sweet pics, was lovely to see you again! hope you won’t have any problems anymore from now on 
goodluck on whatever still needs work, but I bet you’re having a ton of fun with the new 4 Cyl 
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Right back at ya! It was good seeing you guys too
And yes, I do enjoy the mightyboi 4 cylinder! I’m going to take this opportunity to give a little update on the car.
WHAT’S IT LIKE LIVING WITH A 3SZ CUORE?
Yes, obviously it’s cool, and obviously it’s quicker than before, but it’s also kind of… weird. It feels like a different car, but still my car. It’s very hard to explain, but I’m just going to go through a drive to my garage , to point out the things I’ve noticed.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
I get in the car, and the first thing I notice is the smell. I don’t know what it is, but it smells weird. Like a mix of mold and petrol. Sitting in a garage for a month with the windows down probably isn’t great, so I should give the interior a thorough clean and see if there is a certain place where the smell is coming from.
Another (quite obvious) difference is the gauge cluster.
I used the gauge cluster from a Sirion M1 1.3 (elsewhere known as GTVi)
I has a silver background with red numbers, and I think it’s a cool different design. However, it just isn’t for me. The cluster just doesn’t fit in with the rest of the car I think. Which is kind of weird, considering I’ve had the heater control panel (that came from the same car) for over 2 years now, and I do like that. My friend @Roffelkut has the same gauge cluster in his K3 L7, and I think that looks great, but that just matches his car.
I might fiddle around with my old gauge cluster, and see if that works for me. Which one do you prefer?
Quick fun fact: the gauge cluster and the blower control switch hanging below the dashboard (temporary fix), are the only visual differences in the interior.
DRIVING
Alright, I already spent an entire page on talking about the sound of the interior and looks of gauge clusters, and I didn’t even start the car in my imaginary drive. Oh well, I just like telling stories like these. Let’s proceed.
START UP
The fuel pump priming doesn’t sound any different, but that’s where the similarities end. The starter has a different sound, and when the engine turns, the car doesn’t shake as much as it did before. After less than a second, the mighty 3SZ bursts into life with a small ‘vroom’. It’s insane how smooth the engine is compared to the EJ. Whereas the EJ would vibrate the entire chassis, this engine (or probably most 4 cylinders) barely does. Okay, you can still feel some vibrations, but it’s still pretty good for shitbox standards.
DRIVING OFF
Pressing the clutch doesn’t feel that different, although the clutch engages slightly earlier than before. The gearbox is noticeably tighter than an EJ gearbox, but still not great. Driving away doesn’t require as much revs as before, and the engine produces an actual note, instead of the ‘uuhhHRRRRRRRREEHHHHH’ the EJ produces when driving off.
ENGINE AND GEARBOX
That brings me to the engine’s behavior, which is actually great. The throttle response is instant, and overall the engine is pretty rev-happy, which I didn’t actually expect it to be. And although it’s great for an engine to have those things, it really highlights a bad gearbox characteristic: the short diff ratio. Yes, I know, better acceleration etc etc, but here’s the thing: his isn’t a trackday car, it’s my daily. In town I have too many gears, out of town too few. Put it in 5th at 40 km/h and it would still accelerate, no problem. This also means it’ll do 4000 rpm @ 130 km/h, and I think that’s a bit much for a 1495cc torque-y boi.
Speaking of torque: there’s plenty of it. When you floor it, the car really moves, but it’s not impressively fast. What I do think is impressive, is that it’ll pull from anywhere in the rev range. The EJ doesn’t really do anything below 2000rpm, but the 3SZ will happily pull from 1000rpm. Almost like a diesel (surprise). By saying it’s “not impressively fast”, I don’t mean it’s slow, but 103hp just doesn’t make it a Bugatti Chiron, that’s all. I wanted an engine that had good torque figures for daily driving, but still had some power to give you that “wow that’s a pretty quick shitbox”-feeling without spinning the tires in 3rd gear. And that’s exactly what this engine is. It really does the car justice in terms of performance.
