Nissan RB30 built bottom end (short block). Capable of 1000+ BHP

Perfect for a 2WD Skyline GTST conversion.

Block:
Genuine Nissan RB30 block (from a Holden VL Commodore)
Acid Dipped
Painted
All oil gallery bungs have been removed and cleaned.
New Core Plugs
Crank oil galleries cleaned

Pistons:
Omega 87mm (British pistons)
Balanced

Connecting Rods:
Arrow Precision (British made con-rods)
Balanced

Crank:
ground to 1st undersize and radiused
Balanced
JUN style oil drive pickup fitted.

Oil restrictors:
TOMEI oil restrictor bungs fitted into top of block to control oil flow to cylinder head.

This engine is for sale at £5000 inclusive.

See full build photos here….

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Despite a service history that redefines the word ‘comprehensive’. We weren’t about to take any chances. It’s just not our style! First job was to be a belts and braces service and a full fluid and lubricant change. The oils chosen for the task here will be known to those of you who closely follow motorsport; Synionic.

As supplier to all sorts of high-end race outfits including the STR BTCC team, Subaru UK’s Time Attack outfit and even Roger Clark Motorsport, Synionic make some fairly bold claims about what their lubricants can do, having a film strength some 50 times higher than even the highest quality synthetic and also the ability to actually bond to the metal surfaces of the engine at an ionic level. These claims have actually been proven by MIRA, with the upshot being that the friction co-efficient of the entire drivetrain can actually be reduced, prolong component life – and in most cases, actually raising horsepower and torque figures through reduced losses.

We have used the oil on many of our conversions and we were keen to demonstrate its efficacy in action. Thanks to an uber-accurate Dynapack dyno cell in house, Pete decided to strap the bone-stock Beemer onto the hub plates to record one more power run to set a base level for the day’s ambient conditions. A smooth run in fourth gear saw the 328 record a creditable 163.9 bhp at the hubs, laying the base point for what was to follow.

Draining all of the old fluids out was simple enough, with the colour of the exiting lubricants reinforcing the car’s well groomed history file. Nothing looked too heinous here. After adding the new Synionic lubricants to the engine, gearbox and diff it was time to take the old girl for a spin round the block to heat them up and bed them all in, before strapping the old girl back onto the dyno.

After no less than six repeated runs to remove any discrepancies, it was interesting to note that the power figure had risen quite significantly to 168.5 bhp. This happened consistently on each one of the 7 runs. An increase on 5.5 bhp, with a commensurate rise in torque output too. All this simply from friction reduction! Seems like all of that marketing bluster might just have a bit of weight behind it, after all…

Buoyed up by this success, we decided to try another scientific ‘back to back’ test and fitted a Pipercross panel filter from their stock. Again, six runs were done to remove any ambiguities, with the result being a not inconsequential 1.5 bhp. The total gains from the first ‘base’ runs of the day, simply from these two ‘service’ items was 7.3 bhp and exactly 6.0 lbFt of torque. Impressive stuff, particularly if you extrapolate this figure back to engine bhp.. That’s almost 8.5 bhp!

Pete also commented that he could really see where the 328’s common Achilles heel was holding it back from 5300 rpm. ‘BMW deliberately designed the inlet manifold on this engine to choke it a little at the top end and keep it away from the M3’s performance,’ he added. ‘But we’ll be changing the manifold to sort that soon enough, don’t worry!’

We also took the time to add a little of the Synionic octane booster to the E36’s 95 RON filled tank. We’ll give that time to work its way through and report back with our findings!

Next time, we’ll be sorting out some of those scrapes, dings and flat spots. It’s time to get our body beautiful! Until then.

THOR Racing can supply the full range of Synionic products.

Welcome to our latest project.. a delightfully original 328 Touring. Yes, to celebrate two decades of the masterful design of the E36, we thought it only right and proper that we covered a build of one of the more practical versions over the next few months.

Despite the fact that our corporate CV that suggests that this car will probably ultimately end up with some turbocharged Corvette motor in, or something equally ridiculous, the ethos on this project is a bit more workaday. Although we are very well known for our crazy conversions, a big part of what we do is a bit more everyday than that. Chassis enhancements, breathing mods, disc and pads upgrades, bush kits.. that kind of thing. That’s good news for you blog followers, as each month, our eminently qualified techs will be performing a mod that you may very well be considering yourself.

