The Semi-Unofficial Pistol-Forum Car geek, gearhead, hot rodder, and vehicle thread

[JRB]

My winter update - I'm incorrigible and not very smart.

A lifelong family friend has had a '93 MR2 Turbo T-top for years. A cool car already, but this one has factory Turquoise Pearl (746) paint, and a 2.2L forged 3S-GTE with some nice goodies in it. Bad news? The car has been sitting forever and was getting a round of needed upgrades, but all that happened was parts accumulation. This family friend is no stranger to hot rodding, but all of his experience is in vintage muscle and this Japanese shit is a little bit beyond him.
So, it came to my place where I'll be setting up the Haltech PS1000 standalone ECU properly, tossing out pretty much every factory sensor on the car, and going to ATS Racing crank and cam sensors and doing a smart coil conversion for the ignition system using coils from a Yaris or Celica GT-S, haven't decided yet.

As you can tell from the pictures, I've got some other work lined up too - rebuild the carb and refresh everything in my Dad's '71 340 Demon so that's a runner again - it's an original manual car but it has a floor shifted 727 auto and 4.56:1 gears out back now. When he first restored it when I was still 15-16 years old, I remember it hauling ass to 60mph, but hating life much beyond that. A friend has a 3.73:1 8 3/4" axle, but it has 5x4.5" hubs which will necessitate a wheel change for the factory 5x4" Rally wheels currently installed. Thinking about just swapping the R&P and calling it a day there.

The '95 3000GT is my Mom's old 'kids have their own cars now' fun car. Has 176k on the odometer and the timing belt tensioner failed, but the engine still ran, it just made a hell of a racket. I'm sincerely hoping that the valves are all okay and it's just a matter of doing a timing belt job to get it back up and on the road. My Mom's 5-spd manual days may be over, though, but she's owned that car so long it's basically a member of the family now.

The 300ZX is my '95 twin turbo auto, I'm still sorting out a few final Z32 problems with it, namely an intermittent CEL that Nissan's CONSULT software doesn't find a code for, and I need some small wheel spacers to allow the Volk GT-N wheels to clear the front brakes. I might go back to the very polarizing but very retro Japanese 3-spoke Work Equips though.

The white '91 MR2 Turbo is back together, running well, and for sale - I had a prospective buyer visit this past weekend and we're talking it out. The guy owns a '89 RX7 Efini - as in, the Japanese market RHD version of what we got as the RX-7 Turbo II, so if he can keep that car alive I'm sure this MR2 will be in good hands.

And maybe after getting all this done, I can finally get my Supras over to my house and get started on them. My '95 Supra is sitting in my Dad's garage where the '71 Demon usually sits, so once the Demon can head back over there, I'll have room for the Supra here.

On the shop pic, you'll notice our Husky mix named Dolly, aka Dolly Barkton, doin' her a heckin' guard dog pose. Don't let that fool you, she's worthless as a guard dog, she's an alarm system at best. But she's such such a sweetheart it's hard to be upset about that.

[OlongJohnson]

Looks like a great dog. The Eyesore Racing crew had a similar one. She was the best.

[Wyoming Shooter]

[0ddl0t]

Is that an AW11 lurking in the background?

[JRB]

Is that an AW11 lurking in the background?

It is! It's an '85. It's an old SCCA ITA class car that was (obviously) not competitive in ITA but it was a lot of fun to drive on a track anyway. I have a 20v blacktop and LSD 6-spd C160 trans for it, if I ever get around to it that is.

