This already happened a few weeks ago, but I have done some work on my Carina. The most important update was replacing the Celica Supra rims with a set of Black Racing rims. In addition to that, I finally installed a fuel pressure regulator to, hopefully, fix some rough idling of the 2T.
Watanabe knock-offs
I refurbished these Watanabe knock-offs last year by sanding them down and painting them with a rattle can. I can’t say it’s perfect, but they do look heaps better than they used to. The black paint on them was fading and they were in desperate need of new tires.
The fitment is far from ideal. From a distance, it looks great. However, from close by you can see the gaps between the arch and the tires. I’ve chosen 185/60 R14 on 6.5-inch wide wheels and these are about 4% smaller than the 185/60 R15 that were on the 6-inch wide Celica Supra wheels. The wider wheels also cause the tires to stretch slightly as well. The Carina now definitely is in need of some lowering!
Lowering options aren’t plentiful. It is possible to fit AE86 springs on the rear. However, up front, it requires different spring retainers as the Carina retainers are too small. There are Celica A60 lowering springs available: the Australian company Dobinson makes them. However, including shipping it would still add up significantly. For just a little bit more I could invest in a set of T3 Celica A60 coil-overs. Choices…choices…
Malpassi fuel pressure regulator
I also fitted a fuel pressure regulator on my Carina. As I described in an earlier post, the engine was overhauled last year. During this overhaul, the fuel pump on the engine died. It did its job very well over the past 42 years, but due to fuel starvation, it probably dried out.
I tried to source a replacement pump, but the fuel pump on the Carina TA60 is unique. The pump features a fuel inlet, a fuel outlet and a fuel return. This means there is a fuel pressure regulator built-in within the pump. The issue is that Toyota features fuel pumps without a return line on previous iterations of their 2T engine. On the first generation of 2T engines, there was no return line. In the second generation, they managed excess fuel by adding the fuel pressure regulator inside the carburettor.
When the carburettor is fed too much fuel, the float will kill the flow using a float needle. The A40 generation then fed the fuel to the return line. On the A60 generation this was moved to the fuel pump. Unfortunately the TA60 was only for sale for a little over two years, which means you are not going to find a new pump. The only pump that I could find was a 2T pump suitable for the first and second generation Celica and Carina.
Replacing the pump with a low-pressure fuel pump should not overflow the carburettor. However, on my engine either the float needle is worn or the fuel pump creates too large of a pressure. Hence I needed to fit a fuel pressure regulator.
The engine now runs a lot smoother and the idle is less shaky. Also during sudden decelleration the carburettor will no longer overflow. So this is a definite win!
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