TSZ 1MZ-FE, The project car Options

[Box]

Looks great! I really like that Baltic Blue, it's a great colour for the car.

[TimeslideZ]

Nothing new (exactly), just had the first start this year now that it's averaging 40's during the day. Not worth the drive yet w/ snow on the ground.
Looking at budget this year will probably be pretty light. Probably get the push-start installed then maybe do some driver's mod (gotta use them D3 Direzzas).



And yes those are MR2 wheels (14") in the back. I got them free from my buddy but obviously got some 1" non-hub adapters for like $50 new.
Don't worry they're just so I have a set to have the car on over winter. BTW, the wheels DO NOT FIT the front; but the rear does even w/ the disc brakes (+ adapter).

[TimeslideZ]

Well there hasn't been anything new on the car. Just got it ready for summer and went out to a couple meets.
Latest one so far is the MN Toyota one, where it was just me and this black 6gc (3sgte).



Got some noise coming from my left side when I'm nearly at a stop. It's the brakes but I'll replace it when I get my Avalon calipers painted and put on.
Other than that the battery has finally taken it's toll, 6 years living! I applaud BOSCH batteries lasting so long. Any recommendations?
Still gotta fix my exhaust leak, probably see if I can cut and do straight pipe as well.
Need to also get smaller spacers in the back so I'm not majorly cambered, then get an alignment so it doesn't shake so much.

Money money money, luckily I started a new job. Much better paying than before, just gotta get rid of some payments and then parts again!

[NgoFcukinWay]

Wal-mart battery. Warranty is pretty easy to deal with.

[Box]

Go super JDM and order a Panasonic Blue battery.

[TimeslideZ]

Went with the AGM Gold, let's see how long this one lasts!

On the other hand, I finally got the chance to take the car out on a long drive. Took it up to Duluth (2 hours north) for a wedding.
Got some photos in, unfortunately I'm too lazy to do some real editing so I just did some quick Windows Edit.



The weekend after I went to Iowa (2 hours south) for a family camping. A bit bittersweet going there as I maxed out at 120 mph around 5,600 rpm IIRC.
Car got REALLY dirty once I got on the dirt road. But a car is meant to be driven, so I embraced it.



Things may be on hold for now as my brother finally got my buddies 5SFE from his MR2 to swap into my brother's 6gc.
Still need to get my spacers; still need to get OEM strut bolts; still need to get my brakes painted...

This post has been edited by TimeslideZ: May 26, 2020 - 8:09 AM

[Box]

Parks in a no parking zone, drives into a flooded field, then gets covered with dirt going down a gravel road. Poor car.

[TimeslideZ]

It's been a while, have some little updates here and there.
Been working OT so money flow has been nice enough for me to get parts for the car.

First things first, what I was planning on doing:


Along the way before getting an alignment I decided to replace both my outer axles w/ some cheap Import Direct from Oreilys.
Given the spacers on the axle, the boots are bound to rip regardless. I have to look into seeing if I can reduce the length.

Back to the main thing though: basically a major rework on my wheel setup. I finally got around to getting 5mm spacers along w/ the standard and dots 1-3 bolts. Additional was a rear windshield wiper bolt clip, a paint pen, a TRD windshield banner, and a 7gc steering wheel.

Before the main thing, wiper clip! Definitely exposes how faded the rest of the wiper is. I forgot that for my front I'm missing one so I'll probably get that later too.


I knew my rear was pretty bad when it came to camber, and I wanted less w/o major rubbing of any sort.
All in all I traded in the 15mm spacers for 5mm so the wheel sits further inside. Keep the dot 3 crash bolts though for alignment.


It doesn't look bad but I actually had about -3 camber in the rear when I went in for the alignment.
Speaking of that, I did go into a buddies of mine and had my wheels aligned.
First time the car was on a lift under my possession, so I decided to check out underneath and also the CAT length.
Not bad overall, dirty but still clean enough for me to not worry about it (yet?).


We took about 6 hours doing the alignment b/c of (eventually finding out) the front axle spacer.
For the "spirited-driving" setup the idea was to get -2.0 front/-1.5 rear w/ little + toe. However based on my setup there were some issues:
- Even w/ the Dot 3 crash bolts in the rear, I was only able to achieve -1.3.
- With the fronts, b/c my right axle spacer is too thick, running anything less than -1 will bind the axles.
- Even w/ the Eibach crash bolts and the coilovers set to max, we were still only able to achieve -1.3.

So all in all I have 0 front/-1.3 rear w/ little + toe. The next things to do before another alignment are:
- Reduce the passenger axle size from 1" to 0.5" if possible. This should give it enough space so I can run -2.0.
- Replace the standard bolts with crash bolts for my lower strut bolts on both ends. Probably a dot 3 up front and dot 2 in the back.

Nice thing about the lift was I was able to easily measure the CAT length (12.5") which fits the LCE pipe I later installed (sorry no pictures).
The LCE pipe was only 2.25" in inlet/outlet size compared the the piping (2.5"); however w/ the play area on the bolt inserts I was able to make it work.

