Project Tc

[Redneck4csa]

Now you're just insulting my intelligence by insinuating that I don't know the difference between a long block and a short block lol. I'll let you win this time.

[navylife59]

That was meant for the lay readers. You know my personal thread gets upwards to 2 or 3 hits per week.

[gwtc]

So what ever happened with your car and the problems you were having with the TRD SC? last post was NOV 6 of 2009, any new updates? thanks.

[ACE-tC]

Attachment 260

Attachment 261

how do you keep the engine bay so clean... how often do you clean it and with what?

[navylife59]

Let the engine cool down. Soapy water at the car wash, rinse, the follow up with the spot-free rinse. I then use my dry cloth to wipe it off. The powder coating helps keep stuff from sticking so that helps. Before I used to use spray tire foam. Instead of wiping everything dry, I would spray tire foam everything; fender to fender, radiator support to the firewall. Just let the sit for about 30 mins and your golden. The engine bay will pick up dirt more easily this way, but the spray tire foam makes it not stick and comes off easily with just the rinse water.

[ACE-tC]

Let the engine cool down. Soapy water at the car wash, rinse, the follow up with the spot-free rinse. I then use my dry cloth to wipe it off. The powder coating helps keep stuff from sticking so that helps. Before I used to use spray tire foam. Instead of wiping everything dry, I would spray tire foam everything; fender to fender, radiator support to the firewall. Just let the sit for about 30 mins and your golden. The engine bay will pick up dirt more easily this way, but the spray tire foam makes it not stick and comes off easily with just the rinse water.

sweet illhave to try it out cause my header is crazy dirty i forgot to wipe it down and everything after install and now there are fingerprints all over the damn thing.

[navylife59]

After nearly 5 years and 45K miles (most at 9PSI and later 15PSI), the dreaded stock input shaft seal on my TRD S/C finally gave out. It had started out as a very slow leak, but the 8 hours of highway driving and 105+F heat finally wore out the seal. No catastrophic failure but I did get oil all over my engine bay. Still, not bad for something that supposedly ruined a few motors.

Luckily, Kenny was able to schedule me in over at Jotech to replace the seal. You see, I was on a trip back home to Texas when this occurred. I did not have the proper tools nor the seal to repair it. I was headed there anyway so it was an easy decision to make. Kenny, Tony, and Koi (never sure if I am spelling his name correctly) are the only ones that I trust to work on my car. Kenny was a life saver. He even let me help him do the tricky work. After all, I am the TRD S/C semi-expert.

We ran into one slight dilemma. I could not remember which direction the input shaft bolt turned to loosen. I originally thought it to be left-handed but had confused it with the drive shaft coupling bolt which is left-handed. I frantically searched for the answer but none found. Not even the great SL had the answer. The thread topic that was supposed to have the shaft seal replacement DIY got stuck on oil viscosities. Making a few calls to others "in the know" brought wrong numbers and I can't remembers. Several calls were made to Vortech in hopes that they were no longer shackled by TRD Corporate and could provide the answer. Busy. One last time got me a Tech but he guessed wrong and stated it was left-handed. It was not. After some back and forth and sessions with a torch the right-handed step child reared it's head. Freedom! Anyway, oil seal replaced. Oil leak gone faster than BP.

Whilst I was there, amongst all of the GTR goodness, I was able to pick up some goodies for my tC; APR CF wing and a set of APR CF mirrors. It is going to be boss. Hope to have them installed when I get back to my other home in New Orleans. Post pics when I can.

[navylife59]

Well, the oil seal is repaired and I swear, Kenny put some positive mojo on my ride cause she is tearing it up on the pavement even though it is still 100F+ here. Just having the car at his shop must have increased power output by 10WHP. Shoot! I haven't even added the 10WHP Jotech decal yet!

Kidding aside, I did pick up some sweet CF goodness.
An APR GTC-200 CF wing.
APR Performance - GTC-200 Adjustable Wing

A tiny set of APR Formula GT3 CF sideview mirrors.
APR Performance - Formula GT3 Mirrors

[Jay666]

Nice.

