TRD Ferguson grows an extra pair

Running Update

This update includes photos and a description of what we have done since blowing up the clutch. If anybody has any other questions about the swap, I would be happy to answer them now as it is nearly complete!

Anyway, since we replaced the clutch, we hoisted the motor back into the car and reconnected everything. Since we are running using the stock radiator, cooling we thought might be an issue. We still cannot find a dual core radiator that directly fits into this chassis, so if anybody know specifically what model has the dual core radiator, that would be helpful. I thought it was GTS, but we have looked at several of them and the only ones we found were in the next gen models which are about 1 inch too wide to fit.

Here is a shot of the engine bay from the front:


Now before I go any further, yes that intake is not giving us any gains, and we don't expect it to. The series that we are racing in has a dollar amount, and everything from intake ducting to that $15 air filter you see there counts against our value. To duct this all the way through the fender and out the corner light would be helpful, but also expensive. So what we have done there that you cant see is kept half of the stock ductwork and cut it open pointed towards the corner light which we have removed. This should at least provide a path for air to be pushed into that area of the engine bay.

Also shown in this picture is our cheap replacement for the oil catch box that comes attached to the intake. We replaced it with a walker/cane boot. Fits like a glove. Those red tubes are the heater lines that we just have looped back into themselves. There are a lot of minor custom parts here, so ask away if you are curious.

Moving on to the side view of the engine:


You can see our Accusump. Those of you either not familiar with the product or the 1MZ; the 1MZ is notorious for oil starvation in racing applications. In long sweeping corners, the oil quickly sloshes out of the oil pan, so to combat that, we installed this accusump. The accusump is an oil accumulator that has a diaphragm in it. The top part in this case contains oil, and then on the other side if the diaphragm is compressed air. As oil pressure builds in the system, more oil makes its way to the oil side of the accusump increasing pressure on the air side. Then, in the event we enter a corner and the oil sloshes out of the oil pan, pressure drops in the system causing the oil in the sump to leave and continue pushing oil through the engine.

We set up this accusump system with an additional oil cooler because we are concerned again, about engine cooling:

Those photos show you what the front of TRD Ferguson looks like as well as our oil cooler/accusump setup. What you are looking at there on the oil cooler: Oil enters the left side from our remote oil filter. (we relocated the filter from the block to where the washer fluid used to live as a sandwich adapter was too thick to work) Oil then leaves the oil cooler on the right hand side and flows through that large brass check valve. This valve is a one way flow valve that prevents the accusump from forcing oil backwards through the system. Then that T connection leads one way to the sump and one back to the engine.

Moving inwards, here is a shot of our new wiring harness. 99.9% of the 89 wiring harness is gone:


I know it looks like a mess, but that is ALL of the wiring (excluding leads for the fuel pump and rear lights). Directly below our control panel is the interior fuse block and OBDII plug. To the right we have our ECU from a 97 camry to which we added a pin to tell it that we are driving a manual, not an automatic. All of those switches excluding the silver ones are custom to drive things like the starter, wipers, lights, etc. Tucked up behind all of that is our custom fuse block to drive all of those things. If I had enough time, I would completely trim down this harness, but that is more of a winter project, and the race is coming up here in October.

Finally, this last shot is of our exhaust. Our header lengths are no longer equal, so this makes a nice burble and also looks really cool:

 

Ha, yeah rear muffler weight! Actually we probably need some more weight back there. All there is holding that end of the car down is the fuel tank and battery!

The main reason we went with that exhaust was to not have to mess with the rear suspension and fuel tank heat shielding to route the larger pipe. I am sure it could work, but it would have been a lot of work.

Also, after I posted this I noticed how bad our current wiring harness looks. I will be trimming that down this weekend... saving some weight.