Gary's Track Day/Fast Road Weekend Car 1zz Turbo.. Now Built 2zz Turbo with E153

[Gaz2405]

Starting to get most things button up and ticked off now.

Fuel rail and return line installed.

Battery moved to the frunk

Battery cable ran through the passenger side into the engine bay.

Manifold and turbo back on.

Gear selector cables back on along with clutch slave cylinder

Gave the rear subframe a lick of Paint

Still waiting for a spare expansion tank to be delivered.

Other than that she's ready for a test start. (After filling it with oil!)

Although I want to make sure the rest of the car is together, so I can get some miles on the engine as soon as she's started.

[Gaz2405]

Also the stage 4 clutch is much stiffer to operate, but is still no where near what my 1st mini was..

[Gaz2405]

Sooooo.....


She runs!!!

Few issues on start up.

1. Fuel pissing out, (radium rail with ID1050x injectors) ended up having to double or ring them in the rail.

Shouldn't be happening with close to £500 of injectors and fuel rail, but hey that's modifying cars isn't it!

2. Struggled to get oil pressure just by turning on the starter
 The engine had been sat a while, so after going back through all of my photo's of the build, double checking the o ring was fitted, priming the oil filter etc. I just decided to send it.

Boom 6 bar of oil pressure.

Few I've not fecked it!

3. TPS still needed the polarity switching in the EMU Black software, as it was reading 100% WOT at closed throttle and vica versa.

Idle is still lumpy and needs some adjustment on the injectors, or I might have a small vacuum leak. I'll get that done one night this week.



So plan is now to get the idle sorted, then put it under some alternating loads for 20 minutes, drop the oil, change the filter, new oil in and go get some miles on it.

[Call the midlife!]

I know you know what you're doing but personally I'd do the alternating loads before spending time sorting the idle, I'm about 95% confident I ruined my first rebuild by leaving it idling before breaking the rings in...

[Gaz2405]

I know you know what you're doing but personally I'd do the alternating loads before spending time sorting the idle, I'm about 95% confident I ruined my first rebuild by leaving it idling before breaking the rings in...

If the idle takes longer than a couple of minutes to sort, that's the plan.

[shnazzle]

Still running the external wideband controller?

[Gaz2405]

Still running the external wideband controller?

Yep still on the innovative wide band, with 0-5v input for the ECU

[shnazzle]

Still running the external wideband controller?

Yep still on the innovative wide band, with 0-5v input for the ECU

Good. Definitely keep it that way

[Gaz2405]

Well some fact finding happening tonight, started by finding the source of the lumpy/erratic idle.

I checked all the coils, all firing fine.

Then tested the injectors.....

2 of them were working intermittently!!


First thoughts running through my head, dodgy new engine harness maybe?


So swapped back in my 630's...just to check, all firing fine.

1st start then  idle straight away, now let's get some load put on this engine!

20 minutes of varying loads. Done.

Now to drain the oil, get the rest of the car put back together and get some miles on her (hopefully Christmas Eve).


I knew I should have used as much of my old tried and tested set up first.

Looking the the injectors it looks like some poor connections on their extended looms, so I'll order a kit to sort that.


Overall glad I got to the bottom of it, but slightly miffed I didn't do a quick outputs check, ( although why would I same harness etc ....) 🤣

[Gaz2405]

Took a half day at work today.

Christmas and all!!

Got home and it was car time.

Drive shafts back in, gearbox filled up.

Snapped the filler cover in half at the O ring fml. Anyway got it out and there's enough led to bodge it at the moment until a new one turns up.

Crash bar back on, charge cooler filled up.

Rear bumper back on.

She then moved under her own steam..

That'll do for now, exhaust next.

[Alex Knight]

Sounds fruity.

[Gaz2405]

So as I'm getting some miles in the engine I'm having some real issue's with how it's running at the moment.

It's not pulling big vaccum at idle, and there definitely isn't a leak.

It's only pulling 10 inhg. Around half of what it should be doing.

Myth only hope is that I've forgotten to put the inlet manifold gasket on but it's highly unlikely.

Now during the rebuild process I don't touch the head, I just assumed it was fine. (Starting to regret it now)

I'd just in the back of my mind that there could be a burnt out bent valve.

So I'm going to drop the engine, (check the inlet manifold).

But I think in all honesty I'm going to give the engine another once over and open it up again, just to be on the safe side.

I think when I put it back together and in in going to do it in stages.

Start with my old turbo and manifold 1st, (I know what that set up should feel like) got three running in. Then switch to the Holset.

I'm going to pull the car out of the garage so I've got plenty of space to work on the engine whilst it's out.

Minor set back, but better to do it now.

