4AGE KE55

[4AGEKE55]

Engine bay getting cleaner. Most of the wiring has been redone or hidden. 1 Loom for the lights on the drivers side to go. Will redirect through the guard.

ECU connected. Just need to finish off the fuse box installation to get power to the fuel pumps and fans. This is a temporary set up to get the engine running. Will end up with an aftermarket ECU in the end which will be hidden. The factory wiring made it that far once I made a hole through the firewall for the factory loom. You can see the entry point between the inlet manifold and engine on the firewall. That is the factory grommet from the AE92 I am using.

That was the easy bit though. Connecting the rest of the wires becomes rather complex.

I didn't realise how long this would take. Given I'm an electrical engineer and do this kind of thing all the time, plus I started this project 8 years ago and have been planning this for a long time. I went out to the car with 3 pages of AE92 wiring diagrams for the engine. 2 pages of AE82 wiring diagrams for the connection of the power. Couldn't find AE92 ones and they were close enough to work with. The whole KE55 wiring fits on 1 page.

Then have 3 pages with details on pinouts, wire colours, the colour of the wire on the connecting loom etc.....

Even with all this planning I wasn't expecting to go out to the car with everything in hand and after 6 hours finally having routed the first wire in a state I was happy with. The second wire only took a further 2 hours. 5 days later and the wiring is getting close to being able to start the engine yet still have a lot of work to go.

Edited September 17, 2017 by 4AGEKE55

[4AGEKE55]

Part of the issue with running the first wire was it also involved relocating the battery  and installing a battery cut off switch. Yet I'm not including this in the 6 hours it took. This was a separate project that took most of 2 days. 

I got little things done along the way but the measuring to see if thing would fit before cutting and modifying took a long time. I had to cut a little bit of the radio mount off the inside of the dash to make clearance. Yet the mounting holes are still there should I ever want to put the factory radio back in. I used those mounting holes to secure the bracket for the cut off switch.

Made several cardboard mock ups of potential brackets. Then made a couple from metal to discover mounting or wire routing issues before settling on this one. Also had some issues with the switch assembly interfering with parts so hit it with the grinder to make a couple of flats on the top and bottom then cut a slot to clear a piece of structural plastic on the dash assembly. I tried as much as possible not to modify the existing dash even though it isn't seen.

The design probably could be a lot better as it was really annoying to tighten the mounting screws from the bracket to the dash given they screw in from the back. Several different short screwdrivers later however and is pretty solid and fits perfectly in the cigarette lighter position.

Edited September 17, 2017 by 4AGEKE55

[4AGEKE55]

On ‎12‎/‎09‎/‎2017 at 1:04 PM, Mechanical Sympathy said:

I found I had to convert to a KE30 booster/master cylinder/proportioning valve combo to fit twin Webers on that side.

And it looks like Jordan has gone up a plate size on his mounts. The new T50 mount looks much neater than my early angle type. I might have to hit him up for anothery.

The engine mounts are 4mm mild steel FYI. Gearbox mount is 8mm. Yeah, is a lot neater than the early versions :)

[4AGEKE55]

Test fitting the gearbox. The first model Celica TA22 T50 box. Has a different shifter position from all the later T50 from the corolla's which is further forward on the box.  Fits perfectly into the KE55, shifter hole lining up in the middle of the factory cut out.

[4AGEKE55]

TA22 T50 comes with a 20 spline output so the original tail shaft fits straight in. 

[4AGEKE55]

Inlet manifold removed to get cut and shut and to run the coolant hoses. Hyundai Excel X2 radiator mounted and main hoses run. Still need to make a bracket to mount the thermostat assembly yet I know where it needs to go now.

[4AGEKE55]

Picked up a cut and shut small port manifold. Also bought a KE30 fuel tank last week. Will be modifying it for internal lift pump soon. A few more Speedflow  fittings to come first. New undercar 3/8" lines will go in soon. Still working out where to mount the surge tank, fuel pump and filters.

[4AGEKE55]

Sigma LCA's in. The wheels are kind of in the guard. Time to track down some SR5 flares.

[4AGEKE55]

Haven't updated in a while. Been waiting on parts. Still a few to come but enough to make some progress.

[4AGEKE55]

So slow have I been doing work a snail has crawled into my engine bay :O

[4AGEKE55]

Tracked down the different style of KE30 brake booster which a Pajero Master Cylinder will bolt up to. Very close on a couple of clearances. Have ordered a new banjo fitting for the rear brake line which will give a few more mm clearance.

[4AGEKE55]

Picked up a dash pad for $15. Not perfect but easily fixed unlike my existing one. 

[4AGEKE55]

As the car was on LPG from the original owner, I had to find a decent fuel tank. I believe the KE55 tanks don't have the extra inlet on the right side of the tank which is needed to do this mod. This tank came out of a KE35 and just had a blanking plate which is perfect for using for a lift pump. I'm not sure what the differences are between all the different fuel tanks yet I also have a fuel gauge sender unit that came out of a KE30 sedan which goes where I have the lift pump.

I was going to just suck the fuel from the drain plug at the bottom of the tank yet where is the fun in that. So instead I spent several months slowly tracking down parts to put an internal lift pump in.

Apart from a very particular fuel tank, all you need are a bunch of Speedflow type fittings, yet buy them on eBay from China as even then they add up pretty quickly. The hard line is just a piece of 9.5mm hardline left over from running the new fuel lines, oh, spoiler alert!

The lift pump is out of a 2006 Corolla sedan. Since it is there to feed a 600ml swirl pot it doesn't need to be anything special.

[4AGEKE55]

Waiting on some more fittings to turn up before I can go further in the boot. Used more than anticipated in other areas. The Fuel filter is out of a EB or ED? Falcon. I like to keep to Corolla parts where I can and if not to Toyota parts, yet that filter comes with 14mm threads on both ends so no hose clamps and being from a Falcon they are less than $10 each and available everywhere.

The 2 new hard lines can be seen coming up heading no where.

Swirl pot mounted to the right. 

[4AGEKE55]

What from 4 photos appears shouldn't take long at all, probably too 4-5 hours. Then I had the fun of making a 2nd one for the return line.