Hi, I'm Making a 7AGE (Slowly)

As the title suggests i'm currently building a 7AGE engine, starting with the head and working my way down.

[diy7age-blog]

Camshaft Bath Decided to soak the old nasty camshafts in a ghetto vinegar rig. Because i don’t exactly have enough vinegar to fill a bucket, i decided to get cling wrap and make a bridge to put the cam on, then used tins of tuna on both sides to keep the vinegar from falling off the sides. I then dried the cams and coated on some WD-40. It’s pretty amazing how well this worked over a span of like six or eight hours. Literally everyone in my dorm can smell the vinegar when they walk past the stairs, i bought a little vanilla defuser thingy but i doubt it’s going to calm anyone.  I’ll be working on the exhaust camshaft tomorrow because i could only fit one camshaft in my ghetto rigged bathrub. 

[diy7age-blog]

(((SUPER SEXY STRIP))) Finally go the fucking camshafts out after having to saw down the old bolts several times (Got spares). The rust was terrible to cut through, however my good friend Adam brought a socket set and saws and all sorts of shit so we actually had tools to use. I gave the inside where the spark plugs sit a good clean, it’s going to look a lot better soon but it’s already looking -okay- and there’s surprisingly very little grime and shit on the valves, but i’m provably going to replace them with something more heavy duty so i can hit that 9500 RPM threshold.  The pump tubing and butterfly inlet manifold also left today and even the second we removed them to snap a photo there was already carbon going everywhere, so it’s going to need a very thorough clean before we can even consider throwing ITBs’ on there. At this point i’m honestly not sure whether the 272 cams will be able to go at their full potential without blowing the head to pieces, but at least if they do it’ll become a hilarious video when it happens 8)) 

[diy7age-blog]

Didn’t do an update/any work yesterday so i’ll double post today :~) Here’s my current 7AFE corolla, it makes next to no power and is extremely clean (190k kms) considering everything. Before the head’s thrown in i’m going to have to move the battery to the boot, but you can see where it’s going to sit and where the ITBs’ will hopefully be located. 

[diy7age-blog]

Very busy day so i (unfortunately) got very little done.  Today i unbolted the camshaft gear pictured on the right and ave it a quick once over and got a very large amount of rust off it, the teeth on there seem to be doing pretty good so i’m pretty satisfied with what i did, took me roughly 20 minutes to get in-between everything and i should hopefully get the other done in a few weeks when i can afford a socket wrench kit.  I’ll be receiving my tax return in a couple weeks which will go towards the intake (hopefully) but i might spend it on cams. I’ve shot Toda an email and they got back to me in under a minute almost every time, pretty great customer service and they said they’re going to try work with my requirements. I’m pretty set on the 272 duration cams, which looks to be a lot easier to tune and idles nicer, a higher duration would be pretty rad but the 4-banger’s already pretty shaky with the economy head and cams, i wouldn’t want to imagine how rocky things would get when it idles even worse.  Tomorrow i should be posting progress on removing the paint a bit further, i’ve bought some paint stripper because sanding is complete hell, and a small bucket. I might not be able to do anything at all however because i’m pretty behind on one of my units (Statistics in Psychology) and i might need to duck into an extra lab or two but that’s getting a bit off topic.  Best case scenario i’ll be able to pry out these ancient spark plugs and clean the entire area where they’re seated and see my neighbor about getting a cover that’s a bit lower and going to be easier to coat in rubber printed (3D printer in his dorm). 

[diy7age-blog]

The damage; Due to the MR2 having an engine bay more or less up to the mercy of the elements, this engine’s been munched by rust something fierce. It looks like the only thing i’ll need to replace is the cams (planned to already because one of the main goals is using higher duration cams at the end)  and it’s structurally fine.  I plan on cleaning it out as much as possible and checking on all of the rust to make sure it’s not eaten too deep and will be fine to have machined in the near future. 

[diy7age-blog]

Started sanding today, I’m using the only sandpaper i’ve got with me until later this week when i can get some paint stripper and lower grit sandpaper. It’s currently 1000 but i’m thinking 800 would be a bit quicker without causing the structural integrity to be weakened.  As the first picture suggests, after 10 minutes of sanding (Dry because i’m an idiot and forgot i bought wet/dry) i had barely any progress, and unfortunately in my allotted time today only got one side done. I hope to have the sanding done and have it painted by the end of the week.  I’ve also discovered that i’m doing my tags wrong (Literally just then) so go me :^) EDIT: I’m using a mask because i’m asthmatic, this isn’t necessary for sanding just strongly suggested. 

[diy7age-blog]

Starting off, plans for the build.

Foreword; I’m not certain on some of the actual definitions and names for some of the parts and often get them confused, please feel free to correct me if anything comes up.  As the title and everything suggest i plan on building a 7AGE (16v) engine which will (hopefully) run a relatively high compression and make roughly 160/170hp to the crank NA. I’m not sure where i would want to end up putting the engine when the project’s complete, i am considering placing it in my daily but it’s not exactly the most safe idea due to this being my first larger scale project.  The current MR2 head i’m working on is more or less trashed, and at this stage it’s basically going to be a spare time fun project and i don’t plan on having heaps done by the end of the year, at this rate all i have scheduled by 2017 will be;  -Cleaning, Re-painting the cover  -Machining (maybe) at the very least a full internal refresh for all of the valve springs, gaskets etc.  -Probably 264 camshafts but i’m considering higher duration  -Variable camshaft gears The workspace is going to be challenging as i’m currently living in a university campus and the space i have allocated in my room is almost 1/4 of my living space. I don’t foresee much of the work requiring greater space, excluding the machine work which i’ll be getting done in a shop. I think this will be a fun challenge to work around though so it should be fine. 

[diy7age-blog]

The beginning; 4AGE head from a wrecked MR2 arrived today. Please excuse the garbage quality i have no idea what happened.