Well, I built a car for drifting, and the last drift event is tommorrow afternoon....
And it looks like I am not going to make it.
First I did the complete swap, everything down to the fuel lines on the 1985 Toyota Corolla SR5, and swapped in everything from a 1985 Toyota Corolla GT-S. The swap took a while, but well worth all the work. I've been having problems keeping the water in the engine and not on the ground....so I start tearing everything apart, get to the waterpump, remove it, swap in a water pump from a Japanese Domestic Market engine that I have sitting in the garage. I replaced the gasket with a new one, and bolted everything up and started to put the belts back on. Then I notice that the waterpump belt and pulley are slightly off by about 1/4 inch..and I started measureing up the differences on both waterpumps...well the one I installed was off of a 1990 Toyota MR2, which is a sidemounted engine, and the waterpump housing is shorter.......
So I rigged up the pulley with a few spacers/washers, and got it to line up with the belt again, then filled the engine and the radiator up with water again, closed everything up and decided to go take the car out for a drifting practice spin.....
Well, me and Celerity drove off to an empty parking lot, and I took the car out for a quik doughnut, which it performed perfectly....then Celerity drove by me and mentioned that I was dumping water like it was falling out of a bucket....so we drove to a different parking lot, and I opened the hood. I noticed that all of the bolts that hold the waterpump to the engine are either loose or just barely hanging on...and water was gushing out everywhere...so I tightened up what I could and we tredged onward to a coffee shop, had a sandwich and coffee, and then he got a call to go to work, so I was just going to go to the nearest gas station and fill up with water and head home. Well, when I started to put fresh water in, and it was pissing back onto the ground at the same rate it was going in...so I just beared with it and drove down the road where Celerity works, and he called one of his buddies to come and bring some tools. After waiting a while, the dude shows up, and I start tearing apart the waterpump again...and it was dark and we only had a small flashlight, so we really couldn see what the major leak was from, but once everything was tightened up again, it held water, a little better.
So driving the car back home..it was performing excellent again, and I can only deduce that the washers on the pulley to aligne it to the belt was causing a harmonic balance that would shake the fan and the waterpump, with the fresh gasket, and the silicon that was used, and just shook the bolts loose....I was partially correct. After going to a buddies shop, I had him order me the correct waterpump, and waited till the next day (today) to install it when it comes in. So I was just outside in this friggen New England winter chill, removeing everything again, and getting a closer look as to what was pissing water everywhere....
Well, it turns out that water pump bolts to a waterpump housing assymboly, which is also held to the engine via the water pump bolts, so I took that housing off, and found a dry rotted, cracked, and half discentagrated o-ring that seals the housing to the block...and I travelled up the coolant system and found a tube that has 2 other o-rings that are not in too good of shape, and another gasket near the thermostat that also has a few drips dropping out of it....so now the problem should be solved....I just got to go to the parts store, get the seal's, gaskets, and adhesives to finish up the job correctly.....no problem.
Everything should and will be fixed by the early morning for tommorrow, and the car will be ready and prepped, loaded up with the normal track tool boxes and supplies, and I will be ready to go. Wrong!!!!
Because I built this car for the wife, and did all this work to get it ready so she can enjoy the real drifting experiance that she craves...she changed her mind in an instant.........ITS TOO COLD!!!. I dont want ot go if it cold out!!!, but honey you can sit in the car with the heater on....I said. NO, I dont want to go becouse it's TOO COLD. So now all that work I just did for the last 2 months, blood sweat, tears, pain, beers, fast food, spending a ton of money for hard to find parts......was all a waste. She would much rather just go to a Japanese food supermarket and get food, than to go out, and hang out in the cold for a few hours burning rubber.....ohh well, at least I will save money on gas, a possible hotel room, and any other parts I might break while I'm down there in a car that hasn't proved itself to be reliable for over 100 miles.....and the track is 118 miles one way from my house....so I guess I have to suck it up, and call it quits for this event....