STEERING AND BRAKING
The only L7 suspension bit that is currently on the car, is the LCA. Apart from that, I changed everything. The steering rack and knuckle came from a Sirion/YRV, the ARB came from a Copen, and the brakes came from a Materia/Sirion 2. And yes, I do have BC coilovers, but they were already there.
Steering is heavy, but after a while you get used to it. I changed steering racks because the old rack was a disaster. Going around a corner required 1.5 steering wheel rotations, and I was able to go around a roundabout using one finger, because the steering was so light (which meant feedback through the steering wheel was poor). Although the steering is not perfect yet, it certainly feels a lot beefier and requires less steering input.
I can’t really tell the difference between the old ARB and the new one, because:
- before the swap, the tires would rub like hell so I never really tested it
- there aren’t that many twisty roads around here
- the seating position is quite high, so it doesn’t matter how much the car rolls in corners, because you’ll fall out of your seat anyway
Still in love with the yellow
Although I upgraded the brakes from 211mm to 254mm, the pedal feel is quite similar. Very gradual, and a tiny bit spongy. The sponginess is probably caused by a bit of air, and it’ll be much more aggressive once the bigger master cylinder is in. The brake piston is larger in diameter (54mm vs 51mm), which means it requires more fluid (thus more pedal input) for the same amount of piston travel. The bigger piston will be fitted together with the new brake lines for the ABS system (somewhere in the future).
ISSUES
So far there haven’t been any mechanical problems, just warning lights: CEL, ABS and brake warning light. The CEL is caused by the fact that CAN doesn’t detect any systems (because there is nothing to detect), the ABS and brake warning light are caused by the ABS system not being fully installed yet. I need to install the rear sensors and new brake lines for the system to work.
NOW WHAT?
Well, I’m just going to drive the car and enjoy my hard work. I’m not really pleased with the way the air filter and coolant hoses are fitted, so those are the first things I’d like to do next. After that, I’ll just try and make it work and look as OEM as possible, for ultimate satisfaction
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Fantastic work mate, you’ve put a lot of effort into this build and done it well. Now just like you said, go and enjoy your hard work!
Looking forward to seeing future upgrades and modifications you do.
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Thank you! I hope your K3 swap is coming along nicely as well
concerning the steering rack, is this only applicable to your setup? or would this fit in a regular L7 configuration as well? I want to set up my project for autocross / trackdays and would deffo like to not have to swing the steeringwheel around three times before it actually corners
I think the M1/M2 steering rack fits the L7 subframe. To physically fit the steering rack, you need to use the M1/M2 brackets and rubbers. The L7 tie rods fit the M1/M2 steering rack and are necessary for the bump steer to stay the same (also, make sure to get it aligned properly). I chose to skip the power steering for various reasons, one of them was to improve the feeling. In order to do that properly, you need to connect the two power steering inlets on the rack housing so the piston doesn’t build pressure, and plug the holes on the control valve. As I’ve shown earlier, the joints for the steering column shafts don’t match with the ones on the L7, so you have to come up with a solution for that. Oh, and you need to drop the subframe to do all of this, so make sure to plan everything carefully so you can do it all in one go.
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You could do a rack swap. There is a Toyota rack that with a fair bit of work will bring it to 1.5 turn lock to lock. If it is a race on car and not road drive and your race rules allow, the steering arms are forged and a cut and shut can be done. If your race rules are really loose and you won’t drive on the road, then a quickener like used in speedway can be added. I’ve done all the former on one application or another. Going with a different rack is the most expensive and intensive.
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I believe I have heard that the copen rack is 2.9 turns lock to lock, which is better than the Sirion ones (3.5 turns). Not as good as 1.5, but, better than stock.