I know LCE has a 2.5" one but at 17.5" length. I didn't want to have to send it to a shop to do some cut and weld atm so I opted for the standard 12.5".
I still wanted to keep it a little quite but also free up the exhaust. I'd guess even w/ 0.25" less diameter the free-flowing of the test-pipe should be better flowing then w/ a 2.5" CAT (could be wrong though).

Original: CAT, LCE test pipe: Test-Pipe

How does it sound compared to the CAT though? Sounds just a tad louder; but still pretty quiet nonetheless thanks to the SP2.
Not what I wanted exactly; but not so much louder which I'm pleased about. (Tried it "open," NOPE TOO LOUD.)

Looks-wise, the rear are definitely straighter, which helps w/ the wearing. As for the fronts, w/ the 0 camber it looks a bit like they're poking just a bit. But I'm okay with it, since I already have a higher height I left the car at so I can travel long distances.

Took it out for one last end meets before the salty season appears and I have to store my car:


Last but not least, there was a guy selling some AEM gauges nearby so I went ahead and bought them.
Boost (30-4406), Oil Temp (30-4402), Oil Pressure (30-4407), and A/F (30-4110). He luckily had all the wiring and gave me some free mounts; but I may not end up using them.

That's pretty much it for the year probably. The cold is settling in and the body work will probably be on hold until after.

Btw, I didn't install the steering wheel. The stitching needs rework, so I'll probably do that first. But it did give me a chance to see the wiring.

Found out that the cruise control wiring is different (compared it to my brothers 6gc, same year); so I'll have to look at that some more.
Removed the cruise control switch though, which is nice to not have it there although I gave up my horn lol.

[Box]

Boost gauge eh, trying to tell us something?

[TimeslideZ]

Boost gauge eh, trying to tell us something?

He he... Maybe... I'm not sure yet lol, but I'd figured I'd buy it with the rest "just in case."

[TimeslideZ]

Started stockpiling parts to install once spring comes:
Gauges (previous post)
Bought the Runabout Weighted Shift Knob from Superklasse. Went for the red stitched for a more OEM look.
Also bought Bill Dana's 986 caliper bracket and A4 rotor adapter.

[NgoFcukinWay]

you can probably downsize all of those gauges down to 1 (maybe 2) if you use the BTI Gauges CAN gauge depending on if you decide to go standalone or not. I say that even though I'm running 3 gauges on my set-up (Boost, BTI CAN gauge, and AEM wideband). lol

[TimeslideZ]

you can probably downsize all of those gauges down to 1 (maybe 2) if you use the BTI Gauges CAN gauge depending on if you decide to go standalone or not. I say that even though I'm running 3 gauges on my set-up (Boost, BTI CAN gauge, and AEM wideband). lol

Ha ha the plan wasn't to go standalone since I'm not sure where I'll be going w/ any power upgrades yet.
Do you have integrated pillar mounts like this?


I want to see if you could possibly "plastic weld" a gauge pillar mount onto the OEM one but I'd figured it probably will not look as good.
But this one here from ortizcustompods is so expensive... $219!

[NgoFcukinWay]

I'm not a huge fan of the boy-racer look of the a-pillar gauge pods, so I ditched the one that came with my car in favor of an older DCW gauge pod that sits on the dash over the AC vents.

I think $219 is fair for the gauge pod assuming it's an OEM pillar cover and then he put in the work to seamlessly add a triple gauge pod to it. Would save me the trouble of doing it myself if I were to go with the pillar pods cuz even with those, I wasn't a fan huge fans of the universal ones that bolt right in the pillar cover. Looked tacky.

[snapshotgt]

Years later and I still enjoy coming back to check on the status of the car -- keep up the good work!

[TimeslideZ]

Years later and I still enjoy coming back to check on the status of the car -- keep up the good work!

Colin! I'm glad you still come around now and then to check out the car.

Quarantine update: I'm still having to work so no time to the car. But that's okay b/c it's still pretty cold still in MN.
Nothing done to the car yet, however I did finally pick up some 986 calipers for the front:



Debating if I should try it out first w/ the 7gc rotors before trying the audi b6 rotor + adapter as well as what color to paint them.

Also bought a bunch of lighting over the winter. Went led for all the small interior/exterior lighting; but retained HID for the front lights.
All 6k lighting intensity; so hoping they all turn out the same since I wanted unified. Except the fog, might get the yellow tint for those.

[TimeslideZ]

Hope everyone is doing well despite the pandemic. Luckily I was deemed essential so I'm still working, but remotely now which is actually quite nice.

Anyhow... new update: lighting overhaul (in progress).

Bought a bunch of LED's for the interior and exterior. only thing I left HID was the headlights. Unfortunately I didn't buy some of the correct bulbs so ordering some more along with other parts but that's going to take some time.
Probably the most difficult interior to get to was the climate control; but thanks to the awesome article here it was pretty easy to get to. Only replaced some since I wasn't sure if I'd like the original idea of all white.