/rant over
And it looks like I am not going to make it.
First I did the complete swap, everything down to the fuel lines on the 1985 Toyota Corolla SR5, and swapped in everything from a 1985 Toyota Corolla GT-S. The swap took a while, but well worth all the work. I've been having problems keeping the water in the engine and not on the ground....so I start tearing everything apart, get to the waterpump, remove it, swap in a water pump from a Japanese Domestic Market engine that I have sitting in the garage. I replaced the gasket with a new one, and bolted everything up and started to put the belts back on. Then I notice that the waterpump belt and pulley are slightly off by about 1/4 inch..and I started measureing up the differences on both waterpumps...well the one I installed was off of a 1990 Toyota MR2, which is a sidemounted engine, and the waterpump housing is shorter.......
So I rigged up the pulley with a few spacers/washers, and got it to line up with the belt again, then filled the engine and the radiator up with water again, closed everything up and decided to go take the car out for a drifting practice spin.....
Well, me and Celerity drove off to an empty parking lot, and I took the car out for a quik doughnut, which it performed perfectly....then Celerity drove by me and mentioned that I was dumping water like it was falling out of a bucket....so we drove to a different parking lot, and I opened the hood. I noticed that all of the bolts that hold the waterpump to the engine are either loose or just barely hanging on...and water was gushing out everywhere...so I tightened up what I could and we tredged onward to a coffee shop, had a sandwich and coffee, and then he got a call to go to work, so I was just going to go to the nearest gas station and fill up with water and head home. Well, when I started to put fresh water in, and it was pissing back onto the ground at the same rate it was going in...so I just beared with it and drove down the road where Celerity works, and he called one of his buddies to come and bring some tools. After waiting a while, the dude shows up, and I start tearing apart the waterpump again...and it was dark and we only had a small flashlight, so we really couldn see what the major leak was from, but once everything was tightened up again, it held water, a little better.
So driving the car back home..it was performing excellent again, and I can only deduce that the washers on the pulley to aligne it to the belt was causing a harmonic balance that would shake the fan and the waterpump, with the fresh gasket, and the silicon that was used, and just shook the bolts loose....I was partially correct. After going to a buddies shop, I had him order me the correct waterpump, and waited till the next day (today) to install it when it comes in. So I was just outside in this friggen New England winter chill, removeing everything again, and getting a closer look as to what was pissing water everywhere....
Well, it turns out that water pump bolts to a waterpump housing assymboly, which is also held to the engine via the water pump bolts, so I took that housing off, and found a dry rotted, cracked, and half discentagrated o-ring that seals the housing to the block...and I travelled up the coolant system and found a tube that has 2 other o-rings that are not in too good of shape, and another gasket near the thermostat that also has a few drips dropping out of it....so now the problem should be solved....I just got to go to the parts store, get the seal's, gaskets, and adhesives to finish up the job correctly.....no problem.
Everything should and will be fixed by the early morning for tommorrow, and the car will be ready and prepped, loaded up with the normal track tool boxes and supplies, and I will be ready to go. Wrong!!!!
Because I built this car for the wife, and did all this work to get it ready so she can enjoy the real drifting experiance that she craves...she changed her mind in an instant.........ITS TOO COLD!!!. I dont want ot go if it cold out!!!, but honey you can sit in the car with the heater on....I said. NO, I dont want to go becouse it's TOO COLD. So now all that work I just did for the last 2 months, blood sweat, tears, pain, beers, fast food, spending a ton of money for hard to find parts......was all a waste. She would much rather just go to a Japanese food supermarket and get food, than to go out, and hang out in the cold for a few hours burning rubber.....ohh well, at least I will save money on gas, a possible hotel room, and any other parts I might break while I'm down there in a car that hasn't proved itself to be reliable for over 100 miles.....and the track is 118 miles one way from my house....so I guess I have to suck it up, and call it quits for this event....
/rant over