But first, a little more about the car itself. With 128k miles on the clock, the Touring came at the right kind of money from Pete’s father-in-law, no less. Pete effectively ‘rescued’ it, following a derisory sum being offered from a main dealer looking to take it in as a part exchange. With a folder of bills and history that makes War and Peace look like a pizza leaflet, it promises great things, with only a brake pipe and seeping damper preventing it going through a precautionary MOT, and just a few knocks and dings here and there stopping it from being a real stunner. Overall, it’s a level old thing, with an impressively complete service history. This could go some way towards explain the car’s excellent road manners and not-too-shabby 160 wbhp figure recorded during our initial dyno shakedown. With just the two owners on the V5, the first of which being the supplying dealer, this looks like being a very sound foundation for further fettling.

As an aside, despite residing in a very salubrious area, it’s interesting to note the amount of invoices in the history file for paint and glass vandal damage.. tsk.. the disaffected yoof of the late ‘90s eh?? Thankfully all this anti- Munich sentiment seems to have evaporated these days.. it all seems to have headed towards Ingolstadt instead!!

So what’s next? Well, as mentioned, the offside front shock is looking a little tired, so expect that to be replaced as part of a wider springs and dampers package, as well as the cleaning stick coming out in full force over the next few weeks. The demeanour of the whole project will be very OEM+, you’ll be delighted to hear, but expect the quality of brands chosen and level of expertise shown to be up to our usual impeccable standards. If you’ve got an E36 in any flavour, we promise you that we’ll be testing and evaluating the mods that matter.

Join us next month for the first of the mods… Same time, same place!

THOR Garage Services launch a new website, http://www.more-mpg.co.uk more miles per gallon.

Dedicated Economy Tuning website, including fuel saving hints and tips.

There are definitely two tuning camps in this vast and varied industry of ours. Those that like to take what the factory gave them – and improve. An air filter here, and exhaust there. A turbo or two bolted on and a remap later and you’ve a car that still conforms to the designer’s vision, yet offers significantly more in the way of entertainment..

And then there is the ‘other’ camp. These chaps show a healthy disdain for the factory’s wishes and like to start with their own clean sheet of paper to create, in some cases, the very car the factory could have, or perhaps should have created in the first place.

Take THOR Racing for instance. No stranger to these pages, the Coventry based tuning specialists appear to take great delight in upsetting the establishment by ripping out perfectly decent factory lumps and replacing them with something from higher up the manufacturer’s own food-chain. Their BEAMS engined Celica ST has been a regular in the Banzai Magazine project pages for over a year now and typifies their engineering-led approach to making non-standard powerplants look – and work – like they had always supposed to be nestling between the recipient’s inner wings.

We make no apologies for the fact that the car you see here isn’t a polished show queen. As with many demo and development cars, this one has lead a very hard life and has seen countless hours and miles of development work, both on track and road, seeing duty as a butty and parts chaser, track-day terror and school run troop transport. ‘All of our conversions have to be real-life usable,’ explains THOR MD Peter Betts. ‘They need to fulfil the same remit as the original, and that should include functionality as well as performance.’ But more on that later.

The car you see here came about from a series of tuning-related catastrophes. Originally arriving at THOR on the back of a trailer, dripping oil and with bits of dismembered engine lying around its bay. This grizzly scene of metallurgic murder was the result of the owner’s home-brewed attempt at turbocharging the original Altezza motor with a Greddy kit. Too much boost and one heavy right foot later and the result was a hole in the side of the block and pistons on the outside that should have most definitely been on the inside. After realising that it was beyond economic repair, Pete manfully offered to buy the remains of the car to help the guy out. ‘My original plan was to fit one of our ‘off the shelf’ Blacktop BEAMS engines, tidy it all up and sell it on.’ explained Pete. ‘The turbo kit itself was in good condition, so I figured I could sell that too and we’d be all square.’ However, after examining the costs in detail, Peter realised that it wasn’t good business, and so the engineless shell was pushed into a dark corner of the workshop.. where it remained for over a year!

