2-Door Toledo - JJB923K - Sprintified!
Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2016 2:06 pm
Most of you have probabaly seen this car by now since I've owned it over 2 years but I've never said much about it until now.
I originally bought it off eBay and collected it from Lancashire having been sat around 10 years. Apparently it orignally had a 240hp engine and nitrous kit fitted but unfortunately when i bought it i got a smokey standard lump. The seller was vague as he wasn't the owner (a friend of) but i was told it was orignally built for rallying and competed in the early 2000s. It did have a lot of spare sets of wheels and engines at that time but they were either lost or sold along the way through various owners. When i bought the car it was dark red and cream (rhubard and custard!), it looked very odd.
It had;
- LSD
- Princess 4-pot calipers and vented discs.
- Koni shocks & springs
- Spitfire fuel tank
- Bucket seats
- Fire extinguisher system
- Brake & fuel lines inside
- Full polybush kit
- KN Minator wheels
- Oil cooler
- 2" SUs
- Seam-welded shell
- Air horns
- Battery box in the boot
- Solid gearbox and O/S engine mounts
- Battery cut-off
- Full 2" Exhaust
- Weld-in roll cage with door bars
That's all i can remember at the moment. For what it had, i got it very cheap. Over the next year or so i made quite a few changes such as fitting GAZ coilovers, an oil cooler thermostat, electric fan, 7J Weller 8-spokes, wideband AFR gauge, accurate oil pressure and coolant temperature gauges, Dellorto DHLA45s on a 48mm bore manifold, electronic ignition with uprated coil, cap, plugs & magnecor leads.
Having got the car running good enough on the road i had it on a dyno. My god was it smokey but the first pull was over 150hp which shocked me on a standard head (although it did go very well). The end result after a lot of ignition advance and playing with jets was 165hp at the fly! I think this is somewhat high since all dynos read differently but i was happy with it!
What followed this was my first track day, which lasted 3 laps at Combe (last year). I ended up in a cloud of smoke inside the car with little compression on 1 cyl, headgasket i thought (as you do) and the following day set about stripping it. What actually happened was the piston melted in cyl 2.
The cause, well. I put it 98 octane in for the dyno day and normal for the track day, lesson learnt! Never use more than 36deg max advance! Having totally striped the engine it was clear that the bores were knackered which explained the smoking and the jackshaft bearing was also grooved, the head also got warped. Luckily i had another block so i put the internals into that with a hone and new pistons and fitted a rebuilt head. Little did i know how crap the block was until now.
The engine went in and performed even better but it was quite noisy. I've lost count of the amount of times ive stripped the head and timing gear to find the noise but never found anything. Process of elimination of checking everything left me with piston slap. Stupidly i never measured the bores when building the bottom end since i rushed it to get it back on the road and now i have tappy piston skirts. Today i am actually planning on removing the engine and sorting the bottom end and keeping it as a spare. What's replacing it is a fresh rebuild i have just bought with a ported head, Piper 270 reground cam, vernier sprocket, ARP rod bolts, new AE pistons, balanced bottom end, lightened flywheel, skimmed head etc. I will also be fitting an electric water pump because i have rebuilt so many standard ones. Hopefully this engine will take me under the 1:27 barrier at Castle Combe! I will be having it dyno'd asap so watch with interest.
Last year i also had a problem with the rear wheel bearings having rediculous end float. I tried new bearings and different amounts of spacers but nothing worked. In the end i thought there must be a problem with the driveshafts or diff so i got Ken Clarke to have a look and he confirmed that the diff was wrong. It had, what we think, is a TR LSD fitted which doesn't have the essential driveshaft retainer meaning my driveshafts could move laterally. Because of the cost of LSDs and the fact i own a Skyline with a welded diff which i like, i thought I'd get a standard axle and try welding the diff. Since then, it has been perfect. I have absolutely no complaints with it on road or track. No excess understeer or oversteer and you can see that from my track videos, even my passengers have been surprised. I even recommend it as an alternative since LSDs are about £1000 these days (if you can even find one). Please note however, if you do it, make sure you have a competant welder and be prepared for a bit of skipping below 5mph.
Although the current engine is loud and tappy it does perform well and has seen 2 track days this month. Apart from running hot (95deg+ revving to 6300rpm) and the odd water pump leak it has been fine. There are 2 onboard videos on YouTube from the track days if anyone is interested.
