My Corona project! 56k cut your head off

[BosoMKII]

Don't really know where to post this, Mods please move it if its in the wrong spot thanks.

Alright guys and gals, it begins. Actually it has begun some time ago, but I am just now to the point where I have enough photos and progress to make a somewhat interesting post. I am going to try and keep it breif and entertaining.

First, here is the car:

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c121/GoonDriver/NewC5.jpg

Its a 1972 Toyota Corona Mark II. MX12 chassis. Under the hood is a 2M straight six. 2.3L and carburated, it was rated at 120 something HP. It ran great and had ok power, reved nice and smooth. Horrible gas mileage though. That and the engine didn't seem to want it's oil in the crankcase, but prefered it on the pavement. Not only that but the engine was smoking like crazy. Bad valve seals I think. No matter. A replacement engine should fix all that. After some research I decided the 7M would be a viable swap. Meaning that I would be able to handle it myself. So a donor car was found:

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c121/GoonDriver/ccf6eb23.jpg

One 1989 Supra N/A auto delivered to my brother's driveway. Not in great shape, but the guy assured me it ran. Plus, there was a W58, manual driveshaft, flywheel and clutch slave thrown in the back as part of the deal.

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Dirty. Valve covers had been leaking. Power steering had been leaking. Oil everywhere.

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Harness tagged and removed. Blue for stuff I need, white for stuff I don't.

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Cleaning parts. I went through so many shop towels, wire brushes, and degreaser it is amazing. But I like clean engines better than I like dirty engines so it was worth it.

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Because I don't have to smog this car, I am ditching all the smog stuff. Simpler, and it looks better. Trying to clean up the intake manifold I cut the vacume ports and throttle body coolant line fittings off. I also traced the outlines of the EGR gismo to make block off plates. The metal is the bottom from a Radio Shack project box I had laying around. Not very pretty, but it works. No one will really be able to see it anyway. Also, I used those allen bolt plugs you can get at auto parts stores to plug the hole in the water neck where a VSV was and a now-unused port on the intake mani.

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Some Pacepooper headers came in, and I had to hacksaw the flange to get them to fit. I think the flange was drilled wrong, otherwise it would have been fine. Also, the rice boy in me loves the look of exposed cam gears. I think that the headers and visable gears combined will help give it a hot rod look that I am going for.

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[BosoMKII]

Things starting to come together. The engine is just about ready. I still don't know if I will be able to use the oil pan and pick up off the 2M. Just have to wait and see.

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Bud Light at noon.

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MKII in the garage and we are about to start!

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What a mess. The engine kept barfing coolant. A fuel line kept siphioning gas. And oil oil oil everywhere as usual. Some minor frustrations getting the engine out was showing on my brother and I's faces.

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Thats the progress so far. Its been fun, but it hasn't even gotten difficult yet. Figuring out the oil pan that needs to clear the crossmember in the front, and the steering rack in the rear will be interesting. With any luck the 2M pan will bolt up to the 7M crankcase. 2M motor mounts should work, if not some combination of 2M and 7M will. After all that.....I still need to get it to run :1zhelp: hahahah

[bBOXD]

Awesome project man! Very good work. Looks like fun. :D

[firelizard]

Freakin' awesome!

[BosoMKII]

Thanks guys! Its a long road ahead.....

And this just in! My wheels came today:

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c121/GoonDriver/SP1.jpg

15x8 zero offset. Gonna be savage.

[guymx83]

very very nice. power of a n/a 7m in a mx12 is a nice package. jsut watch out for those BHG :tickedoff: . fix it with some head studs and a metal head gasket. keep the updates commin :smitten:

[Gao Jian]

awesome work so far, be sure to keep us posted, this is what we like to see people getting in there and doing some mods!

[matt is legit]

everything is looking good. keep going at it. id like to see how this turns out.

[Ender-DI]

Wasting no time... awesome work, Matt. :smitten:

[BosoMKII]

Thanks for all the compliments guys. This has been fun so far! But I still need to get the engine in, and to run :uglystupid2:

The wheels I got to see in person ( my brother sent those photos to me while I was at work ) and they look pretty good. In that photo they look kinda cheezy, but it was mostly the camera flash. Out of the light the color is a kind of pale gold, and in direct sunlight they light up a bit and get a little bright. I like them, and I think they will look good. Just going to have to wait to see them on the car! Once I do a test fit and decide what tire size ( most likely 205/50/15 ) I will know how much I can slam it.

Going to be working on it tomorrow and monday for a bit. So hopefully I will have a few more updates for you guys!

[jbo]

Very nice project bro it definitely looks like a lot of work but thats what its all about definitely keep us posted.Oh and I love the wheels its gonna be hot.