In the mean time, the firm had been busy creating its much publicised range of V8 conversions. After both Mk 3 and 4 Supras had been successfully engineered, followed by a series of client’s Caterham-esque kit cars, it didn’t take Peter very long to realise which engine he needed to put in the sorry looking bay of the Altezza. A 4.0 lump was quickly sourced through THOR’s many contacts, but now full of V8-fettling knowledge, Peter specified a different spec to his other builds. ‘After measuring the bay, I discovered that that the LS400 unit, as opposed the SC400 (Soarer) units we had used before offered a much better sump configuration for this swap. It saved a lot of work.’ With a useful 210 BHP dynoing through the donor car’s wheels – despite running through a slushbox and factory exhaust – Pete knew he had found a great second hand motor for the conversion.

Fitting it of course, was another matter. THOR fabricated custom engine mounts as well as fitting one of their own bespoke R154 adapter kits, allowing a Mk 3 Supra Turbo manual ‘box to literally bolt up to the lux-o-barge lump, transforming it into a true driver’s powertrain. Transmission mounts also had to be fabricated, but the good news is, both these and the engine mounts have now been fully productionised, so if you fancy repeating this exercise, all the hard work has been done for you. You can buy yours off the shelf, now!

With the engine sitting where it should, and the gear lever exiting neatly through the tunnel, Pete created a bespoke induction set-up using various bits of silicone and alloy pipework, topped off with an ITG filter. The cooling system shows off the firm’s brand of lateral thinking well. The original JDM rad had the inputs and outputs in completely the wrong places, whereas the UK spec IS200 rad had pipework in almost the exact right place to plumb into the V8’s hose positions, making for a relatively straightforward and factory-looking job.

The exhaust was also custom-fabricated, using the OEM steel headers, which had to be re-routed around the Altezza’s steering knuckle, due to clearancing issues, before running through a 2-1 manifold, though a straight pipe, and then out to the atmosphere via the original aftermarket backbox that came with the dead motor. ‘Works fine, flowed well on the dyno..Why change it?’ laughs Pete.

Knowing that the car would serve daily-driving duties, and with a family to transport, Pete decided to take a little time to splice the V8’s air-con compressor pipework into the original Altezza system, meaning that despite the Frankenstein nature of the build, each and every button on the dash still has its intended factory function, allowing Pete to create the perfect cabin ambience on a long drive. Pete describes this part of the build a ‘A total ball-ache..’ But also added, ‘It really does make it a nice thing to live with in the summer, though.’

The car had also arrived with a few other choice components that Pete has seen no good reason to change. These included the rather lovely Enkei NT03 +M race rims, the Tein Coilovers and more obviously, the JDM spec PU-rim body kit, which although a little battle-scarred by now, still lends the Altezza a purposeful air.

There was still a ton of work to get the car finished however, so Pete turned his attention to fuelling the thing and getting it all to run. His first change here was to modify the in-tank pump to offer both a flow and return, before fabricating a suitable interface between the various hard and soft pipes of the two factory systems. To make the whole kit and caboodle fire was also a straightforward affair, thanks to THOR being the official UK distributor for Link ECUs. With a store-room full of units to choose from Pete bi-wired the car to accept two different Link ECUs. For our shoot, the car runs on the link G4 Storm G4 Pro unit, but this can also be switched to the smaller and less expensive ‘Atom’ unit, showcasing the fact that this conversion can be run on a ‘clubman’ spec unit for customers that so desire. An impressive facet of this conversion is also the fact the THOR has managed to maintain the original factory CAN/BUS systems from the stock ECU. This means that the entire chassis control system is still in place, meaning that small, but important, detail components like air blowers, windows and the tacho all perform as they should.

With the new induction and exhaust set-up, this big lazy engine has recorded a healthy 250 bhp/255 ft/lbs at the wheels, without even breaking a sweat – and even manages to return decent fuel economy thanks to its relatively low-revving nature. So with a seemingly perfect conversion executed yet again, are there any further plans for the car? ‘The diff for sure!’ says Peter pulling a face. ‘Basically these Altezzas have the IS300 diff fitted, which is a 4:1 ratio. That makes for wheelspin through the first three gears.. which is fun but a little too much like hard work on a daily. My plan is to fit a diff somewhere between 2.8 and 3.2:1 from another Toyota model to make it a bit less of a handful.’ That said, we couldn’t help but notice a full set of genuine BTCC IS200 wide arches and bumpers lurking in the corner of the THOR workshops.. so naturally, we had to ask.. would they be appearing on the car any time soon? ‘Time permitting, that’s my plan for the next incarnation of this car. Watch this space!’ Says Pete somewhat coyly ‘Mind you, I’m having way too much fun driving it at the moment to take it out of service.’ And with that he jumps in the car, and fires up the engine to reveal a glorious ‘woofle’ through the stainless system. As we say our goodbyes and he disappears into the sunset with a squeal of the tyres, a dab of opposite lock and the unmistakable growl of a fat V8, both me and snapper Swords agree.. we won’t hold our breath for the follow up shoot!

