Evening all. New site looks great! This is the continuation of my previous build thread. Here is a pic of the car as it is now:
I can’t guarantee progress will be very quick, but, am hoping to do a few things this year.
5 Likes
welcome over mate. I love seeing your sirion a nice progressive build.
1 Like
Thanks Jimmy. Appreciate the welcome and encouragement.
1 Like
Welcome to the new forum. I’ll get onto your extractors eventually.
1 Like
Haha. No rush. I have other things I’m working on right now for the GTVi that are using my money.
1 Like
I am tentatively book in with an engine builder to get the Rally 2 exhaust camshaft installed on the 14th of this month. Pretty excited as I’ve had the camshaft for about 2.5 years now and haven’t trusted myself to do it. I’ve asked around mechanic shops on Gold Coast a few times regarding this and people either don’t get back to me or weren’t very keen to do it. Found a guy who mostly builds old muscle cars, but, knows his stuff and is happy to do it. Gotta wait two weeks as he flat out until Cooli Rocks On is over.
After that is completed I’ll be focusing on doing a few small things to prepare for the track day. I don’t think I’ll get to a copen brake upgrade before then, but, I do have race pads for the Sirion. Hopefully, they will add extra bite and won’t fade.
I would love to get some better tyres, but, don’t think I’ll have the money. I think my Mugan wheels might be lighter than the current ROHs, so might swap back to those.
I would really like to either lower the drivers seat or raise the steering wheel as the seating position is a bit too high for me. Any suggestions of an easy way to do this?
5 Likes
Sirion is in getting cam installed. Today was focused around figuring out what shims needed to be used on the valve stems. They have now been ordered. Just gotta wait for them and then use the buckets to fine tune the valve clearance. For those interested, the shims don’t go on the end and of the valve stem like I expected, but, they go up under the buckets to space them out.
2 Likes
The standard buckets have a shim as part of the bucket. From Toyota (Daihatsu parts), you order the appropriate bucket to suit the clearance required. Last I checked when building thea K3-VE2, Toyota only had access to 5 of the 20 buckets that Daihatsu originally offered.
Because the rally 2 cam is a regrind the difference between the regular cam and this one is 3.04mm, hence the need for a shim to go over the shims in the bucket.
1 Like
Camshaft in! What a mission that was! I’ll write a post about it later tonight. First test drive will be later this afternoon. Excited 
4 Likes
Ok more in depth post. Firstly, let’s start with the outcome: the cam takes an already revvy engine and makes it even more eager to rev. It easily pulls all the way to the 7.5k redline and never feels like it wants to stop. Above 4K rpm the engine feel less restricted than before and revs come more easily.
The process: as stated above once we put the cam in (the first time) there was definitely a noticeable difference in the height of the lobes due to it being a regrind.
We ordered a set of spacers from a company in Melbourne using specs given to me via someone in the U.K on the Dai performance Facebook page. We got the spaces, fitted them to the buckets and refitted the cam. The clearance was way too much. Around 1.6mm too big.
We called the company who made the shims to try figure out where we went wrong. Turns out that they misinterpreted our measurements. We gave them the total height of the shim including the hollow and they took that as the amount we needed spaced plus the height of the hollow.
With this now figured out and a new set of spaces sent, we went about trying to find out how we were going to fine tune the clearance. As Dale pointed out Toyota only carries 5 sizes for the buckets and none of them were what we needed.
What we did was swap around the buckets to ensure each one had too much clearance and then machined each shim to give us the right amount of clearance.
All this took about 1 week and 3 days with lots of phone calls to machining shops, engine rebuilders, Ford (apparently some buckets for some of their cams are fairly similar) and Toyota parts departments and etc.
Glad it’s all done. Once I get one my computer I will upload a picture of the shims.
3 Likes
sounds completley hectic but worth it. Especially if your happy with the outcome as it seems you are
The gtvi in Australia 75kw/102PS standard yeah? If so then its the same as we have here in Germany, so I might have to look into a camshaft for mine hehe
what do they usually sell for and how does it affect the low to mid range, any noticeable loss of torque?
Yea 75kw here in Australia. The camshaft is out of a rally 2 in the U.K. Both the rally 2 and rally 4 have the reground cam. There was only about 300 sold total of the rallys, so there isn’t many around. Bob Fudge (the same guy that can get extractors from Malaysia) help me track mine down. He said that it was only time he had seen one for sale at the time. Cost me a few hunderd £s including shipping.
Just off idle it feels a little weaker, mid feels about the same and top end is notably better.
3 Likes
Thanks Jimmy. Looking forward to testing it out at lakeside.
2 Likes
How is the muffler going?
1 Like
It’s going really well! Not too loud and has a nice sound.
3 Likes
I’ve posted on the FB page, but, thought I’d do an update here as well; Last week I spun a bearing, that messed up the crank and possibly more. Mechanic stated that he thought a new bottom end was the fix. I have been contemplating moving on to a different car for a while now, so, took the opportunity to pull the pin on the engine rebuild and start over.
I will be getting the Sirion home sometime this week and pulling off all parts I think are worth selling (unless someone wants it as is).
What will my next project be? Lets just say that I will be MOVING on 
2 Likes
Mate that sux about the bottom end giving up but the best part of a blow up is it gives you an excuse to build a better motor!
2 Likes
Sad to hear bloke 
but onto other things
2 Likes