St165 with some upgrades

Update time!

I installed a coolant swirl pot. For those that dont know a coolant swirl pot is installed to give a high point in the cooling system and due to its action, (Swirling), it allows the air in the cooling system to bleed off.


The pot is on the left, you can see where one supply comes from the water neck. The other supply comes out of the radiator neck. The radiator cap is just a blanking cap so there is no inner seal on it. The cap on the swirl pot is just like a normal radiator cap and thus has a overflow back to my overflow bottle. On the bottom of the swirl pot is the exit back to the bottom hose on my radiator. Clear as mud??

I have also been working on my dash stuff. This my altered stock dash cluster. I removed the oil pressure gauge, water temperature gauge and the diff lock light.

I replaced them with, (Left to right), a water temp light, a oil pressure light and a voltage meter. Oh and I swapped out the old 180 kph speedo for a 240kph one. Both the speedo and the voltage meter were from Stig. THANKS!!! The amber light will come on when the water temp gets too high and the red light will come on if the oil pressure drops too low. I cant remember the settings, but both offer a degree of safety. Nice and bright so they will get your attention!!!



Of course I still need to have proper Oil pressure and Water temp gauges, so where to put them? I dont really like rows of gauges screwed to the dash, I did want them where I could see them easily, so down in the centre console was out. I wanted somthing that looked factory, (ish), so a plastic generic gauge pod wasn't really my style so I came up with this.



Dont worry about the holes as that plate is just there so I can screw on a pretty fascia plate that will actually have the gauges attached to it.

Here it is in place,



Sorry it's a bit dark but you see that it continues the line of the factory binnacle in both planes. I did look at centering the middle gauge on the vent but it just stretched everything out too far for me. Oh the third hole will be a boost gauge. Sorry again for the crappy photo but it is pretty difficult to photograph through a windscreen, lots of reflections!!

My pod will be screwed to the original dash and the whole lot is going to be recovered so it should look awesome when finished.

 

Sorry fernando not South African, Kiwi born and bred.

Not sure what you mean lone wolf? Did toyota put one on and I binned it when I stripped the old stuff out? :shock

Thanks for the positive comments!!!

 

I decided to add a proper swirl pot to go with my breather tank previously fitted, (post 62 above), I incorrectly called my BREATHER/BLEED tank a swirl pot. It does swirl but not the full volume as my new swirl pot will do!



I added another inlet into my breather tank. Hope this all works to help remove any air in my coolant system.

 

Update time,

First the dash. Back from the upholsterers.



Short black suede with red stitching



With the gauges in place



My upholsterer wasn't confident that this glue could handle the depression around the windscreen vents with the heat and the small contact area so I made up these curved , slotted aluminium pieces to help hold it in place.

Now on to the bonnet. I needed vents so I made some.




In place,



Another view,



From the back,



Should let some of that hot air out!

 

If you look at how I did it in my earlier posts you could feasibly do it out of other materials. Wood,fibreglass, even cardboard could work. Have a go with some cardboard to make the shape you like, then think about how to attach it. If you make the front panel screw to some tabs you can get into your pod to screw it to the dash. Then you can cover it before installing the gauges.

Thanks for "venting" :hehe your thoughts on the vents! Your right they should be functional and when finished they will be a little less in your face.

 

No it's not dead yet!! I am getting my wiring done at work by my boss as and when he can fit it in, so you know how those stories go......S L O W L Y!!


So whilst I have been waiting for a wiring opportunity to come along, I got a fibreglass sunroof from Paul, (Pawel), at


http://www.gt4-racing.eu/


Stoked. I sent him an old diff cushion and got a nice poly filled one back. I also got a subframe and diff mount poly mount kit. I got the bigger alloy power steering pulley to try out as well.


I got some St205 brakes front and rear so now I have to fit them up. I know it is a challenge especially since I want them to fit under 15 inch wheels!! Fortunately we do this kind of thing at work so we shall see how difficult it is. I will have to turn the diameter down on the rears and probably swap the front discs for wrx sti ones as they have less offset so clear the bottom ball joint.


I will keep you posted and if I get a reasonable solution I will let you know.

 

Well by the time I get the 205 brakes to fit under the 15" wheels the disc diameter is too small to be worth it. I have some 16" wheels and they fit over the rears as is....just. There isn't even room for wheel balance weights. So I would like a little more clearance I will reinvestigate it a bit later.

Whilst I was looking at this I was looking at my existing brakes and my bloody expensive Mintex brake pads that a hardly worn at all so I will do my brake upgrade once I have used them up or I decide that my brakes aren't up to it!!!