Photography: www.adamswords.com

Specification List for Altezza V8.

Engine
Toyota 4.0lt V8 1UZ-FE (from Lexus LS400)
THOR Engine Mount Kit

Gearbox
R154 5spd (MkIII Supra Turbo)
THOR R154 to 1UZ-FE Gearbox Adaption
THOR Gear Lever Position Extension
THOR Bespoke Propshaft
THOR Gearbox Mount Kit

Suspension
Tein Super Street
SuperPro Full Poly Eurethane Bush Kit

Wheels
Enkei

Exhaust
THOR Modified Stock Headers
Custom THOR Downpipes and Midsection.
Existing Back Box System

Induction
ITG Foam Filter

Silicon Pipework
ViperPerformance

Engine Management
Link STORM G4 integrated with stock Altezza ECU
THOR mapped on 4WD Dynapack Chassis Dyno

• More power
• Greater Torque
• Enhanced, sharper throttle response
• Smoother, more progressive delivery of power
• Reliable and safe

Power Tuning is essential for those drivers who feel there vehicle is a not living up to its potential. By increasing the power of your vehicle you are providing yourself with a car that is safer for overtaking, more pleasurable to drive and puts the smile back on your face – without the outlay for a new vehicle.

Whether your car be a small petrol engine or a big muscle car, there’s always power to be found within the engine software.

The benefits of 6hp on a 1.0 litre petrol engine is as noticeable to one driver as it is for the driver of a3.6 twin turbo with an extra 65hp+.

Be it a track day superstar or the car used for the school run the benefits of a Power Tune are endless.

The search for more power is one of the pinacles of the THOR aim.

The Pursuit of Perfection:

Overall your vehicle will feel faster, smoother, more responsive and more pleasurable to drive.

Speak to us at THOR Racing ++44(0)330 555 4545 or email sales@thor-racing.co.uk

Follow our blogs on vehicle remapping.

Take a long hard look at this magnificent piece of British craftsmanship! What you see here ladies and gentlemen, is one reverse-engineered bespoke radiator and intercooler combination, lovingly created by the artisans at Forge Motorsport, from the CAD drawings that our own Pete rendered for the last blog.

When the new Forge parts arrived, Pete and the team were tearing into the Forge boxes like kids on Christmas morning. As one of the biggest names in performance tuning, nobody was expecting anything other than sheer perfection from Forge’s solution, but even our grizzled workshop veterans were impressed enough for a few appreciative ‘oohs’ and ‘aaahs’ as it was all unpacked. It really is all that nice.

Not only did the finished parts looks precisely like the drawings, but as one would expect from two such engineering-led firms, it simply dropped into place, with the factory drilled holes aligning up with the factory sheet metal like Toyota had planned it that way. With four bolts each, both units were in place in minutes.

This design came about because we were adamant that a solution could be found that didn’t have to resort to chopping the car in any way. So the rad is shorter, but deeper in its core, allowing the intercooler pipework to sit neatly underneath without resorting to brutal body surgery.

Not only does the new rad offer much more efficiency than the original unit – essential for a motor that could be around 400 bhp when we’re done – it also looks a lot prettier too! The intercooler in front, has a large, open core, which is enough to significantly chill the charge, but still allows plenty of fresh air through to cool the rad. This said, obviously Pete had always planned to fit a fan as a belts and braces measure, and for this he turned to respected motorsport manufacturers, SPAL. As one of the UK’s foremost manufacturers since 1959, SPAL fans really are made for a project like this, being manufactured up to unparalleled motorsport quality levels. The unit fitted benefits from a waterproof and dustproof motor, as well as featuring a fully balanced fan body. Also, despite being a genuine race part, it also comes with full finger guarding.. Always good on a car that spends much of its time in a ‘normal’ environment. Pete doesn’t want inquisitive members of the public or customers losing their digits when having a nose at the installation at shows…

