Next work parts and problems

So following the IVA pass it was on to the DVLA paperwork first of all. Well that was confusing, thank god a guy at work had recently done it! Made life a million times easier (I hope) So i sent off all that was required;

V55/5 - car registration form
V627/1 - build form
2 forms of ID
Donor car V5C
Photos of build
1st Registration cheque
1st yrs tax cheque

I'm hoping to get an age related plate because of the parts used from the Donor car.

Following this, this weekend I decided to work on fitting the larger turbo. The mr2 engine (3s-gte) had many revisions over the years. Mine was a rev2 , one of the things that wasnt quite as good with this revision as later ones is the turbo. It would not hold the boost till redline and would start to tail off at about 5500rpm. Upgrading to what is known as a ct20b which came on later revisions of the engine resolves this problem holding boost till the redline.

a long time ago, I fitted a metal head gasket and that was exactly for this reason, it will allow me to raise the boost up to 15 / 16psi long term. this will levae me with

new fuel pump
aftermarket side mount intercooler
one set colder plugs
ct20b turbo
boost controller
Metal headgasket
raised boost to about 15/16psi

This will give me about 290/300bhp.

Following a small run of the engine with the new turbo in (to help get rid of any contaments that may of got in there. It was time for an oil and filter change.

The oil came out and wasnt super clean seeing as id only done 15miles, but the engine had probably been run for about 7hours if not more in total so fair amount of actual running not under load but on an engine that hadnt run for over a year previously.

So I fill up the oil and new filter and start it up, all running fine. I give it a small rev to confirm no leaks and the oil filter shoots off at me! Oil everywhere, luckily being on the drive the engine is off within 3 seconds. I thought that was weird as I knew id put it on ok, when I looked the actual oil cooler mounting bracket which the relief valve tightens into had broken. It must of been over torqued in the past. The photo shows the broken metal it should be just a smooth thread all the way round, the thread you can see is a loose chunk.

I've now removed the oil cooler and bracket (luckily its a simple job on the kit car with no rear firewall.) Took me 10mins max and at least I know the two hoses (known as hose from hell and the hose from hell on earth) are both simple for me to change.

When piecing the puzzle bits back together it went together and a small chunk of metal was missing from the top. I can only presume this fired outwards based on the spraying of oil when it did go. There would be no way it was ingested into the engine.

So I now have a very oily drive and a dirty engine again which will need cleaning a lot. but when I get the replacement part it should at least be a small job. I can fit it run the brand new oil that's in it an idle to warm it up....then empty it again and put a fresh batch in.

The reason for warming is it will be thinner and I should be able to get more of it out and any small metal bits will flow with it (if there are any).

IVA Passed

I passed the required IVA test yesterday, so Im now completing the paperwork for the DVLA to be issues with a registration number.

I'll be doing more work on the car this weekend.

Correcting IVA fail points

The way the test works is they will just test the parts that have failed...or if can make a difference to other areas those as well.

For instance if you had a rear light fail and you moved its position they would check its still within the allowed area.

So how did the test go...well and I came away happy, the tester (Andy) was helpful and thorough, but I did not feel he was there to make me fail. He was there to make sure it was safe and met the requirements. If it didn't he told me what I could do to meet the requirements, or if I wanted to do it another way id ask was it ok. Cant ask for more really!

So on to the fail points, I'm going to list all of them and what I did;

Brake reservoirs lower then highest master cylinder height
So to solve this one was simple in terms of what had to be done, the master cylinders couldnt be moved down as the pedal assembly is welded in position and also the holes for master cylinders drilled. so the reservoirs had to go up. So bracket extensions were made and the reservoirs were raised. they now stick out the bonnet from where I had to cut it. I actually quite like it! Looks a little different and not too over the top! (bodyshop would mesh it properly etc...) Reason this was a failure was because the reservoirs aren't pressurised so really on gravity to feed them when there's a leak

The reservoirs were then meshed for the test as there would be a radius check performed as well.

Steering system has tight spot during lock to lock operaton

This problem needed investigation first and then a fix after. What had happened is one of the unions had too tight of an angle around the 41 -42 degree mark. This was my fault for doing it too tight. So I had to extend one column length and shorten the other to change the angle, the angle is now about 29-30 degrees which is within its operating angle and is smooth to turn.

Fuel pipes in engine bay and breather pipe to be secured, breather pipe also to be fuel grade pipe
I placed rubber round the fuel pipes and cable tied them together so they were secure (the rubber is to protect the pipe from chaffing) and replaced the breather pipe with fuel pipe (marked) and added an additional strap to secure it

Nearside mirror does not meet the field of view requirement
- Also radius incorrect
This was because id left the stalk legs too long so when you looked from the drivers seat you couldnt see the top of the mirror, I removed 50mm off the bottom of the leg and tested it by sitting in the car..hands on steering wheel and looking into the mirror, Also part of the mirror stalk didn't have a 2.5mm radius...a quick mill of it to that radius and that was fixed.