[shnazzle]

So as I'm getting some miles in the engine I'm having some real issue's with how it's running at the moment.

It's not pulling big vaccum at idle, and there definitely isn't a leak.

It's only pulling 10 inhg. Around half of what it should be doing.

Myth only hope is that I've forgotten to put the inlet manifold gasket on but it's highly unlikely.

Now during the rebuild process I don't touch the head, I just assumed it was fine. (Starting to regret it now)

I'd just in the back of my mind that there could be a burnt out bent valve.

So I'm going to drop the engine, (check the inlet manifold).

But I think in all honesty I'm going to give the engine another once over and open it up again, just to be on the safe side.

I think when I put it back together and in in going to do it in stages.

Start with my old turbo and manifold 1st, (I know what that set up should feel like) got three running in. Then switch to the Holset.

I'm going to pull the car out of the garage so I've got plenty of space to work on the engine whilst it's out.

Minor set back, but better to do it now.

Compression test come up OK?


Where is your MAP sensor?

[Call the midlife!]

What are you idling at? Mine has to idle fairly high to get enough vacuum for the MAP sensor with the big cams.

[Gaz2405]

Tried idle all the way out 1300 and never pulled more than 50kpa.

I've had a good couple of hours on it since the last post and it's just about ready to dropout now.

It just didn't feel right all through the rev range.

[Gaz2405]

So as I'm getting some miles in the engine I'm having some real issue's with how it's running at the moment.

It's not pulling big vaccum at idle, and there definitely isn't a leak.

It's only pulling 10 inhg. Around half of what it should be doing.

Myth only hope is that I've forgotten to put the inlet manifold gasket on but it's highly unlikely.

Now during the rebuild process I don't touch the head, I just assumed it was fine. (Starting to regret it now)

I'd just in the back of my mind that there could be a burnt out bent valve.

So I'm going to drop the engine, (check the inlet manifold).

But I think in all honesty I'm going to give the engine another once over and open it up again, just to be on the safe side.

I think when I put it back together and in in going to do it in stages.

Start with my old turbo and manifold 1st, (I know what that set up should feel like) got three running in. Then switch to the Holset.

I'm going to pull the car out of the garage so I've got plenty of space to work on the engine whilst it's out.

Minor set back, but better to do it now.

Compression test come up OK?


Where is your MAP sensor?

Yeah compression cold all 175psi which for 8.8:1 is around where it should be

Mao sensor is ECU's own, but I also check vaccum on my boost gauge which is from another manifold source and all confirm low vacuum at idle, and positive pressure far too early (way before u should be seeing any boost.)

[shnazzle]

You've got all the one-way valves into the pcv system?

[Gaz2405]

You've got all the one-way valves into the pcv system?

Running catch cans...

[Gaz2405]

And it's out again.....

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[shnazzle]

You've got all the one-way valves into the pcv system?

Running catch cans...

That doesn't matter That's just a can between the same pipes

Unless your catch cans have one-way valves in them

[Gaz2405]

You've got all the one-way valves into the pcv system?

Running catch cans...

That doesn't matter That's just a can between the same pipes

Unless your catch cans have one-way valves in them

Even if they're venting to atmosphere?

Didn't have one way valves on my old set up.

Both breather crank and cam case venting to a catch can, then to atmosphere.

[shnazzle]

I can't remember your setup.
Just open questions.
Just in case your mani is atmosphere instead of vacuum with the catch cans

[Gaz2405]

So engine out, ancillaries off, head off, car out on the drive for some room to work.

Left the head upside down last night with some water in to check for leaks.

Ordered a set of ARP studs for the head, new head gasket, and full gasket set.

[Gaz2405]

Hmmmmm...

So after a 24 hour water leak down test on the valves, they're all tight and not letting anything through.

An inspection of the valves with the cams in and turning them manually shows no sticking or signs of bent valves.

I'll remove them all to double check on that front.

So has me thinking that I may have set the ring gaps too large on the first ring.

I'll rebuild with a slightly tighter top ring gap, and go over the IACV and rebuild.

Other than that I'm at a loss to be honest.

All the bores are fine the cylinders with no signs of damage.

If anything it's given me some thing to do over winter/autumn and there's a few bits I want to tidy up in the engine anyway.

[Gaz2405]

A few parts ordered.

New mahle piston rings, I'm going to double check my ring gaps, but pretty sure I did 0.022 for 1st and 2nd ring as per Mahle recommendations.

However, most guys in the US tend to go for 0.20 1st and 0.18 2nd.

I also managed to snap the connector on the vvti solenoid, so ordered a new one too.

I'll get the valves out in the next few day to check them over.