ste91

Really tempted to have that catch can but it's bright bastard purple, and I've ran out of black paint

Amazing work so far, did it come standard with discs at the wear? Yea thats the one on youtube, i was driving it. Clutch was slipping abit. I also put the exhuast system on and was a great fit, well worth the money even tho it was pricey.

Cheers yeah it came with discs, standards are 262 fronts/240 rear, I'll have 282 front/260 rear once I've got them fitted (end of this week).

My exhaust was a bit of a bargain I think, 2.5" stainless steel cat-back, only cost me £150 plus £30 for a decat. I love how it can be quiet but makes a nice growl when you want it to. I'll be getting a custom downpipe made when I fit the TD04 so the whole system will be 2.5" and pretty much a straight through except for the back box.

Cheers, it's progressing a bit slower than I'd have liked, but everything is being done properly.

I've bedded the new clutch in now and tried out the Torsen LSD, can't believe how much of a difference it has made, even on wet roads you can fucking nail it round corners in the lower gears and it just grips and goes!

Nearly got my manifold adaptor plates mocked up so I need to get them made out of steel and I'll be ready to fit the TD04, still need to fit the front mount intercooler as well but spare time is very limited and I don't want to bodge anything by rushing.

Once the TD04 is on I'll be fitting some slightly bigger injectors, the ones I've got already are capable of 180bhp and that's the power figure I'm aiming for but that's on the limit so I'll be using some bigger injectors to give me a bit of head room, I'll be pushing the turbo to it's limit anyway and don't want to be held back by lack of fuel.

Yes mate, still a bit soft but I guess that's the trade off for having good grip on wet roads. I think they'd be fine if there wasn't a big heavy iron lump above them, but Starlets don't weigh much so you probably wouldn't notice the soft sidewalls as much.

How are you finding the uniroyals mate? Tempted to get a set myself I loved the rainsport 2s!

I'm quite impressed with them, I've mostly used Toyo T1R's in the past (and T1S before that) and I'd say the Uniroyal RS3's are just as good in the dry, much much better in the wet, and around the same price. However the sidewalls are quite soft, and as I've got a big heavy diesel engine over them the sidewalls tend to flex a bit, they lack a bit of feeling when turning in to a corner, they just aren't quite responsive enough for my liking.

I've just ordered a pair of Goodyear Eagle F1 A2's to put on the front which cost me £25 more per corner than the Uniroyals, they've got some really good reviews though so hopefully they're better than the RS3's, the main reason I bought them was to see if they felt a bit more responsive.

The Uniroyals are very good though I'd recommend them over any other tyre for the same money.

The only person worth talking to for engine builds is Tim @ TB Developments (MR2/Toyota specialist) he's a trader on TGTT, he's rebuilt more 3SGTE's than probably anyone and his work is second to none. Speak to him if you need any mechanical work done, just about the only thing he doesn't do himself is mapping.

LOL at all those turbos kits & parts.

Is the oil catch can for sale?

Ready to be fitted:

Whats your adjustable actuator up to during all this?

im trying to remember how a MBC works but i think im right in saying that you bleed air away from your actuator?

i think what your trying to achieve is what a straight forward MBC cannot - GAIN.(ie all the boost as early as possible but without suffering chronic creep)

you should have your actuator set low and use your MBC to bring that up to your desired level. (straight forward, slightly laggier but no creep hopefully)

sounds like you have your actuator high and your using your MBC to bleed away when it sees the boost spike.

Phil

The standard adjustable actuator works fine. It (eventually) makes 19psi and holds it but the wastegate creeps open once it reaches 15psi so the last 4-5 psi are slow to rise.

It's a ball and spring type MBC which is literally a ball-bearing behind a spring, when the desired pressure is reached the ball bearing moves and allows boost pressure to reach the wastegate actuator.

This prevents wastegate creep as the wastegate actuator doesn't see any boost right up until the desired pressure is reached so it cannot crack open too early.

Boost creep is different to wastegate creep - boost creep is not an issue. You can get boost spikes with MBC's but that's not an issue either, the MBC I've got simply wont adjust low enough, it just wants to aim for 25+ psi all the time and stay there (not a spike).

