Track preparation!
This might be one of the more boring posts. I really miss being on the track and I felt the car was almost ready except for a few teething issues, one being the gearbox. As far as I knew the thrust bearing is noisy and the syncro between 3rd and 4th was abit dodgy. I went around for some quotes as for a full gearbox rebuild would be around $2.5k, not really what i'm willing to spend as I'm not even sure which direction I will head with my engine, I think it's something I will consider later on. Nevertheless I took the car down to JAK Motorworks where Danny helped me take a look at the car, we narrowed it down to the thrust bearing and the gearbox problem was quite mild and probably wasn't worth the attention as yet. I took his advice and decided just to change the clutch and see how things go from there, after alot of research I ended up selecting the Exedy HD
25/03 - the squeakiness between gears was getting quite annoying so I ended up pulling the gear shifter apart and applying grease to all the joints, seem to have toned down the noise alot, I can still hear it but much more subdued.
28/03 - The service at JAK Motorworks was fantastic, the guys were really friendly and they even helped me out patching up some little niggles around car. Overall I got the clutch changed, flywheel machined, gearbox fluid replaced and power steering flushed as it was a little heavy and started boiling at higher temps. Highly highly recommend them for all your servicing needs, they really treat your car like their own.
My impression of the clutch change was quite immediate, I found that it really got the power down well and the gear changes are alot more instant, surprisingly it even fixed the problem with 3rd and 4th as long as you don't redline it :)
31/03 -Went back to JAKs to get my rotors machined as they really weren't in the best of shape, essentially the rears are slightly warped, I'm planning a brake upgrade in the future so it doesn't bother me that much, I'll just run them on the track until then. Straight after the service I went to ozhonda annual, there was another toyota there and a bmw so I wasn't all alone.
Because my rear rotors were soo grooved, the pads themselves were grooved in and they were barely even in contact with the rotors, however after more driving it's starting to have more contact with the rotor, it's about 60% now, hopefully after 2 more weeks of careful (spirited) driving it should all be fixed.
08/04 -A few presents for the AE111.
Oil catch can, managed to get a 2nd hand one from yahoo japan, cusco with AE111 bracket, unfortunately I have not managed to find where to mount it properly so I had to end up making a custom mount for the custom bracket =="
Also got this radiator panel! Probably my favorite bit in the engine bay other than the intake, it makes it look alot more clean :D.
Finally, AE111 Type R YOOOOOO!!!