[Welder]

Absolute score, on both cars! Those 17x8 wheels on the TL are made by Enkei, who not only produce a hell of a lot of good aftermarket performance wheels, they do the load engineering and other certification testing for some other seriously high end wheel makers including Ray's Engineering aka Volk Wheels in Japan. Plus being native Honda fitment they're naturally hub-centric and you can put a fantastic tire on a 17x8. Well done! As you probably already know, any of those J-series V6's are worth trying to save as well - they respond to turbocharging VERY well

The diesel trick does work fine in aluminum motors, because the cylinder liners are still iron. But be careful with quantity. I prefer to just squirt a little diesel down the spark plug hole, enough to get diesel around the whole piston, and let it sit until it all drained past the rings, let all the diesel drain out of the oil pan drain, then slowly rotate the engine by hand, lather rinse repeat. Tends to clean a lot of gunk out of the oil pan too, doing it that way

I'd try Dexron 5 ATF, Seafoam, Marvel Mystery Oil, etc first, but if those failed I'd use this diesel trick to free up the rings in 1999-2002 vintage Toyota 1ZZ-FE's, which had problems with rings seizing up and oil burning at low ass miles for a Toyota, like 100-150k.

Yeah, the only thing about those TL wheels is that they're heavy - about 24 lbs each of unsprung weight. But I'm currently in the bottom quarter of the overall results and will likely remain there until I burn the 400 TW rated tires off of both my Accord and then the TL rims, so wheel weight is the least of my concerns. I figure by the time I burn these tires off, I should have a better idea of what I'm doing and maybe stickier ones will be worth it then. I do have a Progress rear bar coming for my 04, biggest one I can buy. I think it's supposed to arrive this week. I'm going to make that my only mod for awhile.

Got home at 7:45 this evening, went straight out to the shop and put the drain plug and new oil filter in the 08 and lowered it down. Mixed one quart of Dexron III (what I had on hand) with 3.5 qts of random 5W20 and 5W30 oils I had sitting around, then dumped the whole shebang in the crankcase and started it up at 8:00. I've been puttering around waiting for 9:00 to come, when I'll shut it down and drain it overnight again. I'm interested to see what'll come out. I'm thinking of doing the exact same thing a second time since I have a second quart of Dexron III, maybe with a little diesel mixed in for good measure. Because you're right, iron liners. Duh.

Then I guess I'll put plugs in it, another oil change, and drive it and see what happens.

[OlongJohnson]

Yeah, the only thing about those TL wheels is that they're heavy - about 24 lbs each of unsprung weight.

Dang. I like 15.5 lb for a 17x8.

[Welder]

Dang. I like 15.5 lb for a 17x8.

Yeah, what's that rule about rotational weight? Each lb shaved is equal to x lbs of static weight? 2? 10? Can't remember and anyway I've gotta go cut the oil burner off and see what comes out.

[RJ]

https://autos.yahoo.com/catalytic-co...153700366.html

"Thu, November 18, 2021

Catalytic converter thefts in the United States have increased significantly in 2021, and a recent report finds that thieves are particularly seeking the part fitted to the second-generation Toyota Prius. Insurance claims involving a Prius built from 2004 to 2009 are skyrocketing..."

[Welder]

So I have today off, and among other projects I'm finally getting the oil back in the 'junk' 3.5 V6 in the 08 Accord. After 2 hour-long idle periods, the first with a couple qts of ATF and misc oil and then an oil change, the second with a quart of diesel and then misc oil to top off, I put regular Mobil 1 0W20 in it and then pulled the plugs. I've got new NGK Iridiums to put in, but something interesting I found when I pulled the old ones is that they're Bosch R6 Iridiums and they're all showing degrees of oil burning. I could smell diesel on the #1 plug, but none of the others. The rear bank was more heavily fouled than the front bank, and the misfire codes I pulled are for #4, 5, and 6. I'm assuming that's the rear bank and I'm assuming #1 is the front passenger's side plug.

What do you think about the diesel smell on #1? Either it's a good thing...i.e., the diesel fuel got all the way through the rings to clean them up, or it's a bad thing, i.e., the diesel fuel wasn't stopped by the oil control ring on that cylinder but was on all the rest. Not sure whether to be proud of or concerned about #1. Either way I'm going to be putting the new plugs in and driving it. Probably like I stole it to try and blast the carbon off the others.

Also considering spraying water into the intake while running to decarbon the chambers and piston tops. It's an old timer's trick, you just have to be careful not to hydrolock it.