Thursday, June 20, 2013

1986 MX72 Cressida Wagon Build: "Joby" Part 1

Copy-pasting this from my build thread on another forum.

Picked up this poor thing from a guy up in NoVA on 6/9 for $600. It has 158k miles, leaks pretty much every fluid, needs a battery, supposedly overheats (it never did for me), the paint is TERRIBLE, the left rear door doesn't open from the outside, the front right window won't roll down from the switch on the driver's door (never tried the pass. side switch), but the interior is in almost PERFECT shape, and it runs. And it's (more or less) a Celica-Supra wagon!



Here's the service history I have for it.

6/23/98 - 106k
Rear brake shoes & wheel cylinders

6/30/98 - 106k
Battery

7/9/98 - 106k
Emissions fail

7/15/98 - 106k
Air filter, spark plug

8/26/98 - 107k
Front struts, alignment, rotation

9/22/98 - 109k
Transmission service, antenna mast, wheel balance, front wheel bearings

4/27/99 - 115k
Water pump

6/18/99 - 117k
Radiator fan

10/19/99 - 121k
New (used) distributor + spark plugs

1/3/00 - 124k
Plug wires

3/17/00 - 125k
R&R tail shaft housing/diff

3/21/00 - 126k
"Differential assembly/rear susp" + gear oil??

8/24/00 - 130k
Left rear wheel bearing

8/25/00
Catalytic converter

3/22/01 - 137k
Rear muffler

7/18/01
Oil change

10/1/01 - 141k
Neutral safety switch

Right now my plan for this car is to remove the engine and transmission and re-seal everything out of the car. This will make it WAY easier I think. I would LOVE to do a manual swap but parts will be hard to find locally and cheaply. It needs a W58 transmission/shifter/slave cylinder from a MA70 Supra, a W58 from any other car has the shifter in the wrong position. I would then need an MA70 flywheel and clutch kit, as well as an AE86 Corolla clutch pedal, MA60 Celica-Supra master cylinder, and I would have to custom make a hard line, and add in a stainless soft line. Then, the drive shaft needs to be re-sized to fit (I don't remember longer or shorter). Then the big issue is getting the speedometer to work. Still not clear on how that happens.


6/11/13
In talks with a SupraMania member in Fredericksburg about picking up a Supra W58 with around 130k for $200 if it has the slave cylinder, $175 if not.

6/12/13
OK so I plan to pull the engine and replace pretty much every gasket and seal in the motor, I have a couple options.
1) Super cheap no-name brand rock auto kit - $100
2) medium priced rock auto kit made by the same parent company as FelPro - $150
2.5) the above kit + oem head gasket for quality where it really counts - $230
3) the LAST later-generation 5M-GE OEM complete engine overhaul gasket kit in the country from Toyota - $318

EDIT: Holy hell, shipping for that kit on rockauto is like $20, bringing the total to $167. I googled the SealedPower part number and Summit Racing has the same kit for $110 with free shipping. I think I'll do that.


6/14/13
Picked up the row-your-own gearbox today. $250 got me a W58 5-speed manual trans from a 1986.5 Supra complete with shifter/boots and reverse light switch, two used clutch/pressure plate pairs, a flywheel, a brown shift boot to match my interior, and a stock Supra shift knob. And I discovered that the Cressida's driveshaft will in fact spline up into the W58. WIN.

6/16/13
So the left rear door wouldn't open from the outside. I got bored and took 15 min to remove the door panel and have a peek inside. This is what I found

Turns out this little plastic clippy thing had broken and couldn't hold the rod in the handle anymore.
So I took it off, put a zip-tie on the end of the rod, and now the door opens from the outside. Aww yiss.

I also discovered that both of my keys I have for this car are valet keys, so they don't open the passenger door or the hatch. Gonna have to get the code off the door lock cylinder to get a new master made.


6/17/13
Took the lock over to McGeorge and got a new key made. Holy balls my keys were worn as hell check this out. It was even starting to crack. One or two more unlock attempts and it would be snapped, stuck in the lock. The key opens both front doors, but the hatch lock won't turn. I'll have to remove the cylinder and grease it up or something, later.

6/18/13
I got the input shaft seal and bearing cover gasket put in on the W58. The output shaft seal was quite a bit more difficult. The one IN the transmission was a little different design than the part I got from Toyota, I guess it was updated over time. The one in the transmission was a metal outer shell (maybe brass?) with a rubber inner seal. The new one was all rubber. I had to pretty much destroy the old one getting it out with my slide hammer.

6/19/13
I got 99% of the intake side stuff disconnected. Two fuel lines left on that side, plus the starter cable, then off to the exhaust side, then the radiator, and then it should be about ready to go.


6/20/13
Fe came up with the name of the car today. The car's name is Joby, after this magnificent video.


The plate shall be "AWW JOBY"

Anyways, I got everything else disconnected and the engine is basically 4 bolts away from being ready to come out. Since I don't have a hoist, I decided to clean up some of the more visible bits of the engine. This thing is probably the dirtiest engine I've ever seen.


So I took a tupperware container and threw in some water and simple green and some friends and I scrubbed the two intake manifold bits, valve covers, throttle brackets, and fuel rail until they were thoroughly degreased.



So then later this evening I got all the paint off the valve covers and prepped them for paint. Here's how they turned out:


And here's how the engine sits right now.