Had to bring in a folding table cause my hobby table is setup for remote work atm.


Only replaced 4 LED's (2 shown), tbh they're probably way too bright but I'm going to drive the car for a week or two to see if I like it.
Still debating if I would want to go all white or just replace the original color bulb's w/ a brighter LED one of the same color.


Also got a few pieces from others: dcw triple pod, abs aluminum panel, dcw prototype gauge cluster housing.
Picture of the triple pod w/ the gauges i got last year. Please... ignore the dirty garage shelf lol.


My buddy is going to re-machine a new abs aluminum panel as well as my worn aluminum panel since they're all scratched up or dented. With new one's I also ordered some hood struts so my new panel won't get damaged.
Other parts include misc parts I needed for the 986 caliper conversion. I bought 3 blank discs, one to try the drilling process myself and as a spare in the event I mess up.
Just went w/ some EBC green pads, and thought I mind as well replace my rears as well.

Last but not least over winter I got the KS oem weighted shift knob. I recently decided to also purchase the ebrake and shift boot to match (red stitching).
Now I just need to find the updated oem 3 spoke wheel with red stitching....

Issues found during lighting overhaul:
- I don't have a cigarette lighter light, I think it was removed during the swap. Going to check w/ my brother's car to see if I can hook one up or steal his lol.
- I wasn't originally looking into this but I finally fixed the wiring for my heater seats. Few broken connections on the driver side and wrong pin connection on the passenger.
This was annoying me since my switch for the driver side wasn't working (lighting up) so I got annoyed and was trying to figure out why that was. Kinda scary since I know nothing about what brand and the wiring for the heat pads.
Great I got it working, sad that well... These pads are over 10 years old so they're not working efficiently, I'll have to invest in new pads if I want that feature.

What's next (hopefully lol):
- Finish lighting overhaul i.e. climate control, ignition/cigarette lighter lights, rear taillight LED conversion, fog/hazard switches, and then HID low/high/fog lights
- Sand down the dcw prototype cluster and get it painted to a glossy black, then replace that along w/ converting the gauge cluster lights to LED
- Get new abs and radiator panel machined
- Get an oil sandwich adapter so I can start hooking up my gauges (makes it easier that is), probably also relocate my knock sensor too so I'm not losing power b/c of timing.
- Drill the rotor so I can try out the caliper conversion. If that holds well then send all the calipers off to get them painted (debating on color atm).

Future stuff (that I really need to get to):
- Get my rear spats sanded and painted
- Get my roof spoiler fixed/sanded and painted
- Stop spending so much money on cosmetics and get an LSD for the transmission (I'm already near $2k spending, so I don't know if I want to spend another $1.5k for it just yet...)

Gotta say though with all of what's going and and me spending so much on the car (~ $2k w/ all the above or at the end of it lol) despite it probably not being the best decision, I'm very happy to be able to finally be doing stuff like this.
Not doing any major performance upgrades (yet); but I've always dreamed of spending money on the car when I was younger and broke lol. Feeling pretty good now that I just turned 25 and is this far. Who knows, maybe I'll just sell this and my FRS and get a 997.2 .
Jk ha ha, that's still out of my price range, maybe the new corolla wagon? 2.0l supra when it comes out?

This post has been edited by TimeslideZ: Apr 10, 2020 - 11:01 PM

[TimeslideZ]

Hey it's back up! Lol some more updates to be had, but minor.

Got my CC lighting done, along w/ the SuperKlasse weighted knob/boot (still gotta sow it on to the metal plate thing though).
However the lighting behind the buttons are amber due to the burnt scaring over time, so need to figure that out (it looks kinda ugly at night).
Spontaneously bought the roof slab of poly and another one (needs fitting still) and I gotta say it looks good. Much more subtle.


Full HID conversion in the front, however all three emit different range even though they all should be 6k (same brand w/ same adapter and etc.)
Had to do some wiring work on the fog lights as the back end has the cup covers. Next part is probably to do some yellow tinting on the light(s).


Last but not least got my buddy to machine out the panels. Radiator one is pretty good; but we figured we can extend it outward the headlights and further into the bumper some more.
As for the other panel, I figured out that these panels don't fit as well since our AC lines interfere with it. However testing out it might be fine to leave it on top as is.
My buddy and I are still working on a few minor changes so more rev's coming. Plan is to have it as a latched panel that can rotate outward for easy access to the stuff underneath.

[cheela]

looking good man! when are you gonna supercharge that thing?!

[TimeslideZ]

looking good man! when are you gonna supercharge that thing?!

Lol whenever I can actually find one (a good one that is)! I almost got one a while back but it was just a tad bit out of my budget.

Now that I have some money though nothing's showing up. Maybe I'll just be like Alenor and go 2GR instead...