LPG Spyder (build thread)

[feralcrew]

Hello everyone! My car is a red 2001 5-speed manual Spyder.

So I thought that having a single build-thread is an awesome way to keep track of my car's life and progress towards the dream build I have in my mind.
Being a bit OCD, I will hog a few posts so I can later edit them, to keep everything organised and have all the info and conclusions on the first posts.

I bought the car in the summer of 2014, it's past life consisted of 3 years in France, some light accident (bent rear left knuckle and bodywork damage), then 10 years in my own country Lithuania, where it spent all winters safely in a warm garage. The car was stock, only mods we're blingy things (door handle surrounds, gauge surrounds, shift boot surround, tweeters, some heavy and shiny shift lever, filler cap surround), among them the rear hardtop mounting points, and a TTE dual exhaust.

The car was an ideal compromise between something very fun and something I can daily-drive all year long. It had rear-wheel drive, and LSD, low weight, low fuel consumption, two seats, quite a low price (noone buys convertibles in my country, not enough sun) and exotic looks - what else can a 23 year old guy want!

My thoughts after the first mile we're mostly centered about the horrible scuttle-shake that made me think that all shock absorbers we're dead (first convertible I've driven). Then I started my 150 mile journey home, top down, sun in my face, music turned up and embracing the feeling of wind, engine noise and other convertible-things  s:) s:)

After a few days I dropped the car off for the LPG conversion - it took a day and around 600$ to do, now every 100kms I save ~6-7$ because LPG is less than half the price of gas.
This was an absolute must to make the car daily-driver friendly, gas prices are crushing in my country. An additional bonus is that LPG burns much much more cleanly, the oil has less deposits and that means your rings are less likely to get caked in oil and eat up the poor 1ZZ.

After that I started my long build, that doesn't have an estimated completion date.

LPG Information
The LPG tank is a toroid shape, mounted in the spare tire's place - it was pretty much the only logical place and it allows to put a bit of weight over the front wheels to reduce understeer.
It's capacity is ~35 liters, it can be filled to ~33 liters max, that gets me ~205 miles of city driving, ~260-280 highway miles.
The LPG system only switches on at about 45 degrees celcius engine temp, so it starts on petrol. Due to Toyota engines being prone to valve seat burnouts with LPG fuel, the system adds up to 20% petrol above 4000 RPM to improve lubrication.




MOD LIST

Engine / Transmission

- 76 mm hose instead of plastic elbow between air-box and pipe in the fender. End of the pipe cut open to get air from side vent, not engine compartment.


- TTE dual exhaust modified to exit through stock grill, added butterfly valve to control noise level. Full de-cat, a resonator instead of cat.


- Cut stock shifter cage bushings to remove play in the shifter cage. Replaced shifter cable bushings with bearings to reduce play in the shifter.

- 50mm reduced shifter length, modified a Corolla shift knob to fit (more comfortable).


Suspension / Chassis

- DIY breastplate (8mm thick aluminum plate a-la Corky's breastplate). As crude as it looks, it's really effective at reducing scuttle shake.


- DIY MSMB and FMB braces, will post pictures after painting and fabricating a RMB.

- Lightweight R16 wheels powdercoated in gloss black, 10mm less offset.

Exterior

- Front bumper middle part covered with matt black vinyl. Later I added a lip from a Seat Cupra R, ~30 Eur from your local VW/Audi/Seat dealer  s;) s;)
   


- Inner tail-lights modified to work the same as outer lights.


- LED lights in front parking lights and number-plate lights.

- Painted center part of tail-lights housing black. Don't worry, it's still bright enough.
     

- Removed orange indicator lenses from the headlights.


- A-pillar covered with matt black vinyl (will post pictures)

- De-badged
- Antenna toggled by window lock switch.
- Midship runabout badge.


Interior

- DIY foam-padded elbow rests in the doors, blingy strip on the map-pocket, black grab-handles.


- Tinted HVAC dials to be darker.
- Changed all gauge lights to more powerful ones (~2W instead of 1,4W I think) to better light up the dials.
- A TON of sound-proofing felt behind the rear storage space.
- Aftermarket radio and speakers with a micro-subwoofer behind the passenger's seat.

