project GT2 - "courtney", like no other.

i was just hiting a wire of a ground to make connection, the knocking sound is the solenoid in the starter opening and closeing due to the bad connection...

 

thanks man, i dont know about underengine covers, but i plan to make a skid plate out of some aluminum for her though. i thought it was time for a big update. the last time you all seen my new rear wiring harness to move the no 1. relay block and the charging system to the rear, it was just extended from the engine, now i must say it is all relocated and wired up.i even managd to keep the stock fuse block. i wanted my charge system to have a bit more balls to it. so i went to my local electrical outlet and bought 60' of 6g wire to solve this problem, i used the stock 10g wire as a template and soldered the stock plugs and clips to my 6g braid. my trusty soldering gun couldnt do it, so i had to enlist the help of my trusty propane torch. wire is sooooo damn easy to solder when your putting it in direct flame. . .so i have spent the past week, when here it had dipped to -30 nice and toasty working in my car with no windshield.... ahaha fire is great.i also rethought the charge system and made a few mods to it. i still have about 3 wires left to do, and then my celi rewiring is done...for now.. i have a little idea up my sleeve. now onto my engine. i have been wanting to finsh my valve cover for so damn long, i got tired of that shit cover from the scrap yard on my engine. the cover that came on my jdm i blasted at my buddys place, but i was dumb and tried to half ass a polish with the flap wheel... bad idea, left some real deep scratches in it. so one night i got the ambition, and hand sanded every damn scratch out of it. i wanted my valve cover to be different, not just painted one crap colour like ive seen on some gte engines. needless to say i had no finger prints after that night. so i commondered the auto shop at the college when i was out of class and re blasted it there (it had oxidized from being outside) and that gave me a nice painting surface. i also made some "silent" mods to it with the dremel, only a true celica eye can notice them... lol so for the last day i have taped it off, painted it with 3 coats of high heat black. a bit seeped through my desgin i had taped out, so i had to lightly sand some parts to get that off. i let it cure for a day, then i put it in the oven for a little while to bake on the paint... that was a lovely smell... when it came out, i went over it twice with 400, 600, 800, 1500g wet sand paper. then i finished it off with 3 coats of rubbing compound to bring out that nice satin finish to the alluminum. im actually very prourd of how it came out. what do you guys think? this is a big update, but there is more to come very soon, im getting my valve cover gaskets from partsource tomorrow, then ill fill you in on part 2 of this update. heres some pics, enjoy guys!!!!!!!

my 6g, vrs the stock 10g wire

soldering fun..

to fuse block no.1

the complete rear wiring/charge braid

and i got it inthe stock fuse block... i swear i used 30' of fucking solder on this.... not to mention the 7 rolls of e-tape, and 4 bottles of propane...



the valve cover when i got it. this was when i had my jdm in that cursed pos i owned before court...

you have seen it in my recent engine pics kinda dingy and scratched up. this is after all my hard work sanding and blasting at the college.

and it taped off.... i have my own little desgin

and heres after the 3rd coat of paint... i was sooooo cooked off this, i think it talked to me for a bit...

since tape would either burn or bake on in the oven, i peeled it off for baking. you can see some overspray, i had to sand it before baking,


valve cover for lunch.. lol speaking of lunch i think some crap spilled on my oven.. i gta clean her now. . .

and after all my wet sanding.

and. . . . .
my final polished finished valve cover. .. i love the way this looks. . . .



more to come. . . . ..

 

thanks, i had to cut it front to back last night to trace a short in my starting system, thuned out to be a faulty plug. . .. ill post pics soon.. im soooo busy these days. . .

 

well i hit a few setbacks with old court in the recent days. . . .

ive been on the race to get her running under her own power.. first it was my starter solenoid, i wired up the bare esentials to make the starting circuit (bulkhead harness, key switch ect..) so turn the key and the only click i had was the starter relay opening... no starter, i wired the starter direct and the solenoid workd... so it was something in the wiring of the car, so i had to take my trusty knife, and strip the wiring from one end of her to the other. then break out my tester and test for power every foot or so along the path from the relay to the starter.. well after studying the wiring diagrams and killing an evening i discovered it was a fatory plug connecting the bulkhead harness to the engine harness... so no fault of my own, just shitty 20 year old plugs....so a quick bypass and way she goes, cranking like a pro, but no spark. . .

