DJKOR

The Stone Roses - Waterfall http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQUxCQxu9og

Damn. That would have been on fun day out especially getting the track for the day. A bit green with envy here.

I'm sure I would have the same statement too... if he was driving something like a Commodore. But an R8. That's just stupid. Some people have too much money.

I'll be there.

Despite the fact that such a long duration was the overall cause of the failure, I wouldn't be surprised if it was in fact the service that was done that was the straw that broke the camel's back.

I'm no expert on the subject but I would imagine that you have to work out the right balance. On one aspect, as wheels get smaller in diameter their width tends to be reduced. Reduced width then equates to reduced tire width. Reduced tire width can account for reduced traction. When on the track, could this reduced traction potentially be significant enough to make the drop in diameter and weight negligible? I dunno. One can counteract that reduced width issue by getting smaller diameter wheels whilst maintaining width... or even increasing. But then an increase in width equates to more metal, when then means more weight. I guess then what would be ideal would be a wheel with a relatively small diameter but a larger width and of a lighter weight design so that in that case you can benefit from a wider tire whilst getting the benefit of a lighter weight wheel. That all said though, the optimum width all comes down to the car so it can vary quite a lot in terms of what would suit best. I'd be guesing a more avid track goer would know what works best. As said, people tend to go larger wheels more for looks.... unless of course you are running large brakes and need the clearance. When you are on the street though, light weight wheels won't be overly to advantageous, so why not have the best of both worlds and have a separate set for the track in which you can put some nice semi-slicks on them, and then a fashionable wheel for use on the road. I think you will find that they don't put smaller diameter wheels on dragsters for the purposes of having lighter wheels. Top fuel dragsters being an example put out power and torque in the range of several thousand HP and Nm. The wheels on these are smaller due to the requirements of the tires and traction. Ever seen a slow motion video of it? More sidewall equals more flex, and more flex reduces wheelspin.

In.

Do a search on this forum for "VVT-i controller". That may get you where you need to go.

Exactly how long did this noise last? First guess would be the VVT-I controller, but more information is required.

I wish. It takes a bit of effort to get such a time when you consider a stock XR6 turbo for example can rock up and do countless passes with some consistency. This brings me to my next point though. Where do I draw the line on wanting more? Time to sell and move on? I'm quite content with living with what I have, but part of me just wants more power with simplicity.... combined with great handling, etc.

That run was a 13.533s pass. I wasn't getting traction that evening due to a cold track and tires that were less than decent. I see where you are coming from with your measurement, however I always treat dyno readings with the knowledge that it doesn't truly give a representation of power. They can vary on their own with the same car and same conditions. What was not included which may have given a better indication is the torque curve. Sure enough I may have lost some power, but you need to realise that the power of the car doesn't all come down to the kW. Unfortunately I never got that graph printed post-intake, but I will be getting another dyno later on and I'll see if I can get the previous graph printed as well. At the end of the day if I did in fact loose 6.2kW at one point on the graph (without gaining torque for example), despite going backwards, I am not really complaining. We aren't talking about a car here that puts down 80kW at the wheels and every difference in kW counts; in this case, variations like that are barely noticeable. I like to use real world figures to compare things though, and I do have about 25 quarter mile slips for this TRD to show how it runs, but if you compare all my slips from before I put the intake on to the slips from after I put my intake on, you will see the same relationship... higher MPH per ET. I have chosen two for demonstration of this. Don't pay so much attention to the ET as both of these were not a hard launch (which is essential when trying to squeeze whatever milliseconds off the ET that you can in these cars) but pay attention to the difference in ET. Like I said, this is only comparing two runs (1 year apart in similar conditions), but you can see the same trend in pretty much all my slips: Purpose of discussion? I'm trying to say that one cannot simply just jump to the conclusion that the intake is doing worse. Sure it is not a professionally made solution, but it doesn't mean it's not doing it's job. One way or another, I'm not fussed if it did step me backwards, but in terms of real world feel and gains, I still like to believe it has made a positive difference. Actually, the mixture runs real rich towards to end... moreso in the initial dyno graph. If anything, from what I gather, that would be hurting performance.

Thanks to JustDave of Boostcruising/Dragphotos.com.au, I received a couple of photos in the mail today. Unfortunately they don't scan so well for obvious reasons but regadless, I feel like adding them here.

Most effective way to remove road tar and spots like you have mentioned is anything that is oil based. You can use a range of things from citrus oils, to eucalyptus oil, to lighter fluid or anything like that. I had a pretty bad case of them before and eventually came to that conclusion after a while of frustration.

Arrested Development - Mr Wendal

Always keen for go-karts.

This whole Dot 3 and Toyota thing is certainly an interesting subject. You have people on both sides of the discussion, so it's up to you where you want to stand. Here is some discussion prepared earlier: Status Update (thank f*** for Google Search): That link above for easy clicking: http://www.penriteoil.com.au/tech_pdfs/87_DOT 3 and DOT 4.pdf

Awww snap. Well, you don't have to as you can see from the previous photo, but taking the plenum off makes things less frustrating. Not so much with the left most spark plug (when viewing from the front) because that can be removed after you remove the bracket visible in the photo, but the right most one as the wiring harness sits on top of the coil pack and you need to move it a little to allow the coil pack to come off. It's rather tight and may be frustrating to move when working on it blindly (it was frustrating for me even with no plenum in the way). For the cost of the gaskets ($10 x 3) which you only need to get every 90,000km, it certainly makes it worth it.

Actually you can get rubber inserts. I bought a pair of Tridon inserts for $12 which work quite well. You transfer over the metal supports from the old blades to the new one. Quite a smart way they are made actually. You can read more about it here: http://www.tricoproducts.com.au/pdf/Trico-TRJ710flyer.pdf To the OP, I'm pretty sure you will find the 06 Aurion wipers are the same as the 07+. You reuse the curved metal supports. Edit: Doing a search on the forum here is quite helpful by the way. I feel like I have heard this before so I did a search just to see what you can find: Replacing Aurion wipers Off topic, that's the same place I got my wiper rubbers from. Small world.

I'm with Andrew. Not keen on writing off both days of my weekend to externally organised functions since I already have the 24th planned.

Have you considered what the engine bay of a LHD Corolla looks like? It's not exactly reversed.

I'll shout you a 6-pack if you can take all the rear coil packs off without removing the intake plenum.

Spotted along Gympie Road earlier today, a nice clean 2ZZ: Also, this isn't a Toyota but I spotted this on my way home and it made me LOL. Good use of a $400 combination plate:

^ Gawd that's hot. If the production model looks very close to that, I would buy it based on looks alone regardless of what watered down engine we may get. It shouldn't take long for people to mod them one would imagine.

Welcome to the club Jess. Make sure to peruse over all the discussions everyone has had. There is a bit to gain with those Sportivo's.

He's in Queensland. I'm guessing you're in Victoria? They are the pre-facelift wheels such as these ones: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/TOYOTA-AURION-WHEELS-TYRES-RIMS-17-INCH-ALLOY-WHEEL-/280705360139?pt=AU_Car_Parts_Accessories&hash=item415b57e10b#ht_500wt_1156 ^ Speaking of which... 19 hours left on that one.