Squalled

So after many weekends with poor weather I finally got the chance last weekend to do my long awaited oil change. With the current pandemic it had actually been more than 6 months since I last did an oil change seeing as I hardly drive compared to what I used to earlier in the year and this time last year. Oil looked fine, nothing suspect found showing any signs of high wear and tear which is a good sign as I've clocked just over 250000 kms now. Earlier in the year I got some electrical contact cleaner so I can give the center console circuit board a good clean and my MAF sensor. It has been some time since I had it cleaned and it was now surprise it looked like this. I also finally managed to give the underside of the car a good degrease, especially near the sump and right side where my driveshaft boot had split and flung grease all over the place. It should now make it easier to see if I'm leaking from anywhere in particular. After a few weeks of wet weather, the rain held back just long enough for a wash and top up with the Happy Ending coating. Car feels super slick once again and it paid off as it rained later that night and the following day, I didn't even know it had rained as there were barely any water marks left. Still have plenty to do with the few weeks remaining this year. It is coming to that busy time once again as we wrap up the year so I'm doubtful I'll get much of it done 😂 Stay tuned.

Both items now sold. Cheers!

The red does line up with the stock ECU lift zone, but I don't think stock lift engagement will be used for long.

Oh believe me I've seen 2 2ZZ's blow up from the same thing this year alone, it's quite a site to behold 😂

What I find with Bowden's is it doesn't over promise and underdeliver unlike some of the big international brands. A few American's have got their hands on some Bowden's gear and have been quite impressed with it. All I can say is that getting it detailed last year was a worth while investment seeing as the paint was a lot worse than I thought and hopefully when it comes to that time again, I can do it myself with some mates and learn a thing or too. Since applying those sealants, I 100% agree it makes washing a whole lot easier and actually quite a fun job to do these days. Yeah the naming makes it quite awkward when talking to others who don't know about Bowden's or cars in general but it does manage to give them a good laugh.

This weekend and next week aren't looking too nice either but hopefully it hits parts of the state that need it most. Thanks a lot Tony! Yeah I really do love the Bowden's products, and the fact I'm support an Aussie company is even better. Since I'm quite the noob with car detailing at this stage, Bowden's is quite an easy and supportive option as all their products are super easy to apply, they plenty of support and tutorials as well. I think some time in the future I'll likely delve deep into other brands and see what works best for me seeing as I unfortunately don't have the ability to garage it but it does stay undercover at work which a nice bonus. One of the massive benefits I noticed after applying Wet Dreams or Happy Ending, how easy all of the typical road grime just fell right off with the snow foam. Makes it much less time consuming and effortless really. I've applied it on a few cars within the family one of which is garaged and the coating still works a treat months later! Albeit it definitely is due for a top up soon 🙂

A comment that sadly hasn't applied since Ford and Holden closed the locally made car chapter a few years ago. And I believe it, especially during the 60s, 70s and 80s. It's a different ball game now, I feel aero has ruined the sport and the new Gen 3 "Supercars" may potentially be great, with less aero and hopefully more manufacturers joining to make it a lot more interesting than it is now. Peter could certainly steer his Celica's around Bathurst that's for sure. The ground he made on the V8s along the top was something else, something that the E30 M3s did in the Group A years to the turbo's and V8's across the top. And the ever so famous axe incident. Just everything about that video makes me wish I could live in those moments. Production car, lack of safety equipment in the pit, pit crew in casual clothes etc. It was an awesome period in Australia. Annnnd just found another Toyota I missed, Des Wall's Supra (I believe it's a Sports Sedan) Speaking of the Chickadee Commodore, here it is in 2013 the same year as I took the Celica. I believe Graeme Bailey still owns this car today from 1986!

No worries KAA. Sadly it's an era I completely missed and only ever get to see re-runs and historic racing events these days. Yeap, Graeme Bailey ran it with Allan Grice as his co-driver in 1986. Ironically, that's when the minimum co-driver lap rule came in as Graeme only complete roughly 20 laps or so. It's a great looking car that Commodore, recently got one in 1:43 scale for my collection. Yeap, was after the James Hardie era and I have say those Toohey's trophies were pretty nice. I'll say, now it's all carbon fiber airboxes covering everything. Really missed out on how pure Group C and Group A were in their day. The cars are honestly show pieces to me these days. I do love the Supercheap promotions during the 1000 with their fake press conference. Absolute gold!

Thank you Steve & Tony, managed to use the direct link yesterday as I didn't try before posting so all it good now!

Success! Should've tried this yesterday (using direct links).

Hi Steve, Thanks for the reply. Yeap, linking from Imgur for my images. Is the best practice to try a direct link or upload directly to my gallery? Cheers!

Hey TOCA, Noticed with this new forum update when copying the BBCode link for images, it doesn't seem to embed the images in. Older posts appears unaffected but any new ones don't seem to load images. Not sure if it's just me currently. Cheers!

Seems the new Forum update isn't allowing the photo's to be embeded in the post. Hang tight!

Hey All, Going through some old photo's on my hard drive and found quite a few of the old Group C and Group A Toyota's I've seen over the years at Muscle Car Masters. My Dad and I have attended most years since 2008 and a much younger me took some half decent photo's of Toyota's. From 2013 to start off. The Chickadee Toyota Celica of Graeme Bailey and Steve Land, 1982. It was the former Peter Williamson Celica that held the first Racecam. The Corolla Sprinters of Ray Cutchie and John Faulkner and Drew Price and John Faulkner And only managed to get one from 2016, the Peter Williamson Celica. I re-call this year was quite scarce of cars overall with very small fields. Hope this is a nice throwback for you all to see of better times going to events. Feel free to add any Toyota's at Muscle Car Masters. Cheers!