Forge also made and polished the connecting pipework from the ‘cooler back into the lump, taking the opportunity to fabricate in one of their beautiful vent-to-atmosphere piston dump valves at the same time. This will allow excess charge to escape harmlessly to atmosphere, augmenting the already impressive soundtrack and stopping the turbo from being stalled or slowed at the same time. All good.. Plus, like the radiator and intercooler, this also looks visually stunning as well as performing an essential function.

During this final fit, Pete also took the opportunity to go through the mish-mash of engine hoses that have accumulated during the build and replace them all with one homogenous look. The hose that had best ticked both ‘form’ and ‘function’ boxes during the build was the epically subtle SamcoSport ‘Classic’ induction hose.This smart, factory black number apes a ‘70s OEM appearance, but is pure racecar inside, being able to handle temperatures and pressures that would soon dissolve the originals. We ordered lengths of matching straight hose straight from the Welsh factory and plumbed it all in for a much neater look.

Another small, but important bit of housekeeping was a new air filter. The new turbo installation hasn’t really left a huge amount of room under the bonnet, so it was imperative to get something that would fit the gap that was left, flow the maximum possible air and well, look nice too! A quick call to serial race filteristas Pipercross was soon dispatched and their response was this rather nice custom sized filter that uses their triple layer motorsport-spec foam and butts up nicely to the cold air feed from the inner wing, which will hopefully help to offset some of the heat of the turbo.

After a considered bout of tightening and checking all of the various unions and joints, Pete finally closed the bonnet to reveal the most impressive part of this modification… with the bonnet shut, you wouldn’t even know it was there. No ‘look at me’ shouty shininess to be seen up front, everything is tucked well away, with the slat angle of the Celica’s front grille preventing anything being shown, unless you squint directly through from a hedgehog’s-eye-view, that is. To our mind, that’s been the ethos of this build throughout. OEM tidiness and subtlety, mixed with a sledgehammer kick and exquisite engineering. Just the way we like it here at THOR!

So what’s next.. Well after all this hard fabbing, Pete needs to take a seat.. well a couple of them actually.. Tune in then to find out which perches he chooses!

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It’s all in the details this month for Project Celica! With Banzai’s deadline pressing and the new spangly intercooler and rad still being hand-crafted at Forge Motorsport, we were keen to use the time available to pick up on all the little jobs that have been outstanding throughout the build.

When you left us last month, the turbo manifold had been fabricated and the impressive Turbo Technics ‘charger sat atop it. The sharp eyed amongst you will have spotted that as complete as this may have looked, there were in fact no coolant and water feeds to the blower, meaning that it would have lasted about two minutes once in operation.

Plumbing this up was a relatively straightforward task, requiring little more than some precise cutting of appropriate lengths of Earl’s braided oils and coolant hose and then the application of some Aeroquip fittings. These will be routed back to appropriate feeds from the block and cooling system and should hopefully give the turbo a long, if hard-worked life.

On the subject of the rad and intercooler however, don’t just think that we are throwing this together. Following the tried and testing ‘reverse engineering’ path that has been so prevalent throughout this project, boss Pete had used precise digital measurement of the old rad and engine bay on the Celica to create a CAD drawing of the two new components.

As you can see from the renderings, the new alloy rad will sit in the OEM position and in front of a large capacity intercooler that resides behind. The rad will feature a relatively open core to allow a through -flow of air and the whole set-up shouldn’t really take up much more room than the original radiator did. But, most importantly of all, when the bonnet is closed, no-one will ever know it’s there. Just right for the overall vibe of this build.

We felt an essential bit of prep in the mean time would be a thorough lubricant change. You may have noticed the latest range of Synionics lubricants getting some column inches in the Japanese tuning press of late, and it’s easy to see why. Having analysed the lubricant’s composition and achievements for ourselves, we were also keen to put the product through their paces in their own mobile test bed.

