Squalled

Nice update coming for this month, very picture heavy! So in the coming weeks before Toyotafest, Alec had got his hands on a mint condition OEM 6 speed gear knob which I was able to get with a trade, trading him my Super Pro end links as he needed some new ones for the air bag setup on his car before Toyotafest. Luckily they fit, just and he was able to get the car going with them. If you look through all my old interior photo's, my OEM gear knob is quite worn down and I didn't want for fork out the $350 for a new gear knob, and now that these specific gear knobs are discontinued they'll be a lot harder to find. It's nice to see that reverse is red instead of the faded and dirty black mine has always been. I tend to only run this one when I go to shows to hopefully keep it in top condition. So as noted in my last post, I had organised a detailer for Toyotafest. Since I hadn't done much in the years before other than give it a wash a best as I could and with the paint slowly turning for the worst I thought it was time to give it some love. A massive thank you to Arnoub at Turn Heads Detailing who was an absolute pleasure to deal with, answered all of my questions and was extremely reasonably priced for the work that was completed. Another massive thank you goes out to partner who happily drove me to drop off and pick up my car, without her I would've basically been stuck with walking and catching a train to and from. The car was washed using snow foam, clay barred (found the paint was medium to heavily contaminated), swirl remover and gloss enhancer applied before being waxed all round and tire gel applied. Arnoub was also able to perform a headlight restoration which was much needed as the lights had faded and gone yellow fairly badly in the last few months. After leaving the car with Arnoub for a day, I went to pick up the car and was welcomed with this. I honestly couldn't keep my eyes of it. It's honestly the best it has looked since I've bought it. Now it'll be an absolute breeze to wash until the treatment will need to be re-applied in the near future. Below are the photo's taken by Arnoub of the car and the products used. The only major flaw now is some orange peel effect which doesn't bother me as it's in small patches on different panels. After driving back home, I took a photo before the end of the night and before it would get moisture before Toyotafest. The morning of Toyotafest had arrived, and as like previous years I was up bright and early ready to clean the car before heading off to a meeting point to meetup with Alec and first time Toyotafest goer Blake. Sadly I didn't get a photo of Blake's Sportivo at the meet point since we needed to get to Castle Hill Toyota but we luckily got placed together unlike last year, albeit with a pillar separating my Sportivo from Alec and Blake's cars. Toymods yet again organised a great day out, unlike last year the day felt like it went quite fast for me as we were all a lot more prepared with food, drinks and chairs and caught up with a few mates and spent plenty of time at the trade stands. Once 3pm came, there was the mad charge to leave the venue so we all waited for most of the first leavers to head off before we left the venue for the day. Before day was finished, I headed to an industrial area to take some shots while the car was looking it's best. Well, that's basically it for this month. I've got some plans ahead for the remainder of the year which I will hopefully get done before the start of 2020. As normal, I will keep the thread updated. Stay tuned.

Just a quick update to add for September. I've recently passed the date I bought the car 4 years ago last week, and after almost 90000 kms since I've bought I can definitely say it's even more fun than the day I bought it. I don't plan on selling the car anytime soon although, there is the temptation to buy something faster and something bigger, I really can't part ways with a car that's being super easy to own and maintain and especially all the great and amazing people I've met from owning the Sportivo. Anyhow, I finally gave the car a nice wash 2 weeks ago just for it to rain for a few days after. With Toyotafest now fast approaching, I was able to organise a detailer to give the car a nice clean up the day before Toyotafest since I had organised with him before the end of August. He noted the car was a great base to get looking great again with the only main imperfections being the spoiler and roof. I'll need to the leave the car with him for a day or so to give him enough time to really work some magic and I'm really looking forward to the results. I've also recently begun troubleshooting my E-Manage which was causing quite a few issues which I've previously mentioned. We found that the current setup on another car still caused the same issue and it led us to find that the tune was actually causing the issue. Once a new tune was loaded up, the sputtering idle, hesitation at high RPM and 6000 RPM rev cut were gone and the unit appears to be ins good working order. In the next few weeks, I'll be organising a few hours with my mate who's been helping to diagnose the issues to get the E-Manage and V-Manage wired up, tuned and hidden in the car. So safe to say I'm looking forward to the new gains for the end of 2019. Other than that, I'll be updating when I can. Stay tuned.

As campbeam said, just double check the manual but I've run both 10W-40 and 5W-30 (currently running) in Fully Synthetic. I've had no issues with burning on both, 5W-30 barely drops from full between oil changes which is great considering I'm sitting well over 232000 kms. You'll find anything thicker would mean your engine may not be too healthy. I've used Penrite Racing 10W-40 and Nulon 5W-30 full synthetic and I really highly rate both of them. Never had any major issues with either and have seen plenty of other Sportivo owners run it on various kilometers, some even higher than mine on 5W-30.

Unfortunately Toyota have discontinued them for the entire ZZE range as of earlier this year. Apparently there is a newer Corolla version that fits almost identically (unsure of the model code).