PLANS FOR THE FUTURE

Maintenance:[/b]
- Remove absurd alarm system that protects against nothing but tortures me every day
- Respray half of the car (clear coat is flaking).
- Replace torn rubber bushing on the steering-rack that is now a hole for water to come in when driving through puddles.

Mods:
- 2ZZ + C60
- PFC
- A black hardtop
- DIY arm-rest
- Make shifter's lower part longer (reduce throw)
- Front suspension tower brace
- Aftermarket bushings
- Celica seats
- Matt black vinyl on the rear bumper middle part
- Adapt an Audi A5 spoiler I have and cover it, side vents and mirrors in carbon fiber
- Even more sound-proofing felt
- Dev's keyhole covers
- Move battery to frunk (need to get a smaller battery to fit with the LPG tank)


Because money is far from abundant, the mods from the "future plans" category will transfer to the "done" category pretty slowly. But you can bet I'll have loads of fun along the way  s:) s:)

Just a random pic of me and my friend, after a wash.

[cabbydave]

Love the exhaust mod

[StuC]

Interesting mod with the LPG to make the car affordable.  s:-D :-D s:-D  

+1 on the exhaust mod.

[1979scotte]

Interesting mood with the LPG to make the car affordable.  s:-D :-D s:-D  

+1 on the exhaust mod.

What was interesting about the mood of the LPG Stu?  s;) s;)

[StuC]

 s:lol: :lol: s:lol:   s:lol: :lol: s:lol:  thanks Scott. I bet that felt good.  s;-) ;-) s;-)

[ChrisGB]

Nice work, I particularly like what you've done with the exhaust.

[Mike G]

Good work and nice write up
BTW  the increased wieght of the LPG tank under the bonnet is going to increase understeer... not decrease   s:? :? s:?

[Davegtst]

Love the DIY butterfly valve in the exhaust.

[feralcrew]

Thanks guys! I fell in love with my exhaust too when I finished it, although it took quite a while to make it sit nice.

I was rather dissapointed with the butterfly valve, because the difference it makes is really quite small (even though the final version has a bigger valve than the one pictured) and mostly heard on idle RPM's.

About the understeer - I thought that making the car more 50/50 weight distribution would kind of reduce the understeer?  s:D s:D  Now that my TTE springs are bedding in, all I'm lacking is an alignment and some rear bracing. I think noone noticed, but I've removed the rear crash bar to accomodate the exhaust, and that made the rear end flimsier, I have to mod it to put it back in.

Oh and just so the post isn't so "dry" - I've met up with another mk3, also added a lip spoiler recently.

 

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[lamcote]

Love the Seat Cupra lip spoiler, do you have a part number? Is it from a current generation Leon Cupra R?

Thanks

[feralcrew]

The part number is 1ML805903, It's from an older Cupra ( m http://www.oreton.com/images/cars/lcr/IMG_8464.jpg m  )

It costs ~30 Eur in any VW/Audi/Seat dealership, is a "pretty" good fit, does require a bit of cutting and bending (with a heat gun) by the sides (where my black middle part meets the red part of the bumper), because the stock bumper has a ~2-3cm height difference that must be taken into consideration. I used a bunch of self tapping screws, but there's plenty of room for improvising your own fitment.

Best part is, it's an OEM-sturdy part, it's extremely bendable, I've already scraped it's bottom and even got the car stuck in sand ( forest roads with lowering springs and lip - adventure!! And friends coming to push me out, while the car is lying on it's belly - I have a DIY metal brace, so it's alright... ) and there's no damage to it whatsoever.

[lamcote]

Brilliant thanks, I have a face-lift car and the bumper looks to be pretty flat across the bottom, I might just get one and have a go. Did you take the bumper off to fit it?

[feralcrew]

Yeah, from what I saw looking at the FL bumper, it should be even easier to fit. In any case, you will need to shorten the two "stems" in the middle of the lip. The width of the lip is PERFECT for our bumper, just be sure to check a few times how the sides will look, because there's a few different ways you can fit them (that changes how protruding the ends are to the sides).

You definitely want to take off the bumper to fit the lip, it isn't a 5 minute job, I spent maybe 3-4 hours to get it more or less perfect (heating/bending is time consuming), and you will have to mock-up the bumper while fitting the lip to make sure it's going on the way you want it to. There's quite a bit of freedom as to how far out the lip protrudes from the bumper.

If you need any more help feel free to ask  s:) s:)  I'll add a few more pictures.