What do you do about the electronics in the OEM mirrors? How are the CF ones adjusted?

I am skeptical about CF mirrors since the ones on my winter car (Civic) are pretty much fixed in place, except the "glass" (cheap plastic) is constantly dropping and pointing towards the ground and I have to poke it with my finger.

[Jay666]

After nearly 5 years and 45K miles (most at 9PSI and later 15PSI), the dreaded stock input shaft seal on my TRD S/C finally gave out. It had started out as a very slow leak, but the 8 hours of highway driving and 105+F heat finally wore out the seal. No catastrophic failure but I did get oil all over my engine bay. Still, not bad for something that supposedly ruined a few motors.

Luckily, Kenny was able to schedule me in over at Jotech to replace the seal. You see, I was own a trip back home to Texas when this occurred. I did not have the proper tools nor the seal to repair it. I was headed there anyway so it was an easy decision to make. Kenny, Tony, and Koi (never sure if I am spelling his name correctly) are the only ones that I trust to work on my car. Kenny was a life saver. He even let me help him do the tricky work. After all, I am the TRD S/C semi-expert.

We ran into one slight dilemma. I could not remember which direction the input shaft bolt turned to loosen. I originally thought it to be left-handed but had confused it with the drive shaft coupling bolt which is left-handed. I frantically searched for the answer but none found. Not even the great SL had the answer. The thread topic that was supposed to have the shaft seal replacement DIY got stuck on oil viscosities. Making a few calls to others "in the know" brought wrong numbers and I can't remembers. Several calls were made to Vortech in hopes that they were no longer shackled by TRD Corporate and could provide the answer. Busy. One last time got me a Tech but he guessed wrong and stated it was left-handed. It was not. After some back and forth and sessions with a torch the right-handed step child reared it'd head. Freedom! Anyway, oil seal replaced. Oil leak gone faster than BP.

Whilst I was there, amongst all of the GTR goodness, I was able to pick up some goodies for my tC; APR CF wing and a set of APR CF mirrors. It is going to be boss. Hope to have them installed when I get back to my other home in New Orleans. Post pics when I can.

Wow. That's insane.

I want to take my car to Kenny so badly.

[navylife59]

Nice.

What do you do about the electronics in the OEM mirrors? How are the CF ones adjusted?

I am skeptical about CF mirrors since the ones on my winter car (Civic) are pretty much fixed in place, except the "glass" (cheap plastic) is constantly dropping and pointing towards the ground and I have to poke it with my finger.

They are manually adjusted like old truck mirrors. I believe that the mirrors are actual glass.

I want to take my car back to get another base dyno before I go further. It was way too hot to make a dyno run.

[navylife59]

I have been shopping around awhile for a new head unit. The old Jensen just ain't cutting it anymore. The radio reception has always been deplorable and the stupid "jog" dial is about worthless. The sound quality is "ehh" but it has served it's purpose. I was searching high and low for another motorized, flip-out single-din but not much luck. The current ones on the market sucked cause they had no display when closed. A useful feature to me so I had to wait till the new Clarion VZ-series came out. I almost put in an order when I cam across this JVC single-din JVC Mobile Entertainment \ Bluetooth(R)/DVD/CD/USB Receiver - KD-AVX77 \ Introduction
It seemed to have all that I wanted and then some. I have yet to see a video of the unit playing a movie. I had heard that you either get a way stretched or letterbox tiny movie.

I am looking to go simple and have grown tired of the flip-out display getting in front of my A/C ducts. I can get one that flips down from Power Acoustik but that would be in from of my gauges. So what do ya'll think about the JVC KD-AVX77?

[Jay666]

Can you show me a shot of what you currently have so I can put all this into perspective LOL?

That thing looks sweet.

[Jay666]

They are manually adjusted like old truck mirrors. I believe that the mirrors are actual glass.

I want to take my car back to get another base dyno before I go further. It was way too hot to make a dyno run.

I want to eventually replace my OEM doors with CF ones. So, I am glad to hear someone I know already has CF mirrors that are of acceptable quality so I can throw those on the CF doors when I get them.