so onto the new problem... so i tested the coil, i ran the power wires right accross the harness, i had power to the dist, and to my coil and igniter. since this ignition system does the switching on the negitive i figured maybe the grounds.. nope... my friend suggested for me to test my pickups in the dist. the stock rating is 160-140 ohm, mine was at like 380-422 ohm.. so the pickups were toast... i took of my dist hauled her apart and went outside and dug my spare dist out the snow covered scrap pile......i didnt figure it would be decent, but she tested right in spec.. so i swapped the pickups into my dist housing, set the air gaps and procceded to re time the engine, had it all back together and went to crank it over. the engine seemed to crank very fast... too fast. . . then i heard a slapping noise...i look up... and only my fucking timing belt ripped apart.... i think i screamed "fuck" so loud i interupted the neighbours happy hour... thnk god for non interference engines . .. so then, a man defeated... i just calmly started cleaning the cyl. head, getting it ready for new parts, i took off the alt and bracket for painting, and i took out the 22 year old thermostat... while im here i might as well replace her eh??.... so that was the end of attempt no.1 at firing her up...

on a side note. . . .i did manage to get retractor control working. .. ahahaha i was so impressed, it wasnt even my goal, i guess i just completed the cicuit and hit the switch by accident... ahh. . .reminds me of my old gt....

onto a bright note, some parts came in the other day. . .. my new stainless braided clutch line, and set of valvecover gaskets, it came with new bolt seals, but i used the stock22 year old bolts. . they shined up nice... heres some pics as always..



my busted fucking timing belt.............

new parts!!


new seals and original gte bolts... amazing what steel wool can do...

 

yeah its been a decent setback. . .usually most shops will put a little blob of high heat permatex in the corners at the end of each cam tower where the gasket moves up for the cam. but cranking or not, i can still mess around with the engine, i still have to see if i can get it to fire, you dont need to crank it to get it to fire... lol oh my . . .

 

yeah lol i do what i have to, its cold, but i just love to work on her...a garage would be amazing, but the driveway will do...

actually i changed the timing belt with the one off my jdm gte when i had the ening out.... cause the one on it was cracked and worn...it would appear that this one was not much better lol...maybe someday eh team??

 

wow thanks man...really. . i dont look at myself as much, i just love what little piece of my car i have left..shes probably one of the ugliest, and most tore apart 4th gens on this site, and nowhere near as beautiful as some of the ones i have seen on here...and yet.. i love every second of her... i try to do my best given the conditions i have, but yelling and whining about my broken timing belt wont make it go back together, so i just take it as that and rebuild it.. if i cant afford to fix it now, ill work on something i can do, untill the funds are available.. im my opinion, better it broke now then when i launch her at 3k... thanks for all the posts guys... gives me some hope that she may one day join the ranks on here....

 

well as my fans are aware, the old car threw a timing belt last week, so i have had a major setback. but i have been doing other things untill i have the funds for my performance timing belt and pulleys. so i tore down the front end, pulling off the 22 year old waterpump and thermostat, and thermostat housing. and the under cam cover, and cam gears. also i pulled my alt and alt bracket. i took the under cam cover to the college and blasted it, i blasted the thermostat housing as well. and put 3 coats of high heat paint on it. i disassembled the alt and cleaned and painted it, 3 coats of h-h black, and on my stock alt hook got 3 coats of h-h black as well. i threw all these in the oven for a good two hour bake. . . also i overhauled my clutch master,she was so filthy. i took it apart and cleaned it all, inspecting the bore for scratches, brake cleaned it and reassembled. today i tore my steering column apart, and i did an interesting mod to one of the covers i broke a while ago.. lol, my column cover was broke right across but had the piece for the tilt lever, the other had the tilt lever broke but the rest of the cover intact. . . hmmmm... so out with the cut off wheel and make two solid straight cuts, took the good tilt portion, and with a bit of jb weld, and some heat bonded them together, its still curing pending sanding tomorrow.. the boards wont let me put up resized pics, they all just come out one size. ill try to get some up tomorrow. . ..

 

well photo bucket is being a dick and wont let me resize the pics... so there all cut off ahaha but you get the general idea, so heres what ive been doing for the past while since she threw the timing belt.
my friend made me a proper short throw shifter, by extending the piviot ball thus giving a shorter throw, not the damn ricer way of cutting the fucking handle, and i bet you guys have never seen this before... i have in my 88 celica, a short throw HURST shifter... i pulled it off a transfer case my buddy found in a scrap yard and after much blasting, cutting welding painting and polishing i got her golden... and mounted to my celica... and i have a sweet set of bushings for it also, i found them in my tool box of all places. i also pulled apart my steering column and blasted her, since then i have painted and cooked her. i also cleaned up my set of goodridge g-stop brae lines. i havent even touched the car in weeks, my laptops hard drive crashed so i was like a ghost for about a week... coming onto 162 to mod using my damn iphone...lol.sorry theres no before pics maybe someone can help me make em all fit idno... but heres some pics enjoy!!!!

heres that column trim i talked about, im holding in my hand the broken piece that was ATTACHED ORIGINALLY to that part of the trim, you can see that ive molded a non broken piece on her...