Sunday, February 10, 2013 - 08:00 pm, by: James Buchan(Jrbuch)
Prepare for a big thread. I should do an update. It's been a long time coming, so here it is.
You may remember I had originally purchased a V8 Soarer. It was a 93 Green V8 UZZ31. This was Feb in 2008.
How the car looked when I got it.
It had many things wrong with it, all of which I fixed over time, such as; broken alternator and power steering pump, poor fuel ecu, poor engine mounts, broken transmission mount.
I then went over a gravel road too quickly and ripped a hole in the baffle on my rear right hand muffler, leaving a terrible terrible exhaust note once warm. A catback fixed this. I decided on a dual 2.25inch exhaust, into 2x highflow cats, 1 x pipe, 2x straight through mufflers.. sounded quite nice.
I have youtube videos somewhere, I will upload them eventually
Ended up doing the major 100k service on it, and replaced leads, plugs, dizzy cap, rotor buttons, timing belt, bearings, water pump, and did the BFI at the same time. The thing felt like new and just went so much better.
But as usual, you get bored of the power, and after being beaten by a friends BMW 535i E39 (3.5 V8 - about 170kw's) I decided ceramic coated extractors were in order to go with my existing exhaust system. Made the throttle response much better, more growl, much more midrage. Just better everywhere because the stock cast iron headers was such utter $hit.. But, and this is a big but. I was still not pleased with how it went.
I ended up contacting Nik Peacock, who had put an e-manage ultimate on his 1UZ-FE with a MAF-less tune. I'll admit it, this wasn't cheap and cost me the best part of $1,700 installed and tuned, including the 3inch intake piping. However, the results were great for an N/A 4.0 V8, and it got up to 180rwkw, and really bellowed. The gearbox really needed a shift kit at this stage, as on a cold night with good fuel, the engine would be revving out, and the A340 gearbox wouldn't change into gear quick enough.
Had I kept building up the V8, I would have added a HTV1900 charger, and an MV autos shift kit (perhaps a T56 or Getrag V160 * I did look into all of this, but we'll cover this later)
Along the way, I also got sick of the V8 brakes, and put Supra 4 pots on, requiring Supra 17 wheels to clear the brakes. I disliked the factory spruce carpet and put in black carpet, added a factory black cupholder and Philips HIDS.
Ended up having an accident when driving whilst seriously tired and just cracked the 91 front bar. So I contacted Import monster and got a 97 front plus fogs, grille, high beams, and reo sent to me. Also picked up some 97 tails and adjusted the flasher module so it looked better.
Anyway, drove it like this for about 6 months, loved every second of it. The V8 bellowed and actually shocked many people with just what an early model 1UZ can do, if it is healthy.
So - forced induction. Everyone wants it, not everyone has it.
M90's are crap and are not worth bothering about, same goes for M112's. That only leaves big twin screw whipple blowers. $$$... Having had ridden in a late model supercharged E55 AMG and driven a prototype Ford FPV 335 GTP, I can tell you though, a big supercharged 8 is an awesome bit of kit. So much torque at every point in the rev-range. Cubes + boost. You just can't beat it.
Cost wise, it just wasn't worth modding the V8 anymore, and I couldn't justify spending 6 - 7k on a blower. That's what the car is worth. A newer car, slip control, more airbags is always better.
So without hesitation, I picked up an immaculate vvti turbo in July 2012.
This was the car I originally wanted but was out of my price range. The guy wanted to get rid of it, for he had a Supra Turbo 6spd, with a t04z, and a KE70 Corolla with a 4AGE and a GT35R on it. he was on here, but didn't post much)
It had 2 owners before me, 1 in Sydney then a bloke who was living in NSW before moving to Bendigo.
Had all the paperwork and I got a good price for it. It had; a faulty slip control ecu (problems on the later vvti motors) and not one that was at all documented on Soarer central - symptoms included flashing ect/od light and no working slip control.
Advice kept on pointing to a speed sensor, on the gearbox or abs sensor on the wheels, which I had checked and both were fine. My good mechanic friend told me that ECU's can and do go faulty. Found a spare ecu by sheer luck on ebay and all was well.
The vvti motors are just so smooth. They're really responsive, and feel much more like an N/A engine..