TRXX Mira elec power assist are said to be fast steering rack
. Bear in mind the pivot point distance between the rack ends need to match the distance between the lower control arm pivots.
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I’ve owned a Copen, and it appears to have the same rack as the YRV (in terms of ratio). Both did 3.5 turns lock to lock
I was told a number of years ago that the Koyo branded steering racks for the Copen (sirion and etc are KYB) were 2.9 turn. I could be remembering wrong or was ill informed.
Whoops, I just saw a video of my old Copen and it appears to be 2.9 rather than 3.5 indeed. My apologies good sir! I remembered it incorrectly. In that case yes, it would be better than the Sirion/YRV rack. However, Copen parts are pretty expensive (at least here), so I think the upgrade from 4.5 to 3.5 is better value for money than 3.5 to 2.9 .
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for all this conversation on steering racks etc. I noticed when I was on FB the other day one of the Suzuki group’s posts came up on my feed and the conversation was very similar to what is discussed here. I saw that someone had gone and designed a new rack so there was less lock to lock. From memory, it was quite expensive. Has anyone tried installing the ecu and steering electric power column or modify the unit to fit from an L251? I have one and everything here and will attempt it in the future but it will be a while before I do.
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I was actually going to do that, but I found out that the rack is narrower or wider (I can’t remember which one) than the older racks which would affect steering geometry. On top of that, the housing and mountingpoints are quite different, making it difficult to fit. It’s probably doable to make it fit, but I reckon it will involve a lot of elbow grease and fabricating. I don’t have the tools or skills for that, so I settled for this rack. If you’re going to give it a crack, remember to check the U-joints and see if they fit without any adjustments. I forgot, and it’s a super annoying thing to overlook 
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yeh it be for an L200 and I have a spare L200 column so I can paly around with it all. (no hurry atm) Years ago I attempted to install an applause power steering rack into an l200. I got all the fab done to physically install it and when I finally did It threw the whole steering column out to the left so muck I would have to shift the whole column over etc. I decided to call it a learning experience and scrapped the idea. haha
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Thinking back to when I owned the Copen, I believe to remember that the turning radius (although we mostly measure curb to curb here) wasn’t as good as the Cuore’s. I looked up the numbers and it’s 9,2m for the Copen vs 8,6m for the Cuore. On top of that, the Copen’s wheelbase is 120mm(!) shorter, which should decrease the turning radius, but doesn’t.
I think that the Copen’s steering rack does in fact have the same (or similar) ratio as an M1/M2 rack, but that it’s simply limited to 2.9 turns. That would explain why the turning radius isn’t is slightly worse than the Cuore’s, even though they share a fair amount of suspension bits.
EDIT:
There are various numbers for the Cuore’s turning circle, but almost all of them are still less than 9,2m
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LIL’ UPDATEROO
I’ve driven the 3SZ powered Blyatsu for about a month now, and nothing much has changed. The car still drives very good, and the to-do-list is still there (though slowly getting shorter). However, that CEL caused by the CAN system not detecting anything turned out to be much more of a problem than I initially anticipated 
. For those of you that didn’t read my “WARNING LIGHTS” bit in the questions-section, here’s a summary:
I was visiting some friends, which was about 90km away, and when I was making my way downtown
walking fast, faces pass and I’m homebound - no wait
When I was driving home, the engine suddenly lost power. It wouldn’t rev any higher than idle speed, and I had to pull over twice because of this. As it turns out, the ECU needs a speed signal, or else the fuel is cut off. This signal should come from the ABS ECU, using the CAN system. I’ve tried swapping the old ABS unit with the new one (with CAN communication), but no luck so far. Luckily I don’t have to drive all that much and all that far, but I’m not comfortable anymore driving longer distances on the highway. I really hope I can sort this out soon, because I just want to drive the car without having to worry about it breaking down or anything.
I believe the main issue is that the ABS ECU simply doesn’t connect with the ECU. I keep getting a fault code (U0001) saying the CAN system doesn’t detect anything, even though it is wired up with the ABS module.
