A31 Cefiro With 2jz Turbo + 5 Speed Mt

[madhav]

Hi all, name is Madhav. Originally from Perth but moved to Thailand a few years back.

Been living here in Koh Samui for a few years, have discovered there is actually a pretty mad modified car scene in Thailand. Locals love to modify JDM cars. However the real bonus is that there are no speed cameras where I live and the police couldn't give a shit, can pretty much do whatever I want without being bothered. For example I frequently overtake police cars where I live and they couldn't care less.

I started looking to buy a car with a budget of about AU$6-7k to spend. Wanted something turbo, manual, reasonably lightweight and with good possibility of upgrading to make more power. Found the A31 cefiros to be a common tuner car here.

The Thai people love to smash RB25's and toyota 1J and 2J engines in them (even saw a few with 1UZ engines). Found this one and had it checked out by a mechanic and it all came back ok. My previous car was a mk 4 supra with a single setup, so was more comfortable 2JZ. Easy to make big power is an added bonus.

The original owner spent a spent a small fortune. Lots of mods, many of them appear to be more track orientated though.

ENGINE:

2JZGTE with stock twins boosted at about 15psi

Usual breathing mods - intake, exhaust, cooler, BOV etc

HKS Cam gears

Noisy as hell fuel pump setup with surge tank

More but I got a list in Thai which is hard to decipher

DRIVETRAIN:

RB25 5-speed manual (FS5R30A)

HKS clutch of some kind (heavy and noisy)

OTHER:

Koni shocks (stupidly stiff)

2 pot front and single pot rear brakes with uprated brake lines

VOLK 18' rims with 245 front and 265 rear tyres

INTERIOR:

Roll cage

Fixed bride seat which is a bitch to get in and out of

Christmas tree style instrument panel and gauges

That's it for now. looking forward to picking people's brains about modifications.

[madhav]

Since driving it a bit I have found most things are awesome, but a few things that annoy the shit out of me.

1: Fuel pump is overkill considering I won't be tracking it. It is both noisy as hell and the cabin smells like fuel. Thinking to go an in-tank walbro E85 compatible pump? Anyone know how simple this operation this will be, ie to rip out that whole setup & put an in-tank pump?

2: Shocks are way too stiff, making driving uncomfortable. Thinking to change to something softer. Assuming there will be plenty of options given the local scene here?

The engine and gearbox are great and it drives and sounds awesome. I noticed it smokes a bit though under throttle. Probably turbo seals on stock twins or maybe running too rich.

Plans are to obviously put a single turbo setup. Thinking a garrett GTX3576r on a log style manifold and convert the fuel setup to E85. Labour is cheap as chips here. Not sure about tuning though, will have to do a bit of research.

[Burger]

Wooooow

[CeJay]

Nice car

[PranK]

Any updates?

[madhav]

Updates:

Uncomfortable racing seats are gone and replaced with some locally made 'recaro' seats. ($100 each)

Surge tank gone and a walbro in-tank E85 compatible pump installed and ID1000 injectors.

Checked and fitted new wiring throughout most of the engine bay as it was poorly done before and creating issues.

HKS F-CON V Pro v. 3.24 ECU installed

Tuned for E85 with stock JDM ceramic twins on about 14 psi of boost. Power was a mild 350whp though made great torque output of 520 ft- lbs.

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This is on 1 bar of boost (14.5psi) running E85 with factory twin turbos. Not a huge amount of power 350whp but the car is very light and also the torque spread looks fantastic and very drivable for a street car.

I picked up some newish champiro sx2 tyres which were essential as it was not keeping traction at all, spinning like crazy.

Also brought back a second hand Holset HX35 turbo which I picked up for $200 off Craigslist. Have seen people make around 500whp with an immense amount of boost and have the shit beaten out of it all day long.

Will chuck it on in a about 2 weeks and boost the shit out of it. No hurry really. That price included a rebuild kit but the guy had it checked and said it didn't need a rebuild. Can always put a bigger rear housing if I want more power but I am a fan of better response/torque over outright power.

The guy who owns the workshop is a real supra nut. Has three mk 4 supras, one FD RX7 (has a 2JZ of course) and a monster 900hp Cefiro with a single turbo 2jz.

About 15 minutes drive away is the local drag strip where they organise all kinds of events. He took me there when I dropped my car off a few weeks back. Turned out to be a local drag race event on. People there had brought along all kinds of buckets of shit. A lot of diesel pick-up trucks/utes, 4 cylinder NA stuff and also a handful of high powered JDM stuff. Turns out this guy's 9 second cefiro is the fastest of the whole track. Although the track itself is still in construction and only 200 meters (full 400m coming in a month) but the whole scene was great fun. Rules are obviously a lot more relaxed also being Thailand.

Bring whatever car in whatever state you want, no special clothes, not even a helmet. Could race as many times for basically the whole day (or until your car blows up, but this guy owned the local towing service so didn't mind)

Passenger wants to ride? No problem. No seat belt? No worries. They did have a ambulance there though on duty. Anyhow will be going there for sure once my car is ready with new tires. He said foreigners never ever go, so should be fun racing the local Thai people.

This is one of his cefiros from the event, seriously hauls ass once it gets on boost:

Has one of those new GTW turbos.

[PranK]

Great update! Looking really good!

[madhav]

Mechanic sent me a message with the dyno chart. Will pick up the car tomorrow. These guys can definitely build engines, but don't appear to tune that well, so will probably take it elsewhere to get it tuned properly. Can see the dip in power before it comes on boost. But from what I saw while they were tuning it it comes on hard at about 3100rpm, but before this it was breaking up. Pretty decent power for only 17.5 psi. Crazy responsive turbo. Will be interesting to see how the setup performs on higher boost.

470whp and 499.1 lbsf-ft torque at 17.4 psi

[madhav]

Picked it up and took it for a drive, the boost response is insane. For a $200 turbo it is f**king unbelievable, pulls really strong from 3100rpm onwards. Honestly can't believe how good value these turbos are. Much better than my old GTX3076R or GT3582r.

Spoke to the tuner and he said that the setup actually made 540whp at 1.5 bar (21psi) and will make even more but he said he wanted me to get used to the lower boost setting before he dials in more boost. He said with upgraded cams and more boost 600whp is possible. After driving it I agree that I should get used to it and probably upgrade my tyres.

[Soundboyracer]

hx35 hmm, interesting.

 

[CeJay]

nice setup