I thought I'd make this thread and try and update it as i make further modifications. The plan for the car at the moment is just track days but i am thinking about entering it into a suitable championship in the future.
I originally bought it off eBay and collected it from Lancashire having been sat around 10 years. Apparently it orignally had a 240hp engine and nitrous kit fitted but unfortunately when i bought it i got a smokey standard lump. The seller was vague as he wasn't the owner (a friend of) but i was told it was orignally built for rallying and competed in the early 2000s. It did have a lot of spare sets of wheels and engines at that time but they were either lost or sold along the way through various owners. When i bought the car it was dark red and cream (rhubard and custard!), it looked very odd.
It had;
- LSD
- Princess 4-pot calipers and vented discs.
- Koni shocks & springs
- Spitfire fuel tank
- Bucket seats
- Fire extinguisher system
- Brake & fuel lines inside
- Full polybush kit
- KN Minator wheels
- Oil cooler
- 2" SUs
- Seam-welded shell
- Air horns
- Battery box in the boot
- Solid gearbox and O/S engine mounts
- Battery cut-off
- Full 2" Exhaust
- Weld-in roll cage with door bars
That's all i can remember at the moment. For what it had, i got it very cheap. Over the next year or so i made quite a few changes such as fitting GAZ coilovers, an oil cooler thermostat, electric fan, 7J Weller 8-spokes, wideband AFR gauge, accurate oil pressure and coolant temperature gauges, Dellorto DHLA45s on a 48mm bore manifold, electronic ignition with uprated coil, cap, plugs & magnecor leads.
Having got the car running good enough on the road i had it on a dyno. My god was it smokey but the first pull was over 150hp which shocked me on a standard head (although it did go very well). The end result after a lot of ignition advance and playing with jets was 165hp at the fly! I think this is somewhat high since all dynos read differently but i was happy with it!
What followed this was my first track day, which lasted 3 laps at Combe (last year). I ended up in a cloud of smoke inside the car with little compression on 1 cyl, headgasket i thought (as you do) and the following day set about stripping it. What actually happened was the piston melted in cyl 2.
The cause, well. I put it 98 octane in for the dyno day and normal for the track day, lesson learnt! Never use more than 36deg max advance! Having totally striped the engine it was clear that the bores were knackered which explained the smoking and the jackshaft bearing was also grooved, the head also got warped. Luckily i had another block so i put the internals into that with a hone and new pistons and fitted a rebuilt head. Little did i know how crap the block was until now.
The engine went in and performed even better but it was quite noisy. I've lost count of the amount of times ive stripped the head and timing gear to find the noise but never found anything. Process of elimination of checking everything left me with piston slap. Stupidly i never measured the bores when building the bottom end since i rushed it to get it back on the road and now i have tappy piston skirts. Today i am actually planning on removing the engine and sorting the bottom end and keeping it as a spare. What's replacing it is a fresh rebuild i have just bought with a ported head, Piper 270 reground cam, vernier sprocket, ARP rod bolts, new AE pistons, balanced bottom end, lightened flywheel, skimmed head etc. I will also be fitting an electric water pump because i have rebuilt so many standard ones. Hopefully this engine will take me under the 1:27 barrier at Castle Combe! I will be having it dyno'd asap so watch with interest.
Last year i also had a problem with the rear wheel bearings having rediculous end float. I tried new bearings and different amounts of spacers but nothing worked. In the end i thought there must be a problem with the driveshafts or diff so i got Ken Clarke to have a look and he confirmed that the diff was wrong. It had, what we think, is a TR LSD fitted which doesn't have the essential driveshaft retainer meaning my driveshafts could move laterally. Because of the cost of LSDs and the fact i own a Skyline with a welded diff which i like, i thought I'd get a standard axle and try welding the diff. Since then, it has been perfect. I have absolutely no complaints with it on road or track. No excess understeer or oversteer and you can see that from my track videos, even my passengers have been surprised. I even recommend it as an alternative since LSDs are about £1000 these days (if you can even find one). Please note however, if you do it, make sure you have a competant welder and be prepared for a bit of skipping below 5mph.
Although the current engine is loud and tappy it does perform well and has seen 2 track days this month. Apart from running hot (95deg+ revving to 6300rpm) and the odd water pump leak it has been fine. There are 2 onboard videos on YouTube from the track days if anyone is interested.
I thought I'd make this thread and try and update it as i make further modifications. The plan for the car at the moment is just track days but i am thinking about entering it into a suitable championship in the future.