[BosoMKII]

Not much of an update, but something. Yesterday was mostly just cleaning.
I took out the battery tray and it is done for. Between two sheets of plastic the tray was mostly just powdered metal and rust flakes. So I think I will move the battery to the trunk.
The brake master cylinder had been leaking at some point in its life, and there is a lot of corrosion around it. I haven't taken it off yet, but it looks to be only surface corrosion. I didn't really want to do this because I am lazy, but it looks like I am going to be taking everything out of the engine bay for a more through cleaning and stop rust job + paint. I still have not found anything worse than surface rust, and its all from the battery and BMC. So thats good news.
Test fitted the wheels and it looks really nice. No clearance issues at all with any of the suspension. I couldn't jack up the suspension becuse with no engine there is not enough weight, so all I have are these pics of the wheel miles away from the body. Don't think I will be doing fender flares. Probably just a roll for tire clearance.

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The old 2M gets no love. We just pushed it into the bushes. Some guy was walking by and said he will take it away for free. I guess he sends them to Guam or someplace and rebuilds them for racing. Cool.

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No more updates for a while. I am going on vacation! Yay!

[Ender-DI]

Aww... I was hoping to see if the 2M oil pan fit. The wheels are going to be great on that car!

[BosoMKII]

I will know soon enough. Took the whole front of the car off today. After vacation I will finish prepping the engine bay, cleaning rust spots, and painting. Then the engine will come up off the ground again to see what oil pan will work. Thats when this will get exciting! Test fitting and all that.

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c121/GoonDriver/1e8b75e5.jpg

[shoez]

Awesome!! Glad its coming together so well. Keep us updated. ;)

[BosoMKII]

Did you guys think I gave up? Back from vacation! And right back to work. What a day. I spent most of it squatting in the engine bay scrubbing, sanding, washing, and elbow greasing. Then I taped and painted. At the last minute I decided that I would never be able to match the color of the car, and went with gloss black. Black has a way of hiding your mistakes, but gloss black does the opposite. Oh well. It looks pretty good I think.

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I took the 7M oil pan off, and well......I will let the pictures do the talking.

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Wow, so close. I didn't realize that the 2M pan is actually mid-sump like the Supra. I guess I just wasn't paying attention. So yes the 2M pan lines up correctly but its not deep enough for the pickup by about 10-15MM.
Also, the 2M pan has a baffle that went around the pickup that is interfering with the oil tube that crosses the crankcase. At the back of the pan you can see two indentations for clearing the rod-ends and crank. I don't think they are deep enough for the 7M crank.
You can see the profile of the 7M pan is deeper everywhere. As of right now before an engine test fit it is the oil pan of choice. I will have to lower the engine in to determine if the 7M pan will clear. Unfortunately, not thinking ahead I didn't look to see how close the 2M pan came to the cross-member and steering arm, but I am thinking it was pretty close.

In the event that the 7M pan does not clear, I have a few options. I would like your guys input as to which one sounds the best.

1. "Modify" the 7M pan with a hammer until it fits.

2. Use the 2M pan and cut away some of the baffle, hammer the bottom of the sump a little bit deeper for the pickup, or take the pickup off and have it cut shorter and re-welded.

So let me know what you guys think, and if you have any suggestions I would love to hear them.

Here you can see the 2M motor mounts are different than the 7M, but where they bolt to the engine are identical. So those are on with brand new motor mounts that came with the Corona when I bought it! At least that part is going to be easy.

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Test fitting the engine tomorrow morning!

[shoez]

Awesome. Keep us posted. :)

[carlos]

updates?

[RASRX7]

so exciting....

[username]

In the event that the 7M pan does not clear, I have a few options. I would like your guys input as to which one sounds the best.

1. "Modify" the 7M pan with a hammer until it fits.

2. Use the 2M pan and cut away some of the baffle, hammer the bottom of the sump a little bit deeper for the pickup, or take the pickup off and have it cut shorter and re-welded.

So let me know what you guys think, and if you have any suggestions I would love to hear them.
"modify" the 7M pan with a hammer. seems a good idea.
get some 16gauge sheetmetal and make a pan of your own.

[BosoMKII]

Sorry guys. I have been neglecting you. Here are the recent updates!

Did a test fit with the 7M oil pan and it was a no-go as expected. Had to do some modifying to the 2M pan, no big deal. I cut the baffle to clear the oil tube and hammered down the bottom of the pan for the 7M pickup. In the photos you can see that I put the pan on and tightened it down to see just how much clearance I had for the pick up. Initially the screen deformed to just about one MM before the end of the pickup tube. Then I just hammered out the bottom of the pan. The next photo you can see that its all the clearance I need! So no cutting of the pickup tube. I spun the crank and that clears as well. Rad.
The test fit with the 2M pan went great. The motor just bolts right in! The Pacepooper headers don't clear the frame rail though. Too bad. The stock manifold is really ugly and I didn't want it in my engine bay. Oh well.
In the following pics you can see the 2M mounts, oil pan, and oil cooler sender bolted on to the 7M. Rock out.

