Bit by bit

 I really need to step up the progress on the side projects so I can lay some paint down on the corolla before winter hits, hoping to have the motor in and the car rolling by then. I have about 2 months left to finish the Camry and work out any remaining bugs, fix the Mercury and why the TCC isn't getting power, prob another wiring deal in that area, and finish the shave, paint, and motor install on the 86. A lot to do in a short amount of time but the blows of day to day life end up taking a tole and you end up not wanting to do anything at all. As much as it might seem, fixing stuff I don't really enjoy as much and the bay shave has taken me from being excited to do the beams swap to not wanting anything to do with the car, among other reasons. Didn't want to do anything today, but I manged to muster up some motivation to clean up the fuel rail on the Camry so that it's ready to reassemble. Maybe its not wanting to half-ass stuff anymore, but I could have just slapped all this back on without cleaning any of it but I guess if I just couldnt help myself. Thinking I may actually enjoy this car so I'd like to think I could make it halfway decent with some effort. Some motivation and progress soon.

 

 This might give you a little idea as to how filthy the intake manifold was, this was taken after I had already started on it. The final product its a show quality finish or anything but it'll work and good enough for me, much better than before. Now a guy can at least assemble everything without having to get super slimy.

Half Mil' Camry PT 2

 Finally got my gaskets and everything together to put the new head on and see if the effort fixing this was worth it...so far this is what I have into it.

 

Reman Cylinder Head w/Camshafts and Valves

Felpro Intake Manifold Gasket

Felpro Exhaust Manifold Gasket

Felpro Head Gasket

Felpro Throttle Body Gasket

Mahle Exhaust Converter Gasket

Felpro Head Bolts w/ Washers

Bosch Cap and Rotor

Victor Valve Cover Gasket

Victor Cam Cover Seal

Victor Fuel Injector Seal

Spectre Ignition Coil

Wagner Ceramic Pads w/ Hardware

NGK Spark Plug Wires

ITM Engine Torque Mount

NGK Spark Plugs

 

 

 

I call it the shit-box starter pack, the typical essentials when buying a P.O.S.

 

 

So far going together really nice, definitely looking out of place, all the new surrounding the old...

 

 

 

Its a shame I didn't snap a before picture of this before regrettably cleaning, each runner front and back was covered with I swear an inch of dirt, oil, and grime. Figured I might as well clean up each part I took off before I put it back on.

The valve cover was pretty gross with rat nasty-ness as well as typical dirt, grease, and oil. Took a quick before pic, not as bad as the intake manifold tho once you see the fuel rail you'll have an idea how dirty it really was.

Still have a bit left to do on it to do the first start and heat cycle. With the 86 in the garage and this infront of it outside, I was running out of sun light as I started this late afternoon. The head is fully on and torqued, now its just getting the timing belt back on, belts, alternator, distributor, exhaust and intake manifold, quick oil change and see how it does.

Measure none and hit order!

 Got a really good deal on these wheels with this fitment and of course I didn't measure anything beforehand however I had a pretty good idea what would fit over the years of reading and my own experiences. Tires are going to be tricky, ideally id like to get a 215/50 but in the U.S. its near impossible to find anything and your other choices are R compound tires exclusively from japan (google A050 215/50) which is beyond my reach. Might end up going with a 205/50 to keep costs down and tire options open. They end up fitting really nice and I'm stoked on how they look, hard to argue with THE quintessential wheels on a fitting car.

Front is just mock up as the subframe is out for bodywork, front fenders might need a pull but they need repair in that section anyways so perfect excuse to kill 2 birds at once.

Never would have thought I'd actually be able to take the car this far, twas but a Fantasy... was always something I dream up and chalked up to "maybe one day"... 