[navylife59]

Currently working on integrating those Carbon Creations CF mirrors as we speak. Trying to utilize the OEM mirror base w/o hacking it up so I can replace them once some arsehole steals these. Jokes on them as I am they are triggered to explode 30 seconds after removal. Trying to build a more reasonable mounting system of CF, ABS, and aluminum security plate.

Finally received the Denso Iridium Power IK22 (5310) plugs. Went for a test drive. Seems to idle a bit cleaner. Other than that, I can't tell any difference.

I had been driving around on what I presumed where the TRD supplied Denso K22PR-U sparks. What I found where actually my original OEM NGK Iridium IX BKR6EIK-11 (Scion Owner' Manual states NGK OEM Iridium IFR6A11 or Denso Iridium SK20R11 which are equivalents). These were the plugs that Jotech had replaced with NGK Copper BCPR7ES (to get a better gap) when my car was first tuned to 228.4WHP. This means that my Dealership never installed the TRD Denso K22-PR-U plugs that came with the TRD S/C kit. Stupid Dealership. I have been driving around for the past nearly 5 years with the wrong temp plugs (1-step hotter). Again, stupid Dealership. BTW.... Those "incorrect" plugs came out looking nearly brand new and no signs of detonation, overheating, running lean, or too rich. Got to love the power of Iridium plugs!


It was only 86°F and my serpentine belt is mega slipping again. Off to order another one or two. Just installed a new Goodyear Gatorback belt part# 4070880. The 88.0" inside size is due to my 55mm S/C pulley and my 20% overdriven alternator pulley. I might be able to squeeze on an 87.2" belt which is the next smaller size, but will run this belt for a while. So far, there is no sign of squeal from belt slip above 5K RPM. Free revving the motor gives a slight chirp so there still is a small amount of slip but that would not been seen with the motor under torque from actually being in gear. I have another idea that I am going to pursue if the Gatorback can't handle it. My min problem still is the OEM clutch that just can't handle the load anymore.

[navylife59]

Well, the belt-slip is back. Not at the fault of the Gatorback as much as I originally diagnosed. As I stated before, there was a slight squeal near redline during a no-load rev. Now, I am getting more amounts of of slip and starting around 5400RPM. What caused this sudden issue is actually my new (thought was old) problem; the dreaded input shaft seal oil leak. It is leaking down onto my crank pulley and coating the serpentine belt.

I am back home now so I will be hammering in another shaft seal. I wonder if there is enough room for 2 seals? That could be a solution. Also need to figure out what to do with that torque shaft support tube. No chrome shops within a 1,000 miles of here so it might get JetHot or Swaintech coated. I have my 407872 87.2" Gatorback belt once the leak is stopped.

[navylife59]

Daddy's got some new toys. Oh Boy!

Too bad my current CF radio/gauge mounting kit won't work with the new head unit. Will have to re-kit it or re-think the entire setup.

[navylife59]

Cold weather here in Texas so I took my car to Jotech to get a new Baseline on their DynoJet. Was hoping to get a run with the temps in the 40F's but the dyno thermometer read 60F. Still should have been cold enough to make around 260WHP. Much to my chagrin, the 1st pull netted only 202WHP! The man stabbing the throttle was Kenny Tran himself. The Dyno computer lost the tach lead so it wasn't till the 2nd pull that I received the not so good results; 214WHP/214FtLbs. Kenny stated that he was seeing some blow-by from my crankcase filter but I was not seeing the tale-tell sign of blue smoke in the exhaust. There was no A/FR data and I had no boost gauge so I can only assume that the motor was making 15PSI at redline.

So what went wrong? Why such dismal numbers when it should have theoretically been making well over 260WHP? Needless to say, I felt major let down. My butt dyno stands by it's assessment that the car is making way more power than it did at 9PSI/440cc injectors/Greddy Ultimate tune which dyno'd in at 228WHP/196FtLbs. Listed are the possible culprits along with explanations.