99% of people with this turbo just use the standard actuator but I'm using the MBC mainly to test it out ready for when I upgrade the turbo which I'll be doing very shortly, so I wanted to try it out ready for that so I know if it works. Turns out it doesn't! But it has shown me that it does fix wastegate creep. If only it could be set a little lower so it wasn't over boosting. I'll be running somewhere around 23psi on the bigger turbo so it wont be as much a problem then, but at the moment it's at least 5 psi too high and the standard GT15 wont last very long at that level of boost (it's almost identical in size to a CT9 and I'm upgrading to a small version of a TD04, from a 2.5 diesel engine).

I've taken it off the car for the time being, I'll try it again once I've found a slightly weaker spring.

You've both misunderstood the problem - the MBC wont adjust low enough. It's a standard GT1549 turbo with internal wastegate (comes with adjustable actuator as standard), it eventually gets to the 19-20psi that I want but it creeps open at 15psi so the last few psi rise very slowly.

To cure this I'm using a boost controller so the wastegate actuator doesn't see any boost until the boost controller "opens" - and it does work, however I can't get the MBC to go low enough, presumably because the spring in it is too strong and is keeping it shut even when it's adjusted to as low as it will go.

If I can't fix the MBC by using a different spring then I will just give up on it and go straight for an EBC.

Not for a Starlet but most of you on here have turbos so presumably there are people with good knowledge on boost controllers here.

I simply want full boost to come in as fast as possible and it doesn't matter if there's a slight boost spike as long as it settles down to the desired psi and holds there.
Currently on the standard turbo I have a little bit of wastegate creep, peak boost is 19psi or there abouts but the wastegate is cracking open at 15psi. To cure this I fitted a manual boost controller (ball and spring type) which gets the boost in just how I want it, no wastegate creep and it comes on boost fast and strong, however there seems to be a problem with it as even with it set to minimum it still wants to boost up to 25+ psi which is too much.

So I have two options - mess around with the MBC, fit a different spring inside it, see if I can get it working properly.

OR

Buy an EBC, however they cost a lot more and most of them have features/settings that I'm simply not interested in, and there's such a wide choice I have no idea what to go for, every search I've done brings up different results.

Obviously the first and cheapest thing to do would be try a different spring in the MBC and hopefully it works, but if that doesn't work then I wont mess around I'll be looking to buy an EBC.

Good work, but the amount of metal around these bolt holes is a bit worrying:

I've used T1R's for years but recently switch to Uniroyal RS3's.

RS3's are much better on wet roads and just as good in the dry, the only thing I don't like is how soft the sidewalls are, the feedback through the steering wheel on turn-in isn't brilliant but they do grip very well. They seem to get softer once warm so I'm not sure they'd be much good on a track after a few laps, but they're a road tyre and not designed for the track.

I can't fault them for the money.

Little update, few pics, more to come:

Finished my audio install, components/amp/wiring/sound deadening all done, can't really show you the end result as everything looks completely standard but the sound is in a totally different league to the standard speakers, very clear, plenty of mid bass, I'm happy enough without a sub, and you can turn the volume up so it's uncomfortably loud but it still sounds clear. Well worth the money as I think music is needed in a daily driver/road car especially on long journeys.

Uprated clutch and gearbox are fitted, still bedding the clutch in at the moment but as soon as it's in I'll be giving it some abuse, I've not driven a car with a proper diff yet so I'm interested to see how the Torsen diff performs.

Boost gauge fitted, I'll get a pic of that soon.

Spent a few hours giving the car a proper clean, prepped with tar remover and Meguiars clay bar, and then Autoglym SRP and Meguiars Tech Wax 2.0, the pictures don't really show it but it's made quite a difference, looks great in the sun.

Went for a little drive the other day:

Had a nice afternoon blast down the lanes, but managed to cook the brakes, fair bit of smoke coming off the pads lol so a few upgrades have been ordered:

Rover 620Ti front calipers with 282mm discs

ZS180 rears with 260mm discs

Ferodo DS2500 pads all round

Braided lines

RH665 fluid

Should have plenty of stopping power once I've got that lot fitted, it works out well that I've just had the clutch fitted as I'll be able to bed in the brakes & clutch all in one go.

Anything around 35-40mm will do, make doesn't really matter.

Little update, started my audio install, got the speakers/tweeters/crossovers all screwed in, unfortunately no pics of the install as it was in progress, I always forget to take pictures!