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Not good!
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Much better
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Fits nice
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Too bad I am going to have to loose those
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[Ender-DI]

Loving the progress, Matt! If the Pacesetters don't fit, are you sure the stock headers are going to?

[BosoMKII]

The problem with the Pacesetter headers is how far away they come from the engine. The runners are inches longer than stock, and the collector is huge. Its the collector that hits the frame, everything else is ok. Maybe in the future I will make it a project to get them to fit.
Back to the updates.
I replaced the timing belt. That took a while. Its easy, but because its so crucial I was fussing over every step. That was part of my day.
After that I was ready for the clutch and transmission to go on. I found out the hard way that autotranny flywheel bolts are a lot shorter than the manual bolts. I was thinking that I would have to order some new ones from Toyota, then I remembered that the guy I bought the Supra from gave me the bolts I needed. Problem was that two of them where damaged. I am so glad I still had every bolt I took off the 2M, because the flywheel bolts where identical. I am not sure what gussets I used, I had all four from the two engines all mixed up. Anyway, two of them worked and two didn't.
I was determined to get the engine and tranny in today. It was hard work, engines just don't seem to want to come in or out of the MX12 engine bay. Thanks to the transmission being on the engine this time around, I actually had to put wheels on the car and roll it part way out of the garage because the engine hoist boom would not clear the beams in the garage. After much sweat, tears, beer, and blood.....the engine with the transmission is finally in!!!!
So there are some issues with the transmission. It fits fine, but the tranny mount on the W58 is pretty far off where the crossmember goes for the old transmission. Not even sure at all what I am going to do at this point. It may be possible that I use the W58 crossmember and drilling through the floor to bolt it up.
Sorry for the long post! And now for the photos:

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Here you can see the old transmission crossmember in the middle, along with its mount at the top. I sat the W58 mount on the old CM just to see. The W58 crossmember is at the bottom.

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Here is the bottom of the W58 in the car. Its hard to see, but the old crossmember mount in the background, and where the W58 mount bolts up are in pretty different places.

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[Ender-DI]

Man, it's really coming along nicely... Not sure what to say on the crossmember. About the PaceSetters... What about removing the flange, removing length from the runners, and rewelding the flange back on? From what I remember about the AE86 PaceSetter headers, the runners were barely tack welded onto the flange. :-\ I'd think that would be pretty easy to remove and reconnect.

[Pagong]

Cant wait for this one to get done.!

There is a guy local here to me that has a Corona with the 7M motor as well...looks pretty neat.

[BosoMKII]

About the PaceSetters... What about removing the flange, removing length from the runners, and rewelding the flange back on?* From what I remember about the AE86 PaceSetter headers, the runners were barely tack welded onto the flange.* :-\* I'd think that would be pretty easy to remove and reconnect.


That was my idea as well. Future project! Or, when I take it to the exhaust shop of have my semi-crazy-almost-boso exhaust just have it done all at once. The Pacepoopers are just tacked on. Really low build quality. Shouldn't be too tough to fix.

I have some ideas for the crossmember. Don't know what is going to work out just yet, so I will try a few things and see what I like best.


PagongLS: There is another 7M Corona near you!? Do you know if he is online someplace? I would love to ask him some questions.

Thanks for all the interest guys. Slow going right now because I am too busy with life to play with cars. Maybe in another week or two I can get back to it. I will keep you all posted!

[Ender-DI]

hey matt... what's going on with this thing?! ;)

[BosoMKII]

Ug nothing. I have been so stupid-busy for the last three weeks the project is a bit stalled. I just moved, work is kicking my ass and I am not getting much in the way of days off. Don't worry, I will be getting back to this soon! With any luck I will be driving it by Aug.

[Ender-DI]

I hope so! You need to bring it to that Club4AG/EXCstyle meet on Aug 12 in Little Tokyo! ;D

[BosoMKII]

I have been neglecting you guys. Sorry.
Here is whats new:

I love shopping but I hate spending money!

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One Griffen radiator, one Summit racing lift pump, one MSD inline pump, 10 ft of oil hose, and one Summit racing ball cap. Not pictured is my new oil cooler that shipped separately.

I took a good long look at the gas tank ( about 45 seconds ) and decided that I don't have the tools, the skill, nor the desire to cut up the gas tank in order to drop in the stock Supra pump. So I am going with the dual pump set up. Being that the tank is designed to have fuel drawn out of it at low pressure, you need the old fashion type of fuel pump that can pull out of the tank. That is the lift pump. Then you need to step up the pressure to modern EFI pressures, that is the job of the inline. This is the more expensive route to take that I didn't want to do initially, but I think this will be a more clean and reliable setup in the long run. Plus it will supply all the fuel I could ever need! ( Turbo, No2, whatever the future has in store for this old car )

The long hose is for the oil cooler obviously, but you know I am going for that Bosozuku/Yanky style so long hose will be a must coming out from behind the grill.