Alrighty, not much to update on this month. With some recent changes for work I've been catching the train lately as it's quite a PITA to drive where I'm currently working. Hopefully it shouldn't be too much longer and I'll be driving it on the daily again. Since I've been quite busy over the last few weeks the car has been neglected a little, I haven't given it a nice clean for a while now and still need to attack the interior with a vacuum and give the engine bay a good scrub down. I'll more than likely do it closer to Toyotafest since I've entered again for the 3rd straight year. I may possibly get the beast detailed professionally this year but still undecided at the moment. Most recently I've noticed 2 issues. 1, the crack that I had repaired seems to be coming back and seems a lot more noticeable inside then before. 2, I believe I may have a failing/leaking power steering pump which is a pain because I know it's right at the bottom behind the engine in a tight spot. I have however, received one of the new goodies mentioned in my previous update. BRD engine mounts, I selected the red version which is more suited to street use over the yellow more suited to track. Some of the Sportivo guys and I decided to do a mini group buy since shipping is quite expensive from the UK. I've had the inserts for around 2 years or so and they've been somewhat decent but pop out which is a real pain since you'll need a clamp or washer to keep them in. These mounts require the stock centers to be removed completely and they slip right in and stay in place. I haven't got them installed as of yet but have heard heaps of great feedback about them so looking forward to reviewing them and comparing them to the inserts. I have another part on the way, unsure when it'll arrive but will be sure to update my thread with it. Stay tuned.

A few guys have installed them on Sportivo's but I wouldn't recommend it as it's not exactly healthy for your engine. It does shoot flames and will destroy your cat in the process. Better off practicing launches as I find no one seems to use Bee-R's as a launch control option for our cars.

Nice update Ian! Those MWR pulleys really liven up the response on the 2ZZ, luckily you didn't get the crank one as that causes some pretty major issues from what I've seen.

Update for I believe a new fastest N/A 2ZZ ZZE chassis in Australia (Please correct me if I'm wrong) Time slip listed at the end of the video also. Tyres are 205/50/15 AD08R's. No spare tyre or passenger seats. Mods: - PPE header - Header back 2.5" exhaust with a 2 hotdogs - Competition stage 2 clutch/MWR steel flywheel - MWR alternator/waterpump pulley - 3" Chuned intake - Ported stock intake manifold - MWR billet oil pump gears Also still running the stock ECU and standard tune.

From memory, could be wrong, I remember hearing that stainless generally lasts longer as it won't rust as quickly as mild steel? Not sure on this but I have seen it happen after some time on mild steel systems.

Well 2.5" is the biggest you should go unless you're going cams and onward. The resonator will quieten the sounds and remove the rasp but, the muffler choice is also a big one. A lot of mufflers like cannon style will make it sounds like a bee hive. Literally search up Honda exhausts on eBay, they sure love their "fart cans".

That's fairly decent price. Most places in Sydney seem to charge about $100-$200 more for the same setup. What size piping are going for also? One of the common things I've found is stainless seems to sound a lot more raspy but stainless lasts a lot longer than mild steel too hence the price difference. Just make sure you get a big resonator or 2 small ones to remove the "buzz" unless you like it, all up to you.

Since my last update, not much has really happened. Other than doing an oil change not long after roll racing I haven't made any significant changes since. I do have some other plans coming up soon to get the exterior back up to scratch but that will be for another update once I either receive the parts or get time to do the work. I recently purchased the Bowdens wash and wax since Supercheap had a sale not long ago and thought that it was definitely worth a try seeing as I've used the Meguiars wash and wax for sometime now and have heard a lot of good things about Bowdens (seeing as I've used the naked glass, quick detail and wheely clean prior). Safe to say I am pretty happy with it, very cheap for a 2L bottle, smells awesome (smells identical to banana milk!) and really makes the car shine. I have to finish the Meguiars bottle first which is only a small one but overall I'm pretty happy with the purchase. Decided to take some quick shots once I finished the wash. It had been a few weeks since I gave it a good wash and it worked an absolute treat with the new wash and wax. The next morning the car was covered in moisture so I gave it a quick dry up and took a shot I don't think I've taken ever. Other than that, not much else to add for this update. I'll be fairly busy with work in the coming months so hopefully I'll still be able to keep the updates coming as they come through. Stay tuned!

What section was changed at the front? Before the shouldn't be changed even when you port the headers. Going to 2.5" will be good if you are planning future mods. You'll find 2.25" is the slightly bigger than the standard piping and won't yield as much of a gain if you plan on modding more.

I'll be honest, can probably get most of them on eBay. The BC BR's come with LCA's as well so best to measure them before ordering adjustable ones as the SuperPro (for exmaple) will list it for the stock suspension which uses a longer LCA. If you're going for injen, make sure you go the one piece as the 2 piece design is garbage in my opinion after using it. For the Injen, if you look for Matrix XRS or Corolla XRS on eBay it will list them. Yeah MCA don't make them for our cars but, I did see a rally car with them so they must do them made to order which I'd assume would cost a fair bit of coin. I believe the valving is the reason they're more comfy on stiffer settings like you said. I've been in one car with FAs and it stiffer than mine but no where near as uncomfortable (although I don't find it that bad anyways).

MCAs are quite expensive compared to BC's and they don't have a line up for our cars so it would have to be a custom order which I'd imagine cost even. I got my BC's a few years ago now but I've heard very mixed stories about the current models, mostly bad but they seem to get replaced if they have issues. Only time I'd consider Fortune Auto's are if they're slightly used seeing as they're super expensive new. My rotors seem alright so far actually coming to think of it running T2 with QFMs although, I don't do track days so that might help a bit.