosed. I was actually able to measure the rear right wheel as being 2cm further forward in the wheel well compared to the rear left. One last ditch attempt to fix this car would be to pray that the control arms or subframe is bent, and not the body. I measured the body using the factory reference measurements (it's nice to have these!) and all looked OK, but I couldn't be sure as I was only using a basic tape measure. There was no signs of any impact damage on the body, and no visible creases, so with some luck, I could get this repaired in a day or two. New complete rear end arrived on a pallet from a friendly junkyard (who pretty much gave it away for scrap value) Time to pull out the old subframe. This is tricky on a UZZ32, there are 6x hydraulic lines to disconnect, the rear steering rack needs to be removed (the cable linkage from the front rack is too much of a pain to realign, so avoid disconnecting the cables if possible), the struts need to come out (another 4x hydraulic lines, plus the pressurised accumulators in the legs to lock down). There are 5 sets of wires running to the subframe, each is a pain to disconnect and free from the car. After that, it's not too hard to drop the exhaust, the heat shields, and the driveshaft to access the hand brake cables. 10x bolts later and this pig comes out!  The hydraulic shocks need to be bled to remove excess fluid held under nitrogen pressure, and then 'locked' with an allen bolt before removal. Locking them means that they can't be retracted for removal, so a juggling game involving unlocking, compressing, then locking them is needed to ensure a Spill FreeTM removal.   These hydraulic lines were a nightmare. All 4 of the front lines had flared unions, all were rusted in place. A propane torch, flare nut wrenches, and swearing eventually freed them.  Fast forward 4 hours and the subframe is on the ground!  The new subframe came partially assembled. The lower control arm camber bolts were rusted in place (standard on a Soarer), and as they were already at neutral (centre) alignment, I left the control arms on, at least until I got the alignment re-checked.   I wire-wheeled the subframe and control arms, and applied some chassis paint (I accidentally ordered white, and decided 'gently caress it')    A few hours later and the subframe is in.  It took most of the rest of the day to reconnect the lines, cables, etc, then more time to re-bleed the suspension and steering systems. The next day, the car went back to the alignment shop. Only a minor change, and still a huge lateral axle offset. Oh well, guess this car is scrap. It's now sitting outside a friends house. I'm currently looking to move into a larger place with more space to work on these cars, when I do, I'll either break this UZZ32 for parts, or buy a very late model Soarer (1999 or 2000), and make it into an active suspension model. The newer Soarers are generally nicer to look at, and will be less beaten/worn, so this insane project would have an interesting finish. Comedy option: active suspension V8 FD RX7.
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Feb 8, 2016 17:16
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