Spring? Not so much.

 Apparently it was supposed to be spring but its not very nice yet. I didn't really want to wait another full month at least so I decided to pick up some poly to make a booth and a decent sized propane heater so I can get to work!

Made in Japan

 I knew getting a motor that was an import only option for the USA as we never got the beams was going to come with its own set of issues when it came to sourcing parts. What I did not expect, was that finding them in the states already wasnt as much of an issue as it was more expensive to buy from there vs actually sourcing them directly from Japan. I needed new flywheel bolts and throwout bearing and wanted to stick to OEM but didnt want to pay more than I needed to. I will recommend Nengun everytime, such a painless site and process and shipped before and arrived before it was expected to at a great price!

Sorting the manifold

 After getting the intake stuff for the swap, I looked at the half polished manifold and knew I needed to finish it. I was thinking of going a difference direction and instead of finishing the full polish, I want to give it a brushed finish which I think will match the billet and other aluminum items in the bay. Really happy with how this turned out, to where I don't think ill need to get this vapor honed like previously thought. I had also been told that the BEAMS manifold on the inside is quite good flowing and has its own long runners, picture can confirm this. Also happy with how clean it is inside there.

ITS FINAALLLYY HERE!

 After a long long long wait, the main essential part of the swap is here, the Panic harness and Link ECU! I was really surprised to see how small the monsoonx ecu actually is and was pleasantly surprised to see the nice cnc'd piece provided by Matt Panic for the mechanical throttle conversion.

Fuel System

 After a bit of research, some back and forth, I finally decided on what to get. Ill likely have to upgrade the fuel rail to make adapting my choice of fuel pressure regulator. I have not seen anyone in the 86 Beams swap community go this route but I want a clean look and this seems like the perfect way to achieve that. I decided to go with a Radium DMR FPR and AEM fuel pump to supply the beams. I will be replacing the GTS hard fuel line and replacing the supply and return with new AN -6 lines and set up the FPR for returnless like the Altezza.

Mushroom?

 I've seen a few examples of swaps that use the Altezza HKS intake system and with no to slight mod get it to fit nicely so I was always going to go with that route. Randomly, someone local was selling an HKS mushroom pod filter thats been sitting BNIB for 8 years from a never finished s13 build. I couldn't pass that up for that price, and even tho it was 100mm unlike the 80mm of the Altezza kit, I figure I could make it work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parts!

 Since the engine bay is just about ready to be painted, that only means the engine can go in so I figured I'll try to line everything up so I can have everything I need to do the first start right away this spring. I am relocating the battery to the inside of the cabin on the passenger side floor with a aluminum floor plate to use for the mounting base. Should put it right by the ECU and on the same side as the ALT and starter so it should be the best spot for this overall. Luckily I was able to source some wiring from work (3 sets of these) that should be plenty thick and length should be perfect or on the long side to easily modify. 

Project update 2023

 As the rust repair took most of my time, I did not get time to paint like I wanted to so now this spring we are going to try to achieve the goal of getting the bay finished, motor in, wired, started, and hopefully moving under its own power. Lets keep pushing!

 

 

Ready for paint, or are we?

 I thought we were almost ready to finish up and shoot the paint this spring/summer but after further inspection, there was some rust I missed. Unfortunately I didn't get around to this until middle to late summer so following will be some pictures of what I found and the process of fixing it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Found some AE86 shirts!

 I never actively seeked out AE86 or Toyota clothing surprisingly, so when I say some of these recently I couldn't pass up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Xmas gift to myself...

 Eventually we will be gearing up to get back to work finishing up the swap on refresh on the AE86, I figure this should match the eventual lock out short shifter quite well. I also brought the trans inside for the time being, figure better get a head start, its wants to be shinny to and we shall let it.

We have lights!

 Manged to get something done today on the DD Camry. Ever since I got it running again I've noticed it stay stuck in Park, has no brake lights, or reverse lights. As we have been getting plenty of snow storms and generally just not being safe or legal, it was a little nicer today so I started to poke around to investigate to see why this all didn't work. So far I've manged to get other little things to work like dome light, door sensor for the dome light, and the cig lighter aswell as the trans select lights and the key ring light. Slowly I've been wanting to upgrade speakers and convert lights to LED but havent let myself before I fix these other issues. After narrowing it down to either a brake switch or a NSS, i decided to bundle up and take a peak outside. Fuses were good, cruise was good so that basically ruled out the brake switch. Last ditch effort before taking off the NSS and cleaning/rebuilding it I decided to check the bulbs in the tail lights. I've heard of this causing issues but I don't recall ever being that lucky. I took all the bulbs out in both lights and went back into the car and low and behold, the shift lock was working properly...lol That was the issue the entire time, just some bad bulbs. LED conversion underway! Cargo light and license plate lights done already.

Picked these up for $10 on Amazon, really bright and crisp!

After pulling the cluster and inspecting everything whilst changing over the bulbs, I noticed as it were, this wasn't going to work. The Camry bulb sockets rely on a side connection exclusively and these LEDs are front and back contact only for connection. This was extremely disappointing for awhile but not defeated, I thought about the spare AE86 cluster I had laying around and grabbed the sockets out of those and they were exactly what I needed and fit right into the Camry cluster perfectly, thanks Toyota!

As you can see (maybe) there is no connection for a typical bulb once placed inside.

This one is the AE86 one as you can see the difference from the Camry one above.

 

And as you can see on the LED, this needed to be done as there is no contact strip on the sides.

It was a lot of messing around in the cold but overall I'd say it was worth it. Pictures not giving it proper justice aswell as it being a bit dirty still needing a good spring clean.

Before

After

Some more 86 progress!

 Finally back to working on the Corolla, doing everything I can do get the body work in the bay done so I can drop this motor in and really kick this project into high gear. Only did a little bit tonight but a little progress is still progress. Where I left off/whats left in the bay was the battery tray delete. Got a lot of work left to make it perfect but in retrospect, we are so close to color!

300 mile update

 The Camry has been doing great, still trying to find all the kinks before the cold weather and snow comes our way making repairs more of a chore than they already are. Decided to install the new Denso radiator that I had ordered aswell as the new coolant overflow tank which also had a leak. Was able to take advantage of some amazon savings and got an OE Denso Rad and the overflow for ~78 bucks, really love parts for these aren't an arm and a leg, like a certain older corolla of mine... ha. While I was under the hood I put the new PCV valve and check the spark plugs and thought I might aswell do a compression test to confirm my repair and re asses the health of the motor. I over looked it before, but I noticed the pistons are stamped 040, thus it has been bored out and didn't realize this. This became for evident as the compression numbers are cold are way higher than oe spec. I did clean number one piston up more than the others so number 4 could be higher for that reason, just more carbon deposits. Even so, this passes with flying colors.