I didn't order the hat. They threw that in because I just dumped so much money on them. Anyone have a dog that needs a chew toy?

At this point I still had not mounted the transmission.The problem looks a bit like this: Where the W58 mount bolts up is about an inch and a half from where the old tranny bolted to the crossmember. Unfortunately, that is where the e-brake bolts to the car, so I could not just move where the old crossmember bolted to the tub. My buddy came over to help and we got the crossmember for the old transmission cut enough to accept the fat belly of the W58. Then I made a super trick custom transmission mount out of an old Nike Air shoe that my brother donated to the cause.

Yes. You read right. My tranny mount is essentially a shoe stuffed in the space between the belly of the W58 and the old tranny crossmember, then bolted up tight.

Very temporary. I have to take the car to have something proper made, but this is an essential step in finishing the car!

The good news is that as I had hoped, the stock MX12 drive shaft slipped right into the end of the W58 and went right back into its stock location. Done!

Now that the engine is sitting where it should, I turned my attention to the throttle body. Thankfully, my Supra was an auto and came with three different throttle plate manipulation options! The MX12 uses an old fashion linkage type, you push down on the throttle pedal and it in turn pushes up on a linkage that in turn twists another link, attached to a third and final link that at last pushes open the throttle. The 2M carb linkages line up perfectly to the 7M! All I have to do is make a bracket to hold the middle linkage that rotates in place. Crazy.

After much deliberation, I finally decided on how to wire everything up. I am pretty sure it is good, but I will just have to wait and see. I didn't finalize anything until the engine actually turns over and runs! There are still a few little things that need to be done before I get there though. I won't bore you with the details. But I am feeling like its close.

I made the radiator brackets then gave everything to my buddy who took it all down to his shop to have it welded. The welder did a great job. Sorry for the blurry photo:

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c121/GoonDriver/0fdaf469.jpg

That was the tricky side. To get the radiator to fit its really close to the frame rail and that was the only feasible location to bolt a bracket to without drilling. I really didn't want to drill.

Ran the battery cable to the trunk, but I have not yet purchased a box for the battery. For the engine bay I used the fold over tabs that where on the car to hold something. Can't remember what it was, but apparently I don't need it because its gone.

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I have finished making the oil cooler brackets, but no test fit pictures yet. I left the paint drying on the brackets, so tomorrow I will get pics of the finished mounting up. Now that the radiator was in place, there was no room to get the oil lines out of the engine bay on the left side of the car without cutting. No cutting. My lines where too short to make it out the stock oil cooler location so I went with the ultra-badass through-the-headlight method. I rule.

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c121/GoonDriver/8f499cb7.jpg

Went and had tires put on the wheels this morning. I decided on 195/50/15s. Nice subtle stretch, but still plenty of tire. I forgot that my wheels require slim style lug nuts, so I had to order some. A few more days before the wheels go on. Looks like I might be able to get a spacer in the rear and get the wheel out more. I will have to wait until the car is down and see how much I want to lower it.

Stuff left to do:

Install fuel pumps and lines ( need a few fittings, have to make a trip to the store )
Finish wiring and install a battery box. ( power distribution block in the mail, box just a trip to the store )
Brakes ( pads and shims on order )
Find radiator hoses that fit.
Fluids and stuff.
Odds and ends.

After that I will be ready to try and start the car!

If this post reads a little wierd, its because its copy-and-pasted from several updates on another forum. Sorry for the huge post, but its been a while sence I updated you guys!

[ziggye46]

damn, thats gonna be awesome....my uncle had a corona like that back in the P.I.

[carlos]

cant wait to see more.

[hymhui]

Cool man, what a nice JOB!! You should keep update it, can't wait to see it on the road!

[Ender-DI]

Lookin good, Matt! Any word on the lip you wanted to have fabbed up?

Oh, and take a picture of the shoe. That's awesome. hahahahah...

[guymx83]

lookin good.

btw. what to sell the pacesetters ? :uglystupid2:

[LevisteY0]

Looks like a great build. i love old school Toyota 4 doors, with wheels that have big lips.

Good luck and keep us posted.

[TurboFC3C]

WOW. Mucho Props!

[Pimplux_A4]

nice! mad props for you DIY guys man! cheers!

mikey

[maxoutracer]

madd props to you, keep me updated! :police:

[Ender-DI]

So what's the latest? We gonna see that thing out at Buttonwillow any time soon?? :D

[urmyhero4now]

any updates?

[elpresidente]

Cool, so you're going for the classic Yankee style? Or the more extreme??

[antbo]

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