The canbus wires actually go to the gauge cluster first, before going to the ECU. But looking at this diagram, it seems like the signal is split into two directions, which means the gauge cluster could be left out, I reckon.
I still have 1 or 2 ideas I’d like to try, but I’m starting to run out of options unfortunately 
. I’m not really planning on having to mess around with ECU’s and stuff, so I just hope I can make it work as it is.
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My worst nightmare is trying to figure out what’s wrong with a ECU or anything along those lines. Might sound like a silly suggestion but seeing as I believe you may have removed the ABS wiring loom from the donor car to fit into the Cuore, did you check all the cables are fully intact, are all the connections and pins clean and fully seated? Are you maybe picking up interference on the CAN wires.
Just the other day I had to fix an Ethernet cable that someone had rejoined by twisting the wires together and it wouldn’t work until I soldered the wires and then it worked fine, maybe you might have similar problem somewhere with too much resistance within a connection or wire causing problems?
Yeah I will check if everything is intact. I did solder the wires, and pretty tidy as well (I think). Apart from figuring out what wire goes where, wiring is not my strongest point, which makes it even more frustrating having to deal with such a complex system. I’m going to do a bit of research on canbus, and see if there are certain things that require special attention (like interference for example). Unfortunately I’m very limited in tools and knowledge, so it’s going to be tough figuring out what’s the solution for this.
GOODBYE BLYATSU… FOR NOW
To get straight to the point: no, I’m not getting rid of the already legendary Blyatsu 2. However, I am going to put it away for a while, but for a good reason. As you would’ve read earlier, I have that ECU issue where the CAN system doesn’t work properly/at all. And even though that’s probably the biggest item on my to-do-list, it’s not the only thing on the list. Wouldn’t be a projectcar if it was, would it? No, the list consists of quite a lot of items.
The problem is that, even though the tasks themselves aren’t that challenging, most of the task require taking the car apart (partially). This means I’d have to go to my garage, take the car apart, fix a minor issue, put the car back together, and go back home. This is a very inefficient use of time, so I decided to just put the car in my garage, so I can take it apart once, and then cover all items on the list.
This created a new problem though, because with the car in the garage, I wouldn’t have anything to drive. And since I didn’t want to ‘borrow my way through winter’, I decided to take a different approach. A friend of mine was planning to ‘K-swap’ his L7, but the timing wasn’t right. However, this created an opportunity! I offered him to buy a car together with me, which would serve as my ‘winter beater’, which he could then use it as a donor vehicle for his swap! And so…
Say hello to Daihatsu #5: a Sirion 1.3 M1! It set us back €700, and for that money we got… exactly what €700 of car can offer.
To be honest, it’s a bit of a shitbox, but that’s okay! In the end, it’s the inside that matters, right? Having said that, the drivetrain does actually need a bit of TLC. I don’t know if it’s a Dutch thing or something that happens all around the world, but over here people often seem to buy/have bought these cars thinking "Oh that’s great! A cheap car that is also reliable. It doesn’t require that much maintenance ". And no maybe that’s not exactly the way things go, but I know plenty of people who only take their car to a garage when something’s wrong, or go like “yeah I just put in a bit of oil every now and then, and then it’s good to go!”. Not everyone is into cars or understands cars the way we do, I totally get it, but it’s a shame to see how some cars’ lives come to an end prematurely, just because it wasn’t serviced regularly/properly.
Alright, end of rant. What I wanted to say, was that it’s in need of a good service and wrenching. The thermostat is broken, I don’t want to know how long the oil has been in there, all pedals feel weird, and the engine feels a bit lazy sometimes. All parts should be here within a few days, so hopefully I can get to wrenching soon!
I don’t think I’ll be posting a lot (or any) of updates for a few months, but we’ll see. Until next time
(Also: 100th post 
)
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