Hiro

Black car looks alright, blue one looks horrible (but I'm fairly sure it's just a crappy photoshop effort). These could look alright, but I guess the proof is in the pudding.

Going by this: http://www.cuscousai...plague-the.html My Cusco logo is right-way up, it looks polished not chromed, the blue rings on the sight-glass are name-branded (although looks like a Chinese name), the hose is white-Teflon braided (well, it's definitely white) not metal. Don't have all the brackets so can't confirm what colours the L-brackets were though, and a couple of websites have said that the "Made In Japan" etching is relatively new (if you look at the product photos on Nengun for instance, you can see that the Made In Japan logo isn't present). Best bet is to ask fillit, he bought it second-hand off Yahoo! Japan about 6 months ago :P If I had to hazard a guess, it's a genuine one, just an old one

I didn't buy it new :P

A little bit of bling - metal grill logo, 1 large stick-on logo (for the boot lid), and 2 small stick-on logos (for the front quarters underneath my repeaters and 1.8L badges) Oh, and a shiny thing-y just arrived in the mail :D

Why single out Toyota? Why not have a dig at every major 4WD manufacturer? Fact of the matter is, all cars need batteries, for more than just starting, so might as well use it for starting as well. Air starters are mainly used for big fat f*ck-off diesel engines and turbines where the cranking forces are so high than an electric starter would be impractically large - heavy machinery, locomotives, airplanes etc. Also, what happens when you're stranded with a dud compressor and leaking tank? Can't exactly get a jump-start from any of the hundreds of thousands of vehicles on the road with conventional 12V batteries, can you?

Would a 2ZZ benefit from much more compression though? It already runs 11.5:1.... EDIT: Oops, saw that the OP had a 1ZZ

Has there been any actual damage though? Have you replaced the 100A fuse and tried to jump-start the car again? Whilst it is a stuff-up, and _can_ be quite disastrous, maybe you should find out what the extents of the damage are before you go chasing NRMA for money - would be quite embarassing if your mechanic comes back and says "Changed the fuse, she's all good, that'll be $5"

Holy ******! My car is quite a character then. Imagine how good a Great Wall would be then

Make sure you go to .org.au, not .org (that's the evil American-owned one :P), and have a good search through the forums and the members rides before asking a question, they can be a little intolerant of n00bs who post before searching (to be fair, the same couple of questions get asked A LOT)

If you're only after mild gains then leave the intake manifold alone, focus on exhaust (even just a cat-back, the factory manifold isn't that bad, or get some 20V headers), CAI (not a pod just whacked on the end of a short pipe in the engine bay, a proper cold air feed). When you start chasing more power then another option is to go for quad-throttles off a 20V with an adaptor plate, but you'll have to run aftermarket engine management for that) Brakes themselves are reasonably decent from factory too, just give it fresh pads and fluid and you should be fine. Decent set of lowering springs and short stroke shocks will do wonders for handling, as would good tyres (stay with the factory 14s or go up a size to 15s - 16s and up are mainly for looks). Take a look at what some of the guys on Twincam.org.au have done to their SXs if you want some ideas

1990 = AE92 = smallport. A bigport intake would not necessarily be an improvement for a smallport engine either. Just because it has the word "big" in it, doesn't mean that it is better. The bigport intake manifold had large ports for breathing up high and individual intake runners for each port, but that caused slow port air speed down low which impacted on torque. Toyota fixed this by fitting TVIS, a variable intake system which shut off air-flow to half the port runners which increased the air speed through the other ports, increasing torque. When they designed the smallport to replace the bigport, they got rid of TVIS and made all the intake runners smaller, which improved port air speed. Drive a stock bigport and smallport back-to-back and you'll agree that the smallport is by far the better motor. Besides, the port shapes are that different that even if you did bolt the manifold on, you'd most likely have sealing issues along with a massive step-change in the runners (in a place where you want things to be as smooth as possible). Smallports breath better all through the rpm range, have higher compression, make more power and torque. The only thing you should consider installing from a bigport into a smallport are the longer-duration cams from an early 3-rib bigport.

Because there aren't that many 4x4 owners on here (and the main FJ owner got himself banned) - if they were more popular then they might get more sub-forums, like the more popular Corolla/Camry/Aurion sub-forums

You do realise that is for a completely different engine (1ZZFE) than what this topic is about (7AFE)...

Also see: http://forum.twincam.org.au/ http://www.rollaclub.com/board/ http://www.ae82.net/forum.php

If getting rid of your cat has meant a noticeable increase, then your cat was stuffed to begin with...

Just go to a wreckers? AE9x aren't exactly rare...

Yep, that's Hexham for you...I almost think installing the traffic lights has caused MORE accidents, rather than fewer (although they are now predominantly rear-enders rather than T-bones). I drive through there every day to and from work.

just because an engine revs to 8000 rpm doesnt mean its going to be quicker than an engine that cuts out at 6500 rpm i doubt they would actually make much power right up top plus with all the fancy **** these new engine have there better then older (some) ones imo He never said quicker (and if you look at 4AGEs they make power all the way to redline - max power for a blacktop 20V (which fillit used to drive) was at 7,800rpm, for instance), just more life. I agree with him too, whilst the newer Corollas are decent lookers, practical, cheap to run and can be made relatively fun and quick to drive, they do lack a fair chunk of the soul that went into the older ones. Just look at what you had in the 90s that you don't get now - IRS (combined with a potent chassis and excellent brakes), 2-door coupes, quad-throttle 20v engines revving their rings off, supercharger option (in the 101s), race-designed suspension (Superstrut), the list goes on. Corollas these days are designed to be an A-to-B car (well, they always have been to an extent), but fundamental design, spec and style changes means that they will never live up to the reputation of the older models. If your the sort of person who likes what the old models delivered, then chances are the new ones will leave you feeling a little disappointed, flat, and missing that sense of satisfaction, regardless of how practical, comfortable, reliable and cheap they are to own.

I'll take the catch can, PM sent

OP said fuse puller, not holder. Just about every car I've seen, whilst having fuses both in the footwells and in the engine-bay, will have a fuse-puller clipped into the underside of the fuse cover in the engine-bay.

Haven't got a place to crash so won't be coming down tomorrow night, will definitely be at Toyotafest on Sunday though

Got any photos of the catch-can?

Hmm, I'll have to see if my brother will be home Sat night so I can crash at his place.... So definite for Sunday, possible for Saturday night at this stage...

Are we doing something on the Saturday this month? Or is it just going to be Toyotafest on the Sunday? I'll be down for 'fest but if there's a Greenacre meet the night before I'll probably come down then and crash at my brother's place, save the long early drive in the morning.