Are you trying to clear codes or run other types of diagnostics? I have a Lufi X1 OBD gauge which can pick up any CEL's and does display the correct code but, it's can't clear them.

More car washing! Man I should really install some mods already 🤣 Washed the car last weekend only for it to rain the following day, what a surprise. Tried out Bowden's Own Fully Slick, and was really impressed with the result. Nice slick finish and even enhanced the beeding from the previous Happy Ending coating I applied a few months ago. Overall very happy with it considering how cheap it is. Likely doing an oil change next weekend and degreasing the engine bay while I'm at it. Stay tuned!

Another quiet few weeks again. Have been pretty busy and haven't had much time to get a lot of things done that are still on the pending list of things to do. However, I finally got around to tidying up the front end a little and by a little, I mean addressing the faded fog light covers. As you can see, they're not the worst but certainly not the best either. It's quite a common problem I've noticed on most facelift Corolla's of this generation and for a long time I was using Meguiars Ultimate on them which would look great for about a month or so before fading back to what it would be originally. Earlier this year, Bowden's Own released their 'Mr Black' dye for restoring black plastics and I originally bought it for my Dad but thought I'd test it out on my fog light covers first in case it wasn't as expected. Started off with flash prep wax and grease removed before beginning the first coat on the drivers side fog light cover. After the first coat was applied to the drivers side. Was a nice noticeable difference in person which the lighting and angles made it hard to catch on camera but it was coming out great so I continued on with the passenger side cover. And the first coats were done. I was pretty happy with it but I wanted to do a 2nd coat as I did make some minor blemishes in the first and wanted to do a 2nd anyway. And they were done. I put them inside for the night so they could cure and put them back in the following morning. I really do recommend Bowden's Own Mr Black pretty highly and I'll keep an eye on the trims and see how long they remain restored for. I plan to hopefully do the lower lip trim, roof trim and wiper cowl. The week after some rain I gave the car it's now regular clean. Nothing overly special this time around, just a basic snow foam, 2 bucket wash and dry. That's all for now, still plenty left to do. Stay tuned!

Runx lights Sold! BRD mounts still available.

I recommend 5W-30 Full Synthetic just to add on, your KMs are fairly average for a Sportivo and 5W-30 is perfect for these engines. I'm almost touching 249000 kms and can still run 5W-30 with minimal oil loss between changes. If you find it burns a fair bit between changes and you need to top it up regularly, it's likely there's something a lot more serious going on.

Agreed, the lift bolts were the biggest gremlin but have since being revised 3 times I believe and were never a major problem in Sportivo's. If they do wear down, lift will generally not engage at all but it would be worth checking them if all else fails. Their only other major flaw is oil starvation in high G corners especially with low oil, since the sump has no baffling it usually puts a lovely hole in the block.

If lift is engaging but doesn't feel as strong, it could be a variety of different things. Does it still rev all the way 8200? It's worth checking the following: - Air filter - MAF (give it a clean with electrical contact cleaner) - Change the spark plugs - Do an oil change along with checking the level as mentioned - Check coolant levels - Check for any intake and exhaust leaks

Mine had 4 spots from memory, 2 either side front and back. Not sure if all the Evo Recaro's are the same in terms of mounting.

Had the exact same issue with mine, essentially I got a drill and extended the holes on the rear of the RO rail to match that of the Evo Recaro. I haven't had any issues with it at all in doing that. Oddly enough, I think Evo Recaro's aren't considered as an SR type even though they look almost identical to SR4's, I believe they are called Recaro Sports.

Update time So today marks that special day of the year where I've owned the car another year. I've owned the car for 5 years now and have honestly enjoyed every minute of the ownership, although I don't get to drive as much lately so the kms haven't really increased a lot this year compared to last year. I do get a bit of bored of it these days as I'm only doing short drives but I'm sure once I go for more spirited drives in the coming weeks I'll fall in love with it even more once again. Again, a massive thank you to all my mates that have helped me along the way, any contribution big or small has really helped me make the car what it is today and I couldn't be any happier. So last month was another quiet one. I haven't done all too much myself to the car and still have a heap of things to get installed before I can finally say it's done and enjoy the car for what it is. I however recently got my drivers side driveshaft replaced as the boot had split a few months ago so one less thing to worry about for the time being. With the temperature also getting warmer now, I can finally get around to re-doing the another set of black insert headlights and hopefully this time I do a much better job on the seal with what I have found learned since the first set. On another note, I sold my old stock wheels to a mate of mine as his partner needed a new set of wheels for her Yaris. I have to say, Sportivo wheels look good on anything that isn't a Sportivo. They're quite a nice touch to the Yaris and really suit it to be quite honest. I've been keeping the car fairly clean, probably cleaner than ever since I seem to wash it a lot more often compared to the last 2-3 or years. Here's a week or 2 back before when I got a wash in during the later afternoon. Before After I also gave it a nice long wash followed by and afterglow treatment last weekend only to have rain the very next day so the car looked fantastic for about 24 hours. It was actually blinding in the sun while trying to clean and dry everything once it was applied. At one stage I had to get sunglasses just to do certain panels. But other than that, there's still plenty more to come. Stay tuned.

A mate of mine runs the PSICO front mount on his 2012 model and has gone 4x4ing a heap of times since and has had no issues with it at all. It's all personal preference really as either upgrade will benefit with the tune as well. TMIC usually benefit with being more efficient seeing as the pipe length is shorter and with the scoop air is directed straight into it but they are prone to absorbing more heat. https://www.crosscountry4x4.com.au/tips-and-tricks/intercooler-articles/top-mount-vs-front-mount-vs-water-to-air.html worth a read in terms of what would benefit your setup.