Half Mill' Camry Teardown

 When I received the "Impound Camry" the drive home wasn't bad but you could tell it had been sitting awhile. Fluids were surprisingly clean aswell as the brand new snow tires that were on it. It should really bad on idle but the A/C works! Oh did I mention, it has 403k miles on it ha! I did a compression test on the motor and my readings were 200-35-176-179. I dropped a small amount of oil in cyl 2, which resulted in no change in reading. The spark plug was super carboned up, I dont even think it would spark anymore it was so bad. I decided based on that alone that it was a valve issue and worth tearing apart and trying to fix. I ordered a new rebuilt head with cams for 320 shipped which seemed to me worth a shot. I also picked up a new cap, rotor, coil, brake pads, and new torque mount aswell as plugs and a gasket kit which puts me around 700 total invested, not bad.

Let the teardown begin...after short while I noticed all of these bolts werent factory tight and everything came apart super easy, as if someone has been here before...

I even took out the penetrating oil, wasn't even needed.

Was coming along great as I got the manifold off the head...

Can you say clogged cat? Beyond shot...this may be leading up to why this may or may not have burnt a valve...

I get the valve cover off and Im simply shocked...I dont think this is original. You can see 98 written on the cams which is deff not factory and this is also a 96 to boot. Interesting, did I get lucky? Why was the compression low, is the bottom end original and bad? I was excited but also more confused, I need to know more!

 This cant be a 403k mile motor... I popped the head off and instantly knew why cyl 1 had high compression...

Rat turds, thats fitting. Atleast the wiring wasnt touched! Now lets look and see if the walls are bad, or whats going on with that low compression!

Wow! These pics dont do this justice, much better than I was expecting. So was I right?

Looks alright at first, little bit of carbon build up but wait a second...

Would you look at that, my suspicions were correct and wasnt sealing due to a burnt intake valve.

Time to clean it off and get this head back on with new gaskets and see how it does, I suspect compression will be spot on after.

Wats Mate?

I was growing tired of the mismatched fitment of the Aero wheels I had bought off someone locally and wanted something to help finish the look of the car out aswell as something a tad lighter (and that doesn't peel powdercoat after a year). I wasnt initially planning to get wheels right away, but with the recent steal of the century deal I just got on a JDM levin bumper, the exterior of the car just got a huge boost. Should be in this week but I'll let tease these until than.

 

 

 They did the job but its time for something a bit more aggressive and suitable to the look. 

15x9 -15 all the way around.

Wheels are the exact ones as seen on this beautiful Levin, interesting enough is also the same bumper I acquired. Shout out to the Norcal AE86 guys, from the bumper to wheels to anything else I need, you guys come thru every time, Thank you again!

 

 

Half Million Mile Camry...almost

I figured Id share on ya a little side project of mine that I picked up summer of 2020. I found this car to be interesting in the local police auction, which was being held via online bidding. I ended up winning the car for 270 dollars. What is this gem you ask, well nothing other than a Toyota of course! Here she is in all her glory, 1996 Toyota Camry. Managed to drive it home out of impound under its own power but there was issues...

Parts Haul

There is no way around it, there is a lot of work aswell as a lot of necesarry parts to make this swap happen and without issues on top of that. Been slowly knocking things off the list that are needed to get the motor in the car after the bay is painted.

Since the OEM engine mounts were tired and abused, I decided to order some Cusco replacements as they are more rigid which hopefully can handle the little extra weight of the Beams aswell as being 2-3mm shorter to allow more clearance for the hood to close. Next I had to think about what I wanted in a clutch setup. I was okay with leaving the stock dual mass flywheel and clutch setup but after further inspection the clutch was nearly gone and the flywheel wouldnt have been much behind I think. 

 For the right balance of streetability, cost, and availabilty I decided to go with a Exedy "Stage 1" Organic race clutch which should be plenty at stock power levels and mated that to a lightwight Toda Racing flywheel.

 

 

 

Engine Bay Shave (PT1)

 Quite easily the most time consuming and raw work involving with the swap is choosing to redo the engine the proper way around this time. This is some random pictures of the progress.