• Bad Fuel - Possibility with Brookshires Grocery Store 93 Octane but unlikely. Car ran too well before and after pulls.
• Bad Compression - Strong possibility with the evident blow-by from the crankcase vent. According to Kenny, a loss of 10-15WHP can be attributed to compression loss. Still, factoring that in, 230WHP is still way below the mark. Without blue smoke coming from the tail-pipe, the blow-by is minimal. It is possible that the blow-by is a function of a leaky PCV Valve.
• Boost Leak - It is commonly known that the OEM PCV Valve can and will leak under excessive boost. If enough boost is leaking into the crankcase, it can atomize the oil in the valve cover forcing it out the crankcase vent thus giving the pretense of piston ring blow-by. This could be an explanation of why there is no visible blue smoke in the exhaust.
• Belt Slip - Explained before, any slippage of the belt adds to the inefficiency of the S/C. The S/C begins to become more of a load. It does not take much. Any slippage will be at the upper RPM limits and should manifest itself on the dyno sheet as a drop-off in the power curve. My dyno sheet was graphed WHP vs MPH so it is difficult to see this. Will have to get Tony to send me a WHP vs RPM.
• Clutch Slip - This is a possibility with over 58K miles on the OEM clutch. Kenny stated that he did not feel the clutch slipping. With the car making only 214WHP, the clutch should not be slipping. Again, I don't have the appropriate data graphed to see if there is any flat spotting in the power curve.
• Tire Slip - It happens; on 1000+WHP vehicles. Definitely not an issue here.
• ECM Detune - This is a distinct possibility, especially, if the fuel quality is a concern. Though I tried to stack the ECM's learned tables with boost happy data, the extreme loading of a dyno session could have caused the ECM to pullback timing. With the MAF data being pushed so far from the TRD map tables, this has been more of a prominent issue.

So what I am left to do is to do a leakdown compression test of the cylinders to see if they are in spec. Will have to install a boost gauge and do some pulls on the street (professional driver on a closed course) to see what the max PSI is. The PCV Valve does leak so I will have to figure out something to fix this. Will need to make a run down a track to see what numbers I pull and compare that to the amount of power that it would take to accomplish those numbers.

[CadenceScion]

Gees Scott, you seem to have some issues on your hands, hope everything is going well. Most of us here know you are quite the busy little beaver and you do know your stuff. BTW, I love the head unit, can't go wrong w/ JVC, I love my JVC as well. Is it just me, or is Club-tC dead? I rarely see much going on here. I sent you a PM last week regarding some suggestions I had and JRW should really look into them as well. Our Scion neighbors next door seem to have all the members and more to offer everyone. I have no plans on going anywhere, but thought I'd drop this topic by you and see what can be done about it.

[navylife59]

Well, we do have something those others don't; Stephanie! I suppose both of us can get 2011 tCs and be at the forefront of tech on those.

I like my JVC El Kamelion but it bites big balls when it comes to controlling my 3rd Gen iTouch. It is not JVC's fault but that of Apple and their family of 4.xx updates. At first it would not even recognize my iTouch. It then started playing in a skipping fashion after and update. It now plays but is so darn finicky. It is like Windows Vista; works when it wants to. I have to have both head unit and player turned off, turn the radio on first and then let it turn on the iTouch. That works about 80% of the time. If I turn off the radio, when it comes back on, it will tell me that the iTouch is a "Restricted Device". I have been having similar issues in my RS3.0 OEM head unit.

As for my motor, I definitely have either a compression problem with the rings or a severely leaking PCV valve. There is definite blow-by that I can smell and see from my crankcase vent. It has a slight fuel smell so that leans towards worn compression rings. I am doing a leakdown test tomorrow to see if it is the worst of the 2. There has also been an idling problem. Sometimes the motor will hunt in idle then eventually die if I don't hold the RPM's up for a bit. That might be from a vacuum leak. If I only had my gauges installed.

Time to put in the monster motor. I have been seriously debating the whole balance shaft mod. Kenny makes a strong case against it from direct experience and the fact that I want to spin the motor to 8 Grand. He is checking with Chris Rado's Crew Chief to see if they are running that mod. It is Kenny's further belief that, in order to run without the balance shafts, a oil pan girdle will have to be built to strengthen the main caps on the crank at the drive gear for those shafts to prevent crank flex.