So what’s the deal with this ‘surface modifying’ technology anyway?. Put simply, Synionic uses the heat of the combustion process, combined with the lubricant itself, to actually bond to the metal surfaces of the engine at an ionic level. (Hence the name!) Not so much coating the surfaces, but becoming part of it at a molecular level. Allied to this, it also has a much higher film strength than normal synthetic lubricants, meaning that it takes a far greater pressure before it breaks apart. Whether you understand the technology or not, it’s proving to be a popular choice amongst those in the know in the scene, so we will report back with interest on our experience with it, once a few more road and dyno miles have been covered in anger.

As well as the engine oil, which we had specified in 10w 40, we were also keen to try the gearbox and diff additives. These are also available as complete oils if you prefer, or as in this case, can simply be added to the carrier of any decent oil to reduce friction and improve efficiency.

For a group of individuals that does engine conversions for fun, as you can imagine, removing and replacing lubricants didn’t exactly tax the lads, so I won’t waste your time or our blog space with any gushing extrapolations of what happened there. Basically, the old stuff was drained out.. and the Synionic was poured in. Simples!

What was interesting though was the inspection of the rear diff oil. It didn’t look too clever, with what looked pretty plainly to be bits of the factory GT LSD itself floating around in the old oil. Consensus was that lending the car to legendary stunt supremo Terry Grant at last year’s Santa Pod test day probably hadn’t done it the greatest of good.  In its day, the GT diff was probably more than up to the task of a bit of lead-footed hooning with the stock twin cam.. but it probably didn’t bank on being subjected to 200-odd angry horses making it drift for a short Youtube clip. Looks like there’s another part for the shopping list then. Never ending this tuning lark isn’t it? Until next time!

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Chaaaaaaarge!

When you look at the basic nuts and bolts of the art of tuning, it’s fairly simple really. Take component X and connect to flange Y. Fabricate this, fettle that and mackle up the other. Analysed in its most basic from, tuning is just a set of mechanical procedures that solves a pre-described problem, right?

Well, up to a point, but there is a stage in the whole process, where it becomes a little bit more than that , and veers away from the simply functional to take into account the aesthetic. It’s at this point where you realise that top level tuning, when done properly, is more of an art form than anything else. And when it’s done properly, the best work deserves its space alongside the greats in the Tate Modern. Thankfully,  the THOR Racing team subscribes to that ‘form and function’ mantra.

Take a squint under the bonnet of our project Celica for instance. Sure there’s an engine ensconced therein which has no holy right to be there, but the ‘art’ has been in making it look like it was factory fitted. On the car’s many show outings, you would be amazed how many people, many of whom should know better, have asked whether it was a factory option…

Little wonder then, that the whole idea of fitting a turbocharger would be tackled with the same aesthetic zeal tempering the engineering. Of course, it needs to feed neatly into the inlet manifold, and be easily integrated into the exhaust system, but hopefully, even hardened readers will be pleasantly surprised by the neatness and homogeneity of this installation. Regular bloggists may remember that the whole installation was pre-planned using the magic of CAD wizardry and a £30,000 Faro measuring arm, and this uber-precise level of double-checking is pretty evident once poking your nose under the bonnet. Although the oil lines have yet to be fitted, the Turbo Technics ‘charger sits perfectly in the space left in the engine bay, like it had always been there.

Last month, we showed the start of the manifold being fabricated. This was actually made from a spare old NA part that we had in the stores, but obviously required a fair degree of reworking to accept the turbocharger, meaning that every single bend was cut, reshaped and re-routed to bring the turbocharger closer to the block. Once the turbo had been successfully fitted and correctly orientated, the downpipe also needed considerable ‘love’ to make it fit. As can be seen, this now comes straight off the exhaust wheel of the turbocharger and fires straight into the rest of the system. Pete hasn’t yet decided whether to leave the first silencer box in, or bypass it completely. When the car was first at Scorpion, the brief had been to create a refined system that muffled the NA BEAMS screamer. Now, with a turbocharger taking a lot of the noise away, only road and dyno miles will reveal whether it’s still needed or not.

So the ‘chargers all done bar the shouting, really. Just a few connections to make before the whole lot is hooked up to the Link ECU and configured to get the whole set-up squirting and firing properly. Our MD and ECU-whizz Peter Betts eats these kinds of challenges for breakfast, so don’t expect that part to be a particularly long or exciting chapter..