Radius failures on, lower tunnel trim, both door inside rear edges by glass & gear lever surround
Again this was easy to solve, rubber trim was put on to all 3 pieces that failed to give the required radius. the dash lower edge I reheated and turned upwards as well and also placed rubber over it and covered it again.Not pretty but should do the job.

Radius failure on the front bumper
Out came the sandpaper and was sanded to a raduis of 1.5mm. I'm sure ive done enough but if not can be sanded more on the day

Radius failure on top edge of the doors
Because the doors weren't flush with the glass, they needed to have a radius of 2.5mm...out with the sandpaper again.

Wire to prevent rear clam being tilted fully back
Part of the requirements is that when all doors, boots, tailgates etc... are open all lights and reflectors can be seen. It can just be reflectors if there is a warning. So I installed a wire stay to stop the rear clam shell being tilted to far back.

Front indicators not bright enough
Registration lamp not working properly

The front indicators were replace (will have to get some clear lenses I think for them!)

the registration plate lamp played up night before with 2 LED's failing!!! So its been replaced and a spare bought to take with me just in case

Horn symbol on steering wheel when pad does not operate horn

Sanded off and tape placed over it

Vehicle weight exceeded submitted weights

In the UK you submit design weights so they know the vehicle is safe and to work out required braking force, I went over the design weights by around 150kg, they add 75kg per person (so x2) and also includes full tank of fuel. I just need to get an email confirming the chassis / suspension will take this higher weight without any issues

Failed emissions

This was my biggest worry in the first place, first I checked the lamba sensor and couldn't really get it to feed back like required in the test (electronic test) so replaced it, re-performed test and it passed so the lamba may of been playing up.

The car had been idling at 1200rpm which was a bit high anyway.After much diagnosing I decided the ICV (idle Control Valve) was not doing anything at all....off with all the inlet again and testing it. it passed all tests and I could see it working. I then checking loom continuity so all was ok. so the ECU was not controlling it correctly. I decided this was a known issue on the car when I bought it. The give away was the idle screw was screwed in all the way, so I couldn't lower the rpm at idle any more.

To get around the above I set a 12v feed into the ICV and set the ground for it to be always closed, its there to help cold starts anyway (which I wont need), I now turned the idle screw out and got it to idle perfectly at 800RPM. Nice and steady! following this I set up the TPS (throttle position sensor) as it needs to be redone afterwards.

The most exciting bit of this is I have an emissions test on Saturday which I get to drive the car on the road for the first time as well.


That was all of the failures so not too bad really, I'm now waiting of the retest towards the end of the month, so there wont be an update next week and I'm now trying to work out what to do with my time!

Interior Dash and steering wheel and my IVA test

Following the test drive I ordered some 15mm spacers the front wheels were too close to the suspension struts for my liking so they came and were fitted without an issue.

Next I got to work on the last dash panel now it was never going to look overly pretty as it was to be functional at this stage more then beautiful. So I heated some plastic and bent it to the shape I wanted.I also fitted the ODO buttons and put the cowl over the column itself. This tidied up the interior for the test.

Following that I then fitted the lockwire through the brake bias bar as there is a requirement for that for the IVA test.

Next I moved on to putting more trim on bits trying to make sure no sharp edge was missed.


So Monday came and it was time to load the car on again...it was IVA test day. Well first of all it was a very long day with getting up at 5.30am to get there and then the test was from 8am - 2.30pm

Everything was tested from the IVA manual and it was a good job done by the guy in Southampton.I actually learnt alot on the day and was advised on things as we went.

So how did I do...it failed but as they say it was a good fail, with nothing too major (I hope)

the 3 biggest jobs;

Failed on emissions - which I tested the sensors today and it looks like my Lamba sensor is doing bugger all, so new one coming then I can test that is sending a signal to the ECU and I can drive to a prebooked emissions test!

Brake Reservoirs too low - there is a higher point where the fluid goes into the top of the master cylinder, they raised that if there was a pipe leak the reservoir would not empty into it which is a fair point so ill be making some brackets to raise it.

Steering not smooth - This turned out to be too high an angle on one of the unions spent alot of today measuring this before doing anything and the angle was about 41 - 42 degrees, when its advised not to be over 35 ideally 30 in most applications. Although a bit of work this is solvable quite easy by changing the length of the 2 pieces, making one column bit longer and the other shorter changing where the union is.

Other bits were all small;

Passenger side mirror poor visibility - Lowered the arm for passenger side and can now be seen well.

Front indicators - Angle and brightness not enough

Trim on windows needs adding - applied

trim on dash edge - applied

engine rear canopy needs cable to stop it going all way back

Sand edges of the doors and front bumper to smoother radius

Fuel pipe touching alternator pipe - rectified and cable tied to other pipe

Few other radius edges like gear gaitor and heater controls


As you can see a few little jobs and 3 reasonable sized jobs but nothing too major to worry about so I will get on with these over the next couple of weeks and then get a retest booked.

The good news was the brakes were really good and the balance good as well and they all passed. the car passed a hell of alot and for the first of its kind to undertake the test, I'm pretty happy.