It came 100% stock. My basic mods were;
Greddy LS, a Kurt Atzmuller 3inch dump, the 3inch into dual 2.5 exhaust, e-manage ultimate and boost set at 15psi = 203rwkw.
Since then, I always feared the stock turbo would blow. They're pretty crappy. Responsive but crap, and not worth highflowing.
Greddy-LS intercooler (retaining factory airbox) Turbosmart boost controller Turbosmart boost guage E-manage ultimate from pulled out of my V8 Tomei ARMS M8280 Turbo MV Automatics 1.5 way shift kit Bosh 550cc injectors Walbro GS342 255lph fuel pump BFI Koyorad triple copper core radiator TRD Thermostat b&m transmission oil cooler 4inch Dump pipe by Kurt Atzmuller 3inch exhaust, into dual 2.5, features a highflow 100cell cat, mandrel bends and straight through mufflers. Work CR Kiwami 18*8.5 front, 9.5 rear + 30 offset Supra Four Piston brakes from my V8 QFM AR1M Brake pads Pedders gas rider struts and springs LEDs in gear shift selector
Should also add, I had cam seals, front and main seals done, etc so it should be reliably mad for a long time now.
There seems to be very little info about vvti turbo Soarers.
To date, I believe I am the first to put the Tomei ARMS M8280 on a Soarer. Guess we'll see results soon enough as to how it goes. A few members have highflowed or put GT30 internals into their CT15's but they've been limited at about 250rwkw. This is due to the rear outer housing. I'm after a little more than 250 though. I'm expecting 270rwkw, or there abouts. With the right bolt ons, and maybe ignition system upgrade i.e HKS twin spark, I should get the 300 figure with some more fine tuning.
Sunday, February 10, 2013 - 08:26 pm, by: James Buchan(Jrbuch)
More pictures, at various points; both from my V8, and the vvti turbo.
I've made many friends with my Soarer, many of whom I'd have never met otherwise. First picture is us working in my back lane. A shot of me and my new Tomei ARMS M8280 turbo. A shot of a Soarer cruise in 2011 to Castlemaine. You can see my car with the Supra 17's on it. A shot of a fellow member on here helping me change my carpet to black on the V8, and my vvti motor, when first purchased. And two as it currently sits - with the Bosh injectors in, as well as the Tomei, and the massive Koyo tripple copper core radiator.
next few are just of the vvti at various stages of my ownership since last July.
Sunday, February 10, 2013 - 11:37 pm, by: Greg Mitca(Pure)
A very cool and detailed intro/update.
The vvti appeals to me due the early responsiveness.
I know that the stock tt's reach max power and torque at a fairly high rev range.
I note there is a number of non vvti single turbo conversions. can you achieve a good degree of low end responsiveness and reasonable mid responsiveness with some of the single turbo conversions?
Monday, February 11, 2013 - 05:39 pm, by: James Buchan(Jrbuch)
Thanks Greg.
Yes, the vvti is a very responsive engine, even more-so with select bolt on's such as a slightly larger exhaust and a bigger intercooler. Changing the dump pipe made a massive difference for response, and the car felt lots livelier too.
My brother has a Twin Turbo, and with very similar mods to mine, i.e 3.5inch single exhaust, split dumps, FMIC, e-manage blue (before I did the Tomei ARMS Turbo swap) So it was interesting to find a variety of roads and see how the cars went.
TT's will always win a drag race, they're good for top end power, not so responsive though. Find a set of really twisty corners and the twins are nowhere near as good.
There are indeed a number of non vvti single conversions, and being non vvti, they are easy to modify, parts are in abundance, and they go very well. I.e no AFM, no vvti cam.
The downside is, I live in Victoria, and that means that the Police will defect/EPA me the moment they see a big single. So a stealth low mount single turbo was chosen. Visually, the only clues my engine is modified is the blue silicone hose on the intercooler piping and on the radiator hardpiping. I guess I could have always attached a GT3076R onto the factory manifold too.
Monday, February 11, 2013 - 09:49 pm, by: James Buchan(Jrbuch)
Cheers Kurt! I really like them too. I had the choice between bronze or black. Chose the black and haven't looked back!
Don't know when it'll be back on the road, at this stage I'm waiting on an oil cooler, and the MV auto shift kit. Needs to be tuned after that, so could be awhile yet.
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