Toyota Sera, progress and website

Richard Kilpatrick waffled on in a quite bewildering manner to produce...

nicely done page, and an interesting lookin lil' motor.

There was (perhaps) still is a pretty rough yellow Sera of a similar vintage cruising around up here. Always wondered about it. Your little web page was very interesting, thank you. (c:

Douglas

What a strange little car - I quite like it!

Always liked those. Lovely styling, but a little lacking in performance..... wonder if Katie would have one instead of Sei Sporting next year? ;-)

i love the doors, i was told there rare but there's 2-3 of them round my way, 2 white and 1 grey one i think

Nooo! I'd need to change the gearbox too.

Besides, there are plenty of Starlet engined Seras going about.

What would be nice would be an MX-3 V6 transplant ;)

Richard

that would be quite an expensive transplant richard.

I like it lots. Did they do a "hot" version ?

My other one would be to put an RX7 rotary in my XM ;)

Richard

nope, only the gas mark 2.

Well, its aa Toyota, surely the only logical option is the 3.0 twin turbo Supra engine :D ?

It's a bit long for the Sera - no matter how you tried fitting it ;)

Bloody thing is still in the garage, as the new headgasket would appear to have been duff /or/ there is another problem. Loads of smoke on startup, clears after a couple of miles :/ Not present when hot, only when started after sitting overnight.

Richard

Valve stem oil seals maybe?

They replaced them. My first instinct too. They reckon that they aren't 'recessed' so oil shouldn't pool in them, but there's definitely something amiss there. The smoke is largely white/blue/yellow tinged, which they're saying is water; I reckon it's oil, with water from the cold start, a (probably) fouled cat, and overfuelling due to the thermostat being stuck open, so the car never fully warms up.

The claim of water leads to claims of cracked head/block, which simply don't tie in with the lack of smoke prior to the gasket failing, or their claims that Toyota bottom ends are bulletproof and the head was declared healthy. *shrugs*

Richard

Hmmm. Perhaps you should take it to a different garage ? Are they just going to keep replacing stuff until the problem goes away ?

The problem is traced. The rebuilt head is fine, but the increased compression from having the valves seat correctly cracked a ring. They've done hot/cold compression tests, and started from cold, upon which the claim that it was water was very quickly retracted. When cold, the ring is slightly open and the vacuum is drawing oil past. When warm, of course, the ring closes. It would also explain why the crankcase is being slightly pressurised.

I should have had the bottom end done at the same time. Bah!

New thermostat has cured the black smoke when revved due to the mixture being too rich when the car was warm. The old one apparently came out in two parts.

Richard

You're just not trying hard enough. There's an article in this month's JEC magazine about an onwer who has put a V12 6.0 engine into a Mk2 Jag.

The MkII wasn't designed to take anything that big so it was an impressive bit of modification.

At least the Mk II was designed for RWD from the start ;)

If I had the money (and for some reason didn't just want to go out and buy a Bentley), I'd have a suitable transaxle with a Lexus V8 mounted in the middle, losing the rear seats. And inboard suspension at the front. Basically taking the off-the-shelf 'supercar' shell of the Sera and making it into something at least worthy of the name. Even if it really is just a Starlet in drag ;)

Richard