One aspect of the build that will take a little longer is the car’s current cooling capacity. A recon rad may have been more than enough for the BEAMS modest cooling requirements, but with the additional temperatures and pressures created by turbocharging, this is being removed and replaced by something with a much bigger cooling capacity. The solution here will also need to incorporate or work well with some kind of intercooler as well, so it makes an awful lot of sense to design and scratch build something that allows the common air feed from the front grille to satisfy both. Lairy external units are not an option here, as everything needs to be hidden within the OEM confines of the stock bonnet.

After draining the coolant down in the time-honoured tradition, removing the rad was unsurprisingly easy, with everything having only been on for a few months. With the old unit off, it was evident that there is actually quite a decent bit of space for the new rad/cooler set.  Peter thinks he can also improve the routing and flow of the coolant pipework, so expect that to tick the ‘automotive art’ box too.

So it’s back to the fabbing room for more metallurgic magicianship! Join us next time!

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We like to keep up with the latest tuning trends and developments here atTHOR, and as you left us here on the blog last time, our MD Peter Betts was using cutting-edge measuring technology to create a series of three-dimensional CAD component models. Having successfully rendered these into workable plans using ‘Solid Works’ software, this month’s activity was doubtless going to be far more pleasing to the tuning traditionalist… Cutting, grinding, bolting and welding.

First, let’s talk about that turbo.  It looks superb doesn’t it? After carefully working out the volumetric efficiency of the engine and calculating a few other slightly baffling engine techy type parameters, Pete specced the rather lovely S175 blower from one of the best known names in the business, Turbo Technics. The Northamptonshire-based firm will be well known to petrolheads of a certain age, having provided the motive force behind many superb and sublime road-car conversions during the ‘80s and ‘90s. These days, Turbo Technics is more tightly focussed on the business of manufacturing and remanufacturing turbo chargers and superchargers. After three decades at the top of their game, it’s fair to say that they’re a pretty knowledgeable bunch!

The S175 is part of TT’s Hybrid Performance range and was originally designed for other members of the Celica and MR2 family. As a twin-entry design, it features a CT26 high-flow turbine assembly, a 360 degree screwed thrust bearing and the ability to run up to 30 PSI of boost. Fitting directly to 3SGTE footprints without any additional work, it’s a great way to give say, an ST185 Celica or MR2 Turbo an aerobic leg-up, without having to run to the expense of changing the manifold or exhaust system.

This relatively small, but perfectly formed ‘charger is good for engines up to 500 BHP, so should be more than a match for the BEAMS engine in the ST. With around 200 BHP from the factory, Pete is looking for the low to mid 300s to make this both and entertaining and reliable daily driver. These units are priced at £765 + VAT, so offer great value and are backed by a comforting 12 month warranty. All good news!

With two gorgeous looking flanges having been cut from stainless steel (One for the head, one for the turbo), all that was left now was the pipework to link the two together.  Again, referring to our CAD model, we created some free flowing mandrel bends (for better gas-flow) and then set about fabricating those onto the new flanges. The bends in question are also T304 aerospace grade stainless. Once this hard work is all done, it will then mean the relatively easy task of fitting an ‘off the shelf’ performance Celica downpipe, which can then be integrated with the rest of the bespoke Scorpion exhaust system. With the ST running a longitudinal engine fitment, and the MR2/Celica obviously running transverse fitments, the bottom of the downpipe is going to be at least 90 degrees out for starters! This said, it shouldn’t be a huge job for our talented fabbing team to neatly chop and re-weld this into a homogenous looking design.

Once it’s all fitted up, thanks to the car already running full Link engine management, Pete can then fire up the lap top once again and reconfigure all of the boost, ignition and fuelling parameters to take into account the new found abilities and appetites of the blower-fed engine. Evidently, it’s not going to have the relatively parsimonious thirst of the 2.0 BEAMS in its standard trim, which has proved capable of easily returning in excess of 30 MPG, even when being enjoyed, but he’s confident that it should still be a sensible way to pedal quickly on a daily basis. Something one has to factor in when Super Unleaded is almost £1.30 a litre on some forecourts!

With the smell of hot metal and welding wire lingering in our nostrils, that’s about it for this month. We promis to have it all fitted up for your next visit, when plans will then be underway for a suitable intercooler. This Celica is turning into one hell of a project! See you then!