But I did get a couple of shots of how it stands at the minute:

That's as far as I got, everything is in place but there's still a fair bit to do, drill some holes in the doors to run the new speaker wire as all the wires are upgraded to much thicker cable than the standard stuff. I thought I'd get away with only a minimal amount of sound deadening on each door but decided to order some more, so next weekend it will be finished properly.

The tweeters are mounted in the original location and the crossovers are hidden away inside the door, the amplifier is also hidden along with any wires so you wouldn't even know anything has been changed apart from the head unit.

This is the amp I bought, a Genesis Profile 2. 75w rms per channel @ 4 ohms for those who like numbers.

The components I've got are rated to 70w rms so this amp is more than capable of powering them, much better than running off the head unit.

Apologies for lack of updates on the engine side of things, I'm itching to get the turbo fitted but want to get these bits and bobs out of the way first.

I've just ordered a Garrett boost gauge and a couple of things to finish the audio install, as well as some more 80+ mm inlet ducting to upgrade the air box pipes.

That's it bud on the tracks are you?

Yes mate working on the station, that's our fence on your car park.

Nice looking GT you've got, I'll be there all week I expect so if I spot you when I've got a minute spare I'll pop over n say hello

That'l be me not many around here

Do you work at Leekes?

Anyone here? From a distance it looks like there's a UKSO sticker on the back window.

The weather is terrible so can't do much to the car today, I'll be fitting my speakers and other bits soon so I'll take a load of pictures of what's been done so far for my next update.

The speakers I ordered were out of stock so have changed to some better ones - Focal P165 V15's £189's worth for £130 brand new! And to power them I've bought a Genesis Profile 2 amplifier (2 channel, 75w rms), for those who don't know, Genesis is a well respected brand, their amps are very high quality and hand made in England. So that's my audio pretty much sorted although I may add an under-seat sub woofer at a later date.

Also ordered an uprated clutch, I didn't want to go for a silly race spec clutch as it's a road car so went for an organic type.

Just to show where I'm at now what I've actually done so far, not a lot yet really:

- upgraded injectors

- full 2.5" mandrel bent exhaust system and decat

- front and rear strut braces

- Uniroyal Rainsport 3 tyres

Soon I'll have fitted:

- Focal P165 V15 components, Genesis Profile 2 amp, Alpine headunit

- uprated clutch

- Torsen diff (recently rebuilt gearbox with steel caged bearings and Torsen diff)

I still haven't got round to getting the turbo fitted yet but I'll be sorting out the adaptor plates soon, once the turbo is bolted on I'll get a 2.5" downpipe made to match up to the existing exhaust system, then fit my FMIC and MBC and it'll be ready for remapping.

No pics yet I'll have to get some on the weekend if I get chance to wash the car, but I've fitted my front & rear strut braces.

Also got a pair of Uniroyal Rainsport 3's fitted on the front, I finally have some grip instead of the awful ditchfinders that were on there before!

Really nice project man! Love these little motors! Have a real soft spot for mg's

Nice to see what you get out of it!

Cheers mate, I can't wait to see what power it makes with the bigger turbo, I need to get myself into gear and get it fitted lol I've got pretty much everything I need now, just a matter of making it all fit and bolting it onto the car and then remap/dyno and see how it performs.

Nice ZR, X-Power grey is definitely the best colour! Think I've seen that ZR on youtube, the exhaust and strut braces you're on about are Dark Ice Designs, I've got their strut braces for my ZS

A little update:

Full exhaust system and decat are now fitted, will have to get some pics soon, I'm happy with it though, no louder than standard at idle, and even at 4.5k rpm if you've got the windows up it's not that loud, normal driving with windows up you can't hear it - but the revs go up much easier now, no restrictions past the turbo as it's a full 2.5" mandrel bent system with no boxes other than a back box with 3" tip.

Also I decided I need some music so...

Also got some sound deadening, MDF speaker rings, ended up spending more than I intended on audio, I've already got an amp but may buy a better one instead, going to see how I get on with these components and decide if I want a sub or not, I'd prefer not to so hopefully these speakers give out a nice amount of mid bass to compensate for it.

No actual progress unfortunately but I have just bought a 2.5" exhaust system and a spare gearbox with a Torsen diff.

Has the wastegate been ported? If not then you will more than likely get boost creep.

You can use the actuator to control boost if you are on a budget, or a boost controller of course.

As for fuelling, the ECU will probably be fine but get a wideband so you can check AFR's.