Hi Everyone! I'm Proxy

[Proxy]

Hey there everyone i'm Proxy, from Western Australia, i Currently own and drive a 93 JM Apollo, it was given to me as a gift by some friends of the family as my other daily (89 Suzuki Sierra) had be defected :( , I've come to love my Apollo as it has a 3VZ-FE in it and i just love smooth v6's, i used to drive a J30 Maxima with a VG30E and i'm happy to know my new 6 has 4 Cams this time and a Variable intake system,

i don't have a job at the moment i usually bum around up north being a mechanic or i play in a band in Perth or Study music, But music aside cars are my main hobby, i've so far owned a 1988 VL Holden Commodore SL-LE with a 3L L6 RB30E, A 1989 LD Holden Astra with a 1.8L L4 18LE, A 1992 SV21 Toyota Camry with a 2L 3S-FE, a 1993 J30 Nissan Maxima with a 3L V6 VG30E and at the moment i'm left with a 1982 VH Holden Commodore with a 3.3L L6 "Bluemotor", a 1989 SJ70 Suzuki Sierra with a 1.3L L4 G13A and the 1993 JM Holden Apollo with a 3L V6 3VZ-FE, All of them Auto's except the Sierra which is a Manual,

So far with the Apollo (which i'm gonna start calling a camry for the sake of toyota forum ;) ) i've installed a pod filter (lame i know but i love that sound) i've done little things like put the proper radiator bottle in replaced globes here and there in the interior and headlights etc, i've given it a good clean and a boot mat haha (didn't have one, or an ash tray, or left hand rear window reg, or radiator bottle, or windscreen wiper bottle) well it was a gift so...

i've also painted the engine cover and the fuse boxes and have bought a set of front discs because they seem to be on their way out,

now it's not all smiles :( unfortunately, i loved this car straight away and wanted it to run well, but first off the transmission decided to go into limp mode, not cool 3rd gear all the time SUCKS, turned out the fluid was all burnt up, GREAT, -_-, i haven't had a chance to get new fluid and filter etc cause i'm outta work and having a car gets me back up north to work, and in a workshop where this is all a lot easier than in my car port in a unit block at home, after that it seems the power steering pump is whiny which seems to be causing the fan not to spin correctly below 2000rpm as it is run from the power steering pressure, the fluid seems to be "turbulent" in the reservoir when at idle i know that probably means something but what i don't know,

this all lead to overheating, it took it's time to rear it's head, if knew straight out i wouldn't of put my heart into this car, or my unemployed wallet for that matter, it's not so bad, if i drive at night keep the revs above 2000 or the speed above 80 it may creep up above operating temperature, but after that if it keep driving it's not fixable and eventually you gotta stop let the steam out and top up ,

so i think a head gasket change is in order, now i hear these are strong engines, but i haven't found much out about them, i'm hoping that because i didn't have these symptoms straight away and got away with alot of spirited driving day or night long or short, that the car was doing fine to begin with and that this problem may be just a gasket no head issues (which will be cheaper obviously)

is it common for a 3vz-fe to throw a gasket? is it normally just the gasket change and back to smooth sailing? or are they prone to cracking heads quickly?

i'm hoping it's just gaskets cause I'll get a kit and go about plugging away at it myself,

then I'll move onto the transmission and the the worn out shocks and brakes and whatnot,

neways I'll throw up some pics for ya, it's not pretty it's all worn, but i was hoping to make a sleeper out of it and i didn't mind the paint damage because the over all shape of the car seemed to look great anyway it looks like it's been lowered (especially in the front) but i think that's cause the big donk has worn out the shocks n that, i'd like to keep it low maybe a little bit higher in the front but stiffen it up a bunch, sway/strut bars and shocks n springs n the like and probably a thousand bushes and mounts haha,

anyways essay over, i look forward to becoming part of the community here and learning all the cool little secrets about this car and engine, this is my 2nd toyota and whilst not owning many i've always respected these cars and am happy i own a good one, can't wait to get into it,

cheers guys

-Proxy

Edited February 22, 2012 by Proxy

[Proxy]

Another thing i was wondering about was the operation of the "ACIS variable-intake system" the car lags, like nothing the bang kick in the pants, i think my rev counter is off cause it doesn't get over 4,000rpm and it's screaming and changes gear so it's probably more like 6,000rpm, so i can't say when this is happening, but i can surely feel the 2nd set of runners kick in, but i can't see anything working to start off, i know that it shouldn't be all go from the start but it seems just way to much lag and too much of a jolt, i don't know if something is blocked or uncalibrated or maybe some vacuum hose is dodgy somewhere, i read that the ACIS variable-intake system spreads out the torque, rather than dump it all at somewhere around 3,000rpm, right? or it could be that it's supposed to be this way, anyone who knows let us know, or if there's a "better" way to have this system adjusted

[jeffy]

Welcome to the club dude :] !

Thats a long intro lol :P

[Trickey]

Jesus, a long list of cars. Love the VL+VH! Welcome to the club buddy ;)